Shakesville: guns

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We Resist: Day 907

a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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.

Sen. Lindsey Graham declines to condemn racist Trump tweets, calls Democratic congresswomen “a bunch of communists” https://t.co/gv7Mew0gZD pic.twitter.com/BEG56z7mFg
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 15, 2019

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:

VP saw 384 men sleeping inside fences, on concrete w/no pillows or mats. They said they hadn’t showered in weeks, wanted toothbrushes, food. Stench was overwhelming. CBP said they were fed regularly, could brush daily & recently got access to shower (many hadn’t for 10-20 days.) pic.twitter.com/tHFZYxJF7C
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) July 12, 2019

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.

“New York City officials said Saturday night that ICE agents were spotted conducting “enforcement operations” in two neighborhoods but that no arrests were made after residents declined to answer their doors.” #KnowYourRights https://t.co/El7Ij24JCn
— David Leopold (@DavidLeopold) July 15, 2019

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.

The ACLU plans to file a lawsuit to try to stop Trump's new asylum rule from taking effect.

"This new rule is patently unlawful and we will sue swiftly."https://t.co/LazNr0lJma
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 15, 2019

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."

I fully support Amazon workers' Prime Day strike. Their fight for safe and reliable jobs is another reminder that we must come together to hold big corporations accountable. https://t.co/ZkDDt9zeHv
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) July 15, 2019

[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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We Resist: Day 901

The House Judiciary Committee moved Tuesday to authorize subpoenas for two separate issues: an array of documents and testimony related to the administration's immigration policies and to former and current Trump administration officials, including the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner, as part of its probe into potential obstruction of justice.

The committee is planning a Thursday vote to authorize the subpoenas, which would ratchet up the Democrat-led panel's investigation into possible obstruction of justice and examination of the Trump administration's immigration policies. The vote would allow Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York, to issue the subpoenas at his discretion.

The committee has previously requested numerous documents related to immigration matters from the administration, but Tuesday's notice to authorize subpoenas is an escalation of those requests. It shows the committee is broadening the investigation into [Donald] Trump as Democrats weigh whether to start an impeachment inquiry and comes ahead of former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees next week.

Good. Hope this matters. Don't understand why it's taking so long to make these critical decisions.

Meanwhile... Katie Benner at the New York Times: Barr Says House Subpoenaed Mueller to Create 'Public Spectacle'. "Attorney General William P. Barr accused House Democrats on Monday of subpoenaing testimony from Robert S. Mueller III to 'create some kind of public spectacle,' rather than elicit facts, pointing to Mr. Mueller's declaration that he would discuss only the facts laid out in the Russia investigation report. ...He also called the idea that Mr. Trump worked with the Kremlin to subvert the election 'bogus' and said the early stages of his review of the Russia inquiry suggested that he needed to toughen protocol for investigating political candidates."

So, just to be clear, the Attorney General of the United States just publicly accused the Democrats of theater for expecting a Special Counsel to give testimony on his findings, and then suggested he will use the Russia inquiry as justification for investigating political candidates — which naturally means Donald Trump's Democratic opponents.

We are in so much trouble.

* * *

[Content Note: Sexual violence] There is a lot about Jeffrey Epstein in the news today. I am frankly not inclined to cover this story ongoingly; it's easy enough to find updates if you are so inclined. If something notable happens, I will report it. Today, I will just recommend a piece at the Daily Beast by Vicky Ward, who tried to warn the world about Epstein 16 years ago and was silenced by her editor: Jeffrey Epstein's Sick Story Played Out for Years in Plain Sight.

* * *

Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News: The True Origins of the Seth Rich Conspiracy Theory: A Yahoo News Investigation.

In the summer of 2016, Russian intelligence agents secretly planted a fake report claiming that Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was gunned down by a squad of assassins working for Hillary Clinton, giving rise to a notorious conspiracy theory that captivated conservative activists and was later promoted from inside [Donald] Trump's White House, a Yahoo News investigation has found.

Russia's foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, first circulated a phony "bulletin" — disguised to read as a real intelligence report —about the alleged murder of the former DNC staffer on July 13, 2016, according to the U.S. federal prosecutor who was in charge of the Rich case. That was just three days after Rich, 27, was killed in what police believed was a botched robbery while walking home to his group house in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C., about 30 blocks north of the Capitol.

How/why in the hell would the Kremlin even know who he was, get news of his "random" murder which police attribute to a botched robbery, and have that narrative ready to go within 3 days?

If this report of the conspiracy theory's origins are indeed accurate, that looks to me like the Russians killed him with the intent of using his death to launch their prepared narrative — which was that Hillary Clinton had him killed.

Which only underscores the likelihood that the Kremlin had him killed: Every conspiracy theory has a grain of truth, and the grain of truth to this one is that someone had him killed. Fucking gods.

* * *

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Jonathan Cohn at the Huffington Post: Obamacare Is Going Back on Trial, with Insurance for 20 Million at Stake. "A federal appeals court is about to take up a Republican lawsuit that could wipe out the Affordable Care Act and, with it, health insurance for something like 20 million people. ...Now the case is before the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, where a panel of three judges will hear oral arguments on Tuesday. Two of the judges are Republican appointees and have ties to the conservative Federalist Society, just like the federal district judge who ruled in favor of the case in November." Goddammit.

D. Parvaz at ThinkProgress: Mike Pompeo Says 'We're Not Done' with Iran. "Speaking at the Christians United For Israel event in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened that the Trump administration is 'not done' with Iran. 'We've implemented the strongest pressure campaign in history against the Iranian regime and we are not done,' said Pompeo, adding that U.S. sanctions have deprived Iran of funds it would have used 'to destroy the state of Israel.' (Iran has never been at war with Israel.)" Everything about that is terrifying.

Ann E. Marimow at the Washington Post: Trump Cannot Block His Critics on Twitter, Federal Appeals Court Rules.

