Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigns, scolding Trump over his military judgment - NBC News

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced his resignation Thursday afternoon, sending President Donald Trump a letter that implicitly criticized the president's military judgment.

In the letter, Mattis suggested Trump was not treating allies with respect and had not been "clear-eyed" about U.S. enemies.

The full article is available here

Mueller Investigation Has Earned Estimated Tens Of Millions For U.S. - Fortune

Mueller Probe Cost $25 Million So Far, Report Says. It’s Pulled in $48 Million From Tax Cheats

Though the Mueller investigation comes with a hefty price tag, it may have actually paid for its own investigation, with its probe leading to monetary estimated gains of up to $48 million for the government through the tax evasion the investigation has revealed.

Throughout the investigation, Trump has blasted the special counsel for its growing cost, but has never mentioned the evaded tax payments recouped or the asset forfeitures of Paul Manafort it has brought in.

The full article is available here

What Can We Learn From Russian spy Maria Butina's Plea Deal? A Lot - Renato Mariotti

Now that Butina will testify against him, Erickson faces what appears to be overwhelming evidence of his guilt. What did Erickson tell GOP leaders, NRA leaders, GOP operatives and others when he was connecting them with a Russian spy?

Russian spy Maria Butina pleaded guilty to conspiring to secretly work as a Russian agent within the United States. As part of her plea, Butina and federal prosecutors agreed on the facts that proved her guilt, and they are shocking.

Butina admitted that she - along with her former paramour and partner - longtime Republican operative Paul Erickson - drafted a proposal in Russian called "Description of the Diplomacy Project" that suggested Russia could use "unofficial channels of communication" to build relations with the Republican Party.

In the proposal, Butina claimed that she had been introduced to Republican Party leaders as "an unofficial representative" of Russian official Alexander Torshin, who sat at a dinner table with . Donald Trump Jr. at the 2016 NRA convention. Butina also famously met now-President Donald Trump at the 2015 NRA Convention.

Now that Butina will testify against him, Erickson faces what appears to be overwhelming evidence of his guilt. Indeed, Erickson received a target letter. That means that federal prosecutors intend to indict him.

What did Erickson tell GOP leaders, NRA leaders, GOP operatives and others when he was connecting them with a Russian spy? Those conversations will be of very great interest to federal prosecutors because they might reveal others who also acted as Russian agents.

The full article is available here

Trump Would Be "Proud" To Shutdown Government If Wall Isn't Funded - New York Times

Even as both Schumer and Pelosi kept warning him that the conversation needed to be in private, Trump got himself so worked up that by the end of the meeting he was boasting of his willingness to shut down the government if his wall isn't funded by Congress.

During a televised sit down with Democratic congressional leaders, Nancy Pelosi’s insistence that President Trump doesn’t have the votes in the House for a border wall seemed to set him off.  He proceeded to interrupt the likely House Speaker 15 times.

Even as both Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi kept warning him that the conversation needed to be in private, Trump got himself so worked up over the need for his conception of border security that by the end of the meeting he was boasting of his willingness to shut down the government.

Trump wants Congress to fund the construction of his border wall project.  

In the event during which he launched his presidential campaign in June of 2015, Trump famously stated:

"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall."

The full article is available here

U.S. Conservative Movement Closely Mirrors Putin's Modus Operandi - Jared Yates Sexton

The reason Russia invested in and manipulated the U.S. Right is because they followed the same game-plan; nostalgic, populist rhetoric that concealed an agenda to further enrich the wealthy.

The United States' conservative movement closely mirrors the Russian movement that empowered Putin and the style of politics and manipulation Trump employs closely mirrors Putin's. The conservative Right in this country is flooded with Russian money and influence.

Regardless of whether you believe in collusion or not, this is what's going on. Either modern Republicans are following the same trend as Putin's ascent in Russia ... or else Russia has actively cultivated and exported their political movement to the U.S.

So, if you believe the former - that U.S. Republicans have just mirrored their culture from Russia - then you have to believe it's just a giant coincidence that Russia obviously invested in and manipulated them and then ALSO believe they failed to have an influence.

The reason Russia invested in and manipulated the U.S. Right is because they followed the same game-plan; nostalgic, populist rhetoric that concealed an agenda to further enrich the wealthy.

The full article is available here

Maria Butina, Accused Russian Agent Who Infiltrated NRA/National Prayer Breakfast, Reaches Plea Deal - ABC News

Butina's friend Aleksander Torshin - the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, met with Donald Trump Jr in May 2016. Her partner Conservative operative Paul Erickson set up the meeting, suggesting that the convention could serve as a point of “first contact” between Trump and Russia and that “Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump.”

The government has alleged Butina was introduced to having influence U.S. politics, including high-ranking members of the National Rifle Association and organizers of the National Prayer Breakfast, that would ultimately give her a surprising level of access to conservative politicians, including — in one memorable interaction captured on video — to then-candidate Donald Trump.

Butina has acknowledged that, with conservative operative Paul Erickson, she drafted a proposal called “Description of the Diplomacy Project” in March of 2015 which was later sent to the Russian Official, in which she said that she had already “laid the groundwork for an unofficial channel of communication with the next U.S. administration.”  The Russian Official, the agreement said, confirmed that her proposal would be at least partially supported.

Butina's friend Aleksander Torshin - the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, met with Donald Trump Jr in May 2016.

