Showing posts with label eliminationism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eliminationism. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 895

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

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

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

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

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

Twitter DMs have also been affected all day.

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


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

* * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * *

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rage. Seethe. Boil. Fume. GODDAMMIT.

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

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

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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 713

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

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

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

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Elizabeth Warren Is Running for President: Here Comes the Misogyny! and Malice Is the Agenda at the Border.

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

[Content Note: Murder; gun violence; racist eliminationism] Seven-year-old Jazmine Barnes was fatally shot after a white man in his 40s pulled up beside the car in which she was riding with her mother and opened fire on them from his red pickup truck. Her mother, LaPorsha Washington, who was injured in the shooting, has spent hours trying to figure out why this man killed her child and hurt her.

I've replayed this moment in my head over a million times, to see: Did I cut this man off? Did I make a wrong turn in front of him? Did I stop him from getting out of the Walmart, from whatever he was doing? Did I do anything wrong to cause this man to fire shots in my car? And I didn't. I didn't do anything. I didn't make a wrong turn, I didn't get over in his lane, I didn't do none of that. He fired off at us for no reason. None.
Absolutely heartbreaking. I understand, of course, why Washington is seeking to find a reason and probing her memory desperately to see if she could have done something differently, and I am so fucking sad and so fucking angry that she's been put in that position by the piece of shit who killed her daughter and injured her. Even if she had cut him off or made a wrong turn in front of him or whatever, it wouldn't justify what he did.

But road rage would maybe, somehow, be easier than the fact it seems very much like this "senseless" crime was a white supremacist murder. And it may not have been the first one committed by this man, who remains at large.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Staff at KTRK: Houston Activists Say Fatal Shooting of 7-Year-Old Girl Was Similar to Another Incident in 2017. "Some activists say a similar, unprovoked incident happened to a man named A'Vonta Williams a little more than a year ago. Williams was reportedly shot by a white man in a pickup truck while driving near that same Walmart on Wallisville. Activists say they don't believe the two shootings are a coincidence."

The police need to identify and find this man swiftly.

My condolences to Jazmine Barnes' family, friends, classmates, and community. I am so sorry.

* * *

Damian Paletta and Erica Werner at the Washington Post: Trump Falsely Claims Mexico Is Paying for Wall, Demands Taxpayer Money for Wall Ahead of Meeting with Democrats.
[Donald] Trump made two false claims about his demands for a new border wall just hours before he is set to meet with congressional leaders Wednesday, illustrating the White House's evasive approach as a government shutdown stretches on.

In a Twitter post Wednesday morning, Trump wrote that Mexico would be paying for the wall along the U.S. border under the parameters of a trade deal he has tentatively inked with Mexico and Canada. This is not true.

That deal has not been approved by Congress, which means the parameters of the pact are not in effect. And even if the trade agreement is approved, it would not in any way create a stream of money designated for the construction of a border wall.

The second false point in Trump's Twitter post Wednesday is his statement that "much of the Wall has already been fully renovated or built." This is also not true.

The U.S.-Mexico border is roughly 2,000 miles long. Trump's demand for $5.6 billion to build new sections of wall would finance 200 miles of wall, and less than 100 miles has already been constructed or renovated, according to Department of Homeland Security Officials.
Paul Krugman at the New York Times: The Trump Tax Cut: Even Worse Than You've Heard. "The story you mostly read runs something like this: The tax cut has caused corporations to bring some money home, but they've used it for stock buybacks rather than to raise wages, and the boost to growth has been modest. That doesn't sound great, but it's still better than the reality: No money has, in fact, been brought home, and the tax cut has probably reduced national income. Indeed, at least 90 percent of Americans will end up poorer thanks to that cut."