[Donald] Trump cannot block his critics from the Twitter feed he regularly uses to communicate with the public, a federal appeals court said Tuesday, in a case with implications for how elected officials nationwide interact with constituents on social media.

The decision from the New York-based appeals court upholds an earlier ruling that Trump violated the First Amendment when he blocked individual users critical of the president or his policies.

"The First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees," wrote Judge Barrington D. Parker in the unanimous decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

Exactly right. Trump can't simultaneously use Twitter to make official announcements and engage in foreign policy and generally do most of his daily presidenting from that platform, and also claim that he's allowed to block people. Nope. Doesn't work that way, pal.

* * *

[CN: Gun violence; death]

Almost all the people who carried out mass attacks in the United States last year made threatening or concerning communications beforehand, and more than three-quarters prompted concern from others, the Secret Service said in a report Tuesday.https://t.co/9m6E4J3vsv
— Pete Williams (@PeteWilliamsNBC) July 9, 2019

This was the second analysis by the Secret Service of mass attacks. Its report from a year ago found that most attacks in 2017 were motivated by workplace or domestic issues, and that more than three-fourths of them had made threatening or concerning communications.
— Pete Williams (@PeteWilliamsNBC) July 9, 2019

[CN: White supremacist violence; eliminationism; death] David Williams at CNN: Police Say Man Cut Arizona Teen's Throat Because Rap Music Made Him Feel Unsafe. "Police say a man accused of fatally stabbing a 17-year-old in the throat at an Arizona convenience store told them he felt threatened because the teen had been listening to rap music. ...Witnesses told police that the man, who's been identified as Michael Paul Adams, 27, walked up behind the teen, grabbed him, and stabbed him in the neck, according to a probable cause statement obtained by CNN affiliate KPHO/KTVK. ...The witnesses told police that [the teen, Elijah Al-Amin] hadn't done or said anything to provoke the attack. One said Adams didn't say anything to the teen before stabbing him." Rage. Seethe. Boil.

I don't believe the killer was legitimately fearful (and it wouldn't justify murdering someone even if he were), but, given that's his explanation, here is some relevant reading: On Sitting with Fear.

[CN: Police brutality]

The family of a 17-year-old girl shot and killed by a Southern California police officer are demanding answers about the deadly Friday night shooting. https://t.co/8HxC5eO2jv
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 9, 2019

[CN: Ableism; suicidal ideation] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Chronic Nuisance Ordinances Are Forcing People with Disabilities out of Their Homes.

Emily Doe was nearly exiled from Maplewood, Missouri, because crisis hotline volunteers sent police to her home too many times within one year.

Emily, who's bipolar and suffers from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, called a crisis hotline because she was suicidal. Crisis volunteers sent emergency personnel to her house on three different occasions, and in one instance, she was taken to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation and treatment.

For doing what's medically recommended — that is, calling for help — Emily received a citation and summons from the City of Maplewood to attend an ordinance enforcement hearing for "generating too many calls for police services." Had the city determined her a "chronic nuisance," officials would have not only evicted Emily but revoked her occupancy permit, effectively exiling her from the community for at least six months.

"It's just so callous it's hard to believe," said Sejal Singh, co-author of a new paper titled "When Disability Is a 'Nuisance'" and published Monday in Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.

Awful.

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

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 880

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: Today in Misogyny. And Every Day. and Trump Announces Massive Sweep of Undocumented Immigrants and Primarily Speaking.

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

[Content Note: Nativism. Covers entire section.]

Hamed Aleaziz at BuzzFeed: USCIS Director Appears to Warn Asylum Officers in an Email to "Do Our Part". "The newly appointed leader of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Ken Cuccinelli, sent an email to staffers Tuesday in which he appeared to push asylum officers to stop allowing some migrants seeking refuge in the country passage at an initial screening at the border. 'Under our abused immigration system if an alien comes to the United States and claims a fear of return the alien is entitled to a credible fear screening by USCIS and a hearing by an immigration judge,' Cuccinelli wrote to USCIS staffers. ...He told staffers that USCIS needed to do 'our part to help stem the crisis and better secure the homeland.'" The homeland. JFC.

Faith Karimi at CNN: Body of a 6-Year-Old Girl from India Is Found in the Arizona Desert. "The body of a 6-year-old girl believed to be from India was found in a remote desert area in Arizona this week, officials said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the girl was trying to cross into the United States with a group of people from her country. Her body was discovered 17 miles west of Lukeville, just over the U.S.-Mexico border. The group was trying to get into the U.S. after human smugglers dropped them off near the Mexico border, the agency said in a statement Thursday. Temperatures in the rugged wilderness where agents found her remains Wednesday hovered around 108 degrees."

Deaths in the desert are going to become more commonplace as the Trump Regime escalates its violation of international law by refusing to allow refugees to seek asylum at the border. That will inevitably force more people to try to cross the border illegally in search of safety.

https://t.co/MCeLNBrf6t
— Adam Serwer🍝 (@AdamSerwer) June 18, 2019

(If you don't know why that last item was posted in this section, this is why.)

* * *

Devan Cole at CNN: Trump Downplays Tanker Attacks in Contrast to His National Security Team. "Donald Trump, in contrast to statements by his own top aides, downplayed recent attacks on two fuel tankers in the Gulf of Oman that his administration has blamed on Iran, calling them 'very minor.' The disconnect between Trump's comments in an interview with Time magazine — in which he also warned that he would 'certainly' go to war with Iran were the country to develop nuclear weapons — and recent statements by national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo come at a time of escalating military posturing between the two countries and a heightened risk of confrontation."

Eliana Johnson at Politico: Trump Prepares to Bypass Congress to Take on Iran. "The Trump administration and its domestic political allies are laying the groundwork for a possible confrontation with Iran without the explicit consent of Congress — a public relations campaign that was already well underway before top officials accused the Islamic Republic of attacking a pair of oil tankers last week in the Gulf of Oman. Over the past few months, senior Trump aides have made the case in public and private that the administration already has the legal authority to take military action against Iran, citing a law nearly two decades old that was originally intended to authorize the war in Afghanistan."