Butina's partner Conservative operative Paul Erickson set up the meeting, suggesting that the convention could serve as a point of “first contact” between Trump and Russia and that “Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump.”

The full article is available here 

It Seems There’s Nothing Terrible Trump Can Do That Will Change Some Supporters’ Minds - Jeff Wiersma

It seems that there are a significant amount of Trump supporters who will never make an ethical and moral stand and stop supporting Trump, regardless of what he does. 

A lot of ink has been used up by people attempting to assess and analyze why Donald Trump, despite plainly being an incompetent and malevolent disaster as POTUS, holds a certain sway over his ardent supporters.

But that doesn't mean I won't chime in.

In March 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump bragged that he could “stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody” and “not lose any voters.”

Besides the fact that bragging about something that terrible is the domain of a sociopath, I took this statement to be simply more of Trump’s trademark narcissistic, bellicose exaggeration.

But some 33 months later, with his approval rating among his base of support remaining steady despite Trump ...

• bragging about committing sexual assault 
• using white nationalist anti-Semitic rhetoric 
• making abhorrent misogynistic remarks 
• committing treason for Putin 
• mocking gold star families 
• mocking sexual assault victims 
• denying his part in fomenting right wing domestic terrorism 
• showing sympathy to neo-Nazi’s 
• supporting pedophile Roy Moore’s senate campaign 
• name-calling and seeking to undermine our closest allies 
• repeatedly expressing admiration for murderous dictators 
• paying off several adult film stars for adultery committed on his 3rd wife 
• separating children from their parents at the U.S./Mexico border 
• colluding with a hostile foreign dictator 
• and countless other acts that would have been nearly fatal for any other POTUS ... 

... I’m afraid that rather than just bellicose exaggeration, his March 2016 assertion was prescient.

It seems that there are a significant amount of Trump supporters who will never make an ethical and moral stand and stop supporting Trump, regardless of what he does.

It’s as stupefying as it is disconcerting.

How Michael Cohen's plea deal fits into Mueller's probe - Politico

Cohen kept discussing the Moscow project for longer than he’d admitted and asked Trump about the possibility of traveling to Russia in connection with the "Moscow Project."

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty on Thursday to lying to Congress about his role in negotiating a failed deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign.

This directly contradicts Donald Trump Jr.'s September 2017 testimony to Congress that his family's real estate negotiations with Russians concluded without result "at the end" of 2014.

Here’s how Cohen’s guilty plea fits into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Cohen, who’s cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, kept discussing the Moscow project for longer than he’d admitted and asked Trump about the possibility of traveling to Russia “in connection with the Moscow Project.” And Cohen spoke at least once with the personal assistant to Dmitri Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, according to Mueller.

Contrary to Cohen’s claim that the Trump Organization had abandoned the potential deal by January 2016, Cohen and Felix Sater - a Russian immigrant and a former broker for the Trump Organization - were still talking about getting Russian government approval for the project “as late as approximately June 2016.”

Cohen discussed the project with Trump more than the three times he’d claimed and also briefed Trump family members on the project.

Trump has said repeatedly that he has no business ties to Russia. “I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” he tweeted days before his inauguration.

The full article is available here

U.S. Federal Law About Seeking Asylum - Politifact

https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum

Asylum seekers must be within the United States to apply for the protection.

Asylum may be granted to individuals who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

U.S. law says that in general, "any alien who is physically present in the United States, or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum."

The key takeaway from the preceding paragraph is the phrase "physically present in the United States, or who arrives in the United States ..."  Therefore, asylum claims must be made within the United States.

A U.S. consulate or embassy is clearly outside the U.S., so you can’t apply for asylum at a U.S. consulate or embassy," said Stephen H. Legomsky, an emeritus professor at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis who served as chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2011 to 2013.

The full article is available here

2018 Midterms: Slide Into Oligarchy Stopped, For Now - Historian Heather Cox Richardson

It seems we have woken up just in time to make the next few years a full-out contest for the survival of our democracy.

Until Tuesday, many of us have seen the signs of rising oligarchy in the U.S. and worried that that our fellow citizens would ignore it until it was too late to stop. Now, it seems, we have woken up just in time to make the next few years a full-out contest for the survival of our democracy.

The midterm election is only a stay. It is not the triumph of U.S. democracy it could have been.

Unfortunately, because of gerrymandering, by which Republicans have cut extreme districts that favor themselves, Democrats will pick up only 27 seats despite their popular strength. A majority of voters – by a large margin – rejects the Republican party, but the party has rigged the system to retain power.

Republican leaders are acting precisely as Democratic slave owners did in the 1850's, when they saw a growing majority turn against them.

As then, leaders are packing the courts as fast as they possibly can to try to rig the laws in their favor. They are trying to retain power by tearing the citizenry in two and setting them at each other’s throats.

Taking away their control of the House of Representatives was a victory for democracy.

The full article is available here

White Nationalist Leader Just Posted Pics From White House Visit - Daily Beast

The leader of the white nationalist group Identity Evropa - whose members marched in the August 2017 Charlottesville white supremacist rally - visited the Trump White House, according to pics he posted online.

The group’s motto, "You will not replace us," refers to the racist conspiracy theory that non-white groups are intent on eliminating white Americans.

