We Resist: Day 895

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.

I guess this is what it looks like when a DDoS attack takes down Cloudflare and a bunch of the Internet pic.twitter.com/kHHddaPeHp

— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) July 2, 2019

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:

If you're reading this, I have just been arrested with 17 other Jews and allies outside of the ICE Detention Facility in Boston, protesting the US government's detention and dehumanizing abuse of immigrants in concentration camps at the border and around the country. pic.twitter.com/rB6U65yTQ4

— Jaclyn Friedman❄️ (@jaclynf) July 2, 2019

[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?

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We Resist: Day 894

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]

"AG William Barr has moved forward with a regulation changing the way immigration courts handle appeals, expanding the ability of those courts and the attorney general himself to issue decisions that bind the way all immigration judges must decide cases." https://t.co/IBZsWllum7

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 2, 2019

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."

"Trump said Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is going to be increasing deportations of undocumented immigrants after Independence Day." https://t.co/74GYTBwkO2

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 2, 2019

[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.

* * *

Tucker Carlson asked Trump why American cities are filthy and have people urinating on the streets. Trump said, "It's a phenomena that started two years ago." (?)

The whole answer is something. pic.twitter.com/tGgsg538A7

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 2, 2019

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...

Shut Up!

We Resist: Day 889

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: Primarily Speaking + Debate Recap and Today in Rampaging Authoritarianism and Supreme Court Rules on Census, Gerrymandering, and Consent Cases.

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

[Content Note: Misogynoir; gun violence; war on agency] Carol Robinson at AL.com: Alabama Woman Loses Pregnancy After Being Shot, Gets Arrested; Shooter Goes Free.

A woman whose unborn baby was killed in a 2018 Pleasant Grove shooting has now been indicted in the death.

Marshae Jones, a 27-year-old Birmingham woman, was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on a manslaughter charge. She was taken into custody on Wednesday.

Though Jones didn't fire the shots that killed her unborn baby girl, authorities say she initiated the dispute that led to the gunfire. Police initially charged 23-year-old Ebony Jemison with manslaughter, but the charge against Jemison was dismissed after the grand jury failed to indict her.

...[Jones] was five months pregnant and was shot in the stomach. The unborn baby did not survive the shooting.

"The investigation showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby," Pleasant Grove police Lt. Danny Reid said at the time of the shooting.

...The 5-month fetus was "dependent on its mother to try to keep it from harm, and she shouldn't seek out unnecessary physical altercations," Reid added.

I don't even know where to begin. If we're criminalizing women's emotional behavior while they're pregnant, we are in deep shit.

Amanda Reyes, Executive Director of the Yellowhammer Fund, a member of the National Network of Abortion Funds which helps women access abortion services, said in the statement: "The state of Alabama has proven yet again that the moment a person becomes pregnant their sole responsibility is to produce a live, healthy baby and that it considers any action a pregnant person takes that might impede in that live birth to be a criminal act."

She further notes that this opens the door to women being charged for not getting adequate prenatal care — and, of course, many women don't because of our garbage policy of treating healthcare as a privilege rather than a right.

Women are more than incubators. Goddammit.

[CN: War on agency; class warfare] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire.News: What's Next in the Continuing Mess of the Domestic 'Gag Rule' Fight.

Reproductive rights and health advocates on Monday filed an emergency petition to the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking it to reverse a ruling last week setting aside preliminary injunctions blocking the Trump administration's domestic "gag rule" from taking effect.

The request is advocates' latest attempt to prevent the administration from enforcing the rule, which bans federal family planning dollars from going to healthcare providers who perform abortions or refer patients for abortion services and was originally set to take effect on May 3. Last week, a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Trump administration could begin enforcing the policy while the case makes its way through the courts.

On Friday, attorneys from the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a separate emergency request with a federal court in Maine to block the gag rule as well. The court has not yet ruled on that request. A separate injunction remains in place for Title X grantees in Maryland.

[CN: Sexual assault] Daniel Victor at the New York Times: Two Women Who Heard E. Jean Carroll's Account of Being Attacked by Trump Go Public. "Two women in whom E. Jean Carroll confided about having allegedly been sexually attacked by Donald Trump in the 1990s spoke publicly about it for the first time in an interview excerpted on the New York Times podcast 'The Daily,' describing the conflicting advice they gave their friend at the time. On Wednesday, Megan Twohey, a Times reporter, interviewed Ms. Carroll and the two women, Carol Martin and Lisa Birnbach, who had not been publicly identified until now. It was the first time since the alleged assault that the women had discussed it together."

So, not only has Carroll gone on the record with her rape allegation against a sitting president, but the two friends in whom she confided at the time are now going on the record. And still, it's barely getting any attention.

[CN: Rape culture] Alex Kaplan at MediaMatters: Here's How a Fringe Smear Targeting E. Jean Carroll Reached Donald Trump Jr. "After author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll reported that [Donald] Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., pushed a conspiracy theory that the claim was 'ripped-off a plot' from a 2012 episode of NBC procedural Law & Order. Before being amplified by Trump Jr., the conspiracy theory was spread by a Twitter account associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory and another account whose content has regularly been shared by 'seemingly-automated accounts.' It has also been pushed by the Daily Mail's political editor."