Kate Riga at TPM: Pentagon Sending 1,000 More Troops to Middle East as Iran Tensions Escalate. "Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced Monday that the Pentagon is dispatching 1,000 more troops to the Middle East in the wake of the blown-up oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman."

They're ramping up for war as fast as they can. Meanwhile...

Exclusive: Pompeo blocks inclusion of Saudi Arabia on a U.S. list of countries that recruit child soldiers https://t.co/VTngJlSfur pic.twitter.com/P44V7MBloY
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) June 18, 2019

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[CN: Gun violence; white supremacy; misogyny; death] Kelly Weill and Justin Glawe at the Daily Beast: Dallas Federal Building Shooter Posted Far-Right Memes About Nazis and Confederacy.

A Texas man accused of opening fire outside a Dallas courthouse uploaded right-wing memes to Facebook, including memes about Nazism and the Confederacy.

Authorities said Brian Clyde, 22, attacked the Earle Cabell federal courthouse Monday morning before law enforcement killed him. No one else was reported injured. A Dallas Morning News photograph of Clyde shows him holding a semi-automatic rifle and wearing a belt full of ammunition. He appears to have uploaded to his Facebook page a picture of similar magazines on Saturday. Elsewhere on the page, he shared memes, some of which suggested racist or misogynist views.

...Last week, Clyde uploaded a Facebook video suggesting plans with a gun.

"I don't know how much longer I have, but a storm is coming. However, I'm not without defense," he said in the brief video, pulling out a rifle. "I'm fuckin' ready. Let's do it."

On Saturday, he uploaded a picture of 10 gun magazines. On Sunday, he uploaded a picture of a sword with the caption "A modern gladius to defend the modern Republic."

Clyde served in the Army from 2015 to 2017, though details of his discharge were not available.

[CN: Anti-semitism; violence] Luke Barnes at ThinkProgress: California Man Arrested for Allegedly Plotting to Kill Jews Walks Free After Posting Bail. "A California man who allegedly wanted to carry out a mass shooting of Jews and police officers has been released from custody after he posted $125,000 bail over the weekend. [Redacted], 23, was taken into custody last week after a joint investigation by the FBI and police in Concord, on the outskirts of San Francisco. ...When police searched his home, they allegedly discovered a homemade AR-15 rifle, 13 magazines, a sword, a hunting knife, camouflaged clothing, books about the Hitler youth and Nazi life, as well as additional pistol ammunition. ...In a statement on Monday evening, the Concord Police did not offer any updates as to [redacted]'s bail conditions but noted that they were working to 'keep those threatened apprised of any developments' and urged the public to be vigilant." Oh.

[CN: Gun violence; domestic violence; death]

A Texas father shot his daughter six times, including twice in the head, just feet from her 13-month-old after an argument over where to place a baby gate. America is the only high-income country where guns make every day arguments deadly. #txlege

https://t.co/jBrffStXyC
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 18, 2019

* * *

[CN: Sexual harassment] Olivia Messer at the Daily Beast: 'This Isn't a Game': Four Women Sue Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill for Sexual Harassment. "Indiana State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon hasn't spoken to her state's attorney general, Curtis Hill, since the night he allegedly grabbed her ass. 'I want him to know how profoundly he's affected all of our lives,' Reardon, a Democrat, told The Daily Beast through tears on Monday. 'This isn't a game.' And so she is suing. Reardon and three other named statehouse employees filed a new federal lawsuit against Hill on Tuesday morning. The 11-count complaint against Hill and the state of Indiana alleges sexual harassment, retaliation, gender discrimination, battery, defamation, and invasion of privacy, according to a draft viewed Monday evening by The Daily Beast."

[CN: Domestic violence] Staff at USA Today: Read the Full Statement from Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan About a 2010 Domestic Case. "Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan released a written statement Monday night, addressing a violent domestic dispute from nine years ago with his then-wife. The 2010 incident is part of an FBI background investigation ahead of his possible confirmation hearing to be [Donald] Trump's permanent defense chief." Shanahan asserts: "I never laid a hand on my then-wife and cooperated fully in a thorough law enforcement investigation that resulted in her being charged with assault against me — charges which I had dropped in the interest of my family."

[CN: Domestic violence and sexual abuse] Amy Zimmerman at the Daily Beast: Eight Women Accuse Hollywood Filmmaker Max Landis of Emotional and Sexual Abuse: 'We're Not People to Him'. "As for secondhand allegations, there were too many to count. 'There's too many voices to ignore,' [actress Anna Akana] insisted. 'And I felt the need to be vocal because Max is intimidating and he's scary. And I've seen, being in that friend group, one of the most frustrating things is that he would lord his power and his money over people and intimidate them into friendship, or into forgiveness.'"

* * *

Kari Paul at the Guardian: Libra: Facebook Launches Cryptocurrency in Bid to Shake Up Global Finance. "Facebook has announced a digital currency called Libra that will allow its billions of users to make financial transactions across the globe, in a move that could potentially shake up the world's banking system. Libra is being touted as a means to connect people who do not have access to traditional banking platforms. With close to 2.4 billion people using Facebook each month, Libra could be a financial game changer, but will face close scrutiny as Facebook continues to reel from a series of privacy scandals."

Let me offer some unsolicited advice: Don't freely offer your financial data to a company who already abuses your personal data for their own profit.

Also: Fuck Facebook. Their pretense that this will help poor people is disgusting. "Disrupting" traditional finance models with no other objective than their own profit will ultimately harm financially vulnerable people the most.