Carrie Johnson at NPR: Trump's Judicial Appointments Were Confirmed at Historic Pace in 2018. "The Trump administration more than doubled the number of judges it confirmed to federal appeals courts in 2018, exceeding the pace of the last five presidents and stocking the courts with lifetime appointees who could have profound consequences for civil rights, the environment, and government regulations. A new analysis by Lambda Legal, which advocates for the LGBT community, reports that five of the country's 12 circuit courts are now composed of more than 25 percent of Trump-appointed judges." Sob.

Paul Farhi at the Washington Post: Beyond 'No Comment': The White House Has No Response — at All — to Many Media Questions.
The New York Times published a powerful story last week about [Donald] Trump's growing isolation in the White House, with colorful details such as Trump's tendency to interrupt advisers during meetings to call them "freaking idiots" (except he doesn't use the word "freaking").

Asked to comment by the Times's reporters about this, the White House said nothing. It did not respond.

Similarly, it offered no response when The Washington Post asked the White House about Trump's false claim during a post-Christmas Day visit to U.S. troops in Iraq that he boosted military pay by 10 percent.

Reporters are used to officials who respond to their inquiries with a terse "no comment." This was typically the practice in prior presidential administrations when officials saw no strategic value in rebutting an unflattering story.

But as in so many things, the Trump administration is different. Instead of "no comment," Trump's press representatives often don't bother saying anything at all.

"This is the least responsive White House press operation I've ever dealt with by far," said Peter Baker, a veteran White House reporter for The New York Times and one of the co-authors of the story about Trump's isolation. "There are certainly individuals there who are professional and try to be helpful when they can, and I appreciate their efforts, I really do. But as a whole, I've learned not to expect answers even to basic questions."

Adds Baker, "I don't know why that is. I don't take it personally. But it's a lost opportunity on their part to get their side of the story out."
That's a very telling quote. Baker, a White House reporter for a major newspaper, is seemingly incurious about figuring out why the White House is unprecedentedly hostile to answering basic questions, and his primary concern is for the administration and their "lost opportunity" to use the media to "get their side of the story out," rather than expressing any concern for the public who lacks accountability from their own government. Depressing.


Jamiles Lartey at the Guardian: Mitt Romney: Trump's Biggest Failure Is a Lack of Character in Leading 'Divided' Nation. "Romney praised Trump's tax policies, stance on China, and appointment of conservative judges but said they were 'mainstream' Republican policies. Since Trump's rise, Romney has been one in a long list of traditionalist Republicans who have publicly bristled at Trump's decorum and leadership style, while generally supporting his policy goals." A perfect summary.

Let me be even more blunt: Romney loves Trump's malice, but hates his vulgarity. PRIORITIES.


I don't give a drip of shit what Mitt Romney has to say about anything, least of all Donald Trump, but I do care what Harry Reid has to say.


By the way, I agree with my friend Sarah Kendzior that the New York Times interview with Reid was a massive wasted opportunity to ask him some tough questions about Russian interference in the 2016 election and related Republican obstructionism.

* * *

Josh Kovensky at TPM: Filing in Patten Case Deepens Mystery About His Cooperation with the Feds. "A mystery filing in the case of W. Sam Patten, the D.C. lobbyist who pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent in August, adds a curious wrinkle to what has generally been regarded as a relatively minor case. ...The fact that Patten's status report is entirely under seal could suggest that Patten, who has been seen as a more marginal figure in the foreign lobbying world, may in fact have more value to prosecutors, including special counsel Robert Mueller, than previously realized."

Staff at the BBC: New Year 2019: U.S. Military Apologises for Bomb Tweet. "U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees America's nuclear arsenal, has apologised for a tweet that said it was ready to 'drop something much, much bigger' than New York's Times Square ball. The message, posted on New Year's Eve, was accompanied by a video showing a B-2 bomber dropping weapons. Strategic Command later deleted the tweet, saying it was 'in poor taste,' and replaced it with an apology." Fucking hell.

