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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Threats and Vandalism Leave American Jews on Edge in Trump Era - The New York Times







"The high-pitched, rambling voice on the telephone was disguised and garbled, and warned of a slaughter of Jews. The voice spoke of a bomb loaded with shrapnel and of an imminent “blood bath.” Moments later, the caller hung up.



The mid-January threat to a Jewish community center turned out to be a hoax. The warning was one of at least 100 that Jewish community centers and schools have reported since the beginning of the year, a menacing pattern that has upended daily life for people in 33 states and prompted a federal investigation that has come under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers, security specialists and Jewish leaders.



Combined with the recent vandalism at Jewish cemeteries in Missouri and Pennsylvania, the calls have stoked fears that a virulent anti-Semitism has increasingly taken hold in the early days of the Trump administration."





Threats and Vandalism Leave American Jews on Edge in Trump Era - The New York Times

Jon Stewart To The Media: It's Time To Get Your Groove Back

Rick Santorum: 'Millions of Americans' with preexisting conditions are h...

Donald Trump is a greater enemy of people of color than ISIS.

ISIS is our enemy but with his reversal of his position on voting rights for "people of color" the Donald Trump Administration is a greater enemy.

The Trump administration has just declared war on people of color. Voting rights changed the South and areas in the North. It is a bedrock of our freedom. The Trump administration as chosen to become our enemy. We must fight and defeat them by any means necessary. We and our ancestors fought for these rights. We are not going to let an ignorant low class rich hustler from a trashy KKK and Nazi supporting family defeat us. Trump has engaged in racist policies all of his life. The Nixon Justice Department brought action against he and his criminal father. We must literally drive these crazy bigots from our government. Trump must be removed from the presidency. The time is now.

Trump’s Justice Department Is No Longer Opposing Texas’s Discriminatory Voter-ID Law | The Nation

#ManchurianPresident   #ResistanceIsNotFutile    The Trump administration has just declared war on people of color.  Voting rights changed the South and areas in the North.  It is a bedrock of our freedom.  The Trump administration as chosen to become our enemy.  We must fight and defeat them by any means necessary.  We and our ancestors fought for these rights.  We are not going to let an ignorant low class rich hustler from a trashy KKK and Nazi supporting family defeat us.  Trump has engaged in racist policies all of his life.  The Nixon Justice Department brought action against he and his criminal father.  We must literally drive these crazy bigots from our government.  Trump must be removed from the presidency.  The time is now.



Trump’s Justice Department Is No Longer Opposing Texas’s Discriminatory Voter-ID Law | The Nation

The Ways to Destroy Democracy | The Nation

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"The first politician to tour the country by air during an election campaign, Hitler issued an endless stream of slogans to win potential supporters over. He would make Germany great again. He would give Germans work once more. He would put Germany first. He would revive the nation’s rusting industries, laid to waste by the economic depression. He would crush the alien ideologies—­socialism, liberalism, communism—­that were undermining the nation’s will to survive and destroying its core values."



The Ways to Destroy Democracy | The Nation

House Trump-Russia Probe Kneecapped Before It Gets Started - The Daily Beast

"The House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian intervention in the U.S. election suffers from two critical flaws that handicap its work. And that’s from one of the lawmakers leading the investigation.

The probe by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as it is formally known, is already under a microscope; the Republican chairman is under fire from Democratic colleagues for downplaying Russian ties to Team Trump before all (or even most) of the evidence is in. But there’s also a structural issue: HPSCI is a flawed vehicle for investigating this topic because it is starved for cash and its Senate counterpart won’t team up with it to prevent duplication.
The committee is struggling for money, and it would be even if it were not engaged in a complex investigation into Russian meddling, according to Rep. Adam Schiff, the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee. Both he and the Republican chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, have asked for more cash for the committee to do their job.
“The chair and I have asked for more resources for our committee,” Schiff said, in response to a Daily Beast question during a press conference Monday. “Frankly, though, those are resources we would need even in the absence of this investigation… when you consider the size of the agencies we oversee, and the level of our staff to begin with, it is very paltry by comparison.”


