Showing posts with label resistance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resistance. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 138

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, June 06, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: We Need a Patriot. And by Fannie: Dispatches From the Queer Resistance (No. 3).

Kimberly Dozier at the Daily Beast: White House Looked to Drop Russia Sanctions—Even After Firing Michael Flynn. "The White House explored unilaterally easing sanctions on Russia's oil industry as recently as late March, arguing that decreased Russian oil production could harm the American economy, according to former U.S. officials. ...The continued discussion of unilaterally lifting sanctions on Russia came after the dismissal of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as White House national security adviser." Trump has boasted endlessly about making "the best deals," but keeps trying to make the worst fucking deals for the U.S. with Russia. Curious, that.

Josh Marshall at TPM: Trump's Saudi Arms Deal Is Actually Fake.
Remember [Donald] Trump's big, triumphant arms deal in Saudi Arabia? It turns out it didn't really happen. ...The story comes from Bruce Riedel, a longtime CIA and national security official, now at Brookings. The Potemkin deal turns out to be remarkably similar to the Trump jobs announcements we've grown accustomed to. Trump takes a bunch of jobs or investments which either already exist or have already been announced and rebrands them as new economic growth driven by Trump Power. In this he usually has a compliant and complicit CEO, happy to go along with the charade to curry favor with the US President.

Here's what Riedel discovered:
I've spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the Hill, and all of them say the same thing: There is no $110 billion deal. Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many are offers that the defense industry thinks the Saudis will be interested in someday. So far nothing has been notified to the Senate for review. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the arms sales wing of the Pentagon, calls them "intended sales." None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration.
As I said, this turns out to be remarkably similar. The $110 price tag advertised by the Trump White House includes no actual contracts, no actual sales. Instead it is made up of a bundle of letters of intent, statements of interest, and agreements to think about it. In other words, rather than a contract, it's more like a wishlist: an itemized list of things the Saudis might be interested in if the price of oil ever recovers, if they start more wars and things the US would like to sell the Saudis.

...Let's note for the record that the underlying reality here isn't necessarily bad news. It's quite debatable whether we should be selling massive amounts of new arms to Saudi Arabia. But we should know whether or not it happened.
JFC. The lies from this administration are relentless. They lie about everything. Which puts the American people in a terrible predicament: We have no ability at this point, none, to assess whether they are giving us reliable and truthful information. Our best bet is to assume they are lying, and surely even the most partisan fools must understand how dangerous that will be in an emergency situation.

Brandon Carter at the Hill: London Mayor Calls for Cancellation of Trump Visit to UK. "London Mayor Sadiq Khan is calling on the British government to cancel a state visit from [Donald] Trump after Trump criticized his response to this weekend's terror attacks in London. 'I don't think we should roll out the red carpet to the president of the USA in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for,' Khan said in an interview with Britain's Channel 4 News. 'When you have a special relationship it is no different from when you have got a close mate. You stand with them in times of adversity but you call them out when they are wrong. There are many things about which Donald Trump is wrong.'"

Absolutely right. Which gives me no joy to say, since the fact that my country's president is so hateful and toxic that it's reasonable that he'd be disinvited from a state visit by our closest ally.

Philip Bump at the Washington Post: The Trump Administration Has a Recruiting Problem. "It's been almost a month since [Donald] Trump fired James B. Comey on May 9, leaving the FBI without a director. Under normal circumstances, a president planning to fire the head of the nation's top law-enforcement agency might do so only once he had a replacement lined up. (The only other time an FBI director was fired, President Bill Clinton announced his replacement the next day.) Trump didn't do that, pledging instead that a new director would be identified quickly. Shortly before he left on his overseas trip last month, he promised that he was 'very close' to picking a new director. That was almost three weeks ago. There have been a number of people who were identified as being in the running to get the job. And of that group, most have publicly withdrawn their names from contention."

As you may recall, I was saying even before the election that, were Trump elected, he would have trouble filling his administration with qualified people—because any career bureaucrat with any sense wouldn't want to work for such a toxic and incompetent president. And now here we are. This was eminently foreseeable.

Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News: Four Top Law Firms Turned Down Requests to Represent Trump. "Top lawyers with at least four major law firms rebuffed White House overtures to represent [Donald] Trump in the Russia investigations, in part over concerns that the president would be unwilling to listen to their advice, according to five sources familiar with discussions about the matter. The unwillingness of some of the country's most prestigious attorneys and their law firms to represent Trump has complicated the administration's efforts to mount a coherent defense strategy to deal with probes being conducted by four congressional committees as well as Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller." Welp!

Speaking of Robert Muller and Trump's lack of qualified staff...


Hahahahahaha that sounds like a very bad idea! I'm sure there will be a monumental effort in the White House to convince Trump not to do this, because everyone knows that he will spill some bullshit that could be used against him in the course of these investigations.

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Alexander Mallin at ABC News: Trump Sons' Expansion of Mid-Market Hotel Chain 'Has Nothing to Do with Politics'. "The Trump Organization has announced plans to expand its signature hotel chain with mid-market properties it's calling the American Idea. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — who took over management of the Trump Organization from their father, [Donald] Trump — announced the move at an event for industry executives at Trump Tower on Monday. ...'We don't talk about the activities of the business. We don't talk about what we're doing in the business,' Eric Trump said. 'It doesn't blur the lines. You're allowed to show that. And remember, the president of the United States has zero conflicts of interest. Zero.'" LOL okay player.


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

Open Wide...
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Dispatches From the Queer Resistance (No. 3)

Posted by Fannie Wolfe at Tuesday, June 06, 2017
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[Content Note: Homophobia, transbigotry, torture, terrorism.]

It's Pride Month, y'all. Was it only 150 days ago when we had a President who officially recognized Pride Month, and could speak coherently about this and other issues? Feels like a decade ago!

1) This is a periodic reminder that exit polls showed that 77% of LGBT people voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

2) Five years ago during Pride Month, prominent opponent of marriage equality David Blankenhorn publicly changed his opinion on same-sex marriage. In his New York Times reversal, he acknowledged that his side had failed to win public opinion on the issue and that much of the opposition to marriage equality stemmed from anti-gay animus, a fact that marriage equality advocates had been observing for years. Meanwhile, same-sex marriage advocates, at both the individual and organizational level, continued to battle onward and resist this animus.

Three years later in 2015, also during Pride Month, the US Supreme Court issued a decision effectively legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide (PDF). Two years have passed since that decision and many social conservative believe they have lost the so-called culture war on same-sex marriage, a loss they widely seem to experience as widespread acknowledgement that opposing marriage equality is bigotry. Most heterosexual Americans likely also understand that same-sex marriage has little tangible impact on their lives. The world is not ending! (Well.... maybe it is, but for other reasons).

However, I note two potential synergies that could swing the pendulum back in their favor. One, some anti-LGBT groups remain convinced that if they can get the right Supreme Court composition, SCOTUS will overturn the marriage equality precedent. For instance, this June, the anti-LGBT National Organization for Marriage (NOM) will hold a "March for Marriage" (which I'm intentionally not linking to) and the organization has vowed to not rest until same-sex marriage is repealed.

Secondly, Team Trump/Pence have shown a willingness to appoint radical conservatives to SCOTUS, and I believe that's largely Pence's doing. The Republican-controlled legislature has shown that they will rubber-stamp these picks no matter how out touch they might be with the mainstream.