[CN: Nativism; child abuse] Elham Khatami at ThinkProgress: Surveillance Videos at Arizona Migrant Shelter Show Alleged Abuse of Children. "Staff members at a migrant shelter in Arizona apparently dragged, hit, and shoved children, according to surveillance videos obtained by the Arizona Republic last week under a state public records law. Although the Maricopa Sheriff's Office initially said the videos showed no grounds for criminal investigation, the office reversed course Sunday, referring the case to a local district attorney."

[CN: LGBTQ hatred] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire.News: Employees Can Be Fired for Being LGBTQ in 26 States. Will the Supreme Court Make That Even Worse? "The Supreme Court on Friday will consider taking three cases that could determine whether an employer can legally discriminate against employees for being LGBTQ. If the Court agrees to hear some, or all, of the petitions, it will be testing both the strength of employment discrimination law under Title VII and retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's LGBTQ rights legacy. ...Currently 26 states do not expressly prohibit sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination in employment. Should the Supreme Court determine federal law does not protect LGBTQ employees, that would leave workers in those states even more vulnerable to on-the-job discrimination."

[CN: Homophobia; harassment] Relatedly... Savas Abadsidis at Towleroad: Drug Research Scientist Says He was Harassed for Being Gay. "A former research scientist alleges in a lawsuit against Eli Lilly and Co. that he was harassed and discriminated against because he is gay. Jeffrey A. Willy says he 'endured harassment, a hostile work environment, and discrimination.' He left the company in September 2018. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Indianapolis."

[CN: Environmental harm] Yessenia Funes at Earther: Trump's EPA Wants to Prove That Limiting Toxic Mercury Emissions Is a Giant Waste of Money. "Whispers that the EPA began might roll back the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which former President Barack Obama implemented in 2011 to limit the amount of the toxic metal power plants can spew, first surfaced in October. But electrical utilities pushed back, as they had already spent billions working to comply with the rule, reports Bloomberg. So instead of undoing outright this particular rule, the agency wants to take a closer look at the cost-benefit analysis that supports it under the Clean Air Act. The EPA is hoping to determine that the rule is not 'appropriate and necessary,' a legal term that considers on whether the benefits outweigh the cost of a rule."

And finally, if you haven't heard the latest from abusive dirtbag Louis CK, consider yourself lucky and move on. If you have, and want to know my feelings about it, here you go:


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

Open Wide...
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Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, October 29, 2018
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[Content Note: Gun violence; anti-Semitism; terrorism; stochastic terrorism.]

On Saturday, an anti-Semitic terrorist walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and began shooting. He killed 11 people.

Joyce Fienberg, 75
Richard Gottfried, 65
Rose Mallinger, 97
Jerry Rabinowitz, 66
Cecil Rosenthal, 59
David Rosenthal, 54
Bernice Simon, 84
Sylvan Simon, 86
Daniel Stein, 71
Melvin Wax, 88
Irving Younger, 69

My condolences to their families, friends, neighbors, and community. I am so sorry.

The shooter also physically injured six people, including four police officers. Many more people have been traumatized. I hope they all have the resources and support they need to recover.

I am very sad. And I am very angry.

I am also aware that those words are insufficient. Please don't mistake my terse brevity for indifference. To the absolute contrary, I am overwhelmed by the hatred and violence being unleashed in escalating, accelerating measure across my country, and I find myself shutting down when I try to write about what I feel. My body aches all over, all the time. I feel like I'm drowning in grief, and it's hard to find the words to convey how deeply sad and how profoundly angry I am.

I share that not because I think I'm special, but because I know that I'm not — because I know that many of you are mourning and scared and full of rage, too, and I want you to know that you are not alone.

None of us who still care about one another are alone.

I take up space in solidarity, urgently and unyieldingly, with my fellow marginalized countrypeople. With anyone who still and always believes that we are stronger together.

* * *

We know who pulled the trigger, and we know who else is to blame. I've been talking a lot about stochastic terrorism on Twitter the past couple of days. I'm not going to talk about it again here (although such discussion is welcome in comments). Their names do not belong in this post. I will not give them that space.