[CN: Nativism; abuse] Maria Sacchetti at the Washington Post: U.S. Asylum Officers Say Trump's 'Remain in Mexico' Policy Is Threatening Migrants' Lives, Ask Federal Court to End It. "U.S. asylum officers slammed [Donald] Trump's policy of forcing migrants to remain in Mexico while they await immigration hearings in the United States, urging a federal appeals court Wednesday to block the administration from continuing the program. The officers, who are directed to implement the policy, said it is threatening migrants' lives and is 'fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our Nation.' ...The union said in court papers that the policy is compelling sworn officers to participate in the 'widespread violation' of international and federal law — 'something that they did not sign up to do when they decided to become asylum and refugee officers for the United States government.'"

[CN: Nativism] Franco Ordoñez at NPR: Trump Wants to Withdraw Deportation Protections for Families of Active Troops.

The Trump administration wants to scale back a program that protects undocumented family members of active-duty troops from being deported, according to attorneys familiar with those plans.

The attorneys are racing to submit applications for what is known as parole in place after hearing from the wives and loved ones of deployed soldiers who have been told that option is "being terminated."

The protections will only be available under rare circumstances, the lawyers said they've been told.

"It's going to create chaos in the military," said Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney who represents recruits and veterans in deportation proceedings. "The troops can't concentrate on their military jobs when they're worried about their family members being deported."

I can't imagine anything that makes more abundantly clear that Trump's immigration policy isn't about "protecting citizens" but is just straight-up white supremacist, nativist malice.

Twitter is introducing a label to place over tweets from world leaders that are found to be in violation of its rules around abuse, harassment, and violent threats. Those tweets will still remain up, but they'll be placed behind a notice. https://t.co/b9KhKgpmFd

— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) June 27, 2019

As Kyle Griffin notes on Twitter, this is "a move with potentially stark implications for Trump's account." LOL indeed.

* * *

Peter Baker at the New York Times: Heading to G-20, Trump Once Again Assails America's Friends. "In the hours before and after leaving for an international summit meeting, Mr. Trump assailed Japan, Germany, and India. He complained that under existing treaty provisions, if the United States were attacked, Japan would only 'watch it on a Sony television.' He called Germany a security freeloader and chastised India for raising tariffs on American goods."

Seung Min Kim, Damian Paletta, and Simon Denyer at the Washington Post: Trump Arrives at Global Economic Summit with Full Agenda and List of Grievances. "'Well, I think I can say very easily that we've been very good to our allies, we work with our allies, we take care of our allies,' Trump, flanked by senior aides and Cabinet officials, said at the beginning of his dinner with [Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison]. 'We even help our allies militarily. So we do look at ourselves and we look at ourselves, I think, more positively than ever before, but we also look at our allies and I think Australia is a good example.'"

And when President Trump sits down with President Xi on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, all eyes will be on whether they can restart trade talks that collapsed amid a war of words in May. https://t.co/h3o3BPSoXy

— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 27, 2019

Eliana Johnson Burgess Everett at Politico: Trump's Hawks Ramp Up Campaign to Shred Last Part of Iran Nuclear Deal. "Iran's expected breach on Thursday of the uranium stockpile limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal is reviving a fierce debate within the Trump administration and on Capitol Hill about just how hard Trump should go to undermine the agreement. Even though Trump pulled out from the deal struck by President Barack Obama, an important portion of the agreement was left intact that allows work on Iran's civil nuclear program and facilitates international projects to encourage its advancement. The State Department has issued waivers to allow those projects to continue and doing away with them would almost certainly blow up the deal entirely. That's precisely the goal that Trump administration hawks, led by national security adviser John Bolton, have been pursuing."

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Trump's DC Hotel Charged Secret Service $200,000 in First Year of Presidency. "The Trump International Hotel in Washington, just five blocks from the White House, charged the Secret Service more than $200,000 in taxpayer money during the first year of Trump's presidency. Expense documents obtained by NBC News show that a total of $215,254 was spent by the agency at the property from September 2016 to February 2018. One bill came in at $33,638 for just two days of use. "

[CN: Climate change]

OK, so, turns out the ocean has warmed about 20% more than we previously thought… which has dire consequences for all life on our planet on land and in the water https://t.co/glPMbQV91D

— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) June 27, 2019

Jon Henley and Sam Jones at the Guardian: Spain Fights Huge Forest Fire as European Heatwave Intensifies. "More than 500 firefighters and soldiers are working to bring a huge forest fire under control in north-eastern Spain as the early summer heatwave intensifies across Europe. The fire, in the Catalan province of Tarragona, has been fanned by strong winds and high temperatures and has so far burned across 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres) of land. ...'We're facing a serious fire on a scale not seen for 20 years,' the region's interior minister, Miquel Buch, said in a tweet."

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

Open Wide...

Shut Up!

We Resist: Day 873

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: Omgggggggggg and Trump: "I Don't Leave" and Primarily Speaking.

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

Donald Trump had an epic tweetshitz disgorgement this morning. At Raw Story, David Badash offers a summary of the nightmare: "Trump's rambling and incoherent tweets made little sense. For example, this one in which he may or may not be quoting Fox News, saying, 'The Greatest Witch Hunt of all time continues. All crimes were by the other side, but the Committee refuses to even take a look. Deleting 33,000 Emails is the real Obstruction — and much more!' ...This one clearly is all Trump: 'PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!' There were more, of course."

Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade testified to the House Judiciary Committee that Trump's "conduct described in the report constitutes multiple crimes of obstruction of justice, supported by evidence of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." The Daily Beast has a transcript of her statement, which is worth your time to read.

This seems like a little nothing of a story, but it's actually worth our attention and scrutiny: Felicia Sonmez and Dan Lamothe at the Washington Post: Former Trump Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Joins the Navy. Note the details of what it took for him to get there.

Reince Priebus, [Donald] Trump's former chief of staff, has officially joined the Navy.

At a commissioning ceremony Monday morning, Vice President Pence swore in Priebus as an ensign, an entry-level officer. Priebus and his family also met with Trump at the White House after the ceremony.

...Priebus's commissioning follows a lengthy process in which former defense secretary Jim Mattis recommended him and a board of officers selected him as a reserve officer, according to defense officials and a memo obtained by The Washington Post late last year.

...A Navy review board reviewed 42 candidates last December and "professionally recommended" Priebus and four others to join the service through a competitive direct-commission program for human resources officers, the memo said.

I noted on Twitter: First, I expect that he will be quickly promoted. Second, I don't think it's a coincidence this happened immediately following the Mueller report. Priebus kept his fucking mouth shut. This is his reward. And note it was Pence who personally swore him in.

Malcolm Nance tweets: "He is now a Navy Public Relations Officer. I shit you not." And, just like that, Trump has his propagandist in the Navy.

Trump-Pence are politicizing the military with loyalists. Trump threatens not to recognize election outcomes if he doesn't win. And the reason for Pence's (and Putin's) fascination with Venezuela comes sharply into focus.

Maduro now looks like a dry run for what will happen here. I sure as fuck hope I'm wrong about that.

See here, for example. This will be understood to be reflective of Trump's brittle ego (and it's surely partly so), but Trump is almost certainly directing people to lie about polling as part of laying the groundwork to challenge election results. https://t.co/E1JRbZ63Hs

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 11, 2019

Relatedly, Dana Bash at CNN reports that the Trump campaign is considering putting resources in Oregon: "Oregon is so blue that it has not voted for a Republican for president since 1984. But the Trump campaign is flush with cash and is looking for ways to spend its money and time wisely while Democrats duke it out for the chance to run against [Trump]."

In a free and fair election, Trump would have zero chance of winning Oregon. But if the GOP, with or without help from Russia (or other nefarious actors), rigs the elections to, say, turn Oregon red, this is the preemptive explanation for how it happened: They had the wisdom to "put resources" in Oregon.

Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell is doing everything he can to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections to Trump's favor:

There actually are a lot of bills to safeguard the 2020 elections from the next Russian attack. Mitch McConnell is blocking all of them.

The New York Times reported a few days ago that McConnell is refusing to bring to a vote any bill to safeguard the elections from foreign attack. There's a Democratic bill to provide election funding to state and local governments. There's a bipartisan Senate bill to "codify cyberinformation-sharing initiatives between federal intelligence services and state election officials, speed up the granting of security clearances to state officials, and provide federal incentives for states to adopt paper ballots." McConnell won't allow any of them to come to a vote.

The threat from Russian election interference is actually quite severe. Russian intelligence breached at least one Florida county computer system and planted malware in a manufacturer of vote-tabulating machines, according to the Mueller report. While the probability that Russian hackers could actually change the outcome of the next election is low, the consequences would be extraordinarily high — especially if they do so by actual vote-rigging rather than mere information warfare.

Luke Harding and Jason Burke at the Guardian: Leaked Documents Reveal Russian Effort to Exert Influence in Africa. "Russia is seeking to bolster its presence in at least 13 countries across Africa by building relations with existing rulers, striking military deals, and grooming a new generation of 'leaders' and undercover 'agents,' leaked documents reveal. The mission to increase Russian influence on the continent is being led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman based in St. Petersburg who is a close ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. One aim is to 'strong-arm' the U.S. and the former colonial powers the UK and France out of the region. Another is to see off 'pro-western' uprisings, the documents say."

* * *

Andrew Desiderio, Heather Caygle, and John Bresnahan at Politico: Pelosi-Nadler Clash over Impeachment Intensifies. "Nadler has twice urged Pelosi in private to open a formal impeachment inquiry, but the speaker, backed by the majority of her leadership team and her caucus, has maintained that impeaching the president would backfire on Democrats without meaningful Republican support. And there is no sign that Trump's GOP firewall is cracking."

Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post: The House Begins to Tell the Story of Trump's Criminality. "[T]his is the beginning of a process that will, if committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) is successful, include fact witnesses who can bring to life what the panel explained on Monday. Whether it changes public opinion sufficiently to encourage Democrats to move to impeachment is unknown, but if part of the task here is to make an historical record, Democrats have certainly succeeded."

Former Rep. Steve Israel at the Atlantic: What Nancy Pelosi Wants to Do Before Impeachment.

For Pelosi, public sentiment doesn't mean following public opinion, but strategically shaping it so that it's more receptive to a strategic goal. It's not just laying the groundwork; it's fertilizing it. That takes message discipline, unity, and patience — all of which will be necessary as pressure to impeach [Donald] Trump continues to build.

...Pelosi, remember, believes it's possible to shape public sentiment. That's why she's unleashed her committee chairs to fully exercise their oversight responsibilities by investigating every facet of potentially impeachable offenses: Jerry Nadler of the Judiciary Committee, Adam Schiff on Intel, Maxine Waters on Financial Services, Elijah Cummings on Oversight and Reform.