Sources tell The Daily Beast he could not have reached the location by himself or on a tour.

This triumphant social media posting underscores the degree to which the president has become a magnet for white nationalists, even as he seeks to downplay his ties to them.

The pictures from Casey’s White House visit were tweeted on the same day that President Donald Trump held a press conference in which he bristled when a reporter questioned whether his embrace of “nationalism” encouraged white nationalists.

Trump responded by claiming that the question itself was “racist.”

The reporter who asked the question, PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor, is African American.

The full article is available here

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Shares Doctored InfoWars Video Of Jim Acosta Incident

Trump Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted out a doctored video, originating from an editor at InfoWars, of a testy interchange between President Trump and CNN reporter Jim Acosta during a post-election press conference.

Sanders shared the video in an attempt to justify the White House's decision to revoke CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press credentials.

The video quite obviously appears to have been altered. Some frames look to be sped up and others slowed down to make Acosta's physical actions seem more aggressive than they were in reality - as evidenced when viewing numerous videos captured by multiple news outlets in the room.

The full article is available here

Deceased Republican Brothel Owner Wins Nevada State Assembly Seat - Reuters

A brothel-owning, Pro-Trump, evangelical Christian-backed Republican candidate - who died last month - won his race for the Nevada state legislature late on Tuesday, according to state election officials.

Dennis Hof defeated Democratic candidate and educator Lesia Romanov in the race for Nevada’s 36th Assembly District, earning about 68% of the vote. County officials said they would appoint a replacement candidate from the same party for his seat.

The full article is available here

Thoughts on 2018 Midterms - Jeff Wiersma

I had hoped for (1) a more significant repudiation of white nationalism and (2) Democratic control of the Senate, but Trump now being subject to some kind of oversight is a big deal.

Democrats elected a diverse variety of candidates. Republicans re-elected a neo-Nazi groupie (Steve King, IA) and a race-baiter indicted for misusing campaign funds (Duncan Hunter, CA).

Far-Right Internet Groups Listen for Trump’s Approval, and Often Hear It - NY Times

As President Trump and his allies have waged a fear-based campaign to drive Republican voters to the polls, far-right internet communities have been buoyed in recent weeks as their once-fringe views have been given oxygen.

Right-wing extremists — a catchall category for a messy constellation of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, crypto-fascists, nihilists and attention-seeking trolls — vary widely in style and ideology.

What they have in common is a feeling of empowerment — a sense that the boundaries of acceptable speech are widening in the Trump era, and a suspicion that when they talk, Mr. Trump, or those with access to him, may be listening.

The full article is available here

When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

“When President Trump calls old friends on one of his unsecured iPhones, U.S. intelligence reports indicate that Chinese spies are often listening.

Mr. Trump’s aides have repeatedly warned him that his cellphone calls are not secure, and they have told him that Russian spies are routinely eavesdropping on the calls, as well. But aides say the president has still refused to give up his iPhones."

The full article is available here

Trump: "I'm A Nationalist, Not A Globalist" = Not Good For Democracy

President Trump openly identifies himself as a nationalist, calls for the jailing of his political opponents, puts children in cages, mocks the disabled and rape victims, attacks the free press and cozies up to dictators, while the Republicans who control Congress stand idly by.

Nationalism is NOT patriotism. Real patriotism involves strengthening our democracy, defending the ideals we share in common, and protecting the rights of all. Nationalism is rooted in fear and division. We must reject it.

Citation: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/412649-trump-you-know-what-i-am-im-a-nationalist

Global “War on Drugs” Terrible at Eradicating Drugs, But Great at Upending Societies: Report

International group calls for a major rethink of global policy on narcotics and an end to the failed efforts that governments refuse to relinquish.

Another major study designed to assess how national governments wage their so-called "war on drugs" shows that the last tens years of such policies have not only failed to put a dent in the illegal drug trade, the tactics have had serious negative impacts for global health, human rights, public safety and economic progress.

Moreover, current drug policies are a serious obstacle to other social and economical objectives. The “war on drugs” has resulted in millions of people murdered, disappeared, or internally displaced.

The full article is available here

Melania Caught In Lie About " I Really Don't Care" Jacket

1. At the time, her office vehemently denied she wore it intentionally. She just proved that they weren’t telling the truth.
2. Wearing it while going to visit children separated from their parents isn’t just naive or tone deaf; it’s downright insulting and inhumane.
3. It’s not just “left wing” media that criticizes her. Plenty of mainstream media does too, as well as some principled conservative journalists.

The full article is available here

Trump cites Saudi arms deal with U.S. to downplay apparent murder of journalist

"Trump’s financial relationship with Saudi Arabia goes beyond arms sales. As the Washington Post reported in August, the Saudi regime has been pumping money directly into Trump’s pockets through his hotels.”

Trump admits he doesn't want to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for dissident journalist's (who was a permanent U.S. resident) apparent murder by Saudi Arabia’s regime ... because the U.S. makes too much money from arms sales to the Saudi’s (including weapons being used to committee atrocities and exacerbate a humanitarian in Yemen).

It ALMOST like he’s ok with journalists being attacked and harmed 🤔

The full article is available here

EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler Engaged With Racist, Conspiratorial Posts On Social Media

“Trump’s EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler engaged with racist and conspiratorial right wing posts on social media. He has brushed off his interactions with a Pizzagater and said he doesn’t remember liking a racist picture of the Obamas.”