Meanwhile, 64% of those in the US believe same-sex marriage should be legal, the highest percentage since Gallup began this tracking in 1998. Donald Trump's popularity has been hovering at under 40% since his inauguration. These numbers are a reminder that a deeply-unpopular President who lost the popular vote is in a position to play a key role in overturning a precedent that most people in the US support. With Republicans willing to use the "nuclear option" to confirm Trump Supreme Court picks with only a simply majority vote, Democrats must take back the Senate in 2018 - because of this issue and so many more.

3) Speaking of NOM, earlier this year, the organization launched a tour of its so-called Free Speech Bus. This bus was decorated with anti-trans, gender-essentialist messaging which seems to have been inspired by Kindergarten Cop-approved boys-have-a-penis, girls-have-a-vagina logic.

The messaging was provocative and, accordingly, NOM tracked every real and perceived act of counter-protest, which they spun into their usual narrative of how LGBT advocates are the real bullies. For instance, during the course of its tour, the bus was allegedly vandalized. On Twitter, NOM then asked "prominent LGBT leaders" to "condemn" the vandalism.

I'm not prominent, but I tweeted why I passed on issuing a condemnation. (Spoiler alert: I believe NOM's messaging contributes to an overall climate of hostility, which leads to violence toward and murder of trans people).

4)  Multiple news outlets have reported that gay men are being detained, tortured, and killed in Chechnya. Via The New York Times:

"A spokesman for Chechnya's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, denied the report in a statement to Interfax on Saturday, calling the article 'absolute lies and disinformation."

'You cannot arrest or repress people who don't exist in the republic," the spokesman, Alvi Karimov, told the news agency.

'If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them, as their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return,' Mr. Karimov said."
It's not exactly reassuring when a spokesman can't hide his eliminationist homobigotry during the course of denying that eliminationist homobigotry is occurring in his country.

In response, some countries - Lithuania and France among them - are opening their doors to gay men from Chechnya. The US has not. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has called on Chechen authorities to investigate the allegations, ostensibly the same authorities who believe gay men don't exist and/or should be killed.

In fact, it's reported that these abuses are done under the auspices of the Chechen leader, with PinkNews reporting that Kadyrov wants gay men eliminated by the start of Ramadan, which was May 26th. (Note: Some media reports that these atrocities are committed on "LGBT people" without clarifying whether queer women and trans people are also being targeted. However, if gay men are targeted, it's likely that other LGBT people are as well.)

Donald Trump himself has not addressed these reports. Possibly related: Chechnya's leader is a close ally to Vladimir Putin. Here I note that a President Hillary Clinton and her administration might have offered more assistance in this situation. In fact, she has issued a condemnation. (But her emails, the misogyny, "establishment," etc.)

5) The first anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting will be next Monday, June 12. This terror attack was the deadliest hate crime against LGBT people in the US, killing 49 people, and the deadliest since 9/11. My thoughts are with the victims, their friends, and their families. I stand in solidarity with them, and with anyone who remains outraged, scared, and wounded by this tragedy

6) Ehhhh:

7) Via the National Center for Transgender Equality, Trump has appointed anti-LGBT activist Roger Severino as Director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), in the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Severino was previously at the Heritage Foundation, where he "authored a report opposing OCR's implementation of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, age, disability, and sex in federally funded health programs."

Just another example of a Trump appointment placed in a position to enforce an agency's work who seems to fundamentally disagree with that work.

8) This weekend, instead of a Pride Parade, a Resist March will be held in LA:
"We are calling on everyone to peacefully march with us on June 11th from Hollywood and Highland to West Hollywood. Instead of a Pride Parade meant to celebrate our past progress, we are going to march to ensure all our futures. Just as we did in 1970's first LGBTQ+ Pride, we are going to march in unity with those who believe that America's strength is its diversity. Not just LGBTQ+ people but all Americans and dreamers will be wrapped in the Rainbow Flag and our unique, diverse, intersectional voices will come together in one harmonized proclamation."
In conclusion, Donald Trump and Shadow President Mike Pence are scary fucking dudes. If you're attending or marching in a Pride Parade this year, we have a lot to protest and resist!

Open Wide...
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We Resist: Day 137

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, June 05, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: America, We Have a Problem.

[Content Note: Shooting; death; workplace violence. Video may autoplay at link.] David Harris and Michael Williams at the Orlando Sentinel: Five killed in shooting near Orlando; shooter also dead, sheriff's office says.
Five employees were killed in a shooting at Fiamma, a business on North Forsyth Road near Hanging Moss Road near Orlando, the Orange County Sheriff's Office reported this morning.

The shooter — a former "disgruntled employee" who was fired in April — then killed himself, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said. The shooter had previously been accused of battering a fellow employee.

Four people — three [men] and a [woman] — were dead at the scene, and another male victim died at the hospital, Demings said. The shooting appears to have nothing to do with terrorism.

The shooting happened in multiple locations at the business, Demings said. It is unclear how the shooter, who has not been identified, got into the building. There were about 12 employees inside the building at the time of the shooting.
Goddammit. The sheriff's office has not disclosed whether the previous incident, in which the shooter attacked a then-coworker, was related to domestic violence and/or stalking, bigotry, or something else altogether. The sheriff's office has only said that the shooter does not appear to have ties to any hate groups.

My condolences to the victims' families, friends, colleagues, and communities.

* * *

[CN: Terrorism; video may autoplay at link] Jon Stone at the Independent: Theresa May Says the Internet Must Now Be Regulated Following London Bridge Terror Attack. "New international agreements should be introduced to regulate the internet in the light of the London Bridge terror attack, Theresa May has said. The Prime Minister said introducing new rules for cyberspace would 'deprive the extremists of their safe spaces online' and that technology firms were not currently doing enough. ...'We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed—yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide,' Ms May said. 'We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements to regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning.'"

This is concerning for a couple of reasons: 1. It has no point, as recent terrorist events have been committed by individuals largely without direct ties to larger terror networks. 2. May is calling for "international agreements" to regulate the internet, which means that she is extending this appeal to other governments, some of whom, including the Trump administration, will be happy to borrow this argument to regulate the internet within their own borders.

Not good. Not good at all.

[Continued CN for terrorism for the rest of the items in this section.]

Julia Manchester at the Hill: Trump: 'I Will Do What Is Necessary' in Wake of London Attack. "Trump pledged Sunday to prevent future terror strikes in the U.S., in the wake of a deadly attack in central London that left seven people dead and injured many more. 'We renew our resolve, stronger than ever before, to protect the United States and its allies from a vile enemy that has waged war on innocent life. And it has gone on too long,' Trump said in Washington, D.C., speaking at the Ford's Theatre annual gala. 'This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end. As president, I will do what is necessary is to prevent this threat from spreading to our shores,' he continued."

Philip Rucker at the Washington Post: Trump Reacts to London Terror by Stoking Fear and Renewing Feud with Mayor. "He reacted impulsively to Saturday night's carnage by stoking panic and fear, being indiscreet with details of the event and capitalizing on it to advocate for one of his more polarizing policies and to advance a personal feud." A good summary of everything Trump did wrong following the latest attacks in London.

Calvin Woodward and Jim Drinkard at the AP: AP FACT CHECK: Attack Draws Visceral Trump Tweets, Not Facts. "Donald Trump can't be counted on to give accurate information to Americans when violent acts are unfolding abroad." What an extraordinary and chilling statement for a news outlet to have to use as its lede.

I second Bob Cesca at Salon: Trump's Appalling Response to London Makes It Clear: He Must Go Before It Happens Here. If it weren't abundantly clear already.