They may find a smoking gun — incontrovertible evidence that crystallizes public support for impeachment and maximizes pressure on House Republican incumbents in moderate districts. Then Pelosi will have achieved her goal: a broader public consensus for impeachment and stronger, if not necessarily overwhelming, bipartisan support.

Connecting those dots draws a line that points toward impeachment. I just hope we get there sooner rather than later. Because I'm honestly worried that it's already too late.

* * *

[CN: White supremacy] Danielle McLean at ThinkProgress: Under Trump, the 2020 U.S. Census Could Fail to Count 4 million Americans. "Republican efforts to rig the 2020 U.S. Census could leave more than four million people, including a large number of black and Latinx Americans, uncounted and unrepresented, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. The upcoming 2020 Census is facing 'unprecedented challenges and threats,' according to the report, thanks to the Trump Administration, which 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."

[CN: LGBTQx hatred] Felicia Sonmez and Carol Morello at the Washington Post: Pence Says Move to Bar Rainbow Flags Outside U.S. Embassies Was 'the Right Decision'. Yes, I'm sure he does, since it was probably at his direction. Also: This isn't news. Let me know when Mike Pence stops hating queer people for two seconds, because that would be news.

[CN: Trans hatred; death; carcerality] Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Trans Woman Who Died at Rikers Island Prison Was in Solitary. "Layleen Polanco was pronounced dead in her cell Friday afternoon, reportedly around an hour after a prison officer noticed she was unconscious. The exact cause of her death hasn't yet been determined. She was in the women's jail on Rikers, in a unit for transgender women, but was placed in solitary as punishment for allegedly taking part in a fight."

* * *

And finally, let's end with some GOOD news...

"Missouri’s only abortion clinic will remain open for now after a judge on Monday blocked state officials from closing it because of an ongoing licensing dispute." For now. https://t.co/gfe8LsXOYi

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 11, 2019

Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: As Red States Try to Close Clinics, Maine Increases Number of Abortion Providers.

In September, Maine will start allowing health care professionals like nurses to perform abortions, thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills (D) on Monday.

The law allows nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other advanced practice clinicians to administer medication abortion and other in-clinic procedures. The number of clinics where aspiration abortion, the most common type of in-clinic procedure and used up to 16 weeks in pregnancy, is performed would increase from three to up to 18 — including in Aroostook County, among the poorest counties statewide, and where patients have had to travel over 150 miles for an in-clinic procedure.

"Allowing qualified and licensed medical professionals to perform abortions will ensure that Maine women, especially those in rural areas, are able to access critical reproductive health care services when and where they need them from qualified providers they know and trust," Mills said in a press statement. "These health care professionals are trained in family planning, counseling, and abortion procedures, the overwhelming majority of which are completed without complications."

Amazing.

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

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We Resist: Day 868

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: Malice Is His Agenda. Compassion Is Mine. and Today Is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day and Primarily Speaking and Pelosi Still Won't Budge on Impeachment.

Let's start with some GOOD news today...

Tierney Sneed at TPM: North Carolina Republicans Fail to Overturn Governor's Veto of Anti-Abortion Bill. "North Carolina's legislature upheld Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) veto of an anti-abortion bill Wednesday afternoon. Only this year — after the 2018 midterms — did Democrats have enough seats in the legislature to end the GOP's supermajority in the statehouse, which had previously given Republicans the votes to override Cooper's vetoes."

The Republicans will keep fighting, especially their fight to keep gerrymandering the state so that Democrats can't even get a majority in the legislature anymore, but this is very good news for the moment. Yay!

And the battle continues nationally...

Dr. Leana Wen at Rewire.News: A State of Emergency in Missouri and Across the Country. "We are in a state of emergency for reproductive health in America, and it requires a true emergency response. Over the past few months, we've seen just how vulnerable access to safe, legal abortion is across the country. Anti-abortion politicians in states across the country have enacted extreme, dangerous, and unconstitutional abortion bans that will endanger lives. ...As an emergency physician, I don't use the words 'emergency' lightly. But I know one when I see it, and there is no denying that the United States is facing a state of emergency that must be addressed." This is a public health crisis.

Elham Khatami at ThinkProgress: Trump's Decision to End Federal Fetal Tissue Research Is Dangerous. "The Trump administration on Wednesday announced that it would end fetal tissue research by federal scientists, despite strong evidence of the benefits of using fetal tissue to research treatments and diseases that affect millions of people, including HIV, human development disorders, and various cancers. Ironically, the administration positioned the move as a way to protect the 'dignity of human life.'"

All of Mike Pence's wildest dreams are coming true.

Because Trump is letting him drive domestic policy. https://t.co/4WGqDEtsXn

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 5, 2019

* * *

Mark Hosenball at Reuters: Still No Briefing for Senate Intel Panel on Mueller Report. "The only committee of the U.S. Congress running a genuinely bipartisan probe of Russian meddling in U.S. politics has still had no word from the Trump administration on briefing the panel about the Mueller report's counterintelligence findings, congressional sources said on Wednesday. ...Since the mid-April release of the redacted report, the Senate Intelligence Committee has been stonewalled in much the same way the administration has refused to cooperate with other committees, two congressional sources said."