This kind of nonsense seems to be a feature of the Trump administration, not a bug.

The full article is available here

Kremlin created a fake ‘manspreading’ video — and conservative media in the US helped it go viral

“Conservative media in the U.S. - including The Blaze (founded by Glenn Beck), The Daily Wire (founded by Ben Shapiro) - helped spread a Russian-created fake video against ‘manspreading’ that resulted in a misogynistic backlash against women.”

U.S. conservative media continues to be an easy mark for Russian psy ops.

The full article is available here

The Truth About False Rape Accusations - BBC News

Over the past 20 years, only 2-10% of rape accusations are proven to be fake, argue the authors of a 2010 US study.

Official figures suggest the number of rapes and sexual assaults which are never even reported or prosecuted far outweighs the number of men convicted of rape because of fake accusations.

We should be skeptical of the notion that it is common for women to say they've been sexually abused when they haven't.

It's not.

The full article is available here

“We Need to Destroy the Republican Party”: A Conservative Luminary Calls for a Clean Start

Best-selling author and conservative columnist Max Boot discusses his realizations that ‬the GOP has been using racism as campaigning technique since Nixon, that the Iraq War was wrong and he was wrong about it, and how Trumpism is a cancer that needs to be defeated by straight-ticket voting for Democrats.

The full article is available here

Poland’s right-wing government is rewriting history — with itself as hero - Washington Post

In his recent speech at the United Nations, President Donald Trump said, “In Poland the great people are standing up for their independence, their security, and their sovereignty."

You read that correctly. The President of the United States was cheering a far right regime that is systematically attacking democracy in Poland.

The full article is available here 

Kavanaugh Thinks It’s Okay to Perform Elective Surgery on People Without Their Consent - Talk Poverty

As a Judge in D.C. Circuit Court, [SCOTUS nominee] Kavanaugh argued that people with disabilities could be forced to undergo elective surgeries, INCLUDING ABORTION, without their consent.

The full article is available here

U.S. is denying passports to Americans along the border, throwing their citizenship into question - Washington Post

“In some cases, passport applicants WITH OFFICIAL U.S. BIRTH CERTIFICATES are being jailed in immigration detention centers and entered into deportation proceedings.”

The full article is available here

Our Modern Minds Are Coarsened, Yet There Is Reason For Hope - Kirk J Schneider

Too many of us have become calculative and consumerist giants but emotional and imaginative dwarfs, steely and impenetrable, but bereft of nuance, attunement, and depth;  and this is precisely our dilemma.

Lots of caring, thoughtful people are looking at the current state of the world, wringing their hands asking “how in the world we got here?”

Perhaps the more accurate question is “Why, given our mercantile-materialist past, shouldn’t we have gotten here?” 

In his 1978 book The Illusion of Technique, public philosopher William Barrett forewarned of the damage being done through our reliance on devices - rather than people - to solve our moral predicaments; and we should have paid more attention.

Today we are stained with the legacy of our civilization falling under the spell of a “machine model for living.”  This model emphasized efficiency (or what many called efficiency): speed, instant results, appearance and packaging; and it lured millions to the marketplace–or killing fields.

The result however was anything but “efficient” in the larger sense.

We created ease and convenience, to be sure.  But the advances were largely external - relegated to how fast we drove, how quickly we ate, how many gadgets we owned or people we manipulated; but our interior life, our capacity to feel and reflect and communicate was left bereft.

The result is that, today, too many of us have become calculative and consumerist giants but emotional and imaginative dwarfs, steely and impenetrable, but bereft of nuance, attunement, and depth; and this is precisely our dilemma.
                                                                                                                      ...

From my standpoint as a psychologist, there are two likely outcomes issuing from this dilemma: 

1. our citizenry will devolve into drone-like functionaries, programmed for elemental self-interest, or ...
   
2. we will confront the moral crisis of our time - the quick fix/instant results society - and engage our abilities to be more fully present, both to ourselves and those about us. 

The type of engagement in the latter will take time–more like what we see consistently in psychotherapeutic settings, but it will help us see each other as complex human beings; persons both unique and yet alike.

The full article is available here

What's Driving The Migration Crisis At Our Southern Border? WBUR

“As long as the root causes - including the major role the U.S. has and continues to play in the region’s pervasive violence, terror and systemic poverty - are not addressed, Central Americans will continue to flee and make the perilous trek north.”

Relatively little reporting has focused on the reasons why thousands of Central Americans are fleeing their homes in the first place.

As long as the root causes - including the major role the U.S. has and continues to play in the region’s pervasive violence, terror and systemic poverty - are not addressed, Central Americans will continue to flee and make the perilous trek north.

Legacy of U.S. intervention
The factors causing this migration are both historical and recent, but a persistent thread is the legacy of U.S. intervention. The U.S. was heavily involved in supporting the military, right-wing government and death squads in the civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador during the 1980’s and 1990’s, which killed 200,000 and 75,000 respectively.

The Rise of Gangs
The legacy of the civil conflicts in Central America and the massive displacement they caused have contributed to the rise of criminal gangs.  Today, high murder rates in the Northern Triangle are blamed on a war between two rival gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, both of which have their roots in the U.S. Because of government corruption, severe poverty and lack of opportunities, conditions were ripe for this exported gang culture to proliferate.