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The Latest on Explosive Devices Sent to Trump's "Enemies"

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, October 26, 2018
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[Content Note: Terrorism; eliminationism.]

After "suspicious packages" were sent to George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Maxine Waters (D.C. and L.A.), Eric Holder, John Brennan (at CNN headquarters), Joe Biden (New Castle and Wilmington), and Robert De Niro, two more "suspicious packages" have been intercepted by law enforcement this morning: One to Senator Cory Booker and anther to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

That's 12 devices in 5 days. Chilling.

And here is what Donald Trump tweeted early this morning: "Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, 'it's just not Presidential!'"

Then later: "Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this 'Bomb' stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows — news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!"

Note the quote marks he puts around the word bomb.

He is as revolting as he is dangerous.

UPDATE: MSNBC's Kyle Griffin tweets: "NBC's Pete Williams just reported on MSNBC that a man in Florida has been taken into custody for questioning in the mail bomb case, according to two law enforcement officials."

UPDATE 2: Sarah Isgur Flores, Director of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice, tweets that the DoJ will hold a press conference to discuss the arrest at 2:30pm ET. Please note that I will not be posting a separate thread. Use this thread for discussion of the presser and any additional news items regarding the arrest.

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Explosive Devices Sent to Liberals: The Latest

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, October 25, 2018
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[Content Note: Terrorism; eliminationism.]

At the end of yesterday's chaos, during which there were a number of incendiary devices sent to prominent liberals and several "suspicious packages" ruled safe by law enforcement, this is where things stood: George Soros (days earlier), Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder, John Brennan, and Joe Biden were all sent packages known or suspected to be IEDs, with Debbie Wasserman Schultz's name and address used as the return information to implicate her.

This morning, a package said by law enforcement sources to be identical to the other packages was sent to actor (and prominent Trump critic) Robert DeNiro at the address of his Tribeca Productions office.


Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the person behind this terrorist act is yet finished.

Meanwhile, far from taking stock of their own role in fomenting this nightmare, the Trump cultists have decided that this is a "false flag operation" by liberals. And the messaging was sure coordinated quickly: Last night in Florida, protesters outside the gubernatorial debate were already carrying signs reading "Democrats Fake News Fake Bombs."

And in Wisconsin, where Donald Trump was holding forth at another Make America Clap for Me Again rally, the crowd immediately erupted into a "Lock her up!" chant — the same day an IED was sent to Hillary Clinton.

During his speech, Trump laughably told the same crowd: "No nation can succeed that tolerates violence or the threat of violence as a method of political intimidation, coercion, or control. We all know that. We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony."

National reconciliation would definitely be great, but that's simply not possible when one side is being terrorized and the other side is whining that getting heckled at restaurants for being fascist is the same as getting bombs in the mail for being critics of fascism.

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Get Your $hit Together, Conservatives

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, October 24, 2018
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[Content Note: Stochastic terrorism; violent rhetoric.]

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Trump Regime May Legislatively Obliterate the Definition of "Transgender"

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, October 22, 2018
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[Content Note: Trans hatred.]

Erica L. Green, Katie Benner, and Robert Pear at the New York Times report: "The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law. ...The new definition would essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million Americans who have opted to recognize themselves — surgically or otherwise — as a gender other than the one they were [assigned at birth]."

There is much more at the link, but that's the basic gist.

Two points:

1. This has Mike Pence's filthy, Christian Supremacist fingerprints all over it.

2. There has already been an enormous amount of digital ink spilled in thinkpieces deconstructing the motivations behind this move, and I'm just going to be really blunt about my feelings on that: The why doesn't matter.

Every moment trying to assign rational (if heinous) explanations for this flaming garbage mound of undiluted hatred is a moment wasted, because it's a moment conceding the vile pretense that there is some reason for this proposed policy other than deliberate harm.

The object is malice.