[CN: Nativism] Camilo Montoya-Galvez at CBS News: Military to Spend a Month Painting Border Barriers to "Improve Aesthetic Appearance". "In its notification to Congress, DHS said [assigning members of the military to spend a month painting a mile-long stretch of barriers to improve their 'aesthetic appearance'] in Tucson, Arizona had allowed Border Patrol to combat the 'camouflaging tactics of illegal border crossers' who sought to evade detection. The agency said migrants also appeared to have 'greater difficulty' scaling painted bollards along the border. On Twitter, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-highest Democrat in the Senate, denounced the task as a 'disgraceful misuse' of taxpayer money. 'Our military has more important work to do than making Trump's wall beautiful,' he added."

[CN: Nativism; white supremacy; trans hatred; death]

NEW: Johana Medina died five days ago. Nearly all of the reporting about her death has included a dehumanizing statement from ICE, one published uncritically by journalists, even though it included a literal Nazi talking point. These details matter. https://t.co/pDYRqYXlxO

— Tina Vasquez (@TheTinaVasquez) June 6, 2019

Barbie Latza Nadeau at the Daily Beast: No Disciplinary Action for Top Military Brass Involved in Botched Niger Mission. "Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said Thursday that he agreed with an independent investigation that cleared top military brass in a 2017 special-forces mission in Niger that left four U.S. soldiers dead. The Wall Street Journal reports Shanahan said none of the officers in charge of the mission that led to a deadly ambush of Green Berets by militants should be disciplined. The Pentagon inquiry recommended administrative discipline for 'mistakes and oversights' by nine of those involved in the fatal mission, but stopped short of further action that might have included dismissals from service."

My condolences once more to Myeshia Johnson.

I can't believe that was less than two years ago. It feels like sixteen eternities.

* * *

Melanie Schmitz at ThinkProgress: Trump Says He'll Decide New China Tariffs Following G20, Amid Trade Battle with Republicans. "Donald Trump said Thursday that he would decide whether to impose a new round of tariffs on $325 billion worth of Chinese goods following the G20 summit in Osaka at the end of June. Trump's comments came during a joint appearance with French President Emmanuel Macron, not long after the U.S. president announced he might ratchet up his trade war with China to 'at least $300 billion' on Chinese goods."

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Alexander Nazaryan at Yahoo News: Trump Admits His Cabinet Had 'Some Clinkers'.

Raised on Norman Vincent Peale's "power positive thinking" quasi-philosophy, the president was attempting to convince both of us that his people really were the best people, even as evidence to the contrary presented itself daily in the form of damning news reports, mystifying congressional testimony, and ethics reports that read like treatments for Mafia movies.

"There are those that say we have one of the finest Cabinets," Trump claimed. That is not a commonly held view. In fact, it is difficult to think of anyone even halfway credible — Republican or Democrat — who has said anything approaching that.

...Trump did allow that there had been "some clinkers," by which he presumably meant people like EPA administrator Pruitt and HHS head Price, both of whom left the administration in disgrace, as did several other of their colleagues.

"But that's okay," he said of hiring men and women who turned out to be less than they seemed and less than he'd hoped. "Who doesn't?" True enough. But there's a difference between a clinker and a charlatan, a man who is no good at his job and a man who sets out to do that job poorly.

And there is a difference between someone who falls out of the president's favor because of incompetency and someone who falls out of the president's favor because of insufficient fealty.

Joshua Partlow, David A. Fahrenthold, and Taylor Luck at the Washington Post: A Wealthy Iraqi Sheikh Who Urges a Hardline U.S. Approach to Iran Spent 26 Nights at Trump's D.C. Hotel. "In July, a wealthy Iraqi sheikh named Nahro al-Kasnazan wrote letters to national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging them to forge closer ties with those seeking to overthrow the government of Iran. Kasnazan wrote of his desire 'to achieve our mutual interest to weaken the Iranian Mullahs regime and end its hegemony.' Four months later, he checked into the Trump International Hotel in Washington and spent 26 nights in a suite on the eighth floor — a visit estimated to have cost tens of thousands of dollars."

And finally, in possibly but probably still unlikely good news... Elizabeth Lopatto at the Verge: Bowing to Pressure, YouTube Will Reconsider Its Harassment Policies. "YouTube will reconsider its harassment policies and may update them, the company said in a new blog post. The statement was apparently prompted by public pressure on the company after a conflict between two YouTubers: Carlos Maza, who hosts for Vox, and Stephen Crowder, a conservative media personality. In response to backlash, YouTube has convened a blue-ribbon commission and appears to be hoping everyone will stop screaming." Lolsob.

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

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Today Is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day

On Tuesday, June 6, 1944, the Allied troop landed at Normandy after years of planning. It was the largest seaborne invasion in recorded history, and it was the beginning of the end for the Nazis on the Western Front.

There are lots of ways that D-Day is being marked in the U.S., U.K., and France. It is both a somber occasion, as thousands of Allied troops lost their lives in the siege. It is also a celebratory occasion, as it marks the start of liberation from Nazi occupation.

I can't find precisely the right words to articulate what I am feeling on this day. This particular anniversary of D-Day in this particular year.

I feel frightened by rising authoritarians mark this day as though they are continuing the tradition of liberators.

I feel angry that fascism is once again ascendent, but most of us aren't brave enough to have honest conversations about it.

I feel overwhelmed by grief that humans never seem able to move beyond our basest cruelty toward each other, because we keep empowering power-hungry men with sadistic urges to other and destroy.