Political, social, and economic volatility
While home invasions, sexual assault, kidnapping, drug trafficking and petty crime levels are high, police forces are inadequately funded, trained and equipped. Government corruption and collusion means that the vast majority of crimes are not prosecuted.

Damaging trade agreements

Another factor driving the high rates of migration is the presence of transnational corporations and the trade agreements that facilitate their activities, include sweatshop economies which deny living wages to their workers.

To make matters worse, U.S. immigration policies continue to exacerbate all the factors driving people to leave the region.  As U.S. citizens, we need to be better informed about our own country's contribution to this ongoing exodus and demand that their elected officials end the U.S. role in unfair trade practices, repressive regimes and border policies.

The full article is available here

Reporting on "Medicare for All" Makes Media Forget How Math Works - Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting

Missing from neagtive headlines about the "Medicare For All" plan was the fact that it's projected to cost $2.1 trillion less than projections of spending under the current US healthcare system.

“Medicare for All,” a federally funded universal healthcare plan championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont–Ind.), has quickly become a key issue for progressive voters evaluating Democratic Party candidates for the 2018 midterm elections and the 2020 presidential race.

A study projected that Sanders’ Medicare for All system, assuming it was enacted in 2022, would cost the federal government a whopping $32.6 trillion in excess spending over the course of 10 years.

Missing from the negative headlines about this plan was an important point in Blahous’ study: In terms of total (federal, state and private) spending on healthcare, Sanders’ Medicare for All plan is actually projected to cost $2.1 trillion less than projections of spending under the current US healthcare system.

And, of course, the media chorus complaining about how much a program like Medicare for All adds to the federal debt fades to a whimper when it comes to enacting trillion-dollar tax cuts for the rich, providing billions in corporate welfare, or for continuing to fight endless and fruitless overseas wars with America’s $700 billion–a–year military budget.

The full article is available here

Dinesh D’Souza’s Fraudulent 'Death Of A Nation' - AV Club Review

To thoroughly unpack the falsehoods, rhetorical sleights of hand, goalpost shifting, and general bad-faith arguments would require a monograph. 

Fresh off his presidential pardon from Trump for a campaign-finance violation, D’Souza is angrier than ever - but still up to his usual practice of rearranging standard right-wing talking points into startlingly illogical new configurations in his film Death Of A Nation.

To thoroughly unpack the falsehoods, rhetorical sleights of hand, goalpost shifting, and general bad-faith arguments would require a monograph.

One example will suffice: To prove that Hitler wasn’t a “right-winger” but truly belongs to the left, D’Souza notes that the dictator is often deemed right-wing because he’s perceived as homophobic. (Well, yes.)

But in fact, that’s incorrect, because Hitler tolerated homosexuals in the brownshirts as long as they were good fighters; ergo, he wasn’t homophobic, and by extension he’s not right-wing.

Beyond the ridiculousness of the claim, D’Souza either missed the logical conclusion of his own argument—that to be right-wing is to be homophobic—or hopes the audience doesn’t clock the trap he’s set for himself.

That’s typical of D’Souza’s whirlwind barrage of assertions: One minute we’re learning that FDR thought of Mussolini as a kindred spirit, the next that the Nazi party program sounds like it was jointly written by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders because it has a healthcare plank.

The full article is available here

Trump & Sessions Ignored Warning Of Psychological Harm To Children With Zero Tolerance Policy - PBS News Hour

“Jonathan White of Health & Human Services warned President Trump & AG Jeff Sessions about ‘significant risk of harm’ & ‘psychological injury’ to children affected by their new zero tolerance border policy ... and was ignored.”

The full article is available here

New Study connects U.S. Citizen Racial/Cultural Intolerance & Support For Authoritarianism

A new study finds a correlation between U.S. citizen’s racial and cultural intolerance, and support for authoritarian rule.  The data shows that when intolerant U.S. citizens fear that democracy may benefit marginalized people groups, they abandon their commitment to democracy.

The growing concentration of racially and culturally intolerant voters in the Republican Party has created a party whose workings appear less and less committed to a democratic society.

When faced with a choice between bigotry and democracy, too many U.S. citizens are embracing the first while abandoning the second.
The full article is available here

Cohen Tape: Further Evidence Trump Committed 'Felony Campaign Finance Violation'

A secret payment to keep an alleged affair quiet, designed to help the Trump campaign and not properly disclosed, violates federal campaign finance laws. Because the amount exceeded $25,000, it would be punishable as a felony (as was the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels). 

In the unwieldy tape, Cohen and Trump appear to be discussing plans to set up a shell company to buy the rights to story of Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who alleges she had an affair with Trump.

The story was purchased by American Media Inc. (AMI)—the parent company of the National Enquirer—for $150,000.  (The Enquirer never ran the story, a fact that many argue strongly suggests that the tabloid killed it at Trump's behest).

Cohen's tape appears to contradict repeated claims by the president's team that Trump had no knowledge of any payments to silence McDougal.

Lawmakers and ethics experts argued that the newly released audio provides evidence of a serious campaign finance violation.

Journalist David Atkins said, "On the tape, Cohen and Trump are discussing a conspiracy to repay a tabloid owner for buying and shelving a story by the candidate's mistress. Which is not only a major scandal, but a felony campaign finance violation."