Whatever transparent bullshit they offer as the thinnest veneer of legitimacy should never, ever, be treated as a principled position. It should be treated with naught but contempt.

Malice is the agenda. The rest is farce.

I will not engage with that farce, because it only benefits this sickening regime. This is wrong. It is cruel. There is zero justification for it. Denying people's identity and humanity is not "a difference of opinion." It's eliminationist trash.

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We Resist: Day 516

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, June 19, 2018
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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: Happy Juneteenth! and Trump's Sadistic Nativism Must Be Stopped.

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

[Content Note: Nativism; dehumanization; eliminationism; child abuse.]


Meanwhile, in Florida...


Amanda Holpuch at the Guardian: Families Divided at the Border: 'The Most Horrific Immigration Policy I've Ever Seen'.
Janet Gwilym, managing attorney for the Seattle branch of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an advocacy group for unaccompanied immigrant children, said children aged 12 to 17 had been comforting toddlers who, like them, had just been taken from their parents. She said children had said they were told by immigration officials that they would see their parents again in a few minutes but hadn't seen them for months.

...Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, filed a class-action lawsuit in March against the Trump administration's family separation practice after meeting with a Congolese woman who hadn't seen her seven-year-old daughter for four months. She and her child were reunited after Gelernt filed a lawsuit on their behalf.

"This is as shocking an immigration policy as we've seen from this Trump administration, but frankly, I've been doing this work for approaching three decades, and this is the most horrific immigration policy I have ever seen," Gelernt said.

Gelernt said the detained parents he had been speaking with were afraid to ask immigration agents too much about their children for fear their children would face retaliation.

...Megan McKenna, KIND's senior director of communications and community engagement said KIND was advocating on behalf of a two-year-old who was separated from her father in March. The father was deported within a month, but as of 12 June, the girl was still in the custody of the U.S. government.

"The consequences in terms of human suffering can't be overestimated," McKenna said.
And let's be abundantly fucking clear about this: The vast majority of people being harmed by the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy are not violent gang members who are crossing the border in search of innocent Americans to wantonly kill. The vast majority of people are seeking asylum from violence.

Patrick Timmons at the Guardian: Migrant Parents Separated from Children: 'We Came Because We Didn't Want to Be Killed'.
After sentencing Goulart do Nascimiento to time served for unlawful entry, the magistrate judge Miguel Torres asked him if he wanted to say anything to the court.

"I decided to come to the United States with my wife and two children because if I stayed in Brazil they would kill my entire family," he told Torres, who looked on with dismay.

..."I wanted to go file a complaint against a drug house in my neighborhood," he said. "So I went to the police station to complain about this drug trafficking spot and they told me if I filed a complaint I would be killed. That's when I decided to flee with my wife and children to the United States. I learned yesterday they killed my landlord because he helped us flee to the United States."

"Please forgive me. I came with my entire family because I did not want us to be killed."

...On that day, Juan Francisco Fuentes Castro, 49, was also in the courtroom. Border patrol agents had apprehended him and his two daughters — one recently turned 18, the other 16 — at about 9.30 at night on 1 June. Court documents show the border patrol agent "noticed that the subjects' clothing, from the knees to their feet, was wet." The Salvadoran family had waded the river to enter the United States from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

Through a Spanish interpreter, Fuentes Castro implored the court to forgive him. "I felt powerless. El Salvador is going through a terrible moment. The only thing I could think is I had to get my children out of there. I am very sorry."

...Elizabeth González Juárez knows where her daughter is. She had pleaded guilty and been sentenced when the judge asked her if she had anything she wanted to tell the court. A single 30-year-old mother from Guanajuato, Mexico, she said she came to the U.S. because she wanted to protect her three-year-old daughter from her violent father, a drug dealer, who had abused González and her daughter. She told the court she was trying to get to her mother, who lived in Fort Worth, Texas.

Her defense attorney, the federal public defender Darren Ligon, said his client's boyfriend was a gang member in Ciudad Juárez.