I feel determined to persist despite them.

I feel sad that not all everyone who is equally determined to persist, will.

When I was a child learning about WWII in school, they told me never again. They told me never forget.

I have not.

Open Wide...

Shut Up!

We Resist: Day 867

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: Primarily Speaking.

Donald Trump and his gross family are still in the UK, and I still don't feel like writing a single thing about it. So here are some other things in the news today...

[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse.]

Thread. This is a watershed moment. The ORR is now just officially operating prisons for migrant children. https://t.co/tnbGyvZkgV

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 4, 2019

Prisons. Detainment centers. Internment camps. Concentration camps. Pick whatever name you want for these horrendous facilities. The fact is this: They are not providing care. They are traumatizing children forcibly separated from their parents or guardians. They are torturing children, and they have shed all pretense that they are doing anything else. Malice is the explicit agenda.

U.S. residents: Find your representative here. Find your senators here.

MAKE YOUR CALLS.

Chelsia Rose Marcius at the Daily Beast: House Passes Immigration Bill That Would Protect DREAMers, Give Millions a Path to Citizenship. "Cheers of 'Sí se puede!' or 'Yes, we can!' broke out in the chamber after the Democratic-controlled House voted 237 to 187 [to pass a bill Tuesday that would give 2.5 million undocumented immigrants a path to U.S. citizenship]. Seven Republicans voted in favor of the legislation. The bill, called the DREAM and Promise Act of 2019, addresses DACA program recipients and the beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure. This includes DREAMers or those who were brought to the United States illegally as children. Even if the bill is passed by the Republican-controlled Senate, however, the White House has said [Donald] Trump will veto it." Fucker.

Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Republicans Who Voted Against the Dream Act Represent over 600,000 People Who Would Have Benefited. "187 Republicans voted against the legislation. These 187 Republicans represent approximately 603,500 immigrants who would have benefited from the bill. ...The immigrants who stand to benefit from the latest DREAM Act and their households contribute $17.4 billion in federal taxes and $9.7 billion in state and local taxes per year. They hold also $75.4 billion in spending power." What they don't have is the right to vote.

Fred Barbash at the Washington Post: Use of Emergency Declaration to Impose Tariffs on Mexico Is Legally Questionable, Scholars Say. No shit! "[Donald] Trump is once again sailing in uncharted legal and constitutional waters. His promise to punish Mexico with escalating tariffs unless it controls what he calls the 'invasion' of migrants across the southern border is premised on a law that has never been used either as a tool of immigration policy or tariffs." That is far, far too polite language for discussion Trump's rampaging authoritarianism and vile nativist agenda.

Rebecca Hamilton at Just Security: Draft Charter of Pompeo's "Commission on Unalienable Rights" Hides Anti-Human Rights Agenda.

On May 30, without fanfare, a notice of intent to establish a State Department Commission on Unalienable Rights was published in the Federal Register. The stated purpose of the Commission is to provide "fresh thinking about human rights" and propose "reforms of human rights discourse where it has departed from our nation's founding principles of natural law and natural rights…to which [Dr. Martin Luther] King called us while standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C."

The Commission's draft Charter, obtained by Just Security, goes beyond the notice of intent in describing the Commission's duties as including "advice and recommendations, for the secretary's approval, to guide U.S. diplomatic and foreign policy decisions and actions with respect to human rights in international settings." This raises concerns that the Commission, which will have the State Department's Office of Policy Planning "supply all staff and support functions" and offer guidance directly to Secretary Pompeo, is designed to bypass the Office of Legal Adviser and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

...The Commission is particularly troubling in the context of attacks on minority communities and human rights defenders on a global scale, including the rise of authoritarian governments that are backtracking on decades of norm development.

Shiver.

* * *

[CN: Climate change; wildfires; environmental harm. Covers entire section.]

Isaac Stanley-Becker at the Washington Post: Trump, Pressed on the Environment in U.K. Visit, Says Climate Change Goes 'Both Ways'. "[Donald Trump] left a 90-minute meeting this week with Charles, Prince of Wales, unconvinced that the climate is warming, which it is, according to overwhelming scientific consensus. ...But the president has other beliefs. 'I believe that there's a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways,' he said in a wide-ranging interview with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain that aired Wednesday morning. 'Don't forget it used to be called global warming. That wasn't working. Then it was called climate change. Now it's actually called extreme weather, because with extreme weather, you can't miss.'"

1. Fuck this guy and his garbage ideas.

2.

There are very few things I can think of that I would like to watch less than Piers Morgan interviewing Donald Trump.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 5, 2019

Kirk Siegler at NPR: 1 Billion Acres at Risk for Catastrophic Wildfires, U.S. Forest Service Warns. "The chief of the U.S. Forest Service is warning that a billion acres of land across America are at risk of catastrophic wildfires like last fall's deadly Camp Fire that destroyed most of Paradise, California. ...Vicki Christiansen said wildfires are now a year-round phenomenon. ...'When you look nationwide, there's not any place that we're really at a fire season. Fire season is not an appropriate term anymore,' Christiansen said in an interview with NPR at the agency's headquarters in Washington."