[CN: Class warfare; food insecurity] Aviva Aron-Dine, Matt Broaddus, Zoë Neuberger, and Arloc Sherman at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Administration's Poverty Line Proposal Would Cut Health, Food Assistance for Millions over Time. "The Trump Administration is considering a change to the federal poverty line that would ultimately cause millions of people to lose eligibility for, or receive less help from, health, food assistance, and other programs that help them meet basic needs. ...While [the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)'s] notice does not discuss how the proposal would affect low-income families, the Census poverty thresholds are the basis for Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines, which determine who can get help from Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), and many other federal programs. The proposed change would lower the income-eligibility cutoffs for all of these programs, cutting or eliminating assistance for some individuals and families."

[CN: Poverty] Morgan Lee and AP Staff at the Washington Post: Childhood Poverty Persists in Fast-Growing Southwest. "The number of children living in poverty has swelled over the past three decades in fast-growing, ethnically diverse states such as Texas, Arizona, and Nevada as the nation's population center shifts south and west, a report Monday on childhood well-being shows. The annual Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 18% of the nation's children live in poverty, down from the Great Recession. But the same advances weren't seen in the Southwest, where many children are Native Americans, Latinx, and immigrants who have long faced disadvantages. 'The nation's racial inequities remain deep, systemic, and stubbornly persistent,' said the annual Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation."

And finally... Reuters Staff at the Guardian: Scientists Shocked by Arctic Permafrost Thawing 70 Years Sooner Than Predicted. "Permafrost at outposts in the Canadian Arctic is thawing 70 years earlier than predicted, an expedition has discovered, in the latest sign that the global climate crisis is accelerating even faster than scientists had feared. A team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks said they were astounded by how quickly a succession of unusually hot summers had destabilised the upper layers of giant subterranean ice blocks that had been frozen solid for millennia. 'What we saw was amazing,' Vladimir Romanovsky, a professor of geophysics at the university, told Reuters.

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

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 865

Unless a politician's thought is "I need to draft legislation that prevents access to these killing machines" and their prayer is "please, god, let it pass," I don't want to hear about any thoughts and prayers anymore.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 18, 2018

Andrew Kirell at the Daily Beast: Trump on Gun 'Silencers' Like One Used in Virginia Beach Shooting: 'I Don't Like Them at All'. "[Donald] Trump on Monday morning condemned gun 'silencers' like the one police say the Virginia Beach shooter attached to his handgun while killing 12 people last Friday evening. 'The suspect in the Virginia Beach shooting used a silencer on his weapon. Do you believe that silencers should be restricted?' a reporter asked Trump outside the White House, as the president departed for a U.K. visit. 'I don't like them at all,' Trump replied, according to a pool report." But is he going to do anything about them?! Of course not.

[CN: Flooding; death; displacement] Chris McGreal at the Guardian: 'So Much Land Under So Much Water': Extreme Flooding Is Drowning Parts of the Midwest.

Weeks of flooding is drowning large parts of the midwest, wrecking communities and turning farms into inland seas. On top of that, a near record number of tornadoes has whipped through the region, smashing homes and claiming nearly 40 lives so far. All of this comes after the wettest 12 months in the US since records began.

Storms and near record rainfall have caused the region's three major rivers to flood, inundating communities from Nebraska to Michigan and Illinois to Oklahoma, driving tens of thousands in to shelters, shutting businesses, and closing interstate highways.

Waters that used to surge and recede have stayed around, swamping millions of acres of farmland and devastating the planting season. The amount of land farmers are being prevented from sowing by the water is estimated to be as much as double the previous record of 3m acres of corn, set in 2013. The worst-hit states include Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Indiana.

In Nebraska, where farmers are already grappling with the effects of Donald Trump's trade war with China, which has killed off a good part of the soybean trade, flooding is estimated to have destroyed $1bn-worth of crops and livestock.

In Iowa, bordered on either side by America's two greatest rivers, the Mississippi and the Missouri, entire towns have been engulfed and some may never revive. At the weekend, levees failed on three rivers, flooding homes and forcing the evacuation of thousands in Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas.

This should be dominating the news, given its unfathomable scope, but it isn't. And I believe a significant part of the reason why it's not getting more coverage is that the president isn't relentlessly tweeting about it. He's barely said a word about it.

It's meant to be the job of the president to care about and call the nation's attention to stuff like this. The for-profit coastal media can't profit handsomely from a story like this, so they mostly ignore it, unless and until the president's attention demands reporting.

It's absolutely chilling how quickly we've become a nation in which the press only cares about what this president does. That's a red flag about how deeply authoritarian a state we already are.

[CN: Nativism; child abuse; self-harm] Monique Q. Madan at the Miami Herald: No Hugs, Kids Cutting Themselves: Court Gets Unprecedented Peek Inside Homestead Shelter. "A 705-page court document filed by lawyers who spent substantial time inside Homestead's detention center for unaccompanied minors says the migrant children held there [2,350 and counting] are subjected to 'prison-like' regimens, potentially sustaining permanent psychological damage due to isolation from loved ones. Based on interviews with detainees, the filing describes dumbfounded and despairing children, cut off from their relatives except for phone calls, enduring 'military-camp' style conditions and stays that often stretch into months." Rage. Seethe. Boil. What the fuck are we doing. Goddammit.

[CN: Anti-choice terrorism] Jill Heaviside and Rosann Mariappuram at Rewire.News: The Escalation of Anti-Abortion Violence Ten Years After Dr. George Tiller's Murder. "As we mark the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, it is incredible to think that, just over a month ago, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse was really asking how 'the pro-life position is in any way violent.' Violence has been a central tenet of the anti-abortion movement since before the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. As activists have sought control over the reproductive freedom of millions of people — particularly women of color, low-income women and families, and queer, gender-nonconforming, and transgender communities — they have used violence as a tactic of control, abuse, and fear across the United States."

Read this thread.

Elaine Chao is Mitch McConnell’s wife and Trump’s Secretary of Transportation.