House Trump-Russia Probe Kneecapped Before It Gets Started - The Daily Beast

New Commerce Secretary at nexus of lucrative Trump Russian deal | MSNBC




New Commerce Secretary at nexus of lucrative Trump Russian deal | MSNBC

Why Saying Is Believing — The Science Of Self-Talk : Shots - Health News : NPR




Trump: ‘Nobody knew’ health care so complicated | MSNBC

Trump Prepares to Address Congress: A Closer Look

Exclusive: ICE put detained immigrants in solitary confinement for hunger striking - The Verge





"Beginning last April, and picking up in the weeks following the November election, dozens of detainees at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in rural Georgia went on hunger strike in protest of their detention. The private prison corporation that runs the facility, CoreCivic — formerly Corrections Corporation of America — responded swiftly to the expanding demonstration: as immigrant detainees refused to eat, CoreCivic staff began immediately locking them in solitary confinement for their participation in the non-violent protest.



According to ICE detainment logs obtained by The Verge through a Freedom of Information Act request, more than two dozen detainees were put in solitary confinement for hunger striking — some simply for declaring they would refuse to eat, even if they hadn’t yet skipped a meal. The logs also show that CoreCivic may have attempted to gather information on hunger strike organizers through cultivating detainee informants, who were later locked in solitary confinement themselves for protection."



Exclusive: ICE put detained immigrants in solitary confinement for hunger striking - The Verge

Pair gets 35 years for terrorizing party with Confederate flags - NY Daily News

A Georgia man and woman were sentenced for terrorizing a black child's birthday party with confederate flags.



"A Georgia man and woman have been sentenced to a combined 35 years after terrorizing a black child’s birthday party with Confederate flags, racial slurs and threats.



Jose Ismael Torres and Kayla Rae Norton were convicted earlier this month under a street gang terrorism law for the 2015 harassment in Douglassville, outside Atlanta, and cried in court on Monday.



Video footage from the party, little more than a month after Dylann Roof’s Charleston church massacre, shows a parade of trucks roaring by with Confederate battle flags.



One person is heard shouting the n-word, while witnesses said that another had a gun sand said “he was gonna kill the n-----s.”



Pair gets 35 years for terrorizing party with Confederate flags - NY Daily News

President Trump Declines White House Correspondents Dinner, But Still In...

'Swirling Paranoia' Takes Over The White House | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Obamacare: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

John Oliver DESTROYS Donald Trump on immigration

Muhammad Ali's son, ex-wife detained, questioned at airport | MSNBC



Muhammad Ali's son, ex-wife detained, questioned at airport | MSNBC

Democratic senator: I haven't seen an olive branch from Trump | MSNBC



Democratic senator: I haven't seen an olive branch from Trump | MSNBC

Why Trump’s Anti-Trans ‘States’ Rights’ Claim Will Backfire - The Daily Beast





"It’s widely known that the Trump administration has overturned Obama-era protections for transgender students. It’s less well known that the way it did so, emphasizing states’ rights, was a gigantic tactical mistake that is going to blow up in their faces.

The substantive issue is whether transgender students in public schools should be allowed to use gender-appropriate restrooms, or whether schools may require them to use single-stall bathrooms or those corresponding to the students’ biological sex at birth.

Legally speaking, there are two avenues in which this debate is moving forward. First are two “guidance letters” by the Education Department, stating that Title IX—which prohibits discrimination in educational contexts based on sex—covers trans students as well, and requires schools to let them use gender-appropriate restrooms. That letter didn’t have the force of law, but because the DoE could withhold funds from non-conforming school districts, it did wield the power of the purse-strings.

Those letters were officially retracted in a February 22 letter by the civil rights directors of the Education and Justice Departments.

But there’s also the second legal avenue, which is a case brought by the ACLU on behalf of Gavin Grimm, a transgender student in Virginia—a case that will be argued at the Supreme Court on March 28. In that case, G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board, the Court is set to decide the same question: whether Title IX covers trans people.

In that regard, the February 22 letter is extremely odd. It doesn’t take a position on Title IX, instead saying that the government needs more time to “further and more completely consider the legal issues involved.” And it adds, echoing President Trump’s statements, that “there must be due regard for the primary role of the States and local school districts in establishing educational policy.”

That was a huge mistake, for three reasons.

First, the administration missed the opportunity to tell the Supreme Court its interpretation of Title IX. Earlier in the litigation, courts had deferred to the Obama administration’s interpretation. But with that gone, the Supreme Court now has…. nothing.