The full article is available here

Did My Family Really Come “Legally”? - Today’s Immigration Laws Created a New Reality

Until the late 19th century, there was very little federal regulation of immigration—there were virtually no laws to break.

Today’s laws require that potential immigrants be closely related to qualified U.S. citizens or permanent residents, have employment offers from U.S. employers, or qualify as refugees.

Today’s laws would have effectively restricted many of our families that immigrated before the passage of those laws from coming legally to the United States.

Until the late 19th century, there was very little federal regulation of immigration—there were virtually no laws to break. The U.S. was a growing, increasingly industrialized nation that needed workers, and immigration was “encouraged and virtually unfettered."

When many families arrived in the United States, there were no numerical limitations on immigration, no requirements to have an existing family or employment relationship with someone in the country, and no requirement to obtain a visa prior to arriving.

Before the 20th century, there was virtually no bureaucracy responsible for enforcing immigration laws. The first numerical caps on immigration and limitations on Europeans were not established until the 1920s—after the great wave of immigration to the United States.

Acknowledging the large numbers of Europeans in the United States without proper authorization, the 1929 Registry Act allowed “honest law-abiding alien[s] who may be in the country under some merely technical irregularity” to register as permanent residents for a fee of $20 if they could prove they had lived in the country since 1921 and were of “good moral character.” 

The full article is available here

Alleged Russian Spy Was Working to Infiltrate Religious Right As Well As Gun Groups

Why would Russian espionage efforts target the US Christian Right?  Well, the affection with which some Christian right figures hold Russia and specifically the LGBTQ-persecuting policies of Putin is hardly a secret.

(For more on how the National Prayer Breakfast was the perfect shady venue for Russians to connect with the NRA and Trump, head here)

In 2015, alleged Russian spy Butina and her associate, U.S. political operative Paul Erickson, appeared on the radio show of conservative evangelical superstar (and big-time Trump promoter) Eric Metaxas to discuss gun rights and religious freedom — topics that are strangely congruent in the conservative Christian circles in which all these birds flew.

But why would Russian espionage efforts target the US Christian Right?  Well, the affection with which some Christian right figures hold Russia and specifically the LGBTQ-persecuting policies of Putin is hardly a secret.

Putin’s evangelical fan club includes some pretty big names, like conservative Evangelical leader Franklin Graham, National Organization for Marriage leader Brian Brown, and American Family Association spokesperson Bryan Fischer.

In almost every case it has been his distinctive combination of homophobia and Islamophobia that has made Putin popular with those men. The cultural conservative preference for authoritarian moralism is echoed to the former KGB officer who has revived Russia’s pre-communist tradition of militantly authoritarian Christianity.

The full article is available here

"Totalitarianism For Christ:" How National Prayer Breakfast Plays Into Indictment Of Alleged Russian Spy

The National Prayer Breakfast is organized by "The Family," a powerful and secretive Washington DC lobby that pursues what they've described as "totalitarianism for Christ." The Family frequently uses the National Prayer Breakfast, and the week surrounding it, as a means of back-channel engagement with lobbyists and foreign governments that organizers feel share its “strongman” approach, without formal government oversight.

Maria Butina, a Russian graduate student at American University and gun rights activist, was arrested and accused of “acting as an agent for a foreign government.”

One of the most striking elements of Butina’s case was the venue she allegedly chose to exert influence: the National Prayer Breakfast. At the 2016 and 2017 events, Butina allegedly met with unnamed American officials and “very influential” Russians, and seems to have successfully attempted to broker meetings between figures in these groups.

The National Prayer Breakfast is organized by "The Family," also known as "C Street." It is a powerful right wing organization that claims to be Christian, but who have an erroneous view of Jesus as the ideal “strongman,” an idea they've also referred to as "Totalitarianism For Christ."  (The founders of this group were great admirers of the European Fascism of the 1930's).

In strongman-sympathetic President Trump, The Family has found an ideal vessel for their beliefs.

The Family frequently uses the National Prayer Breakfast, and the week surrounding it, as a backdoor recruiting and diplomacy tool, often using the events around the breakfast as a means of back-channel engagement with lobbyists and foreign governments that organizers feel share its “strongman” approach, without formal government oversight.

The Family's distorted belief that Jesus was a strongman guides their understanding that if you're in power, it's because God puts you there. Their efforts to work with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin are going on in the context of a growing U.S. Christian Right admiration for Putin over the past decade. 

The full article is available here

Authoritarianism Making A Comeback In West. Here's the time-tested way to defeat it - The Guardian

Authoritarians' tactics require the consent of large numbers of people.
The first lesson, then, is not to obey in advance.

Modern authoritarians rely on repression, intimidation, corruption and co-optation to consolidate their power. Good citizens will then ask: "but what should we do?" History provides an answer: civil resistance.

Civil resistance works by separating the authoritarian ruler from pillars of support, including economic elites, security forces, and government workers. It attracts diverse groups in society, whose collective defiance and stubbornness eventually elicits power shifts.

Unarmed civilians using petitions, boycotts, strikes, and other nonviolent methods have been able to slow, disrupt and even halt authoritarianism. Civil resistance has been twice as effective as armed struggle.