The corruption is immense. https://t.co/hEKQV2LO9a
— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) June 3, 2019

[CN: Privacy violations] Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Quest Diagnostics Admits 12 Million Patients May Have Had Medical Data Breached. "Nearly 12 million people may have had their personal, financial, and medical information breached, Quest Diagnostics has admitted. Quest, one of the biggest blood testing providers in the country, said it believes someone had gained unauthorized access to the systems of AMCA, which is a billing collections vendor. 'Information on AMCA's affected system included financial information (e.g., credit card numbers and bank account information), medical information, and other personal information (e.g., Social Security Numbers),' Quest said in a filing, according to NBC News." Fucking hell.

* * *

Donald Trump is on a state trip to the UK, and he is, as always, an international embarrassment.

Josh Israel at ThinkProgress: Trump's Insult of Meghan Markle Is Right out of His Tired Playbook.

Eric Lutz at Vanity Fair: Trump Launches UK Trip by Calling London Mayor a "Stone Cold Loser".

Obviously, Brits are taking kindly to his shit, so the Trump Baby Blimp is back and a giant penis was mown into a field along Trump's flight path.

* * *

Jared Kushner is on quite a roll.

Josh Wingrove and Kim Chipman at Bloomberg: Kushner Questions Whether Palestinians Can Govern Themselves.

Jonathan Swan at Axios: Kushner Unsure Whether He'd Alert FBI If Russians Request Another Meeting.

Jamiles Lartey at the Guardian: Trump 'Absolutely Not' a Racist, Insists Kushner.

This fucking guy.

* * *

[CN: Sexual abuse] Julia Alexander at the Verge: YouTube Won't Stop Recommending Videos with Children, Despite Ped0philia Problem. "A new report from the New York Times found that, despite evidence from independent researchers that YouTube's algorithm helps videos of children spread among predatory circles, YouTube's teams don't want to turn off recommendations because it would hurt creators by reducing traffic driven to their videos." In other words, it would hurt YouTube's profits, so OH WELL.

[CN: Sexual abuse] Kate Briquelet at the Daily Beast: Feds Are Asking Jeffrey Epstein's Victims About Sex-Trafficking Crimes. "Eleven years after billionaire Jeffrey Epstein received what amounted to a country-club jail sentence for allegedly molesting dozens of girls in Florida, his victims could be closer to justice — with a possible future federal prosecution beyond Palm Beach. ...[I]n February of this year, a federal judge ruled the non-prosecution agreement (NPA), which was concealed from the victims and their counsel, violated the law, specifically the Crime Victims' Rights Act. Now the feds are contacting victims to discuss possible remedies. During these meetings, the government is reportedly asking one question in particular: Did Epstein’s abuse ever cross state lines?"

[CN: Homophobia] Quimby at Celebitchy: Rocketman Edited in Russia to Cut All Gay Scenes Due to 'Homosexual Propaganda' Law. "Russian film critic Anton Dolin reported that 'all scenes with kissing, sex, and oral sex between men have been cut out' and that the movie's 'final caption' explained that Elton 'established an [AIDS] foundation and continues to work with his musical partner.' Both notable accomplishments, to be sure, but the original caption mentions Elton's marriage to David Furnish and their children. On Friday, Elton and the other filmmakers released a statement condemning the decision. Russia's 'homosexual propaganda' law was signed by Putin in 2013 under the auspices of protecting children. However it has the opposite effect, particularly on LGBT youth, who are denied access to support services and to representation of gay people in media under this law. The law also contributes to a rampant anti-gay culture and to violence and discrimination."

And speaking of violent, homophobic dictators whom Donald Trump adores... [CN: Homophobia] Julia Hollingsworth at CNN: Philippine President Duterte Says He 'Used to Be Gay' Before He 'Cured' Himself. "After accusing his political opponent and vocal critic Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV of being gay, Duterte said he could sense he himself was also 'a bit gay' while married to his ex-wife, Elizabeth Zimmerman. Their marriage was annulled in 2000. Duterte went on to say that he was 'cured' after meeting current partner Honeylet Avanceña. 'I became a man again! So beautiful women cured me,' Duterte said. 'I hated handsome men afterwards. I now prefer beautiful women.' Duterte has a history of making controversial and contradictory remarks about the LGBT community." JFC.

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

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 861

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 Admits Russia Helped Him Get Elected and Primarily Speaking and Mike Pence Is a Terrifying Menace.

Here are some more things in the news today, and I'm going to start with some GOOD resistance news!

Lydia Smith at Pink News: Trans Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera to Get New York Monument. "Transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera will be commemorated with a monument in the city of New York. ...The two transgender women of colour led the uprising against homophobic police raids, an era-defining moment in the struggle for LGBT equality. Rivera and Johnson also later co-founded the organisation STAR, or Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens and trans women of colour. The monument will mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and it is proposed for the Ruth Wittenberg Triangle in Greenwich Village, the New York Times reported. It will also be one of the world's first monuments dedicated to transgender people." Woot!

Audrey McNamara at the Daily Beast: New Hampshire Abolishes Death Penalty. "New Hampshire lawmakers voted Thursday to abolish the death penalty, making it the last state in New England to end capital punishment. The vote overrides a veto from the state's Republican governor, Chris Sununu, and makes it the 21st state nationwide to abandon the practice." Yay!

[Content Note: Gun violence] Kay Wicker at ThinkProgress: Shannon Watts Says the Gun Control Movement Is Finally Outmaneuvering the NRA. "What I've learned over the last six years is that Congress is not where this work begins; it's where it ends, like most social issues in this country. When Sandy Hook happened, we didn't have a political movement with any power. We do now. In just six years. Those wins on the ground will eventually point Congress and the president, whoever that [ends up being], in the right direction. ...We out-maneuvered the NRA at the midterm elections, for the first time ever. And that sends a strong a cultural signal." Hell yeah.

* * *

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Trump Admits Russia Helped Elect Him — Then Does a U-Turn. "Donald Trump finally admitted that Russia helped elected him president—before immediately retracting it. In an ill-tempered series of tweets sent Thursday morning, he said he 'had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.' With reporters jumping on the fresh admission as Trump appeared on the White House lawn almost immediately afterward, the president contradicted himself, saying: 'Russia did not help me get elected... Russia didn't help me at all.'" Okay, player.