* * *

In other news...

Tom Sims at Reuters: Deutsche Bank Ignores U.S. Trump/Russia Query. "Germany's largest bank has failed to respond to a request from Democrats on a U.S. House of Representatives panel for details about [Donald] Trump's possible ties to Russia, a Democratic staffer said on Sunday. Several Democrats on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee sent a letter last month to John Cryan, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank, seeking details that might show if Trump's loans for his real estate business were backed by the Russian government. The letter asked for details of internal reviews of Trump's transactions and gave the prominent German bank until Friday to respond. The bank's response did not address any of the numerous questions posed in the letter and its Frankfurt headquarters declined to comment, as it has in the past. 'Deutsche Bank's outside counsel has confirmed receipt of our May 23, 2017, letter but did not provide substantive responses to our requests,' a Democratic member of the staff told Reuters in an email on condition of anonymity."

David Ferguson at Raw Story: NSA Director Mike Rogers [Reportedly] Poised to 'Drop a Bomb' on Trump Admin During Wednesday Testimony. "Atlantic magazine writer Steve Clemons said during a Saturday panel on MSNBC's 'The Point with Ari Melber' that National Security Agency (NSA) Director Michael Rogers 'may have a bomb to drop' on the Trump administration [during his scheduled testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday]. ...'While a lot of people have focused on James Comey and that's obviously a huge anchor in this,' Clemons said at the end of the segment, 'watch the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on Wednesday. National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers may have a bomb to drop in this, as well as Dan Coates. I have been tipped off that Mike Rogers has a story to tell...'"


Joanna Walters at the Guardian: Grand Canyon at Risk as State Officials Ask Trump to End Uranium Mining Ban. "A coalition of influential officials in Arizona and Utah is urging the Trump administration to consider rolling back Obama-era environmental protections that ban new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon. They argue that the 20-year ban that came into effect in 2012 is unlawful and stifles economic opportunity in the mining industry. But supporters of the ban say new mining activity could increase the risk of uranium-contaminated water flowing into the canyon. Past mining in the region has left hundreds of polluted sites among Arizona's Navajo population, leading to serious health consequences, including cancer and kidney failure."

Teddy Wilson at Rewire: Louisiana Legislators Create 'Cruel' Barrier for Minors' Access to Abortion. "Louisiana lawmakers on Thursday passed legislation to create more restrictions on minors' access to abortion care, reported the Associated Press. Under state law, an unmarried pregnant minor must provide a notarized statement from a parent or legal guardian before a doctor can perform an abortion. The only alternative for a pregnant minor is to obtain a court order to terminate a pregnancy, a process known as judicial bypass. SB 111, sponsored by state Sen. Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton), would require the parent or legal guardian to provide 'evidence of identity' such as a valid and unexpired driver's license or another type of government-issued identification. The legislation amends the state's law regarding judicial bypass."

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

Open Wide...
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We Resist: Day 134

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, June 02, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: Trump Is Making the United States a Global Pariah.

This is the major environmental news in a week when Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a global climate change agreement: Nicola Davis at the Guardian: Giant Antarctic Iceberg 'Hanging by a Thread,' Say Scientists. "A giant section of an Antarctic ice shelf is hanging by a thread and could break off at any moment, researchers have revealed. The split in the Larsen C ice shelf of the Antarctic peninsula will release a huge iceberg 5,000 sq km in size—an area about a quarter of the size of Wales. ...'It is a big event and it will change the landscape of the Antarctic peninsula—the Larsen ice shelf will be left 10% smaller,' said [Professor Adrian Luckman, a scientist at Swansea University and leader of the UK's Midas project—an endeavour that has been monitoring the situation at the Larsen C ice shelf].


Matt Shuham at TPM: White House Tells Agencies Not to Cooperate with Dems' Oversight Asks. "The White House is telling federal agencies not to cooperate with congressional Democrats' oversight requests, for fear the information would be used to attack the President, Politico reported Friday. Citing unnamed 'Republican sources inside and outside the administration,' Politico reported that Special Assistant to the President Uttam Dhillon had instructed various agencies not to cooperate with Democrats' requests in meetings this Spring. 'You have Republicans leading the House, the Senate, and the White House,' an unnamed White House official told Politico. 'I don't think you'd have the Democrats responding to every minority member request if they were in the same position.'" JFC.

[Content Note: Islamophobia] Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow at the Washington Post: Trump Turns to Supreme Court to Move Forward on Travel Ban. "The Trump administration late Thursday asked the Supreme Court to revive the president's plan to temporarily ban citizens from six mostly Muslim countries, elevating a divisive legal battle involving national security and religious discrimination to the nation's highest court. Justice Department lawyers asked the court to overturn a decision of the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that kept in place a freeze on [Donald] Trump's revised ban. ...The government's filing late Thursday asks the justices to set aside the 4th Circuit ruling and accept the case for oral arguments. It also asks the high court to lift an even broader nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in a separate Hawaii case."

Huh. I wonder how Merrick Garland would have ruled on that. Oh well.


So much winning with the jobs president.

* * *

Yeganeh Torbati at Reuters: Trump Administration Approves Tougher Visa Vetting, Including Social Media Checks.
The Trump administration has rolled out a new questionnaire for U.S. visa applicants worldwide that asks for social media handles for the last five years and biographical information going back 15 years.

The new questions, part of an effort to tighten vetting of would-be visitors to the United States, was approved on May 23 by the Office of Management and Budget despite criticism from a range of education officials and academic groups during a public comment period.

Critics argued that the new questions would be overly burdensome, lead to long delays in processing, and discourage international students and scientists from coming to the United States.

Under the new procedures, consular officials can request all prior passport numbers, five years' worth of social media handles, email addresses and phone numbers, and 15 years of biographical information including addresses, employment, and travel history.
This is just an absurd breach of privacy. And will further damage tourism and business in the U.S.

I have previously written about the intense scrutiny that Iain and I went through during his visa application process. That was 16 years ago, and, even then, the first application we submitted was more than an inch thick. The idea that visa applicants don't already face a rigorous process is manifest garbage—a notion also expressed by BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow, who writes: "My first application for a US O-1 visa ran 600 pages. The first renewal ran 900 pages. The second renewal ran 1200 pages. This is the current level of scrutiny applied to visa-seekers. The idea that people just waltz into the USA to live or work is, frankly, absurd."

There is very little justification for this gross invasion of privacy above and beyond the current requirements for entry. I will, however, note that immigrants are the canary in the coal mine for the Trump administration. We all better start figuring out what they're going to use this for against citizens next. Applying for a passport? A driver's license? Any government job?

If you have an expired passport, or don't have one at all, I strongly urge you to get on that application now.

* * *

Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News: How the Trump Administration's Secret Efforts to Ease Russia Sanctions Fell Short.
In the early weeks of the Trump administration, former Obama administration officials and State Department staffers fought an intense, behind-the-scenes battle to head off efforts by incoming officials to normalize relations with Russia, according to multiple sources familiar with the events.

Unknown to the public at the time, top Trump administration officials, almost as soon as they took office, tasked State Department staffers with developing proposals for the lifting of economic sanctions, the return of diplomatic compounds, and other steps to relieve tensions with Moscow.

These efforts to relax or remove punitive measures imposed by President Obama in retaliation for Russia's intervention in Ukraine and meddling in the 2016 election alarmed some State Department officials, who immediately began lobbying congressional leaders to quickly pass legislation to block the move, the sources said.

