Showing posts with label Lindsey Graham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lindsey Graham. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 907

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, July 15, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late last week and earlier today by me: The Trump Revisionism Begins and Recommended Reading and Trump Is a F#@king Racist, Part One Zillion in an Endless Series and Primarily Speaking.

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

[Content Note: Racism; nativism; abuse. Covers entire section.]

Martin Pengelly and Jamiles Lartey at the Guardian: Republicans Silent as Trump Renews Racist Attack on Congresswomen.
In the face of international condemnation — but very little comment from his own party — Donald Trump returned to the offensive against four Democratic congresswoman he targeted with racial invective on Sunday.

True to provocative form, the president accused the Democrats of "spewing" "racist hatred" — precisely the offence of which he has been widely accused.

In a tweet early on Monday, the president wrote: "When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel, and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them [and] their horrible [and] disgusting actions!"

He added: "If Democrats want to unite around the foul language [and] racist hatred spewed from the mouths and actions of these very unpopular [and] unrepresentative Congresswomen, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I can tell you that they have made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S."

The tweets reflected others Trump sent late on Sunday amid the storm created by his initial demand that the unnamed congresswomen should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime[-]infested places from which they came."
It's quite honestly not even worth remarking upon that his party refuses to condemn him. They aren't merely silent; many of them are openly defending him.


Senator Lindsey Graham in particular has been eagerly defending Trump's nativist malice. Kevin Fitzpatrick at Vanity Fair: Lindsey Graham: "I Don't Care" If Migrants "Stay in These Facilities for 400 Days."
Speaking with Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network, Senator Lindsey Graham vehemently disagreed with humanitarian concerns raised by Vice President Mike Pence's recent tour of a migrant detention facility in Texas. "I don't care if they have to stay in these facilities for 400 days, we're not going to let those men go that I saw," said Graham. "It would be dangerous."

Graham was referring to now-viral footage of Pence's tour, which saw the vice president blithely overlooking a fenced room filled to capacity with migrants protesting unsanitary conditions. Pence subsequently claimed over Twitter that the men "were in a temporary holding area because Democrats in Congress have refused to fund additional bed space," and derided CNN for allegedly "ignoring the excellent care being provided to families and children" in a separate facility.
This is what both Graham and Pence are defending:


That is an image of a concentration camp.

Garrett M. Graff at Politico: The Border Patrol Hits a Breaking Point. "The problems underlying CPB's almost theatrical failures trace all the way back to its creation amid the post-9/11 reorganization of the Department of Homeland Security and have been exacerbated by a longstanding failure of leadership that extends up to both Congress and the White House and has lasted through three administrations. Both the modern Border Patrol and its parent CBP have been plagued by poor leadership and management at all levels, and by recruiting challenges that have left them with a subpar, overstressed workforce and a long-running toxic culture." This is a must-read.


Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Trump Administration Files Regulation That Would All but End Asylum for Non-Mexican Migrants.
The Trump administration published an interim final rule on the federal register Monday further that effectively ends asylum protections for Central American migrants. Under the rule, migrants — including unaccompanied minors — who travel through Mexico without first applying for protection in a “safe third country” are ineligible for asylum in the United States.

The majority of people who claim asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border are from Central American countries in its Northern Triangle region, including Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Migrants from these countries routinely flee gangs, political unrest, and domestic violence. Traveling by foot or bus through Mexico is the only viable way they can receive asylum protections in the United States.

"It would end asylum for Central Americans," Ur Jaddou, former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told Buzzfeed News last month, when the rule was under consideration. It's not just Central Americans who will be impacted by this new rule, so too will the thousands of migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, and countries in Africa who apply for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Goddammit.


Meanwhile, Trump is still thrashing over having been thwarted (for now) from including a nativist citizenship question on the census. Hans Nichols, Kayla Tausche, and Hallie Jackson at NBC News: Trump Weighs Ousting Commerce Chief Wilbur Ross After Census Defeat. "Donald Trump has told aides and allies that he is considering removing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross after a stinging Supreme Court defeat on adding a citizenship question to the census, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations. ...[S]ome White House officials expect Ross to be the next Cabinet secretary to depart, possibly as soon as this summer, according to advisers and officials."

* * *

Unlike Ross, Trump is still keen on Mick Mulvaney, to our lasting misfortune. Seung Min Kim, Lisa Rein, Josh Dawsey, and Erica Werner at the Washington Post: 'His Own Fiefdom': Mulvaney Builds 'an Empire for the Right Wing' as Trump's Chief of Staff. "[Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is] a former tea party lawmaker who has built what one senior administration official called 'his own fiefdom' centered on pushing conservative policies — while mostly steering clear of the Trump-related pitfalls that tripped up his predecessors by employing a 'Let Trump be Trump' ethos. ...Mulvaney has focused much of his energy on creating a new White House power center revolving around the long-dormant Domestic Policy Council and encompassing broad swaths of the administration. One White House official described Mulvaney as 'building an empire for the right wing.'" Shiver.

[CN: War on agency; misogyny] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire.News: Republicans Get Another Win in Their Fight to Gut Title X. "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled the Trump administration's domestic 'gag rule,' which bans federal family planning dollars from going to health-care providers who perform abortions or refer patients for abortion services, can take effect everywhere but the state of Maryland. The ruling jeopardizes comprehensive reproductive health-care access for nearly 4 million people. 'This is devastating news for the millions of people who rely on Title X for cancer screenings, HIV tests, affordable birth control, and other critical primary and preventive care,' Dr. Leana Wen, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's president and CEO, said in a statement following the ruling."

[CN: Gun violence] Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Tougher Gun Laws Mean Fewer U.S. Kids Die, Study Shows. "A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics shows that children who live in states with strict firearms laws are less likely to die from gun violence than those in states with more lax restrictions. The researchers found that the stricter the state's gun laws, the lower the risk of children dying." Unfortunately, the federal government and most state governments are currently in the stranglehold of the death cult known as the Republican Party.