"The terrible thing is that the thing my client was attempting most to avoid has actually happened," he said. "Immigration authorities handed her daughter back over to the abusive father at the international bridge. They contacted him in Juárez and he came to pick up his daughter."
Sob. I honestly don't even know what to do other than scream at people with far more influence than I have to do whatever they can to get Trump removed swiftly from office, because there is no convincing him to stop harming children, when harming children he views as "an infestation" is a feature of his immigration agenda, not a bug.

* * *


Note also that the suggestion outrage "plays into their hands" is a narrative deployed in an attempt to deaden resistance. Ignore it. Resist as tenaciously and as loudly as you can.

* * *

Philip Bump at the Washington Post: At Least Six People Close to Trump Almost Certainly Knew About Offers from Russians of Dirt on Clinton. "So we are confident the following people were offered or told about information allegedly incriminating Clinton: George Papadopoulos, Roger Stone, Michael Caputo, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort. It is possible that the following other people knew about or received similar offers, too: Stephen Miller, Carter Page, J.D. Gordon (if Page was offered dirt), and Donald Trump. Trump's argument has long been that there was no collusion between his campaign and the Russian government. That claim increasingly depends on how one defines 'collusion.'"

Hmm. Does this count?


Meanwhile, the collusion between the Republican Party and Russia predates Trump significantly (which is further evidence of my argument that the Trump presidency is not an outlier of the GOP, but its inevitable endgame):


[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Lauren Said-Moorhouse at CNN: Russia May Have Upgraded Nuclear Bunker in Kaliningrad, Report Says. "Russia may have significantly modernized a nuclear weapons storage bunker in Kaliningrad, a sensitive exclave of Russian territory sandwiched between Poland and the Baltics, as tensions between Russia and the West continue to rise, according to a new report. On Monday, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) published aerial photographs that the group says show the facility in the Baltic outpost has been under major renovation since 2016. FAS said the images document refurbishments at the site back in 2016, when one of three underground bunkers at the location was excavated and deepened before it appeared to have been covered over in recent months, 'presumably to return (to) operational status soon.'"

* * *

Today in possible constitutional crises...


I'm guessing House Republicans will prevent Trump from having to defy Congress, but we'll see.

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

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Trump Doubles Down on "Animals" Comment; Members of His Administration Amplify the Eliminationism

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, May 23, 2018
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[Content Note: Dehumanization; eliminationism; nativism.]

Last week, Donald Trump called undocumented immigrants "animals," then claimed he was only talking about members of the gang MS-13, as if dehumanizing, eliminationist language is okay just as long as it's directed at people you don't like.

Today, Trump traveled (back) to Long Island, where he launched into a gross diatribe, doubling down on his vicious rhetoric. He again called MS-13 "animals," lied about their having killed a police officer, and naturally continued to ignore that children are routinely roped into MS-13 and disallowed from leaving.

Further, Trump was joined by:

  • ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan, who defended and reiterated Trump's "animals" comment, saying: "I think you're being kind. Animals kill for survival. MS-13 kills for sport."

  • Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan, who referred to members of MS-13 as "savages."

  • Rep. Pete King, who called MS-13 members "horrible, vicious, rotten murderers."

  • Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who reinforced Trump's comment on "alien children" — "They look so innocent. They're not innocent." — with this incoherent mess: "We're letting people in who are creating problems. We're letting people in who are gang members. We're also letting people in who are vulnerable. Many of these alien children who have no parents, no family structure...develop gang ties."
This is utterly vile.

I am genuinely sorry for the people who have been harmed, or whose loved ones have been harmed, by individual members of MS-13 — just as I am genuinely sorry for anyone who has been harmed by violence of any kind.

I couldn't be more filled with grief and anger about school shootings, and yet I do not use eliminationist rhetoric to dehumanize the misogynist and white supremacist groups with which they're frequently affiliated.