Brian Kahn at Earther: Canadian Wildfires Are Already Turning Sunsets Red in the U.S. "The calendar hasn't turned to summer yet, but skies in Canada and across the U.S. already look like August. Smoke from massive Canadian wildfires has made the sun disappear in Edmonton and turned Friday's sunrise blood red as far east as Vermont. More than 900,000 acres of Alberta has gone up in flames, the latest symptom of our overheating planet. ...There are currently 10 fires in Alberta raging out of control according to the province's fire agency."

Damian Carrington at the Guardian: People Eat at Least 50,000 Plastic Particles a Year, Study Finds. "The average person eats at least 50,000 particles of microplastic a year and breathes in a similar quantity, according to the first study to estimate human ingestion of plastic pollution. The true number is likely to be many times higher, as only a small number of foods and drinks have been analysed for plastic contamination. The scientists reported that drinking a lot of bottled water drastically increased the particles consumed."

Well that's just fucking terrific. If your water is contaminated with lead or comes out of your tap on fire from fracking, and if you're privileged or lucky enough to have access to bottled water, then you're filling yourself with plastic particles. Goddammit.

* * *

"While the Russian aircraft was operating in international airspace, this interaction was irresponsible. We expect them to behave within international standards set to ensure safety and to prevent incidents," the 6th Fleet wrote. https://t.co/PpyboOwvNC

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 5, 2019

Everything is fine. (Everything is not fine.)

Dan De Luce and Robert Windrem at NBC News: Trump Admin Gave Green Light to Nuclear Permits for Saudi Arabia After Khashoggi Killing. "The Trump administration approved the transfer of sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia twice after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, according to information shared with members of Congress. Citing records provided by the Department of Energy, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Tuesday that the Trump administration had given the green light to U.S. energy firms to export technology and know-how to Saudi Arabia on Oct. 18, 2018 — only 16 days after Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The administration then approved another transfer on Feb. 18."

Police raided the offices of Australia's national broadcaster, prompting its editorial director to say 'it's not the Australia I know'. More here: https://t.co/M7NA3KnOeK pic.twitter.com/G287mLRVQN

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) June 5, 2019

A perfect and terrible example of what I mean when I say that we're up against a global trend toward authoritarianism. It's bigger than just the U.S. and it's going to take a lot more than a single election to effectively address it.

* * *

[CN: Trans hatred] Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: Trump Claims He Banned Trans People from the Military Because 'They Take Massive Amounts of Drugs'. "'They take massive amounts of drugs,' Trump said, when asked to square his declared support for the LGBTQ community with his stance on transgender service members. 'They have to …You would actually have to break rules and regulations in order to have that.' [T]he costs of that medication are minuscule, and in fact pale in comparison to how much the military spends on Viagra. Trump said he was not aware of that fact before doubling down on his earlier claims."

[CN: Homophobia; racism; slurs at link] Tom McKay at Gizmodo: YouTube: No, We Won't Remove These Videos of Racist, Anti-Gay Harassment Because It's Just 'Debating'.

YouTube has chosen not to take action against right-wing video personality Steven Crowder after Vox host Carlos Maza posted clips of Crowder repeatedly harassing him with derogatory, anti-gay, and racist statements, which Maza says resulted in hordes of Crowder's fans doxxing him and subjecting him to abuse on social media.

...YouTube's hate speech policy page specifically bars "content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups" based on a number of attributes including ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation. In a subsection, YouTube specifically writes creators cannot:

Use racial, ethnic, religious, or other slurs where the primary purpose is to promote hatred.

Use stereotypes that incite or promote hatred based on any of the attributes noted above. This can take the form of speech, text, or imagery promoting these stereotypes or treating them as factual.

Invoking hurtful stereotypes of gay men as effeminate to target a specific gay person, as well as disparaging references to that person's ethnic background, seems about as straightforward a violation of this policy as can be. YouTube writes on that page that content in violation of these rules will be removed and can result in a creator having strikes applied to their account.

Perhaps that's why in an obviously insincere apology video uploaded this weekend, Crowder tried his best to come off as indifferent but nonetheless felt the need to insist off the bat he was "not in violation of policy guidelines."

Turns out YouTube agrees! The platform responded on Tuesday by saying it would not take any action on the videos involved. After claiming YouTube takes "allegations of harassment very seriously" and that they had spent days "conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us," the Team YouTube Twitter wrote that while Crowder's language was "clearly hurtful," "the videos as posted don't violate our policies" and will "remain on our site."

What a horrendous, unjustifiable decision.

[CN: Anti-choicery] Jessica Glenza at the Guardian: Doctors' Organization: Calling Abortion Bans 'Fetal Heartbeat Bills' Is Misleading. "America's largest professional organization for doctors specializing in women's health has come out against the term 'fetal heartbeat bill' to describe abortion bans recently enacted by U.S. states. The president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called the bills 'arbitrary' bans not reflective of fetal development or science. 'Arbitrary gestational age bans on abortion at six weeks that use the term 'heartbeat' to define the gestational development being targeted do not reflect medical accuracy or clinical understanding,' said Dr Ted Anderson, president of ACOG." Thank you, ACOG.

And finally, on a hopeful and inspiring note...

I love this @Refinery29 interview with Georgia State Representative @RenittaShannon by @jaclynf which has tons of tips on what you can do to support Georgians fighting for abortion access. https://t.co/ATjV4ZGtyT

— Renee Bracey Sherman (@RBraceySherman) June 5, 2019

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

Open Wide...

Shut Up!

We Resist: Day 862

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 Announces 5% (and Increasing) Tariffs on Goods Imported from Mexico and Primarily Speaking.