"There was serious consideration by the White House to unilaterally rescind the sanctions," said Dan Fried, a veteran State Department official who served as chief U.S. coordinator for sanctions policy until he retired in late February. He said in the first few weeks of the administration, he received several "panicky" calls from U.S. government officials who told him they had been directed to develop a sanctions-lifting package and imploring him, "Please, my God, can't you stop this?"
Like I said just yesterday: Fishy doesn't begin to describe it.


Clint Watts at the Daily Beast: Putin's Hidden Insurgency Tore up Ukraine; Now It's Coming for Your Inbox. "Today, Vladimir Putin, during an interview in St. Petersburg, changed his previous denials admitting Russians might have meddled in the U.S. election in 2016. Similar to obfuscation in Crimea, Putin said 'patriotically minded' Russians may have conducted the cyber attacks. Hackers, he contended, 'are like artists' who choose their targets depending on how they feel 'when they wake up in the morning.' He added that Russian hackers 'fight against those who say bad things about Russia.' This response reiterates a Russian pattern, tacit omission of Russian involvement with 'plausible deniability' with regards to Kremlin responsibility. Whether it's on the ground in Crimea or online in social media, Russia's dramaturgia seeks to mask overt government actions as grassroots nationalism."

Nathan Layne, Mark Hosenball, and Julia Edwards Ainsley at Reuters: Special Counsel Mueller to Probe Ex-Trump Aide Flynn's Turkey Ties. "Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating possible ties between the Trump election campaign and Russia, is expanding his probe to include a grand jury investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, three sources told Reuters. The move means Mueller's politically charged inquiry will now look into Flynn's paid work as a lobbyist for a Turkish businessman in 2016, in addition to contacts between Russian officials and Flynn and other Trump associates during and after the Nov. 8 presidential election. Federal prosecutors in Virginia are investigating a deal between Flynn and Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin as part of a grand jury criminal probe, according to a subpoena seen by Reuters."

* * *

And finally, some resistance teaspooning opportunity this weekend, for those who are able.


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

Open Wide...
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We Resist: Day 133

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, June 01, 2017
View Comments

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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: The Latest on Trump and Russia.

Matea Gold at the Washington Post: White House Grants Ethics Waivers to 17 Appointees, Including Four Former Lobbyists.
The White House disclosed Wednesday evening that it has granted ethics waivers to 17 appointees who work for [Donald] Trump and [Mike] Pence, including four former lobbyists.

The waivers exempt the appointees from certain portions of ethics rules aimed at barring potential conflicts of interest. In letters posted on the White House website, the White House counsel's office wrote that the waivers were in the public interest because the administration had a need for the appointees' expertise on certain issues.

Among the high-profile figures who received waivers: White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, who were both permitted to engage with their former employers or clients. In addition, a blanket waiver was given to all executive office appointees to interact with news organizations — a move that gives chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon permission to communicate with Breitbart News, the conservative website he used to run.
Emphasis mine. Propaganda operations and draining the swamp directly in the White House. Either one of those would have constituted a pretty significant scandal in any other administration. For Trump, it's barely a blip on the radar.

Ryan Lizza at the New Yorker: Trump's "Good Job" Call to Roger Stone. "On May 11th Roger Stone, Donald Trump's on-again, off-again political adviser for several decades, had just wrapped up a pair of morning television appearances when, according to two sources with direct knowledge, he received a call from the President. Just a night earlier, Trump claimed that he was no longer in touch with Stone. In the weeks and months ahead, the relationship between Trump and Stone is expected to be a significant focus of investigators, and their call raises an important question: Why is the President still reaching out to figures in the middle of the Russia investigations? Previous reports have noted that Trump has also been in touch with Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, two figures targeted by the F.B.I.'s Russia probe. Add Stone to the list of former top Trump aides who, despite being under investigation, are still winning attention from the President."

Two useful timelines on the Russia stuff:

Steven Harper at Moyers & Company: A Timeline: Pence's Role in the White House's Russia-Related Mess.

Michelle Ye Hee Lee at the Washington Post: Every Russia Story Trump Said Was a Hoax by Democrats: A Timeline.

* * *


Fucking hell.

[CN: Homophobia; transphobia] Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: Trump Breaks Tradition of Recognizing LGBTQ Pride Month. "Donald Trump, who has long claimed to be an LGBTQ ally, could have become the first Republican president to acknowledge Pride Month with a proclamation, but he didn't—and the silence is deafening. ...President Bill Clinton was the first president to issue a Pride Month proclamation. ...President Barack Obama not only embraced the tradition, but also set a new precedent for it. In addition to issuing a proclamation at the beginning of each Pride Month of his two terms, he also held an annual White House reception to celebrate the movers and shakers of the LGBTQ movement. There is no reception on Trump's agenda, and the absence of a Pride Month proclamation is quite conspicuous."


[CN: Nativism] Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard, Grace Napolitano, and Pamila Jayapal at the Hill: Harsh U.S. Immigration Policies Are Causing Mental, Social Harm to American Children. "Roughly one in four American children younger than 18 live in immigrant families, and over four million U.S.-citizen children have at least one undocumented parent. A sense of safety and belonging is key to their psychological development. Feeling secure is critical to them thriving emotionally, academically, and socially. Conversely, evidence has shown that adverse childhood experiences, like intense uncertainty and fear, are detrimental to their health. Currently, too many children live in daily fear that their parents could be arrested, detained, or deported at any moment."

[CN: Misogynoir; threats] Rich Smith at the Stranger: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Cancels West Coast Tour After a Fox News Report Spurs Death Threats. "Princeton University professor of African-American studies, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, was scheduled to speak at Town Hall Seattle this evening about her latest book, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation. But on Sunday, Fox News aired a brief clip of her 20-minute-long commencement speech to Hampshire College's graduating class of 2017, during which she said what anyone with two eyes, a pulse, and more than three chapter books on their shelf would say about the President of the United States, namely that he's a 'racist, sexist, megalomaniac.' The media arm of the Republican party showed the clip with the headline: 'Anti-POTUS Tirade: Princeton Prof Slams Pres During Speech.' Then, according to a statement Taylor's publishers released on Facebook, like cowards, a number of Fox News viewers felt compelled to send racist, sexist, megalomaniacal messages to Taylor from the relative safety of their own computers."

In (tentative) good news...

[CN: Carcerality; racism] Imani Gandy at Rewire: Breaking: ACLU Files Lawsuit to End Debtors' Prison Practices in Lexington County, South Carolina.
Thursday's lawsuit, filed on behalf of five indigent plaintiffs, including Brown, alleges that Lexington County has been engaging in the equivalent of modern-day "debtors' prison" practices: issuing arrest warrants for people who are unable to pay court fees or court-ordered fines for minor infractions like parking tickets, and jailing them without offering them lawyers or determining whether they have the ability to pay in the first place.

The lawsuit names as defendants Lexington County; the sheriff of Lexington County, Bryan Koon; a judge of one of the magistrate courts, Rebecca Adams; and a few other Lexington County court officials.

At issue in the case are two county policies: The Default Payment Policy and the Trial in Absentia Policy. Under the Default Payment Policy, a court will impose a payment plan for fees or fines, requiring steep monthly payments that are often beyond the individual's financial means. If the person fails to pay, the court issues a bench warrant ordering law enforcement to arrest and jail the individual unless the full amount owed is paid.