Impeach. Him. Now.

One of the arguments I have made for impeachment is that it would be a much more significant a political story than a standard Congressional investigation — which might begin to penetrate the bubble in which Trump's base resides. And that bubble is thick:

A large chunk of the electorate is ensconced in an impenetrable bubble of Trumpian propaganda. https://t.co/XsVNjtbGQt
— Adam Serwer🍝 (@AdamSerwer) May 30, 2019

Impeach. Him. Now.

Joyce White Vance at USA Today: If Only We Had Heard from Robert Mueller Before William Barr's Spin. "If Mueller's statement Wednesday had been the public's introduction to his report, the conversation about it would have been framed in a very different light, far more damaging to Trump than Barr's were. ...Mueller's comments Wednesday should have been the first public characterization of his findings on obstruction of justice. ...The public's understanding of the report is tainted by Barr's initial comments. It is difficult to change first impressions." Yup.

And it's almost like that is the objective, especially given what vague weaksauce Mueller's comments were, anyhow.

If nothing else, had Mueller said, "I did my job to the limits of my authority, Congress; now do yours," it would have made it a lot harder for Trump to again declare exoneration. He still would have, but it would have looked way more like the transparent bullshit that it is.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 30, 2019

Charles M. Blow at the New York Times: Democrats, Do Your Damned Duty! "What the hell is it going to take, Democrats?! What evidence and impetus would compel you to do the job the Constitution, patriotism, and morality dictate? What is it going to take to make you initiate an impeachment inquiry? Your slow walking of this issue and your specious arguments about political calculations are pushing you dangerously close to a tragic, historic dereliction of duty, one that could do irreparable damage to the country and the Congress."

Absolutely. And one other point I will make about the need to launch impeachment hearings: If the Democrats fail to do so, it won't be Donald Trump and the Republican Party who exclusively bear the blame for this execrable mess. Unless Congressional Democrats want to share that mantle of shame, they'd better get to getting. Now.

* * *

Alex Marquardt and Zachary Cohen at CNN: U.S. Intelligence Partners Wary of Barr's Russia Review.

Key allies who share intelligence with the United States could soon be dragged into the middle of Attorney General Bill Barr's politically-charged Justice Department review of how the Russia investigation began.

[Donald] Trump has said he wants Barr to look into the role key intelligence partners, including the United Kingdom and Australia, played in the origins of Russia probe. He has said he could raise the issue with the British Prime Minister Theresa May during his state visit next week and suggested he may ask her about his accusation that Britain spied on his 2016 presidential campaign.

In describing the scope of Barr's mission to declassify and study the pre-election Obama-era intelligence, among several other topics, Trump told reporters, "I hope he looks at the UK and I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine."

Fuuuuuuuuuuck.

Meanwhile, the collusion continues to happen right out in the open:

#Breaking: White House announces trilateral meeting of National Security Advisors from the United States, Israel, and Russia to be held in Jerusalem in June. "To discuss regional security." pic.twitter.com/apdbaVklBN
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) May 29, 2019

Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: A Dead Man Just Revealed the Trump Administration's Plans to Rig Elections for White Republicans. "[Dr. Thomas Hofeller, a Republican master in the dark arts of political mapmaking who passed away last summer] was previously believed to be a minor figure in the Trump administration's efforts to rig the census, until his estranged daughter turned over the contents of Hofeller's hard drives to the voting rights group Common Cause. Hofeller died last summer. Among other things, the documents on Hofeller's hard drive revealed that he 'played a significant role in orchestrating the addition of the citizenship question to the 2020 Decennial Census in order to create a structural electoral advantage for, in his own words, 'Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.''"

Luke O'Neil at the Guardian: U.S. Energy Department Rebrands Fossil Fuels as 'Molecules of Freedom'. "Mark W Menezes, the U.S. Undersecretary of Energy, bestowed a peculiar honorific on our continent's natural resources, dubbing it 'freedom gas' in a release touting the DoE's approval of increased exports of natural gas produced by a Freeport LNG terminal off the coast of Texas. 'Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America's allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy,' he said. The concept of 'freedom gas' may seem amorphous, but it's actually being measured down to the smallest unit. 'With the U.S. in another year of record-setting natural gas production, I am pleased that the Department of Energy is doing what it can to promote an efficient regulatory system that allows for molecules of U.S. freedom to be exported to the world,' said Steven Winberg."

I don't even know.

* * *

Eve Johnson at Reuters: White House Wanted USS John McCain 'out of sight' During Trump Visit. "Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was unaware of any effort to move the USS John S. McCain that was stationed near the site of his recent speech in Japan. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to Reuters that an initial request had been made to keep the John McCain out of sight during Trump's speech but was scrapped by senior Navy officials."

Carla Babb at Voice of America: Shanahan Says He Did Not Okay Efforts to Keep USS John McCain 'out of Sight'. "Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said Thursday he did not authorize and was not even aware of a White House directive to have the U.S. Navy warship USS John S. McCain 'out of sight' when [Donald] Trump visited Japan. 'I would never dishonor the memory of a great American patriot like Senator [John] McCain,' Shanahan told reporters traveling with him aboard a U.S. military aircraft en route to Singapore. 'I'd never disrespect the young men and women who crew that ship.' During a visit to Indonesia earlier, Shanahan told reporters: 'What I read this morning was the first I heard about it.' He said he is asking his chief of staff to look into the matter."

Olivia Messer at the Daily Beast: Trump: Whoever Ordered USS John S. McCain Hidden Was 'Well-Meaning'. "During a gaggle with reporters on the White House lawn, Trump said, 'I wasn't a fan, but I would never do a thing like that. Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him. They were well-meaning, I will say.' Minutes later, Trump picked the topic back up again, noting that whoever made the request 'thought they were doing me a favor because they know I am not a fan of John McCain.' He added, 'John McCain killed health care for the Republican Party, and he killed health care for the nation... I disagreed with John McCain on the Middle East. He helped George Bush to make a very bad decision of going to the Middle East. So I wasn't a fan of John McCain and I never will be. But certainly I couldn't care less whether there's a boat named after his father.'"