Nicole Lee at Engadget: The Amazon Prime Day Strike Could Be a Turning Point for Workers' Rights. "Today, Amazon will start its fifth annual Prime Day, which has been expanded to 48 hours this year. Designed to enlist (and keep) Prime members, it is the company's biggest shopping event of the year — on the same level as Black Friday — with extensive discounts and deals across the entire site. At a time when Amazon would likely prefer that all its employees hunker down to meet increased demand, a group of warehouse workers in Shakopee, Minnesota are going on strike. It isn't the first time the workers in Shakopee have raised their concerns. But it will be the first major work stoppage event for Amazon in the U.S. and could be a harbinger of things to come."


[CN: Climate change; flooding; displacement] Kyla Mandel at ThinkProgress: Water on Water on Water: Why Tropical Storm Barry Is Already Devastating Louisiana. "With half-a-foot of rain already unleashed on New Orleans, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, warning, 'No one should take this storm lightly.' As Barry moves inland, it's expected to impact other areas in Louisiana such as Baton Rouge and Shreveport, as well as cities in Alabama and Mississippi. But with the storm only expected to become a hurricane on Saturday, why is it already so destructive? It has a lot to do with climate change, and specifically, with just how wet the past year has been for the United States." That item is a couple of days old now, but water/flooding still remains the greatest threat.

[CN: Climate change; flooding; displacement; death] Staff at the BBC: Monsoon Floods Displace Millions in India. "More than three million people have been displaced across north and north-eastern India amid monsoon rain that has cost lives and destroyed homes. Storms and floods have ripped through areas of Nepal, Bangladesh, and India, killing more than 130 people. At least 67 people lost their lives in Nepal in torrential rains, police there said on Monday. Thirty people were reported missing while 38 were injured, Nepalese police added. Heavy rains also caused deaths in Bangladesh, including in overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps. More bad weather is expected in the coming days."

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

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Today in Rampaging Authoritarianism

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, June 27, 2019
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1. Donald Trump believes that what he and his Kremlin puppet-master talk about is none of our fucking business:

"I'll have a very good conversation with him. What I say to him is none of your business.
As Leah McElrath says: "Well, yeah, it is our f*cking business, you traitorous ass." She also urges: "Look at the expression in his eyes when he says this." Shiver.

2. Senator Lindsey Graham tweets about the Democratic debate:


Just a sitting senator "joking" about how the sitting president should become a dictator and punctuating it with a smiley face.

JFC.

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We Resist: Day 876

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, June 14, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Nancy Pelosi, What Are You Doing? and Today in Trump's Vile Nativist Agenda and Primarily Speaking.

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


CNN broke the news that former FBI Director Andrew McCabe is calling for Trump's impeachment last night, and it's already off their front page. There's barely any news coverage of it anywhere. If that doesn't convincingly illustrate the level of water-carrying the press is doing for this administration, I can't imagine what would.

Meanwhile, as pressure mounts on House Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry, the Trump Regime ratchets up its manufactured case for war with Iran:


Iran has "dismissed as 'baseless' U.S. accusations that it carried out twin attacks that left two tankers ablaze in the Gulf of Oman," and naturally they would, but Yutaka Katada, the owner of the Japanese oil tanker hit in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, also says "the U.S. is wrong about the way the attack was carried out."
Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo on Friday, he contradicted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. Navy, which released a video that purports to show an Iranian patrol boat removing a limpet mine from the port side of the Kokuka Courageous.

Katada said his ship was attacked on the starboard side by a flying object, not by a mine. "It seems that something flew towards them. That created the hole, is the report I've received," Katada said, according to the Financial Times. "It seems there was a high chance they were attacked by a flying object. The impact was well above the water. I don't think it was a torpedo."
This morning, on Fox & Friends, Donald Trump referenced the video distributed by the U.S. Navy and said, "Iran did do it, and you know they did it because you saw the boat."

NPR further reports: "Calling Iran 'a nation of terror,' Trump did not discuss whether the U.S. plans to take action in response, saying only, 'We'll see what happens.'"

Sky News' Defence and Security Correspondent Alistair Bunkall why the events in the Gulf of Oman "could have massive global ramifications" (beyond the humanitarian crisis of the U.S. trying to start yet another war under false pretenses):

The two tankers that came under attack in the Gulf of Oman were the Norwegian-owned but Marshall Island-flagged Front Altair and the Japanese-owned but Panama-flagged Kokuka Courageous.

Now, U.S. Naval forces in the region said that they received two separate distress calls: One at twelve minutes past six in the morning — that's local time — and another at seven a.m., so shortly afterwards. The U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer, the U.S.S. Bainbridge, responded to those calls.

Now, the U.S. Navy presence in the region is aimed primarily at warding off any Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime choke point. The straits are one of the world's most important stretches of water, with one-fifth of the world's oil passing through that waterway, which, at its narrowest, is just 21 miles wide. And that includes crude oil and liquified natural gas from energy-rich countries in the Gulf Region, including Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Conflict in the straits has the potential to create shockwaves across the world — and that could drive up the price of crude. Today's attack alone caused oil prices to surge by four percent.

During the 1980s, in the Iran-Iraq War — the so-called "Tanker War" — Kuwait's oil tankers were reflagged under a U.S. flag, so that oil could be transported safely through the straits.

And, more recently, Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, threatened to close the straits, following the Trump administration decision to leave the Iranian nuclear deal.
National Security Advisor John Bolton has wanted a war with Iran — or, at minimum, an excuse to bomb Iran — for a very long time. And Donald Trump knows, as he has said as much on many occasions, that wars tend to increase president's approval ratings. And Vladimir Putin would be thrilled to see the U.S. go to war with Iran. (Indeed, the Kremlin may be helping to orchestrate the rationale for war.) We should all be very concerned about where this is headed.

Yesterday, just as Iran starting trending on Twitter, the point at which people had noted the headlines about an Iranian bombing and just as experts were beginning to scrutinize the administration's claims, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders resigned, after having not even held a press briefing for over three months. That was not a coincidence. The manipulation is frightening.

And if drawing Iran into a war doesn't work... Josh Israel at ThinkProgress: Lindsey Graham Wants to Invade Venezuela to Put 'Points on the Board. "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wants the United States to use military forces to intervene in Venezuela to depose the country's contested president, Nicolás Maduro. His reason: it will scare other foreign countries like North Korea and Iran to see America put 'points on the board.' ...This is not the first time the senator has argued for invading Venezuela — or at least threatening to do so — as a strategy to stop Cuban influence there. But it is the clearest he's been that he wants to pursue a war-mongering approach for the optics it will create."