Under the Trial in Absentia Policy, the complaint says, Lexington County courts order the arrest and incarceration of people unable to pay fines and fees in connection with trials and sentencing proceedings that are held in their absence. Even if the individual contacts the court to request another hearing date and to explain why they cannot appear at the scheduled hearing, courts will convict them in absentia, and sentence them to jail pending payment of fines and fees. Before notifying these individuals of their sentences, courts issue bench warrants ordering law enforcement to arrest and jail the individual, again unless the full amount owed is paid.

Simply put, courts cannot jail people because they are too poor to pay fines—sometimes called "pay or stay."
Let's fervently hope that the plaintiffs prevail.

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We Resist: Day 132

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, May 31, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: Donald Trump Is the Final Boss of Toxic Masculinity.

[Content Note: White supremacist violence; video may autoplay at link] Tom Porter at Newsweek: California Man Arrested for Hate Crime After Machete Attack.
The victim [who is a Black man] told officers that a man [who is white] had been yelling racial slurs at people in the parking lot of the complex before going inside the building and returning armed with a machete. He allegedly struck the victim on the shoulder with the blade several times while shouting racial slurs, causing serious injuries, Police Sergeant Travis Lenz said.

Police have identified the alleged attacker as Anthony Robert Hammond, 34. He is being held in Lake County Jail on $1 million bail on felony charges including battery with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, and hate crime.

...After a standoff lasting several hours, police persuaded Hammond to leave the apartment and placed him under arrest. ...On the way to the police station, Hammond allegedly threatened to kill the transporting officer and his family on his release from jail.

The incident comes amid a spike in hate crimes in the U.S., with passions inflamed during the 2016 presidential fueling a 20 percent in offenses last year, according to a leading researcher.

On Friday, two men were killed on a commuter train in Oregon. A man subsequently identified as white nationalist Jeremy Christian allegedly stabbed them when they attempted to defend a woman he was subjecting to Islamophobic abuse.
And the week before that, Richard Collins III was fatally stabbed by a white supremacist at the University of Maryland.

I will say again: Donald Trump did not invent white supremacy, but he sure as fuck is doing everything he can to empower it. And that has consequences.

Also: All of these white supremacist murderers/attackers have been taken into custody alive, this latest asshole even despite evading and threatening officers. Noted.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting they should have been harmed by police. I'm arguing that Black people suspected of far lesser crimes should not end up dead.

* * *

Three really terrific long reads:

[Content Note: Discussion of structural racism; white supremacist violence] Reni Eddo-Lodge at the Guardian: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race. "We tell ourselves that good people can't be racist. We seem to think that true racism only exists in the hearts of evil people. We tell ourselves that racism is about moral values, when instead it is about the survival strategy of systemic power. When a large proportion of the population votes for politicians and political efforts that explicitly use racism as a campaigning tool, we tell ourselves that such huge sections of the electorate simply cannot be racist, as that would render them heartless monsters. But this isn't about good and bad people. The covert nature of structural racism is difficult to hold to account. It slips out of your hands."

Rebecca Gordon at Moyers & Company: Trump Is Throwing Reality Down the Memory Hole. "The Trump administration seems intent on tossing recent history down the memory hole. Admittedly, Americans have never been known for their strong grasp of facts about their past. Still, as we struggle to keep up with the constantly shifting explanations and pronouncements of the new administration, it becomes ever harder to remember the events of yesterday, let alone last week or last month. ...If the age of Trump doesn't end relatively soon, the daily effort to sort out what happened from what didn't may eventually become too much for many of us. Memory fatigue may set in, and the whole project of keeping the past in focus shelved."

Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump. "The child who became the most powerful man in the world, or at least occupied the real estate occupied by a series of those men, had run a family business and then starred in an unreality show based on the fiction that he was a stately emperor of enterprise, rather than a buffoon barging along anyhow, and each was a hall of mirrors made to flatter his sense of self, the self that was his one edifice he kept raising higher and higher and never abandoned."

* * *

In other news...


Tierney Sneed at TPM: Draft Trump Rule Shows Broad Opt-Out to Obamacare Birth Control Mandate. "The draft rule, dated May 23 and posted by Vox on Wednesday morning, would allow any employer—from small mom-and-pop shops to publicly-traded corporations—to opt out of the mandate on religious or moral grounds. It would also let insurers refrain from covering contraceptives for religious or moral reasons. The draft rule would allow individuals with religious or moral objections to refrain from participating in plans covering contraceptives."

Kenrya Rankin at Colorlines: These Three Federal Civil Rights Offices Are in Trouble. "'They can call it a course correction, but there's little question that it's a rollback of civil rights across the board,' Vanita Gupta, who ran the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division under former president Barack Obama, told The Washington Post. When asked for comment, White House spokesperson Kelly Love told The Washington Post that, 'the Trump Administration has an unwavering commitment to the civil rights of all Americans.'"

[CN: Discussion of authoritarian violence] Brian Klaas at USA Today: Donald Trump's Business Ties Explain a Lot of His Dictator Worship. "Trump makes more money when he embraces regimes that violate human rights. From the Philippines to China and Turkey to Saudi Arabia, the president's adoration for authoritarian abusers is bad for those being oppressed but good for his wallet. Staggering conflicts of interest that directly link Trump's bank account to despots around the world are already transforming U.S. foreign policy. Trump is selling America's moral authority to make more money by slapping TRUMP on shimmering new buildings."

Benjamin Haas at the Guardian: Activists Investigating Ivanka Trump's China Shoe Factory Detained or Missing. "A labour activist working undercover investigating abuses at a Chinese factory that makes Ivanka Trump shoes has been detained by police and two others are missing, raising concerns the company's ties to the US president's family may have led to harsher treatment. Hua Haifeng was being held by police on suspicion of illegal surveillance, his wife Deng Guilian said. Hua had worked for labour rights organisations for more than a decade and was investigating a factory in southern Guangdong province for New York-based rights group China Labor Watch."

Andy Towle at Towleroad: Trump Tweet Hitches Himself to Carter Page, Pits Page's Credibility Against That of Comey, Brennan. "Tweeted Trump: 'So now it is reported that the Democrats, who have excoriated Carter Page about Russia, don't want him to testify. He blows away their……case against him & now wants to clear his name by showing 'the false or misleading testimony by James Comey, John Brennan…' Witch Hunt!'"

[CN: Nativism; death; video may autoplay at link] WCCO News: Sheriff: Woman from Ghana Died Likely Trying to Reach Canada. "Officials in extreme northwestern Minnesota say a woman from Ghana died last week while likely trying to walk across the border into Canada. The Kittson County Sheriff's Office says the body of 57-year-old Mavis Otuteye was found Friday near Noyes. Otuteye was reported missing in the area earlier last week. The sheriff's office says Otuteye likely died of hypothermia. Temperatures in the area Friday dipped down into the low 40s. ...Officials say they believe Otuteye was trying to cross the border to Canada at the time of her death. ...Earlier this year, Canadian officials reported a sharp increase in border crossings in Emerson following the announcement of [Donald] Trump's plans to limit immigration and set up deportations."

[CN: Nativism] Esther Yu Hsi Lee at ThinkProgress: Immigrant Grandmother Becomes First in North Carolina to Take Sanctuary. "For the past six years, Juana Ortega has had to check in with ICE and each time received a stay of removal, or a temporary postponement that delays her deportation. But when Ortega went to check in with ICE in April, she was given a final deportation order and told that she would be deported at the end of May. Instead of getting on a plane to Guatemala, Ortega formally took shelter at the St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Greensboro, North Carolina on Wednesday."