This is at once an incredibly stupid story and an incredibly important one, because it lies at the heart of Trump's brittle authoritarianism, and the lengths to which people who fear his power will go in order to accommodate it. When that includes the military, it's particularly frightening.

* * *

[CN: Anti-choicery; war on agency. Covers whole section.]

Louisiana’s governor wants to sign the state’s new bill banning abortion after only six weeks of pregnancy. He’s a Democrat. So is the woman who sponsored the bill. This is what the party gets for welcoming in folks willing to force births to stay elected. https://t.co/JvcvXvJYyE
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) May 30, 2019

Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Why States Are Always Dangerously Close to Losing Their Last Abortion Clinics. "It's challenging for clinics to stay open. The red tape makes it hard, with clinics — depending on the state — having to meet standards comparable to surgical centers and ensure the room where the abortion takes place is a specific width. There are also financial obstacles, with insurance not always covering abortion services, so clinics aren't reimbursed. The number of abortion providers fell from 780 in 2017 to 755 in 2018 nationwide, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley."

Jessica Glenza at the Guardian: Revealed: Women's Fertility App Is Funded by Anti-Abortion Campaigners. "A popular women's health and fertility app sows doubt about birth control, features claims from medical advisers who are not licensed to practice in the U.S., and is funded and led by anti-abortion, anti-gay Catholic campaigners, a Guardian investigation has found. The Femm app, which collects personal information about sex and menstruation from users, has been downloaded more than 400,000 times since its launch in 2015, according to developers. It has users in the U.S., the EU, Africa, and Latin America, its operating company claims."

Imani Gandy at Rewire.News: When It Comes to Birth Control and Eugenics, Clarence Thomas Gets It All Wrong.

In Thomas' esteemed opinion, bans like the one at issue in Box "promote a State's compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics." To make his claim, Thomas conflates eugenics, which is an effort to "improve" the population by controlling who has kids and who doesn't, with a choice that an individual pregnant person makes to terminate a pregnancy. They are not equivalent.

Eugenics is about restricting someone's reproduction. As Amanda Stevenson — who is a professor of sociology at University of Colorado Boulder and a family planning enthusiast — explained to me in an email, "eugenics is an ideology advocating for population-wide policies aimed at changing who has kids in order to 'improve' the population. It's about removing or constraining individual reproductive choices." It's not about the choices individuals make about their own reproductive autonomy.

But that doesn't seem to matter to Thomas; he goes all in.

Loathsome.

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

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 860

Nothing changes from the Mueller Report. There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent. The case is closed! Thank you.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2019

Mueller had to have known Trump would declare his lowkey statement as an exoneration. So goddamned frustrating.

Anyway. Here are a few other things in the news today...

Audrey McNamara at the Daily Beast: Russia Likely Conducting Low-Yield Nuke Tests. "Russia has been secretly conducting low-yield nuclear tests in an effort to upgrade its nuclear arsenal, U.S. intelligence agencies believe. According to a Wall Street Journal report out Wednesday, a new U.S. intelligence assessment states this is the first time Moscow has failed in its compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and challenges the Putin government's claims to have adhered to the arms-control accord. 'The United States believes that Russia probably is not adhering to its nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the 'zero-yield' standard,' Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, the director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, plans to say in a Wednesday speech, according to his prepared remarks."

Hey, remember when Trump officially pulled out of the treaty and I wrote that he was doing it "so that Russia can resume expansion of its nuclear arsenal," because the U.S. president is a puppet of the Kremlin? Welp.

The Editorial Board at the Washington Post: Trump Chooses to Give a Gift to MBS and Set a Dangerous New Precedent.

Last month, a bipartisan congressional majority voted against further U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's disastrous intervention in Yemen, which has failed to achieve its aims while helping to produce the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. [Donald] Trump vetoed the resolution, and now he has doubled down on offering unqualified support to the Saudi regime and its allies. On Friday, the State Department notified Congress that it was invoking emergency authority to bypass opposition and complete 22 arms deals to Saudi Arabia and several other countries — including more of the munitions that have been killing civilians in Yemen.

The action was another violation by Mr. Trump of established norms, if not law. The administration's notification did not explain what "emergency" allowed it to use a loophole in the Arms Export Control Act, which gives Congress authority to review weapons sales. Though Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited the need for Arab nations "to deter and defend themselves" against Iran, some of the arms being provided will not be available for years, which means they are not relevant to the civil war in Yemen or rising tensions elsewhere in the region.

...To permanently stop the sales, Congress would have had to pass legislation; Mr. Trump could have and should have allowed the review process to play out.

Instead, he has once again ignored congressional authority in order to favor Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who launched the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen and who, according to the CIA, probably ordered the murder of [Washington Post journalist Jamal] Khashoggi.

...If the new gift to the crown prince is allowed to stand, Mr. Trump will have established a new precedent: Presidents may sell arms anywhere in the world without congressional review simply by claiming an unspecified emergency.

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Bolton Claims Iran Used Naval Mines to Sabotage Saudi Ships. "John Bolton has claimed the alleged sabotage of Saudi oil tankers this month came from naval mines placed 'almost certainly by Iran.' The claim, which was presented without evidence, was one of three allegations Donald Trump's national security adviser made against Iran when speaking to journalists in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. ...He refused to offer any evidence in blaming Iran for the string of alleged attacks, only offering the sarcastic response: 'Who else would you think is doing it? Somebody from Nepal?'"

* * *

And now for some GOOD news!