The Republican Party is truly a death cult full of sociopaths.

* * *

Susan B. Glasser at the New Yorker: Forget "No Collusion." Trump Is Now Pro-Collusion. "On Thursday, [Trump] doubled down on this position [that he would and could accept materials on political opponents from foreign actors], arguing, in effect, that accepting help from Vladimir Putin would be no different from dining with the Queen of England and the 'Prince of Whales,' as he put it in a tweet. Trump, instead of proclaiming 'no collusion,' now seemed to be announcing that he is pro-collusion. ...The President's supporters often tell those who are alarmed about his words to skip the tweets and focus on the substance of his Administration's policies. But they are wrong. Trump is telling us exactly what he is going to do — and then he is doing it."

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post: The Trump Camp's Latest Lies Cannot Obscure What's Now Been Exposed. "Trump's allies are engaged in a new and frantic effort to spin away the true meaning of his comments on ABC News, in which he issued an open invitation to foreign powers to attack our political system again on his behalf and made it absolutely clear that he will not alert law enforcement if his campaign learns of such an effort. But that spin cannot obscure what is so devastating about this mess for Trump: the fact that it makes that bigger story unavoidable, and indeed throws it into new and sharper relief." Yes, but who's going to make it matter? From where will any consequences come?

Matthew Choi at Politico: McConnell Downplays Trump's Foreign Election Help Comments. "Speaking with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Thursday night, the Senate majority leader spoke with exasperation over the backlash the president has received for saying he would hear out foreign assistance if offered in the 2020 election. McConnell portrayed the comments as a nonstory, saying Congress had legislative agendas to focus on." I hate him.

* * *

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

Tina Vasquez at Rewire.News: Immigration Officials Push Healthcare Providers to 'Clear' Pregnant Migrants for Detention.
Multiple times a month, U.S. Border Patrol arrives at Banner-University Medical Center Tucson with "noticeably pregnant women," according to an OB-GYN resident who works there. The hospital's obstetric triage department is essentially an emergency room for pregnant people, and officers with the federal immigration agency regularly bring in newly apprehended pregnant migrants for medical evaluations. Once the hospital visit nears its end, multiple health-care providers have said Border Patrol "pressures" them to provide a "cleared for detention letter."

"Because they are bringing these women to us almost directly from the border, inevitably we get asked for a letter because when [the pregnant migrants] leave the hospital, they are going to be detained," said Dr. Samantha Varner, the OB-GYN resident. "Basically they ask us to write these short letters that don't just say the person is 'fit for travel,' but that they are 'cleared for detention,' meaning they are 'healthy' enough to be detained."

Varner told Rewire.News in a May 20 phone interview that Border Patrol seems to be asking her to approve of a person's detention after they leave the hospital, or rather that the agency wants a health-care provider to put into writing that a migrant is "fit" for detention.

"I feel like [they are] asking us to sign off on allowing [immigration authorities] to do whatever they want with the person after they leave the hospital," Varner said.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Caitlin Dickerson at the New York Times: The Youngest Known Child Separated from His Family by the Trump Administration. "The youngest known child taken from his parents at the U.S.-Mexico border was a 4-month-old baby named Constantin Mutu. While he was sent to Michigan to live with a foster family, his father was sent to a detention facility and ultimately deported to Romania, uncertain when he would see his son again. ...Constantin, one of thousands of children separated under the Trump administration's 'zero-tolerance' border policy...spent five tumultuous months away from those who loved him most."

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

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We Resist: Day 831

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, April 30, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Trump Will Make Asylum-Seekers Pay and Primarily Speaking.

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

[Content Note: Anti-Semitic violence; Islamophobia; stochastic terrorism; video may autoplay at first link. Covers entire section.]

Andrew Johnson and R. Stickney at NBC 7 San Diego: 1 Dead, 3 Injured in Synagogue Shooting in Poway, Deputies Detain Suspect.
A woman has died and a rabbi was injured after shots were fired inside a Poway, California synagogue filled with people celebrating the last day of Passover. A suspect was taken into custody approximately two miles away from the synagogue while three patients were rushed to a nearby hospital.

The victim was identified Saturday as 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye.

A man with an assault-style rifle entered Chabad of Poway on Rancho Bernardo Road, west of Interstate 15 at 11:23 a.m. and opened fire on the people inside, law enforcement officials said.

"We didn't hear him screaming or saying anything. He was just focused to kill. You saw the hate and the murder in his eyes," Danny Almong, a witness, told NBC 7. "He had a vest and he had clips in the vest. He was ready. He was ready. He came in to kill."

The suspect was identified as John T. Earnest, 19.
The scene almost certainly would have been even more grim were it not for the courage of Oscar Stewart. Also, Lori Gilbert-Kaye died protecting her rabbi, who lost a finger in the shooting. My condolences to her family, friends, and community.

Earnest, whose parents assert that he was radicalized online, "has also been charged with setting fire to a nearby mosque weeks earlier. Prosecutors allege John T. Earnest, 19, attacked the Islamic Center of Escondido, California, on March 23 in what is described as an act of terrorism. Graffiti was found at the scene citing the attack on New Zealand Muslims by a white-power terrorist."

This, too, must be viewed as the inevitable consequence of the nation's president waging a campaign of stochastic terrorism, centered firmly within his white supremacy. If that weren't abundantly clear already, here is Donald Trump, hours after Earnest opened fire at a synagogue, fear-mongering about Democrats wanting "to take your guns away."


Trump also said this as details were emerging about another horrific mass shooting, too — in Tennessee, with seven dead — committed by another young white man whom authorities say "has a history of committing violent crimes."

Staff at the Daily Beast: Anti-Semitic Attacks in U.S. Tripled in 2018: Study. "According to a new study released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League, 59 Jews were the victims of physical assault in 2018 — which includes the 13 congregants killed or wounded in the Tree of Life massacre — up from 21 assault victims in 2017. The study found that there were a total of 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents reported last year, a figure obtained from police reports, victim accounts, and news articles. Nearly 98 percent of those incidents involved harassment or vandalism, the study said."