Michael Calderone at the Huffington Post: The New York Times Is Eliminating the Public Editor Role. "The New York Times is eliminating the position of public editor, an accountability role the paper created in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal, according to sources familiar with the decision. Elizabeth Spayd, a former Washington Post managing editor who was named the paper's sixth public editor last year, was expected to remain in the position until summer 2018. Spayd did not respond to requests for comment. A Times spokesperson declined to comment."


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We Resist: Day 131

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, May 30, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: Trump Has Delivered for Putin and "It's Just a Question of Time."

And on Twitter: Republicans Think People Aren't Entitled to Food. On the Republican Congressman who couldn't answer "yes" to a question about whether people in this country are entitled to food, and how I've been writing about that ever since Mitt Romney took the position five years ago that people aren't entitled to food.

In other news...

Ju-min Park and Jack Kim at Reuters: North Korea Warns of 'Bigger Gift Package' for U.S. After Latest Test. "The North's test launch of a short-range ballistic missile landed in the sea off its east coast and was the latest in a fast-paced series of missile tests defying international pressure and threats of more sanctions. Kim said the reclusive state would develop more powerful weapons in multiple phases in accordance with its timetable to defend North Korea against the United States. 'He expressed the conviction that it would make a greater leap forward in this spirit to send a bigger 'gift package' to the Yankees' in retaliation for American military provocation, KCNA quoted Kim as saying."

North Korea has long been belligerent as hell, and Kim Jong Un, as his father before him, is disposed toward provocative statements. But it's obviously a different dynamic now that we've got a president who doesn't know WTF he's doing and is busily alienating our global allies. Very worrisome, to say the least.

Juliet Eilperin, Emma Brown, and Darryl Fears at the Washington Post: Trump Administration Plans to Minimize Civil Rights Efforts in Agencies. "The Trump administration is planning to disband the Labor Department division that has policed discrimination among federal contractors for four decades, according to the White House's newly proposed budget, part of wider efforts to rein in government programs that promote civil rights. ...The proposal to dismantle the compliance office comes at a time when the Trump administration is reducing the role of the federal government in fighting discrimination and protecting minorities by cutting budgets, dissolving programs, and appointing officials unsympathetic to previous practices." Rein in government programs that promote civil rights. Fucking hell. This is indescribably appalling.

Robert Pear at the New York Times: White House Acts to Roll Back Birth-Control Mandate for Religious Employers. "Federal officials, following through on a pledge by [Donald] Trump, have drafted a rule to roll back a federal requirement that many religious employers provide birth control coverage in health insurance plans. The mandate for free contraceptive coverage was one of the most hotly contested Obama administration policies adopted under the Affordable Care Act, and it generated scores of lawsuits by employers that had religious objections to it. On its website, the White House Office of Management and Budget said it is reviewing an 'interim final rule' to relax the requirement, a step that would all but ensure a court challenge by women's rights groups." Goddammit. Every moment with this administration is just more hostile, toxic garbage.

And chaos. Mike Allen at Axios: Trump's Comms Director Leaving White House. "Mike Dubke, [Donald] Trump's communications director, is leaving the White House—the start of a wave of changes as the West Wing struggles to cope with burgeoning scandals and a stalled agenda. ...Trump is considering much broader changes, including the possibility of bringing in David Urban, a prominent GOP lobbyist who was a senior adviser on the campaign, as chief of staff."

Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker at the Washington Post: How [Donald] Trump Consumes—or Does Not Consume—Top-Secret Intelligence.
Trump consumes classified intelligence like he does most everything else in life: ravenously and impatiently, eager to ingest glinting nuggets but often indifferent to subtleties.

Most mornings, often at 10:30, sometimes earlier, Trump sits behind the historic Resolute desk and, with a fresh Diet Coke fizzing and papers piled high, receives top-secret updates on the world's hot spots. The president interrupts his briefers with questions but also with random asides. He asks that the top brass of the intelligence community be present, and he demands brevity.

As they huddle around the desk, Trump likes to pore over visuals — maps, charts, pictures, and videos, as well as "killer graphics," as CIA Director Mike Pompeo phrased it.

"That's our task, right? To deliver the material in a way that he can best understand the information we're trying to communicate," said Pompeo, adding that he, too, prefers to "get to the core of the issue quickly."

Yet there are signs that the president may not be retaining all the intelligence he is presented, fully absorbing its nuance, or respecting the sensitivities of the information and how it was gathered.
Hahahahahahaha ya think? *jumps into Christmas tree*

Margaret Hartmann at New York Mag teases out this bit from the same WaPo story: Jared Kushner Gets His Own Daily Intelligence Briefing. Of course he does, because the actual president isn't paying attention. And: "The article does not explain why Kushner needs separate intelligence briefings, but it probably has something to do with his role as 'shadow Secretary of State,' as Axios described it." A shadow SoS who's under federal investigation for possible treason. Everything is fine.

Speaking of Russia...


[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Brian Ross and Matthew Mosk at ABC News: Russia Investigation Expands to Include Donald Trump's Personal Attorney. "One of [Donald] Trump's closest confidants, his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, has now become a focus of the expanding congressional investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 campaign. Cohen confirmed to ABC News that House and Senate investigators have asked him 'to provide information and testimony' about any contacts he had with people connected to the Russian government, but he said he has turned down the invitation. 'I declined the invitation to participate, as the request was poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered,' Cohen told ABC News in an email Tuesday." Oh.


Allegra Kirkland at TPM: Russians Discussed 'Derogatory' Info They Had on Trump During Campaign. "The U.S. intelligence community intercepted conversations between Kremlin officials who boasted of having potentially 'derogatory' information about Donald Trump and his advisers during the 2016 campaign, CNN reported Tuesday. CNN's report cited two unnamed former intelligence officials and a congressional source, one of whom indicated that the 'derogatory' information was financial. The sources noted it was unclear if the Russians' claims were legitimate or if, knowing their communications were monitored, they had intentionally tried to mislead U.S. officials. Trump campaign associates' financial dealings have become a part of both the federal and congressional investigations into Russia's interference in the U.S. election."

Gabrielle Paluch, Kevin G. Hall, and Ben Wieder at McClatchy: A Kazakh Dirty-Money Suit Threatens to Reach Trump's Business World. "In a complicated case with potential implications for [Donald] Trump's business empire and associates of the real-estate-developer-turned-president, Switzerland has revealed it is considering an extradition request from Ukraine to hand over the son of a former Kazakh energy minister—and both men are facing money-laundering allegations in the United States and charges in Kazakhstan. It's the latest development in a saga that is reaching into Bayrock Group, an international real estate and investment company that paid the Trump Organization a license fee for the use of its name and an 18 percent ownership stake in the New York hotel and condo project."

There is so, so much more news today; I haven't even begun to get to Congressional Republicans or state legislatures yet. But I've just got to draw a line under it somewhere, or I'd never have published today's thread. With so much to cover, please keep crowdsourcing this thread by sharing what I've missed in comments!

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We Resist: Day 127

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, May 26, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: The Russia Probe Is Officially a Family Affair.

Donald Trump disgraced himself thoroughly at the NATO summit yesterday. In addition to shoving Montenegro Prime Minister Duško Marković and failing to explicitly endorse Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty, [Content Note: Video may autoplay] he also said that "The Germans are bad, very bad," purportedly meaning on trade, and added: "See the millions of cars they are selling to the U.S.? Terrible. We will stop this."