Elham Khatami at ThinkProgress: Illinois House Passes One of the Nation's Most Liberal Reproductive Health Bills. "Illinois set itself apart from the slew of states that recently passed anti-choice laws, instead opting to pass a progressive measure that would rescind state abortion restrictions. ...'[The bill] treats abortion care just like any other health care because, quite frankly, that's what it is,' bill sponsor, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D), said on the House floor prior to the final passage vote. 'Reproductive health is about the full spectrum of care… This is not just about abortion.' The measure now moves to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where it is expected to pass. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has also indicated that he will sign the measure into law should it reach his desk." Yay!

Astead W. Herndon at the New York Times: Can Jaime Harrison End the Democrats' Drought in South Carolina? "Let's begin with the obvious: No Democrat has won a statewide race in South Carolina since 2006. ...Enter Jaime Harrison. Mr. Harrison, the first Black chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party and a former Washington lobbyist, declared his candidacy on Wednesday morning for the U.S. Senate seat held by Lindsey Graham, a Republican who has served three terms." Go get him!

Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Colorado Governor Signs Bill Expanding Drivers' License Access to Undocumented Immigrants. "Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) signed a bill on Tuesday that would give all state residents access to driver's licenses and identification cards, regardless of their immigration status. Under the Colorado Road and Community Safety Act, also known as SB 139, driver's licenses will be made available to all state residents at ten Department of Motor Vehicles offices by July 2020. ...Expanding licenses to nearly a dozen more DMV offices would allow thousands of undocumented immigrants who work and raise families in Colorado to live out of the shadows. 'No matter where you come from, you should be able to drive to work and take your kids to school without fear,' state Sen. Dominick Moreno (D) said Tuesday." Yes!

* * *

[Content Note: White supremacy; gun threat; video including images of gun may autoplay at link] Antonia Noori Farzan at the Washington Post: A Black Couple Were Having a Picnic, Then a White Campground Manager Pulled Out Her Gun. "Franklin and Jessica Richardson had planned for a relaxing Memorial Day weekend. They would spend Sunday picnicking on the sandy shores of Oktibbeha County Lake, a popular fishing destination on the outskirts of Starkville, Miss., and maybe even rent a cabin for the night. Instead, within minutes of their arrival, the young Black couple were facing down a white campground manager who pulled out a gun and told them to leave. ...Franklin, a sergeant in the Army National Guard, had recently returned from a nine-month deployment in the Middle East, according to WCBI. 'It's kind of crazy,' he told the station. 'You go over there and don't have a gun pointed at you, and you come back home and the first thing that happens is you have a gun pointed at you.'" Rage seethe boil.

[CN: Racism] catherine lizette gonzalez at Colorlines: Black Census Project Reveals Electorate's Concerns — and Power. "Black Futures Lab just released the results of the largest survey of Black people in the United States since Reconstruction. The Black Census Project, developed in partnership with Color of Change, Demos, Socioanalítica Research, and 30 grassroots organizations, surveyed more than 30,000 Black people across the country to delve deep into their political ideas and realities. Among the sampled group, there are communities who are often missing or underrepresented in traditional surveys: people experiencing homelessness, LGBTQ+ people, Black immigrants, and Black conservatives and Republicans. Black women made up 60 percent of respondents due to the critical role they play in political and electoral organizing. ...Although the respondents reported a high level of electoral participation, more than half of them said that politicians do not care about them or their interests."

[CN: Racism; climate change] Yessenia Funes at Earther: The First Tribal Climate Emergency Declaration Is Here — and It Won't Be the Last.

In the Arctic, people don't have time to wait around for others to take action to stop climate change. This region of the world is warming faster than everywhere else, so they're feeling the impacts of the global fever our planet is running much quicker than the rest of us. That's, in part, why an indigenous community in Canada's Yukon territory recently declared a climate emergency. In fact, they are the first indigenous peoples to do so — and that's major.

Members of the Vuntut Gwichin First Nation live in the village of Old Crow, where Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm declared the emergency May 19. The UK became the first country to declare a climate emergency earlier this month, and local governments from Australia to the Czech Republic have followed suit. These declarations don't carry the same weight that an official emergency declaration after a disaster would — those actually come with governmental funding. These are largely symbolic, but they send a key message: The time to act is now.

"This is a declaration that should permeate the spheres of industry, political leadership, and the people," Tizya-Tramm told Earther.

The declaration, titled "Yeendoo Diinehdoo Ji'heezrit Nits'oo Ts'o' Nan He'aa," translates directly to "After Our Time, How Will the World Be," in the native Gwichin language. It recognizes the role traditional indigenous knowledge can play in the effort to curb climate change. It also notes the Gwichin people's concern that their voices are going largely unheard in the governmental response to this crisis. The declaration reads:

"Affirming the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination, including Indigenous rights related to lands, waters, and resources, and the imperative that Indigenous peoples be central to every effort for mitigating and adapting to climate change at local to international scales."
To Tizya-Tramm's knowledge, no other tribal nations have declared such an emergency. But he's hoping more will now.

The time to act has been now for 20 years. Now now now.

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

Open Wide...

We Resist: Day 831

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."

Hours after a gunman opened fire with an AR-15-style weapon at a synagogue, Trump fear-mongers about Democrats wanting "to take your guns away." pic.twitter.com/HgPFS6llXi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 28, 2019

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:

To @jguaido, the National Assembly and all the freedom-loving people of Venezuela who are taking to the streets today in #operacionlibertad—Estamos con ustedes! We are with you! America will stand with you until freedom & democracy are restored. Vayan con dios! #FreeVenezuela
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) April 30, 2019

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:

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale says the campaign believes New Mexico, New Hampshire, Nevada and Colorado could be flipped to Trump in 2020 https://t.co/H9n7JKbYS7 pic.twitter.com/uc4T7Pc6j0
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 28, 2019

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:

Here is Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's resignation letter to Trump today — he'll officially leave on May 11.

"We keep the faith, we follow the rules, and we always put America first." pic.twitter.com/4DrfQcNFjq
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) April 29, 2019

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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