Relatedly... Richard Winton and James Queally at the LA Times: L.A. Terror Plot Thwarted: Army Vet Planned 'Mass Casualties,' FBI Says. "A U.S. Army veteran who wanted revenge for attacks on Muslims around the globe was planning to detonate a bomb at a Long Beach rally this past weekend before he was intercepted by law enforcement officials, authorities said Monday. Mark Steven Domingo, 26, was arrested Friday night [and] charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists and, if convicted, could face up to 15 years in prison. According to a federal affidavit, Domingo considered 'various attacks — including targeting Jews, churches, and police officers' before he decided 'to detonate an IED at a rally scheduled to take place in Long Beach this past weekend.'"

* * *

Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaidó is currently staging a coup, and witnesses have reported men in military uniform accompanying Guaidó exchanging fire with soldiers acting in support of Nicolás Maduro. The Guardian has live updates of what's happening.

Veep Mike Pence, who has long been obsessed with Venezuela, is pretty excited about it:


Aram Roston and Matt Spetalnick at Reuters: Blackwater Founder's Latest Sales Pitch: Mercenaries for Venezuela. "Erik Prince — the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater and a prominent supporter of [Donald] Trump — has been pushing a plan to deploy a private army to help topple Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, four sources with knowledge of the effort told Reuters. Over the last several months, the sources said, Prince has sought investment and political support for such an operation from influential Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan exiles. In private meetings in the United States and Europe, Prince sketched out a plan to field up to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire on behalf of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to two sources with direct knowledge of Prince's pitch."

David Edwards at Raw Story: House Intel Committee to Refer Erik Prince for Criminal Prosecution over Alleged Lies for Trump. "The House Intelligence Committee is expected to send a criminal referral to the Justice Department alleging that Erik Prince lied to lawmakers. While speaking to The Washington Post on Tuesday, Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) revealed the plans for a criminal referral. 'The evidence strongly suggests that he misled our committee,' Schiff said. 'When we asked whether he was asserting some privilege, he merely said he was not answering questions because the White House told him not to.' Schiff noted that Republican members of the committee have attempted to block the criminal referral."

Nicole Lafond at TPM: Trump Family Sues Deutsche Bank and Capital One to Halt Subpoenas from House. "Trump and his family sued Deutsche Bank and Capital One on Monday to block House Democrats subpoenas demanding access documents related to Trump's finances, according to multiple new reports. ...'The subpoenas were issued to harass [Trump], to rummage through every aspect of his personal finances, his businesses, and the private information of [Trump] and his family, and to ferret about for any material that might be used to cause him political damage,' the lawsuit said, according to Politico. 'No grounds exist to establish any purpose other than a political one.' ...House Democratic leaders on the House Financial Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee said a joint statement on Monday that the suit was 'meritless' and was filed to force a delay in accountability." Yup.

Manu Raju and Alex Rogers at CNN: Graham Calls Democrats 'Political Hacks,' Says Trump Should Fight Their Subpoenas 'Like Hell'. "Graham, who played a prominent role in President Bill Clinton's impeachment proceedings in 1998, defended his past stance in an interview with CNN on Monday, while calling on Trump to 'fight like hell' against House Democratic 'political hacks' and goading Democrats to carry through with impeaching Trump if they want. And when asked about Trump's behavior, specifically the 10 instances documented in special counsel Robert Mueller's report of the president's possible obstruction of justice, Graham said bluntly: 'I don't care.'" What a fucking weasel.

Michael Birnbaum and Ioana Burtea at the Washington Post: Trump's Campaign Manager Gave a Paid Speech in Romania, Prompting Ethics Concerns.
The day before special counsel Robert S. Mueller III submitted his report to the Justice Department last month, Washington was abuzz with what revelations it might contain about contacts between the 2016 Trump campaign and foreign officials. But [Donald] Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, was an ocean away, delivering a paid speech to a room full of Romanian politicians and policy elites.

Legal analysts said that Parscale's visit breaks no laws so long as he does not do any lobbying in the United States on behalf of foreign clients without registering. But ethics experts said any money changing hands between foreign citizens and campaign officials created an obstacle course of potential risks. And some ethics lawyers worried that Parscale's engagement — which received little attention outside Romania at the time — is a sign that the 2016 Trump campaign's freewheeling approach to foreign contacts may be carrying over to its 2020 successor.

...In a statement, Parscale said the "handful of international speeches" he has delivered gave him a chance to see the world with his wife and recuperate from campaign responsibilities.

"We did not grow up with the opportunity to travel internationally, and speaking opportunities have allowed me to share my talent with other professionals in a university setting while having a brief break from the rigorous campaign schedule that I maintain," Parscale said. "This speaking engagement was fully vetted and approved through the necessary channels in advance."
LOL the "necessary channels" being his corrupt boss' lackeys, natch.

Meanwhile, Parscale is giving interviews on U.S. television, broadcasting to the Kremlin exactly which states the Trump 2020 campaign would like hacked please and thank you:


The collusion is right out in the open.

Speaking of Russia... Hannah Ellis-Petersen at the Guardian: Whale with Harness Could Be Russian Weapon, Say Norwegian Experts. "Marine experts in Norway believe they have stumbled upon a white whale that was trained by the Russian navy as part of a programme to use underwater mammals as a special ops force. ...The strange behaviour of the whale, which was actively seeking out the vessels and trying to pull straps and ropes from the sides of the boats, as well as the fact it was wearing a tight harness which seemed to be for a camera or weapon, raised suspicions among marine experts that the animal had been given military-grade training by neighbouring Russia. Inside the harness, which has now been removed from the whale, were the words 'Equipment of St. Petersburg.'" Cool.

Rod Rosenstein has quit, apparently for real this time:


Peter Cary and Allan Holmes of the Center for Public Integrity, at the Guardian: Workers Barely Benefited from Trump's Sweeping Tax Cut, Investigation Shows. "Big companies drove Donald Trump's tax cut law but refused to commit to any specific wage hikes for workers, despite repeated White House promises it would help employees, an investigation shows. The 2017 Tax and Jobs Act — the Trump administration's one major piece of enacted legislation — did deliver the biggest corporate tax cut in U.S. history, but ultimately workers benefited almost not at all." What a fucking shocker.