It seems as though the United States president is unaware that the U.S. does not have bilateral trade agreements with individual countries in the European Union. It also seems as though the United States president is unaware that there are a number of U.S. workers making German cars in the United States. It further seems as though the United States president does not care about maintaining functional diplomatic relationships with our allies.


Further to that point:


In case you didn't get the upshot of all of that: Trump is working very hard to undermine goodwill with our NATO allies, with a special insult to Germany. Since the end of WWII, Russia has had an explicit objective of busting up the U.S.-German alliance, because the combined strength of the U.S. and Germany, in both military might and democratic cultural influence, provided a check on the empiric aspirations of the Soviet Union, now Russia.

Trump's subversion of the U.S-Germany relationship is providing a dangerous opening to Putin, who has already made abundantly clear his intent to rebuild Russia's reach with his annexation of Crimea and moves in Ukraine.

It is extremely likely that Trump's next move will be lifting the U.S.'s economic sanctions on Russia, further empowering Putin.

Trump likely believes that Putin is his ally. He is wrong. Trump is Putin's useful tool. I am reminded of this line from Amanda Kerri's recent piece about Trump at the Advocate: "I really have to wonder how many times he thought he was the con man but was actually the mark?"

* * *

Andy Greenberg at Wired: Russian Hackers Are Using 'Tainted' Leaks to Sow Disinformation. "Over the past year, the Kremlin's strategy of weaponizing leaks to meddle with democracies around the world has become increasingly clear, first in the US and more recently in France. But a new report by a group of security researchers digs into another layer of those so-called influence operations: how Russian hackers alter documents within those releases of hacked material, planting disinformation alongside legitimate leaks." (Ahem.)

Alice Ollstein at TPM: Florida GOPer Helped Russian Hacker Disseminate Dems' Voter Turnout Data. "A Republican political operative in Florida asked the alleged Russian hacker who broke into Democratic Party organizations' servers at the height of the 2016 campaign to pass him stolen documents, according to a report Thursday by the Wall Street Journal. In return, that operative received valuable Democratic voter-turnout analyses... The hacker went on to flag that same data to Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of Donald Trump's who briefly advised his presidential campaign, and who is currently under federal investigation for potential collusion with Russia. The Wall Street Journal's report presents the clearest allegations to date of collusion between people connected to Donald Trump's campaign and Russia."

Scott Feinberg at the Hollywood Reporter: Donald Trump Angled for Soviet Posting in 1980s, Says Nobel Prize Winner. "Donald Trump, in the mid-1980s, aggressively pursued an official government post to the USSR, according to a Nobel Peace Prize winner with whom Trump interacted at the time. ]He already had Russia mania in 1986, 31 years ago,' asserts Bernard Lown, a Boston-area cardiologist known for inventing the defibrillator and sharing the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize with a top Soviet physician in recognition of their efforts to promote denuclearization. Lown, now 95 and retired in Newton, Massachusetts, tells The Hollywood Reporter that Trump sought and secured a meeting with him in 1986 to solicit information about Mikhail Gorbachev. ...During this meeting, Lown says, the fast-rising businessman disclosed that he would be reaching out to then-president Ronald Reagan to try to secure an official post to the USSR in order to negotiate a nuclear disarmament deal on behalf of the United States, a job for which Trump felt he was the only one fit."

Sarah Kendzior has documented Trump's "fascination" with Russia dating back to the 80s, but this is the first I've heard that he explicitly angled for a Soviet posting.

Jonathan Swan at Axios: Bannon's Back. "The escalating crisis surrounding the Russia investigation (with reports last night on FBI interest in Jared Kushner) looks like good news for somebody in the White House: Steve Bannon. Nine sources in the West Wing and within Trump's close orbit said the Russia situation is Bannon's shot at redemption. He's being described as a 'wartime consigliere' relishing a fight against the 'deep state,' media, Democrats, and investigators." This all sounds great and everything is fine. *jumps into Christmas tree*

* * *

Joy-Ann Reid at the Daily Beast: Trump, Ryan, Mulvaney, All of Them: Partners in Plutocracy. "Mulvaney, Ryan, Orrin Hatch, and the 'freedom caucus' may be more blunt and callous in voicing their disdain for people without means, but they are not out of their party's mainstream. Ask any average Republican, of any income level, if they agree with the following statement: "the U.S. must balance its budget even if it means cutting out things like public broadcasting and Meals on Wheels, and even if we spend more on defense and tax cuts." Your pity for Trump voters who stand to be grievously harmed by his economic policies may not survive the answer."

Paul Krugman at the New York Times: It's All About Trump's Contempt. "What would happen to West Virginia if all these Trump policies went into effect? Basically, it would be apocalyptic: Hundreds of thousands would lose health insurance; medical debt and untreated conditions would surge; and there would be an explosion in extreme poverty, including a lot of outright hunger. ...So many of the people who voted for Donald Trump were the victims of an epic scam by a man who has built his life around scamming. In the case of West Virginians, this scam could end up pretty much destroying their state. Will they ever realize this, and admit it to themselves? More important, will they be prepared to punish him the only way they can—by voting for Democrats?"

Kelly Weill at the Daily Beast: Carrier Sends Jobs to Mexico, Workers Say Trump 'Misled' Them. "Though Trump struck a deal with Carrier promising them $7 million in local business incentives if they kept their Indianapolis plant open, the heating and cooling company warned that it would still outsource a number of Indiana jobs to Mexico, regardless. But the Trump campaign still championed the deal as a win for American workers. This week, the Carrier announced it will cut 632 jobs from its Indiana plant by the end of the year. For labor leaders like Chuck Jones, the layoffs are a grim told-you-so moment."

Important resistance item regarding the Republicans' garbage healthcare [sic] reform bill:


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We Resist: Day 126

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, May 25, 2017
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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 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Below is video, care of CNBC's Steve Kopack (and H/T to Aphra Behn) of Donald Trump at the NATO summit in Brussels today, literally shoving another NATO leader aside to get in front of the group for a photo op. After shoving him, he straightens his coat with his nose in the air like a fucking peacock. He thinks he's a goddamned king.


Which is nothing compared to this embarrassment... Brad Reed at Raw Story: 'Close to a Disaster': Foreign Policy Scholar Explains Massive Damage Done by Trump's NATO Speech.
Donald Trump on Thursday delivered a speech at NATO headquarters in which he did not explicitly endorse Article 5, which outlines a policy of collective defense among all members of the alliance.

While this might seem like a small oversight to casual observers, Brookings Institute fellow and top foreign policy scholar Tom Wright said Trump's refusal to endorse Article 5 has rendered his entire foreign policy trip a "failure."

"The White House told the NYT yesterday Trump would finally endorse Article 5," he wrote on Twitter. "The fact that he did not is astonishing and shows that someone in the White House or [Trump] himself took it out. This will come as a huge shock to NATO members."

Wright went on to say that Trump's trip can now be considered "close to a disaster" unless he explicitly fixes things by endorsing Article 5 later on Thursday. He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin "will be thrilled at Trump's refusal to endorse Article 5," which he described as "unimaginable under any other president."
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the European Union and the U.S. do not have a common position on Russia any longer:
After meeting Mr Trump earlier on Thursday, European Council President Donald Tusk said they had agreed on "many areas" but had differences over Russia.

"I'm not 100% sure we can say that we have a common position, a common opinion on Russia, although when it comes to the conflict on Ukraine we were on the same line," he said.