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

[Content Note: Violence; death] Shinhye Kang at Bloomberg: North Korea Executed Envoy over Trump-Kim Summit, Chosun Reports. "North Korea executed its former top nuclear envoy with the U.S. along with four other foreign ministry officials in March after a failed summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in Vietnam, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported. Kim Hyok Chol, who led working-level negotiations for the February summit in Hanoi, was executed by firing squad after being charged with espionage for allegedly being co-opted by the U.S., the newspaper said, citing an unidentified source. The move was part of an internal purge Kim undertook after the summit broke down without any deal, it said." My god.

And let us recall that mere days ago, Trump was agreeing with Kim Jong Un in order to take a swipe at Joe Biden. And, yes, the Trump administration has known for some time about the executions. Absolutely revolting.

[CN: Nativism] Ian Kullgren, Ted Hesson, and Anita Kumar at Politico: Trump Weighs Plan to Choke Off Asylum for Central Americans. "Donald Trump is considering sweeping restrictions on asylum that would effectively block Central American migrants from entering the U.S., according to several administration officials and advocates briefed on the plan. A draft proposal circulating among Trump's Homeland Security advisers would prohibit migrants from seeking asylum if they have resided in a country other than their own before coming to the U.S., according to a Homeland Security Department official and an outside advocate familiar with the plan. If executed, it would deny asylum to thousands of migrants waiting just south of the border, many of whom have trekked a perilous journey through Mexico."

This is a violation of international law, but no one empowered to hold Trump accountable for it is willing to do so. So he will continue to regard international law with utter contempt.

And domestic law, too.

[CN: Nativism; child abuse] Abigail Hauslohner and Maria Sacchetti at the Washington Post: Hundreds of Minors Held at U.S. Border Facilities Are There Beyond Legal Time Limits. "Federal law and court orders require that children in Border Patrol custody be transferred to more-hospitable shelters no longer than 72 hours after they are apprehended. But some unaccompanied children are spending longer than a week in Border Patrol stations and processing centers, according to two Customs and Border Protection officials and two other government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the unreleased data. One government official said about half of the children in custody — 1,000 — have been with the Border Patrol for longer than 72 hours, and another official said that more than 250 children 12 or younger have been in custody for an average of six days."

[CN: Misogyny; queer hatred] Nahal Toosi at Politico: State Department to Launch New Human Rights Panel Stressing 'Natural Law'.

The Trump administration plans to launch a new panel to offer "fresh thinking” on international human rights and "natural law," a move some activists fear is aimed at narrowing protections for women and members of the LGBT community.

The new body, to be called the Commission on Unalienable Rights, will advise Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to a notice the State Department quietly published Thursday on the Federal Register.

"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," states the notice, which is dated May 22.

Several human rights activists said Thursday that they were surprised by the move and trying to learn details. Some privately said they worry that talk of the "nation's founding principles" and "natural law" are coded signals of plans to focus less on protecting women and LGBT people.

..."I don't think this is the advisory committee for expanding rights," quipped Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), a congressman who held the same assistant secretary role in the administration of President Barack Obama.

We are so doomed.

Dan Lamothe, Missy Ryan, and Paul Sonne at the Washington Post: McCain Warship Incident Raises Questions About a Changing Military Culture Under Trump. "A dust-up over who directed and knew about White House efforts to obscure the USS John S. McCain ahead of [Donald] Trump's visit to Japan has raised new questions about whether the military's culture is changing under a president who has challenged institutional norms. ...The situation has highlighted a debate about whether Defense Department leaders have permitted the politicization of the military under Trump, who has frequently used military events to deliver campaign-rally-style speeches." That is far too fucking polite.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Daniel Moritz-Rabson at Newsweek: U.S. Economy Slips from First to Third Place in Global Competitiveness Ranking Amid Trump's Tariffs. "The United States lost its spot as the world's most competitive economy amid an ongoing trade war with China, according to an annual ranking from the IMD World Competitiveness Center. Both Singapore and Hong Kong had more competitive economies than the U.S., per the report, which evaluates 63 countries on 235 measures. High fuel prices and fluctuations in the dollar's value diminished the confidence-boosting impact of Trump's tax policies, said the center. ...The ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China has inflicted uncertainty upon, and caused rapid fluctuations among, global financial markets. [Donald] Trump's regular tweeting has further contributed to market shifts."

For 3rd time in a week, a single Republican lawmaker has blocked the US House from passing the $19B billion disaster relief bill. https://t.co/1RW2y1KJqI

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) May 31, 2019

Maanvi Singh at the Guardian: U.S. Rollback of Protected Areas Risks Emboldening Others, Scientists Warn. "America's reputation as an international conservation leader is under threat in the wake of unprecedented rollbacks, according to the most comprehensive effort yet to track the erosion of protected wilderness areas and national parks around the world. ...The study, authored by 21 international scientists, warns that U.S. efforts to cut back protections could embolden other countries to follow suit. 'The recent legal changes that have scaled back protections in the U.S. are just unprecedented,' said Mike Mascia, a senior vice-president at Conservation International and the report's senior author. 'And they send a dangerous message to the rest of the world.'"

AG Barr, basically: "Valar Morghulis" https://t.co/tZgcLm3WaU

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) May 31, 2019

Dracarys!

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

Open Wide...

Shut Up!