“We don’t really know the government’s position on Title IX,” said Joshua Block, the ACLU’s lead lawyer, in a press call discussing the G.G. case. “Technically, their position is neutral.”

That’s exactly right. And while the new government’s position isn’t technically part of the G.G. litigation, its February 22 letter practically begs the Court to weigh in.

It wouldn’t have been hard to simply take the opposite view. True, the new administration has only been in office a month, but that’s certainly not stopped them from taking bold positions on immigration, national security, and a myriad of other issues. Moreover, they’re not working on a blank slate. Conservatives (and one district court) have articulated anti-trans interpretations of Title IX for years.

Here, I’ll articulate one right now: Title IX is about sex discrimination, and was passed in 1972. The term “transgender” wasn’t invented until 1975, and there’s not a scintilla of evidence that Congress had anything like it in mind. Anyway, sex and gender are different things. This is a massive expansion of legislation that is totally unjustified by the statute or its legislative history.

That wasn’t hard to say—and yet the Trump administration chose not to say it, abdicating legal ground that it could easily have occupied.

Second, emphasizing states’ rights is incoherent. Said Block, “sex discrimination in public schools hasn’t been left up to the states since 1972. That’s why Title IX was passed. The federal government said that it is going to protect everyone no matter what state they live in.”

That, too, is exactly right. Like it or not, the whole point of federal legislation on civil rights is to take primacy over states’ rights. That, unlike the question of transgender equality, is in the statutory history of Title IX, and it’s absurd to argue “states’ rights” against a law that understands states’ rights quite clearly, and deliberately takes precedence over them...."





Why Trump’s Anti-Trans ‘States’ Rights’ Claim Will Backfire - The Daily Beast

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Customs: Ali’s son wasn't detained because he's Muslim

A family friend of Muhammad Ali Jr. told the Courier-Journal Friday that the son of the legendary boxer was detained by U.S. Customs at a Florida airport and questioned about his religious faith. Ali Jr. is shown here in 2016 at his father's funeral in Louisville.



"LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed Saturday that it held Muhammad Ali Jr., the son of the late legendary boxer, for questioning in a Florida airport earlier this month, but said Ali wasn't singled out because he's a Muslim.



Ali Jr., 44, and his mother, Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the second wife of Muhammad Ali, were pulled aside for questioning at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Feb. 7 while returning from a speaking engagement in Jamaica, Chris Mancini, a Florida lawyer and friend of the Ali family, told The Courier-Journal on Friday.



Mancini said the pair were detained because of their Arabic-sounding names, and Ali Jr. was repeatedly asked, "Where did you get your name from?" and "Are you Muslim?"



Customs spokesman Daniel Hetlage declined to provide details of the incident, citing policies that protect travelers' privacy, but he wrote in an email that the agency does not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.



"We treat all travelers with respect and sensitivity," he said. "Integrity is our cornerstone. We are guided by the highest ethical and moral principles."



Reached by phone, Hetlage said it's not uncommon for customs and border protection officers to pull travelers aside after initial passport inspection for a secondary screening, which can consist of additional questions and verification of a traveler's identity. What is asked in these interviews varies depending on the situation, he said, but "we have no interest in questioning anyone for two hours about their religion."



Questions about religion can and do sometimes come up, he said, but it isn't something officers — who process more than 1.2 million international travelers daily — routinely ask about.



"With the number of Muslims flying in and out internationally every day, the math doesn't even support it," Hetlage said.



Ali Jr., who was born in Philadelphia and holds a U.S. passport, told customs officers that he is Muslim, said Mancini, who added that the questions asked of Ali Jr. are indicative of profiling. He also said he and the Ali family are considering filing a federal lawsuit following the incident."

Customs: Ali’s son wasn't detained because he's Muslim

Border agents stopped Muhammad Ali Jr. Here’s how we can all fight back | Opinion | The Guardian





Outrageous, unAmerican and unconstitutional.   This is the reason Trumps religious ban is nothing but nascent fascism.


Border agents stopped Muhammad Ali Jr. Here’s how we can all fight back | Opinion | The Guardian

White House scrambles to damp down scandal over FBI inquiry into Russia ties | US news | The Guardian





"The White House made a messy attempt on Sunday to control public perceptions of a widening scandal over alleged contacts between aides to Donald Trump and Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 election, alleging that the FBI had dismissed reports of such links.