The dictator’s handbook mastered by Orban in Hungary, Erdogan in Turkey, Maduro in Venezuela, Putin in Russia, Zuma in South Africa, Duterte in the Philippines (and being flirted with by Trump in the US) provides the traditional tactics:

• attack journalists 
• blame dissent on foreigners and “paid protestors” 
• scapegoat minorities and vulnerable groups 
• weaken checks on power 
• reward loyalists 
• use paramilitaries 
• reduce politics to a question of friends and enemies, us and them.

The full article is available here

If Trump Really Meant "Make America Great Again" - Jeff Wiersma

Clarity About News-Unreliability of Fox - Heather Cox Richardson

Watch the opinion programming on Fox "News" Channel if you want, but recognize that it is not informed by facts or real investigations; it is designed purely to hold audiences by ginning up outrage.

If someone is repeating a story that seems crazy - it probably is, and you would be crazy to believe it.

The full article is available here

Illegal Immigration Does Not Increase Violent Crime, 4 Studies Show - NPR

Motivated by Trump's rhetoric, social scientists set out to answer this question: Are undocumented immigrants more likely to break the law? 

4 academic studies show that illegal immigration does not increase the prevalence of violent crime or drug or alcohol use.

Michael Light, a criminologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, looked at whether the soaring increase in illegal immigration over the last three decades caused a commensurate jump in violent crimes: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

"Increased undocumented immigration since 1990 has not increased violent crime over that same time period," Light said
The full article is available here

The Tired Trope of Blaming Trump on ‘Liberal Smugness’ - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

The “liberal smugness” op-ed press narrative - rather than acknowledging that sexism and racism remain very real and pernicious phenomena in our society - treat the words as mere insults that the left manipulatively and indiscriminately lobs at conservatives for almost every little thing they do.

In an attempt to understand the coalition that gave Trump his narrow 2016 election victory, for the past year and a half the press has spun a whole new subgenre of stilted, tautological feature reporting on how Trump supporters support Trump.

They have routinely given platforms to those who claim, with little to no firm evidence, that Trump’s election and his steady (though historically low) popularity (as well as his predicted eventual reelection) are all partly if not wholly the fault of liberal smugness and left-wing political correctness run amok.

The proof presented in these arguments is routinely shot through with logical holes that go unaddressed. Rather than acknowledging that sexism and racism remain very real and pernicious phenomena in our society, these op-eds typically treat the words as mere insults that the left manipulatively and indiscriminately lobs at conservatives for almost every little thing they do.

Might “liberal condescension” just be a convenient fig leaf for hardened, motivated reasoning from an older, white demographic that is already heavily predisposed to like Trump, regardless of what liberals say? You won’t find any answers to legitimate questions like that here or elsewhere in these feckless claims.

Time and again, any underlying racism or discriminatory policies cited by liberals are treated as mere pretense to stigmatize those on the right. This manifests itself in almost absurdly reductive ways.

A University of Maryland working paper that studied reactions to the 2016 election cast doubt on the premise of liberal shaming driving conservatives further toward the right. As it noted, there was no statistically significant evidence of a backlash by conservative voters when confronted with liberal critiques of Trump being racist.

In fact, the paper found that conservative racial animus in response to liberal election messaging was rooted in pre-existing biases, which is why those same conservatives also rejected claims of Trump’s racism that came from Republicans.

The full article is available here

What To Know About Families Separated By New Trump "Zero Tolerance" Policy - World Relief's Matthew Soerens

While children and parents have sometimes been separated under past administrations, the Trump administration's new "zero tolerance" policy is dramatically increasing these instances.

The Trump administration is not taking into account the effect of such prosecutions on vulnerable children. So children who arrived with one or both parents are being classified as “unaccompanied” once their parents are charged and detained. They are then processed in the same way as a child who arrives at the border without any parent.  

On May 7, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new “zero tolerance” policy to criminally charge anyone caught seeking to enter the United States without proper documentation—even in cases when the individual or families are seeking asylum.

In every other administration, the Department of Justice has exercised prosecutorial discretion, criminally charging those entering improperly in some cases, but also taking into account the effect of such prosecutions on vulnerable children.  Chief of Staff John Kelly has said this new policy of separating children is designed to serve as a deterrent from those who would consider coming to the US.

Since children cannot be criminally charged when their parents are, this policy inherently means that children—even very small children—are being taken from their parents. According to recent testimony from an official with US Customs and Border Protection, during just the first two weeks of this new policy, 638 parents were prosecuted, affecting 658 children. While children and parents have sometimes been separated under past administrations, this new policy is dramatically increasing these instances.

These children, who arrived with one or both parents, are then classified as “unaccompanied” once their parents are charged and detained. They are then processed in the same way as a child who arrives at the border without any parent.

The new “zero tolerance” policy, which is leading to children being separated from their parents and classified as “unaccompanied,” will likely mean a significant increase in the number of children being transferred to the custody of Health and Human Services and in need of a sponsor. This increases the possibility for unintentional trauma for children who are already fleeing violence or the threat of violence in their home countries.


Under the Trump Administration, the US Refugee Resettlement Program has dramatically reduced the admission of refugees to the US from almost all countries. In 2018, the U.S. is on track to receive only about 22% as many individual as in 2016. Arrivals from almost all countries of origin, including those from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, are down significantly. And the Central American Migrant parole program has been terminated altogether.