[CN: Anti-choicery] Emily Shugerman at the Daily Beast: 'Bizarre, Dangerous, and Insulting': Baby Nurses Fed Up with Trump's Bogus Abortion Rants. "Trump's latest rant about babies being executed after birth is riling up neonatal nurses, who say he's twisted the palliative care they provide for the sickest of infants into an anti-abortion rallying cry that could endanger health providers. ...The nurses claim what they do is sensitive, personal, and has absolutely nothing to do with abortion. And they are not happy with the president's claims." Nurse Julia Pulver has an excellent Twitter thread on this subject.

[CN: Class warfare; child abuse] Chris McGreal at the Guardian: About 13m U.S. Children Are Living Below the Poverty Line, Rights Group Reveals. "A leading children's rights group has called for a doubling of the federal minimum wage and wider access to housing subsidies to end the 'moral travesty' of millions of children living in poverty while the wealthiest Americans get tax cuts. The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) said in a new report that about 13 million American children are living in homes with incomes below the poverty line, depriving many of a decent education and proper nutrition, and putting them at risk of homelessness and violence. Two-thirds of those living in poverty are children of color."

Well, I guess they should just take out a small million-dollar loan from their fathers or write a bestselling book, right? Rage seethe boil.

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

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We Resist: Day 824

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, April 23, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: An Observation and No No No No No No No and Primarily Speaking.

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

As I've said before, I tend to avoid sharing Donald Trump's prolific tweetshitz here, but, occasionally, there is something worthy of comment. He really went off on a tear this morning, and this entry was particularly notable:


Trump is braying that the New York Times should "get down on their knees and beg for forgiveness" on the same day they published an execrable mess in which a Democratic former White House Press Secretary argues that Democrats should let Trump be continue to be president unimpeded.

I really hope the rest of the political press is paying attention. There is no sycophancy adequate enough to satiate Donald Trump. He is an abuser to his core, and he will continue to abuse the press, no matter how much they pander to him. If they write that he is the best president the U.S. has ever had, he will rage that they did not say he is the best president the world has ever had.

Abuse is the point. Discrediting them among his supporters will never cease. And indulging him is precisely the wrong response to that.

He's an unpopular aspiring authoritarian. Treat him accordingly.


Tom Hamburger at the Washington Post: White House Instructs Official to Ignore Democratic Subpoena over Security Clearances.
A former White House personnel security director has been instructed by the White House not to show up Tuesday for questioning by the House Oversight Committee.

The move appears to be the latest effort by the Trump administration to push back against congressional inquiries targeting the White House, which have proliferated since Democrats took control of the House in January.

White House deputy counsel Michael M. Purpura wrote a letter Monday asking the former security director, Carl Kline, not to show up as the committee had requested. Kline is now working at the Defense Department.

In a letter to Kline's lawyer obtained by The Washington Post, Purpura wrote that a committee subpoena asking Kline to appear "unconstitutionally encroaches on fundamental executive branch interests."

In a separate letter Monday, Kline's attorney, Robert Driscoll, told the panel that his client would adhere to the White House recommendation.
"Fuck your checks. Fuck your balances. Fuck you." — Donald J. Trump, probably.

Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky at Politico: Trump Isn't Just Reversing Obama's Foreign Policies; He's Making It Impossible for His Successor to Go Back to Them. "The administration is focused like a laser beam on irreversibly burning U.S. bridges to Iran and administering last rites to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And if you look at the administration's actual policies, it's clear they aren't just meant to overturn President Barack Obama's actions, but also to create points of no return — so that successor administrations cannot revert to past approaches even if they want to. If the administration succeeds — and it's well on its way to doing so — it will have fundamentally damaged U.S. national interests for years to come."

That is what I mean when I say that Trump "leverages the power of the presidency to destroy our democracy as swiftly and irreparably as he can."

[Content Note: Sexual violence]


That, of course, is a direct rebuke of Hillary Clinton's foreign policy agenda. Sob.

Speaking of Hillary Clinton... [CN: Misogyny] Alex Roarty and Katie Glueck at McClatchy: 'There's Still a Lot of Sexism': Dem Leaders Frustrated by Double Standards Facing Female Candidates.
Stephanie Schriock shudders when she remembers how critics reacted to Elizabeth Warren's 2020 campaign announcement, sharply questioning whether she was likable enough to become president.

It's not a question Schriock thinks even the most cantankerous male candidates face.

"Elizabeth Warren spent the first week of her presidential campaign battling back whether she was likable enough," said Schriock, president of EMILY's List, a group that supports Democratic women in favor of abortion rights. "Now, I worked in the Senate, and I have seen Senator [Bernie] Sanders. And I'm just going to tell you, he's not that likable."

Schriock's frustration with perceived double standards for women candidates is shared by many influential Democrats, who argue that their party's half-dozen female presidential candidates have been repeatedly hindered by unfair treatment in the early stages of the campaign. In interviews, a group of leading Democrats sought to sound the alarm about what they regard as embedded sexism in the 2020 primary — both from their own voters and in some media coverage — that has resulted in a tilted playing field.

"I feel frustrated because I don't feel that the women candidates are getting the same kind of coverage," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Some female candidates receive short-lived attention when they roll out a sweeping set of policy proposals, the Washington Democrat added, "Whereas candidates do something like get on a countertop and that gets covered for days."

She was referring to Beto O'Rourke, whose penchant for standing on tabletops while campaigning has made headlines. Jayapal, Schriock, and other Democrats interviewed emphasized that they didn't mean to direct their criticism at male candidates, most of whom they described as talented and qualified.

But they did want to take aim at the broader cultural dynamics that they think have tipped the scales in favor of these men — even as a record-number of serious female candidates compete for the nomination.
Gee, it's almost like it really wasn't just that Hillary Clinton was uniquely unlikeable after all. Huh! Who could have predicted.

[CN: Islamophobia] Erin Banco at the Daily Beast: Sen. Lindsey Graham Bewilders Ivanka Trump's Women's Conference with Terrorism Rant. "While on a trip to Côte d'Ivoire last week to help Ivanka Trump promote women's access to capital in Africa, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned of religious wars with 'radical ideology' that would be 'hell on earth for women' if they are not 'destroyed.' 'It's the enemy of mankind, not just the United States,' Graham said, of the theoretical invaders, according to a recording provided to The Daily Beast. 'Some of our soldiers will be needed, but not a lot. Most of the fighting will be done by people in the region. I promise you the enemy will lose because very few mothers or fathers want to turn their daughters over to ISIS, al Qaeda, or any other group.' As the senator spoke, confused attendees could be heard on the recording asking each other in hushed tones what he was talking about."