The scandal has shown little sign of coming under control, with a Republican congressman calling for an independent inquiry, multiple congressional committees pursuing investigations and Trump escalating a war with the media in an apparent attempt at distraction."





White House scrambles to damp down scandal over FBI inquiry into Russia ties | US news | The Guardian

NY Times editor DESTROYS Donald Trump

The Murders of My Colleagues - The New York Times





"Last year was one of the most deadly for Mexican reporters in recent history. Even the total number of victims is hard to pin down, thanks to botched investigations and confusion about how many of the dead officially worked as journalists. But most press groups count at least nine slain here in 2016, some as many 16. Reporters Without Borders said Mexico was the third most perilous country in the world for journalists, after Syria and Afghanistan — in other words, the most perilous outside a declared war zone."





The Murders of My Colleagues - The New York Times

Democrats Elect Thomas Perez, Establishment Favorite, as Party Chairman - The New York Times



"While voting members of the party are more closely linked to the establishment wing, Mr. Ellison kept the race close by consolidating liberals and picking up support from mainstream Democrats such as the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York.



Mr. Perez, though, got a lift in the final days of the contest when the South Carolina Democratic Party chairman, Jaime Harrison, withdrew from the race and threw his support to him. Mr. Perez’s allies said they had enough votes to win on the first ballot, but a single committee member somehow missed the vote."





Democrats Elect Thomas Perez, Establishment Favorite, as Party Chairman - The New York Times

New Rule: Press We Can | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Saturday, February 25, 2017

The Immigration Facts Donald Trump Doesn’t Like - The New York Times

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 "Let’s be clear: The moral case against President Trump’s plan to uproot and expel millions of unauthorized immigrants is open-and-shut. But what about the economic cost? This is where deeply shameful collides with truly stupid.

The Migration Policy Institute reported in 2013 that the federal government spends more each year on immigration enforcement — through Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol — than on all other federal law enforcement agencies combined. The total has risen to more than $19 billion a year, and more than $306 billion in all since 1986, measured in 2016 dollars. This exceeds the sum of all spending for the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Secret Service; the Marshals Service; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

ICE and the Border Patrol already refer more cases for federal prosecution than the entire Justice Department, and the number of people they detain each year (more than 400,000) is greater than the number of inmates being held by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for all other federal crimes.

That is blank-check, steroidal enforcement — and Mr. Trump and the Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly, want more."

(Via.).   The Immigration Facts Donald Trump Doesn’t Like - The New York Times:

These Are Children, Not Bad Hombres - The New York Times

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  "Last year 7-year-old Kendra Cruz Garcia and her 10-year-old-brother, Roberto Guardado Cruz, crossed the Rio Grande alone. When their tiny boat reached the shore, they started walking into Texas.

The Border Patrol agents who soon caught the Salvadoran siblings deemed them ‘unaccompanied’ because no parent was with them. Children with this designation are granted special, well-deserved protections.

They aren’t subject to quick deportation and are entitled to a full hearing before an immigration judge. They can’t be held for long periods in immigration jails. Instead, they are transferred to child-friendly shelters operated by Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, and released, usually within a month, to a parent, relative or sponsor while their court hearings proceed. Instead of facing cross-examination by adversarial prosecutors, children are interviewed by an asylum officer trained to gently probe whether they qualify to stay in the country legally.

In other words, they are treated with kindness and decency by our government because they are innocent children.

Continue reading the main story But President Trump has decided to get tough on many of the 60,000 Central American children who arrive at our border each year begging for safety after fleeing some of the most dangerous places on earth. His executive orders, and memos from the Department of Homeland Security on how to interpret them, could strip this special treatment from the roughly 60 percent of unaccompanied children who have a parent already living in the United States. If Kendra and Roberto were just entering the United States now, they would fall into this group; instead they kept their protections and were eventually united with their mother, a house painter in Los Angeles.

Parents like her, the argument goes, are exploiting benefits established to help children who really are alone here. The administration has threatened to deport parents who send for their children or prosecute them for hiring smugglers.

Last week Mr. Trump’s press secretary said the president’s intention was to prioritize the deportation of immigrants who ‘represent a threat to public safety.’ Supporters say he’s upholding the law. But these children are not threats, and there are many ways to preserve the integrity of our immigration laws while treating them humanely.