The president and members of his administration and members of his party can share those people's agony and rage without engaging in eliminationist rhetoric. (And let us note that they only "share" the agony and rage of people whose loss neatly coincides with their political agenda.)

But even if Trump et. al. are genuinely angry about the victims of MS-13: It is possible to be angry without engaging in othering.

* * *

On a final note, I just want to register my alarm that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was echoing Trump's language of "alien children," even if he tried to couch it with some measure of concern — especially given that FBI Director Christopher Wray oversaw the approval of Jared Kushner's security clearance today, too.


I don't like the optics here. It looks like Rosenstein and Wray went to the White House with heads full of steam and came away cowed and doing Trump's bidding very visibly.

The thing is, as you may recall, just a couple of weeks ago, Rosenstein said that people "have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time, and I think they should understand by now, the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted."

I believed that. I don't think Rosenstein is easily cowed, at all.

So the fact that he said publicly and defiantly that he was being threatened, but wouldn't be deterred, makes me believe that Trump threatened him and Wray with something that wasn't directed at them personally.

That is, I think Trump threatened to do something to the citizenry. I don't know what it could be, but I can imagine him threatening anything from using the military on civilians to dismantling the FBI and Justice Department altogether.

(I mean: Kirstjen Nielsen is a Trumpian placeholder if ever I saw one. He wants Rudy Giuliani in there, running a national militarized law enforcement arm of the executive branch so bad even I can taste it.)

The point is, we often wonder where all the patriots have gone, with good reason. But patriots act on behalf of We the People. And they may be negotiating with a terrorist president who is holding us hostage.

And we don't even know it.

What we do know, however, is that Trump is capable of it. And far worse.

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We Resist: Day 483

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, May 17, 2018
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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 Only Context to Trump's "Animals" Comment That Matters Is His Vile Nativist Agenda and A Whole Lotta News, Some of Which Will Hopefully Matter Someday and And the Award for Worst Take on #MeToo Goes to....

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

I already covered an awful lot of the big news of the day earlier, so this is going to be a truncated thread. As always, share the news you've seen of which we should all be aware in comments!

[Content Note: Nativism] Mark Joseph Stern at Slate: Bad Liars: ICE Claimed a Dreamer Was "Gang-Affiliated" and Tried to Deport Him; a Federal Judge Ruled That ICE Was Lying. Empahses mine:
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez shot down the federal government's efforts to strip Daniel Ramirez Medina of his DACA status. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement had arrested and detained Ramirez last year, then falsely claimed that he was affiliated with a gang and attempted to deport him. He filed suit, alleging that ICE had violated his due process rights. Martinez agreed. His order barred the federal government from voiding Ramirez's DACA status, safeguarding his ability to live and work in the United States legally for the foreseeable future.

What may be most remarkable about Martinez's decision, though, is its blunt repudiation of ICE's main claim—that Ramirez is "gang-affiliated." The judge did not simply rule against ICE. He accused the agency of lying to a court of law.

The facts of Ramirez's case are extremely disturbing. In February 2017, shortly after [Donald] Trump unleashed immigration agents to amp up arrests and deportations, ICE agents went to Ramirez's father's house in Seattle to arrest him. (The father is undocumented, and brought Ramirez to the U.S. illegally as a child.) While there, they encountered Ramirez and asked him whether he was "legally here." He responded that he was—a truthful statement given his DACA status, which he had renewed the previous May. Yet ICE officers detained him anyway. They took him to a processing center, where, once again, he told them that he had a work permit.

"It doesn't matter," an agent responded, "because you weren't born in this country."

ICE then interrogated Ramirez, fingerprinted and booked him, confiscated his work permit, sent him to a detention center, and placed him in removal proceedings. It also purported to revoke his DACA status, subjecting him to imminent deportation. Typically, the government may not rescind an individual's DACA status without giving the beneficiary an opportunity to contest its decision. But ICE claimed that Ramirez's DACA benefits could be terminated "automatically" because he presented an "egregious public safety concern" due to his alleged gang affiliation. (ICE routinely alleges that Latino immigrants with no indication of gang affiliation are members of a gang in order to detain and deport them.)