[CN: Rightwing violence; video may autoplay at link] Staff at CBS News: Militia Leader Allegedly Told FBI They Were Training to Assassinate Obama, Hillary Clinton. "The leader of a militia group who's been detaining migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border allegedly told the FBI his militia was training to assassinate former President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Democratic donor George Soros. Larry Hopkins, head of the United Constitutional Patriots, is charged with possession a firearm as a felon and could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted." JFC.

[CN: Sexual abuse] Staff at NBC New York: Thousands of Boy Scout Leaders Face New Child Sex Allegations; Names Expected to Be Released Today. "Thousands of Boy Scouts of America leaders face new charges of sexual abuse, claims that are expected to be revealed in detail Tuesday in New York and New Jersey. Names of nearly 200 of the accused are also expected to be released. The allegations came to light Monday night and a group of alleged victims was expected to testify about the widespread pattern abuse within the scouting organization later Tuesday. The victims' attorney, Jeff Anderson, called it a system of denial and cover-ups. He claims the Boy Scouts have files on child abusers within their ranks dating back to the 1940s." Unfathomable. I take up space in solidarity with the victims of this vile systemic abuse.

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

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Lindsey Graham Calls for Special Counsel to Investigate Hillary Clinton's Emails OMFG

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, March 14, 2019
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Yeah, this sounds about right: Senator Lindsey Graham, he who informed us of his oh-so-dramatic dinner-interrupting pleas to Donald Trump to curb his authoritarian instincts on the border wall, has now moved to "object/temporarily block [the] resolution which calls for public release of the Mueller report." However, he would like to appoint another Special Counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton's fucking emails. FOR REAL.


I honestly don't even know what to say anymore, besides what I've already said countless times: Every single Republican in the Senate and House are complicit in Donald Trump's collusion and corruption and authoritarianism, because they not only refuse to hold him accountable, but actively enable and abet him at every goddamn turn.

*jumps into Christmas tree*

In other news, the Senate voted to block Trump's border emergency declaration, but not with enough Republican votes to make a 2/3 majority and override his veto.

Trump greeted the news with a one-word tweet:


RAGE!

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We Resist: Day 739

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, January 28, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: The Collusion Is Right Out in the Open and Dear Howard Schultz: NO. Sincerely, All of Us. and Polar Vortex Hits with a Vengeance.

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

Ylan Mui at CNBC: The Government Shutdown Cost the Economy $11 Billion, Including a Permanent $3 Billion Loss, Congressional Budget Office Says.
The federal government shutdown cost the economy $11 billion, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, reflecting lost output from federal workers, delayed government spending and reduced demand.

The report, which was released Monday, estimated a hit of $3 billion, or 0.1 percent, to economic activity during the fourth quarter of 2018. The impact was projected to be greater during the first quarter of 2019: $8 billion, or 0.2 percent of GDP.

Although most of the damage to the economy will be reversed as federal workers return to their jobs, the CBO estimated $3 billion in economic activity is permanently lost after a quarter of the government was closed for nearly 35 days.

"Among those who experienced the largest and most direct negative effects are federal workers who faced delayed compensation and private-sector entities that lost business," the report said. "Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income."
Devan Cole and Kevin Bohn at CNN: State of the Union Will Not Take Place Tuesday, Pelosi Aide Says. "Donald Trump's second State of the Union address will not take place on Tuesday, an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN. The aide confirmed that the address, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday, will not happen — answering a key question about the address's fate in the wake of the reopening of the federal government. ...Trump's director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp said Monday that the White House has been in discussions with Pelosi's office about rescheduling the address and that 'we should have a response soon.'"

Good for Pelosi for not just letting everything "go back to normal" and proceed as planned. Trump shouldn't get what he wants when he's still threatening to hold the country hostage again. The SOTU continues to be a point of leverage in Pelosi's pocket, and she knows it.

Casey Michel at ThinkProgress: GOP Moves to Block Anyone from Running a 2020 Primary Challenge Against Trump. "Amidst collapsing poll numbers and an unmitigated defeat in his standoff with House Democrats, one contingent still has [Donald] Trump's back: the Republican National Committee (RNC), which is planning to stonewall any efforts from potential GOP challengers for the 2020 nomination. As ABC reported, the RNC passed a resolution on Friday that threw their 'undivided support' behind the president as he gears up for the 2020 race — a resolution that effectively undercut any other Republicans thinking of running."


Democracy killers. The entire Republican Party isn't even pretending they aren't authoritarians anymore.

[Content Note: Child abuse] Irwin Redlener at the Daily Beast: The Trump Administration Is the Worst for Children in the Country's History. "It was already clear that Donald Trump's policies, actions, and words have put millions of children at risk. But although the longest government shutdown in American history is coming to an end, this nearly 40 day financial crisis added a whole new dimension to the challenges facing children living in poor, working poor, and even many middle-class families. It has become undeniable that after only two years, the Trump administration is already showing itself to be the most anti-child of any presidency in memory."

We could have had a president who had dedicated her life to improving the lives of children. Instead, we are stuck with this piece of shit.

[CN: Nativism; violent misogyny] Katie Mettler at the Washington Post: Trump Again Mentioned Taped-Up Women at the Border; Experts Don't Know What He Is Talking About. "Trump has a new favorite anecdote, one that fixates on tape. Specifically, in public remarks at the White House, at the border and at farming conventions, the president has been talking about tape on the mouths of migrant women. On at least eight occasions over a period of 12 days this month, the president has argued publicly for his proposed wall on the southern border by claiming without evidence that traffickers tie up and silence women with tape before illegally driving them through the desert from Mexico to the United States in the backs of cars and windowless vans."

And at TPM, Kate Riga notes: "Soon after the Washington Post questioned where he got that information, acting Border Patrol Assistant Chief Armando Sianez asked agents if they had any evidence to backup Trump's claims." Gross.

Justin Wise at the Hill: Graham Says Trump Floated Using Military Force in Venezuela. "Trump reportedly broached the idea of using military force in Venezuela in a conversation with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) earlier this month. Graham recounted the exchange to Axios, telling the news outlet that Trump asked him what he thought about using military force in a nation where the U.S. is pushing for regime change. ...Graham added that Trump is 'really hawkish' when it comes to Venezuela."