With far less hope of a safe, legal option to seek refuge, more desperate families facing threats of violence in their home country feel there is no choice but to seek to arrive unlawfully—only to be separated from their family if they make it.

The full article is available here

No links between Ritalin and school shootings, as NRA's Oliver North claimed - Politifact

Politifact "found no evidence to back up the idea that ADHD medication was behind school shootings or that "many" shooters had been on Ritalin."

The National Rifle Association’s new president, Oliver North, deflected attention off guns and onto medication in the wake of the latest school shooting.

North said, "They have been drugged in many cases … many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten."

The overprescription of ADHD medication has been the subject of heavy debate. For the record, we found no evidence that the suspected Texas shooter was diagnosed with ADHD, or prescribed Ritalin.

More broadly and to North’s point, we found no evidence to back up the idea that ADHD medication was behind school shootings or that "many" shooters had been on Ritalin.

A minor percentage of school shooters studied had been medicated, not "many." The notion that many have specifically been on the drug Ritalin since kindergarten has no factual basis. More broadly, causation has never been established between the medication and violence.

The full article is available here

The Irrational Fear of Islamic Terrorism in U.S. - Jeremy Henzell-Thomas in Tikkun Magazine

The actual threat to the US ‘homeland’ of terrorist groups like Islamic State has been consistently magnified wildly out of proportion by US media.  Anti-Islamic prejudice about terrorism has become a narrative fallacy - a flawed story that shapes our views of the world and expectations of the future.

The inflated, irrational fear of Islamic Terrorism has reached a stage in our national consciousness where it has become an identifiable pathology, whose main symptoms are irrational prejudice, a constant feeling of threat, and an incapacitating sense of isolation.

Adam Johnson, a contributing analyst for FAIR.org (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), has contended that the actual threat to the US ‘homeland’ of terrorist groups like Islamic State has been ‘consistently magnified wildly out of proportion by US media.

Johnson cites many examples brought to light by FAIR over the years of how the media unfairly reserve the word ‘terrorism’ overwhelmingly for political violence leveled by Muslims.

A couple of pieces of data illustrate how people in the U.S. aren't interested in anything other than having their existing biases about Muslims confirmed.

* When you look at the majority of terrorist attacks in the United States, according to the FBI, the majority of domestic U.S. terror attacks are actually committed by white, male Christians. When those things occur, we don’t suspect other people who are from the same faith tradition and ethnicity of condoning them. We assume that these things outrage them just as much as they do anyone else. And we have to afford this same assumption of innocence to Muslims.’ 

* Ever since 9/11, the vast majority of Muslims have been continually repeating that they oppose violent extremism. Despite this, anti-Muslim prejudice has only increased to the point where it is now mainstream in U.S. society.

Anti-Islamic prejudice about terrorism has become a narrative fallacy - a flawed story that shapes our views of the world and expectations of the future.  Reiterated in political discourse and the media, it has become embedded and cemented to the point of being impervious to modification.  It has become the conditioned mindset and bigoted attitude of foreclosed minds.

The full article is available here

Trump's Fox & Friends Meltdown & House Republican's Attempt To Repeal Logan Act - Heather Cox Richardson

Trump and some of his people are afraid they are about to get outed as conspirators with Russian interests.

There was lots of mud in the water last week, but to my mind, the most notable things were Trump's meltdown when he called in to Fox & Friends on Thursday, and the next day's recommendation of the House Intelligence Committee that Congress repeal the Logan Act.

Taken together, they seem to me a pretty clear signal that Trump and some of his people are afraid they are about to get outed as conspirators with Russian interests, at least during the transition if not before.

The recommendation for repealing the Logan Act, coming from a committee that has been advocating for the president since the beginning, says more to me even than Trump's terrible habit of blurting out whatever is uppermost in his mind.

He is afraid Mueller's report will produce airtight evidence that he and his cronies conspired with Russia to win the 2016 election.

The full piece is available here 

No, Armed Jews Wouldn't Have Stopped Holocaust - Rabbi Jeff Salkin in Religion News

Jewish families surrender to the SS during the
suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising of April 1943.

The idea that Jews with guns could have made any meaningful resistance against Nazi Germany and its genocidal crimes is the cruelest, most cynical, most ignorant alternative fact there is. It is an insult to the memory of the 6 million Jews who died in the holocaust.

There is an obscene suggestion that anti-gun control activists like to make: If the Jews had had guns, they could have prevented the Holocaust.

We know why they utilize these arguments. They are eager to use any argument, no matter how fallacious, that will suit their political purposes. 

But the idea that Jews with guns could have made any meaningful resistance is the cruelest, most cynical, most ignorant alternative fact there is. It is an insult to the memory of the 6 million Jews who died in the holocaust.

Yes, there were Jews who rose up in armed resistance against the Nazis. Though the stories of Jewish resistance militias are legendary, and all of these actions were heroic, they were also, alas, failures.

It's not realistic to think that, even if every German Jew was armed, that they would have been able to stand up against an army that would decimate the armies of France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Greece — and that would invade the Soviet Union and get within 70 km of Moscow.

And beside that, it was not just the Nazi armies that were arrayed against the Jews. It was the entirety of German society — its universities, its medical profession, its industrialists, its scientists. The Nazis had willing, eager and enthusiastic helpers in central and eastern Europe.

The full article is available here