Mr Trump has been criticised for his admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his administration is embroiled in allegations of close ties with Russian interests.

Mr Tusk stressed the "fundamental Western values like freedom, human rights, respect for human dignity" at the heart of relations with the US.
Cool. Everything is fine. (Glad to hear we'll still have allies as long as have respect for human dignity the day after it was made public that Trump called Rodrigo Duterte a "good man.")

Speaking of Russia...

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Manu Raju and Evan Perez at CNN: Attorney General Jeff Sessions Did Not Disclose Russia Meetings in Security Clearance Form, DOJ Says. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings he had last year with Russian officials when he applied for his security clearance, the Justice Department told CNN Wednesday. Sessions, who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year, didn't note those interactions on the form, which requires him to list 'any contact' he or his family had with a 'foreign government' or its 'representatives' over the past seven years, officials said. The new information from the Justice Department is the latest example of Sessions failing to disclose contacts he had with Russian officials. He has come under withering criticism from Democrats following revelations that he did not disclose the same contacts with Kislyak during his Senate confirmation hearings earlier this year." Pattern of concealment.

Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman, and Matt Apuzzo at the New York Times: Top Russian Officials Discussed How to Influence Trump Aides Last Summer. "American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence. The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired general who was advising Mr. Trump, the officials said. Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials, who appeared confident that each could be used to help shape Mr. Trump's opinions on Russia. Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Mr. Flynn. Others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor F. Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine living in exile in Russia, who at one time had worked closely with Mr. Manafort." And Tad Devine.

Allegra Kirkland at TPM: Report: Manafort Advised Trump Camp on Russia Firestorm After Parting Ways. "As the rumors of Trump campaign staffers’ ties to Russia piled up in the days before inauguration, the team got a call offering advice from a rather unlikely source: former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Despite being forced out of his role because of his own ties to businessmen and politicians close to the Kremlin, Manafort called Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus to push back on the ballooning scandal, four people familiar with the conversation told Politico. ...The GOP operative is now one of the central figures in federal and congressional investigations into potential collusion between the Trump team and Russian operatives trying to swing the election."

By way of reminder, Manafort also hand-selected Mike Pence as Trump's running mate.

Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman at the Washington Post: 'Anyone...with a Pulse': How a Russia-Friendly Adviser Found His Way into the Trump Campaign.
As Donald Trump surged in the Republican primary polls in the early months of 2016, his outsider campaign faced growing pressure to show that the former reality-TV star and noted provocateur was forming a coherent and credible world view.

So when Carter Page, an international businessman with an office near Trump Tower, turned up at campaign headquarters, former officials recall, Trump aides were quick to make him feel welcome.

A top Trump adviser, Sam Clovis, employed what campaign aides now acknowledge was their go-to vetting process — a quick Google search — to check out the newcomer. He seemed to have the right qualifications, according to former campaign officials — head of an energy investment firm, business degree from New York University, doctorate from the University of London.

Page was in. He joined a new Trump campaign national security advisory group, and, in late March 2016, the candidate pointed to Page, among others, as evidence of a foreign policy team with gravitas.

But what the Google search had not shown was that Page had been on the FBI's radar since at least 2013, when Russian officials allegedly attempted to use him to get information about the energy business.

By the summer of 2016, Page, who had been recently named as a Trump adviser, was under surveillance by FBI agents who suspected he may have been acting as an agent of the Kremlin.

Another reminder: White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was then the RNC chief. He probably, ahem, should have been aware that the leading contender for his party's nomination was using woefully insufficient Google searches to vet campaign staff. Which brings us to our next item.

Betsy Woodruff, Lachlan Markay, and Asawin Suebsaeng at the Daily Beast: Reince Priebus Sweating Secret Comey Memos, White House Sources Say. "Comey, the former FBI director who was fired earlier this month by Trump, took detailed notes of his interactions with the president and senior Trump administration officials in order to properly document conversations that were on the verge of improper. Three White House officials told The Daily Beast that Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has privately expressed worry about a possible Comey memo specifically involving one of their reported chats, and how it might play in the press and to investigators. ...Priebus asked Comey and his then-top deputy, Andrew McCabe, on Feb. 15 to refute news reports about conversations between Trump campaign staff and Russian government officials. Comey and McCabe reportedly refused."

Sounds a lot like Priebus committed obstruction of justice, too. At best, "Priebus' private conversation with Comey could have violated longstanding FBI policy barring officials from discussing its cases with the White House." Whoooooooops.

Every one of these dudes—Trump, Pence, Flynn, Manafort, Page, Priebus—they're all up to their necks in ties to Russia during the campaign and the subsequent attempt to cover up those ties.

Oh, and then there's the little matter of Trump's ties to Russia even before the campaign.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Greg Farrell at Bloomberg: Democrats Ask Deutsche Bank to Produce Documents on Trump Family Loans. "Democratic lawmakers asked Deutsche Bank AG to hand over its findings on two politically charged matters—its banking on behalf of [Donald] Trump and trades from the bank's Moscow operation that helped move some $10 billion out of Russia. ...The lawmakers asked whether the bank's loans to Trump, made years before the New York developer ran for president, 'were guaranteed by the Russian government, or were in any way connected to Russia.'"

Yet another reminder: The last chairman of Deutsche Bank is now the chairman of the Bank of Cyprus, which has a history of helping Russian oligarchs launder their money. He was appointed chair by the Bank of Cyprus' two largest shareholders, one of whom, Viktor Vekselberg, is a business associate and personal friend of Vladimir Putin. The other is U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

It's quite a tangled cast of characters. All of whom seemed to mysteriously end up running the country after an election in which Russian interference influenced the outcome.

* * *

If Trump shoving a NATO leader wasn't enough embarrassment for one day, Michael Crowley and Tara Palmeri report at Politico that German Chancellor Angela Merkel showed Trump a map of the Soviet Union when she visited the White House to try to teach him some history: "When German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited [Donald] Trump at the White House in March, she brought a visual aid to help Trump understand the menace posed by his would-be friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Merkel brought a 1980s map of the former Soviet Union and noted the way its borders stretched for hundreds of miles to the west of Russia's current boundary, according to a source who was briefed on the meeting. The German leader's point was that Putin laments the Soviet Union's demise and, left unchecked, would happily restore its former borders. Merkel left Washington unconvinced that Trump had gotten the message, the source said."


Tarini Parti at BuzzFeed: A Top Mar-A-Lago Employee Is Quietly Doing Government Work for Trump's Foreign Trip. "A top Mar-a-Lago employee is also working for the government to help prepare for [Donald] Trump's visit to Taormina, Italy, for the G-7 Summit—an unconventional arrangement that further blurs the line between the president's business empire and the White House. Heather Rinkus, the guest reception manager at Trump's 'Winter White House,' is working with the president's advance and logistics team [and] has an official White House email and government-issued phone, two sources familiar with Rinkus's trip told BuzzFeed News. ...She is married to a twice-convicted felon, Ari Rinkus, who is known to brag about his wife's access to the president as he trawls for investors and pursues government contracts on behalf of a foreign company."

Kate Taylor at Business Insider: Tourism in the US Has Drastically Declined Since Trump Was Elected. "America's share of international tourism has dropped 16% in March, compared to the same month in 2016, according to Foursquare data released Wednesday. The decline began in October 2016, the month before the presidential election. From October to March, tourism-related traffic has fallen an average of 11% in the US, compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, tourism in the rest of the world has increased 6% year-over-year during the same period."

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