Meanwhile...


[CN: Homophobia] Speaking of Russia being terrible... Savas Abadsidis at Towleroad: Protestors Wrap Russian Embassy with the Rainbow Flag to Protest the Anti-Gay Purge in Chechnya. "About a hundred people protested the Russian Embassy in London 'to raise awareness of and call for an end to the persecution of the LGBTQ community in the Chechen Republic' according to Gay Times. The protest was intended to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The protest had four demands according to Gay Times: 'For Theresa May to publicly condemn Chechnya's atrocities; for governments to shelter refugees from Chechnya; for a United Nations investigation on Russia; and for Russian authorities to bring those responsible to justice.'"

[CN: Right-wing terrorism; Islamophobia]


[CN: Gun violence; misogynist violence; death; toxic masculinity] Madeline Holcombe and Kelly McCleary at CNN: Suspect in Five Louisiana Shooting Deaths Captured in Virginia.
[Dakota Theriot, 21, is] accused of killing his parents, his girlfriend, and her father and brother in two separate shootings Saturday in Louisiana.

Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 50, were at their home near Baton Rouge when the suspect killed them, Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said.

When authorities arrived at the scene, Keith Theriot was still alive and told them his son shot them, authorities said.

Dakota Theriot's girlfriend, Summer Ernest, and her relatives were found dead in a home 30 miles away. The other victims included her father, Billy Ernest, 43, and her brother Tanner Ernest, 17, according to authorities.

Theriot was dating Summer and had lived with the Ernests for several weeks, Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said. He was recently asked to leave the residence and not return, according to authorities.

...Authorities believe the shootings stemmed from a "boyfriend [and] girlfriend type of dispute," CNN affiliate WAFB reported.

"This is probably one of the worst domestic violence incidents I've seen in quite a while," Webre said. "For a young man to walk into a bedroom and kill his mother and his father, and then kill friends in Livingston that he had a connection with."

There were no red flags ahead of the two shootings Saturday morning and other than a simple possession of drug paraphernalia charge, Theriot had no other run-ins with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office, Ard said.
My condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the victims.

A couple of points:

1. I am enraged that Summer Ernest is being identified as her murderer's "girlfriend" here, despite the fact that she and/or her parents kicked him out of their residence recently, and it is very likely that her decision to not be his girlfriend anymore is why he murdered her.

2. It is absolutely incomprehensible to me that police would suggest there were "no red flags" ahead of the shootings, given that the "dispute" between Ernest and Theriot was enough that he was asked to GTFO. Just because police don't know what precipitated that incident doesn't mean that there were no red flags.

3. Again, this is another mass shooting by a young white man who is somehow taken into custody alive, while young Black men and women are killed by police during altercations following suspected crimes like selling loose cigarettes or breaking traffic laws.

Rage. Seethe. Boil.

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

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We Resist: Day 728

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, January 17, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: No Collusion! No Collusion! Okay, Maybe Some Collusion! and Just a Regular Reminder That the Scoundrels Destroying the Country Are as Embarrassing as They Are Wicked and Nancy Pelosi Knows What She's Doing. And late yesterday ICYMI: What a Mess, Britain.

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

Barbara Starr at CNN: Trump Is Fraying Nerves Inside the Pentagon. (Join the club, Pentagon!)
Two years into his presidency, Donald Trump is fueling unprecedented uncertainty and anxiety inside the Pentagon. In private conversations over the past month, many of them unsolicited, more than a dozen key military officers, enlisted personnel, and senior civilians have expressed worry and concern to CNN. None of the officials have spoken publicly about this, as military law prohibits active-duty personnel from criticizing a sitting president.

It's not just Trump's unpredictable decision making that has officials on edge, it's also his penchant for politicizing the military — something that's come into focus in recent months as he's struggled to fulfill his campaign promise to crack down on immigration and build a border wall. His decision to draw down troops in Syria and his claims that ISIS is defeated have also rankled military commanders who felt it wasn't well thought out.

Some of the highest-ranking officers say there is a new atmosphere of unease inside the Pentagon, particularly among some of the most senior ranks, over the president's inclination to use the military to achieve certain partisan policy objectives. Behind the scenes officials are trying to keep it all at bay. "The amount of time we have to spend making sure our statements and what we say is apolitical is astronomically higher than ever before," one senior military officer told CNN.

...Pentagon officials have also been unnerved by requests from the White House National Security Council, which continues to ask the Pentagon for options to attack Iran. Military planners CNN has spoken to say these requests are concerning since there is no real understanding of how Iran might react — or exactly what military objective the Trump Administration is trying to achieve.
Emphasis mine. Holy fuck.

Btw, that should probably (definitely) be the lede, instead of being buried six paragraphs into the story.

* * *

[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse] Julia Ainsley at NBC News: Thousands More Migrant Kids Separated from Parents Under Trump Than Previously Reported. "Thousands more immigrant children were separated from their parents under the Trump administration than previously reported and whether they have been reunified is unknown, according to a report released Thursday by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services. ...The families separated under 'zero tolerance' were represented in a class action lawsuit, where a federal judge ordered that the government reunify them. However, the government had no such order to reunify children separated prior to 'zero tolerance.' Some may have been released to family or nonrelative sponsors, but it is not known how many have been reunified."

There is a whole lot to detest about this report, but this just about takes the fucking cake: "HHS officials did not keep track of whether children they were releasing from their custody had been separated from their parents at the border or whether they crossed the border without a parent. 'We don't have any information on those children who were released prior to the court order,' an official from the HHS Office of Inspector General told reporters on a call Thursday."

Goddammit. Two thoughts: 1. Only a court order forced this regime to care about the children it was taking into their custody, and they are stacking the courts as quickly as possible with judges who won't force them to care ever again. 2. This is based on the regime's own reporting, so we can be reasonably certain it is far worse than they are even admitting here.

[CN: Nativism; child abuse] Alexandra Villarreal at the Guardian: The U.S. Detention Center Where Sick Children Receive 'the Bare Minimum'.
Since attorney Jacquelyn Kline began representing immigrant families detained at Berks in the summer of 2014, she said the majority of her clients have gotten sick. Usually, the illnesses have been minor. But sometimes, when common problems have gone ignored or untreated, they have spiraled to become something more.