A group of renowned attorneys then stepped in to defend Ramirez, arguing that virtually every action ICE had taken against their client was unlawful. They also alleged that ICE;s key claim—that Ramirez is "gang-affiliated"—was a complete falsehood. One of his lawyers, Mark Rosenbaum, presented evidence indicating that ICE had doctored Ramirez's statement by erasing words he had written in the pencil provided to make it seem as if he had confessed to being in a gang. (The original statement asserts he has no gang affiliation.) During his initial interrogation, ICE officers asked him five times whether he belonged to a gang, and he repeatedly said no. Instead, he asserted that he had "fled California [to Washington] to escape from the gangs."

...ICE continued to press its case against Ramirez. In immigration court, agents rested their case on one piece of evidence: a tattoo on Ramirez's forearm that consists of a nautical star and the words La Paz—BCS, which represent his birthplace, the city of La Paz in Baja California Sur. Ramirez repeatedly insisted that this tattoo had nothing to do with any gang. But an ICE agent claimed that his tattoo actually proved he was "definitely a gang member" because it allegedly looked like the tattoo of the "bulldogs" gang. (It does not.)

Two different immigration judges found no indication that Ramirez was gang affiliated or a threat to public safety. Martin Flores, a gang expert who has consulted in more than 700 cases, testified that he had "never seen a gang member with a similar tattoo nor would [he] attribute this tattoo to have any gang-related meaning." Another gang expert, Edwina Barvosa, declared that there is "no apparent evidence that [Ramirez] has ever been a gang member himself." Carlos García, a Mexican researcher who has studied gangs extensively, stated that "this tattoo does not show any gang affiliation." But ICE still insisted that Ramirez was a gang member, and thus eligible for deportation.

Which is to say nothing of the fact that even if Donald Trump were referring only to actual gang members as "animals," that would still be othering, dehumanizating, eliminationist, hateful, despicable, vile language.

There is no context in which that language is okay for a political leader to use, and no people about whom using that language is acceptable. None.

* * *

Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold at BuzzFeed: The Definitive Story of How Trump's Team Worked the Trump Moscow Deal During the Campaign. "The licensing agreement came together relatively quickly. Sater turned to a wealthy Moscow developer he knew from the days when Ivanka spun around in Putin's chair: Andrey Rozov. His company, IC Expert, became the developer, and the sides traded proposals. At one point, as the letter of intent was passed back and forth during the negotiations, the Trump Organization changed an upfront fee from $100,000 to $900,000. On Oct. 28, 2015, the day of the third Republican presidential debate, Trump personally signed the letter of intent. In a celebratory email sent from his Trump Organization account, Cohen asked Sater and Rozov that the 'nature and content of the attached LOI not be disclosed' until later and said 'we are truly looking forward to this wonderful opportunity.'"

Emphasis mine. That is a very long, very detailed piece. I highly recommend reading the whole thing in its entirety. And, once again, I will say that I desperately hope, at some point, the information contained therein will matter. Meaning: I hope it is used to hold Trump accountable and remove him from office, along with the rest of the corrupt scoundrels he brought with him to the White House. Including Pence.


And in good resistance news... [CN: Guns]


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

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The Only Context to Trump's "Animals" Comment That Matters Is His Vile Nativist Agenda

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, May 17, 2018
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[Content Note: Dehumanization; eliminationism; nativism; anti-Semitism.]

The apologia for Donald Trump's "animals" comment has begun, and the general shape it's taking is: "He wasn't talking about all undocumented immigrants; just members of MS-13!"


As you probably guessed, I have some thoughts about that.


I resist this sinister trash with every molecule of my being. This is not okay. This is intolerable. And fuck anyone who tries to make it "acceptable," in any way.

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