"In my experience, [the staff] do the bare minimum and they don't want to do more than that unless it becomes a situation where they have to do it," Kline said. "Because they don't address things when there are minor issues, it allows them to become more serious issues."

...The fact that serious medical conditions occur and go untreated for days, weeks or months while immigrant children are under the government's protection may come as a surprise to many. But advocates who have been on the ground at detention facilities under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are well acquainted with stories such as these that point to a wider trend.

"I am surprised that more children or parents have not died while in DHS custody, given the systemic failure on the part of the government to provide medical services," said Kathryn Shepherd, national advocacy counsel for the Immigration Justice Campaign at the American Immigration Council.
Rage seethe boil.

[CN: Nativism; racism; disablism] Eli Rosenberg at the Washington Post: A Latino Marine Veteran Was Detained for Deportation, Then ICE Realized He Was a Citizen. "Richard Kessler, an immigration lawyer in Grand Rapids, Mich., said he was surprised when a woman he had worked with called to tell him that her son, a 27-year-old Marine veteran with mental-health issues, was being held in an immigration facility, apparently awaiting a possible deportation. Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, whose service as a lance corporal and tank crewman included time in Afghanistan, was born in the Michigan city of 200,000. Kessler said he didn't understand what was going on. 'I was shocked,' he said in an interview. 'Everybody knows that Jilmar is a U.S. citizen and a Marines vet.' ...'I immediately called ICE and shouted at them,' he said. 'And they called me back and said, kind of, 'Oops, yeah, come and get him.' They didn't say, 'Our bad,' but kind of implied that.'" JFC.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to scream about his fucking wall, while still telling rank lies in its defense:


The entire appearance was really something, and Aaron Rupar has a terrific thread with video if you want to see the lowlights of Trump slurring his way through it, looking and sounding like he was on ten thousand biebergrams of downers.

And just as a reminder that Trump's #2 is just as big an indecent, dishonest sack of shit as he is:


And in more news about how their entire party is full of vile, white supremacist gremlins...

[CN: White supremacy; Holocaust denialism] Will Sommer at the Daily Beast: GOP Congressmen Meet with Holocaust-Denying Troll Chuck Johnson. "Notorious alt-right figure and Holocaust denier Chuck Johnson met with two Republican lawmakers in Congress on Wednesday. Johnson's visit was first noted by a HuffPost reporter, who tweeted a picture of Reps. Andy Harris (R-MD) and Phil Roe (R-TN) walking with Johnson. Johnson, a former Breitbart reporter, has denied the magnitude of the Holocaust, expressing doubt that gas chambers were real and questioning whether six million Jews were really killed — a figure that has been well documented by scholars and historians. He also ran crowdfunding efforts for white supremacist causes, including the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer. In statements, the lawmakers confirmed that they had met with Johnson to discuss genetic testing and DNA, but claimed they weren't aware of Johnson's history of making racist statements."

"We were only meeting with a Holocaust denier to discuss eugenics, but we didn't know he was a racist!" is quite a defense, guys.

[CN: White supremacy] Erin Mansfield at the Tyler Morning Telegraph: Tyler Congressman Louie Gohmert Says Steve King Raised a Fair Question. "A congressman from East Texas says his colleague raised a fair question about Western civilization and is being treated unfairly. U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert said that U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa — who has been disciplined by Republican leaders for comments about white supremacy and white nationalism — is not getting due process, and he is still a friend."

Of course Louie Gohmert defended Steve King. Of course he did.

[CN: White supremacy; voter suppression] Alan Pyke at ThinkProgress: Lindsey Graham Just Accidentally Admitted That Suppressing Black Voter Turnout Is a Core GOP Goal. "Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions had wielded his power to thwart non-white voters from accessing the franchise, [National Urban League head Marc Morial] reminded Graham. ...In his scramble to regain the momentum in the exchange, Graham accidentally gave the game away. 'Elections have consequences,' the senator interjected... 'If you don't expect elections to matter, that's a mistake,' he said, confirming for a second time that to vote for Republicans is to vote for a government that supports the systematic disenfranchisement of [Black voters]."

* * *

Ben White at Politico: Recession Warnings Pile Up as Shutdown Wraps Up Fourth Week. "The partial government shutdown was supposed to be a brief non-event for the economy. Now it's starting to look like a serious crisis that could nudge the U.S. toward recession and threaten [Donald] Trump's economic message during his reelection campaign. Across Wall Street, analysts are rushing out warnings that missed federal paychecks, dormant government contractors, and shelved corporate stock offerings could push first-quarter growth close to or even below zero if the shutdown, which is wrapping up its fourth week, drags on much longer."

Which is a very anodyne way of saying that the shutdown will come for all of us, eventually — so, you know, maybe self-interest will serve as a motivating factor for people if basic human decency can't move them to care about the people who are being immediately affected by the shitdown (typo and I'm leaving it).


Casey Michel at ThinkProgress: The Latest Front in Russian Infiltration: America's Right-Wing Homeschooling Movement. "The group and its origins sound innocuous enough. But the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) — a right-wing group founded 36 years ago — has deepened connections between America's religious right and Russians even as the latter have been sanctioned by the United States, according to a ThinkProgress investigation. By networking with Russians, the HSLDA — now America's largest right-wing homeschooling association — has provided the Kremlin with a new avenue of influence over some of the most conservative organizations in the United States."

[CN: Homophobia; retaliation] Andy Towle at Towleroad: N.C. Deputies: We Were Fired for Reporting Lieutenant's Homophobic Remarks. "Two former deputies in Wake County, North Carolina (home of Raleigh) say they were fired in retaliation for reporting their supervisor's homophobic remarks. Former Master Deputy Gray Speight and former Master Deputy Steven Williamson told WRAL that then Lieutenant Teddy Patrick (who was recently promoted to the higher rank of Captain by new sheriff Gerald Baker) outed a fellow deputy and signaled to members of the squad who were engaged in 'sensitivity training' sessions that he didn't like gay people. ...When Gerald Baker became sheriff, an office with 'legal authority to hire and fire as they wish' according to WRAL, he promoted Patrick to Captain and fired Speight and Williamson."

Where are all the good cops? Fired, for doing the right thing apparently.

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

Open Wide...
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