"

(Via.).   These Are Children, Not Bad Hombres - The New York Times:

People From 7 Travel-Ban Nations Pose No Increased Terror Risk, Report Says - The New York Times

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"When President Trump signed an executive order last month temporarily barring visitors from seven mostly Muslim countries, he said he was moving to protect the United States from terrorist attacks. The Homeland Security secretary, John F. Kelly, echoed the president, saying the travel ban was necessary because vetting procedures ‘in those seven countries are suspect.’

But an internal report written by intelligence analysts at Mr. Kelly’s department appears to undercut the assessment that people from the seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — pose a heightened threat of terrorism. The three-page report found that ‘country of citizenship is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity.’

The report adds to the difficulties the Trump administration has faced in carrying out the travel ban. Federal judges have suspended the order, and the administration has said it will redo it to withstand legal scrutiny, but has not given a timetable.

The Department of Homeland Security assessment, first reported by The Associated Press, found that only a small number of people from the seven countries had been involved in terrorism-related activities in the United States since the Syrian civil war began in 2011. In addition, the report noted, while terrorist groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen pose a threat to the United States, militant groups in the other four countries have a more regional focus.

The report also found that in the past six years, the terrorism threat reached much more widely than the seven countries listed — individuals from 26 countries had been ‘inspired’ to carry out attacks in the United States.

Furthermore, few individuals from the seven countries affected by the ban have access to the United States, the report said, noting the small numbers of visas granted by the State Department to citizens of those nations."

(Via.).  .People From 7 Travel-Ban Nations Pose No Increased Terror Risk, Report Says - The New York Times:

Immigration Agents Discover New Freedom to Deport Under Trump - The New York Times

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"In Virginia, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waited outside a church shelter where undocumented immigrants had gone to stay warm. In Texas and in Colorado, agents went into courthouses, looking for foreigners who had arrived for hearings on other matters.

At Kennedy International Airport in New York, passengers arriving after a five-hour flight from San Francisco were asked to show their documents before they were allowed to get off the plane.

The Trump administration’s far-reaching plan to arrest and deport vast numbers of undocumented immigrants has been introduced in dramatic fashion over the past month. And much of that task has fallen to thousands of ICE officers who are newly emboldened, newly empowered and already getting to work.

Gone are the Obama-era rules that required them to focus only on serious criminals. In Southern California, in one of the first major roundups during the Trump administration, officers detained 161 people with a wide range of felony and misdemeanor convictions, and 10 who had no criminal history at all.

Immigrant Mother in Denver Takes Refuge as Risk of Deportation Looms FEB. 15, 2017 ‘Before, we used to be told, ‘You can’t arrest those people,’ and we’d be disciplined for being insubordinate if we did,’ said a 10-year veteran of the agency who took part in the operation. ‘Now those people are priorities again. And there are a lot of them here.’"

(Via.).  Immigration Agents Discover New Freedom to Deport Under Trump - The New York Times:

Trump admin spikes intel report that undercuts travel ban | MSNBC




Trump admin spikes intel report that undercuts travel ban | MSNBC

Friday, February 24, 2017

The Death of Compassion - The New York Times

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"Folks, we have been here before.

After Ronald Reagan, a celebrity-turned-politician, carried 49 states in his devastating defeat of Walter Mondale in 1984, Democrats were whining and moaning, shuffling their feet and scratching their heads.

Reagan had done particularly well with those who would come to be known as Reagan Democrats — white, working-class voters, particularly in the Rust Belt, whom a New York Times contributor would later describe as ‘blue-collar, ethnic voters,’ who were drawn to Reagan’s messages of economic growth and nationalistic pride.

But just like Donald Trump’s path to victory, Reagan’s was strewn with racial hostilities and prejudicial lies.

While Trump’s tropes involved Mexicans and Muslims and that tired euphemism of disastrous inner cities, Reagan used the ‘welfare queen’ scare, as far back as his unsuccessful bid for president in 1976.

Continue reading the main story RELATED COVERAGE

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Charles M. Blow Politics, public opinion and social justice. Harry and Sidney: Soul Brothers FEB 20 Drip, Drip, Drip FEB 15 The Power of Disruption FEB 13 Trump’s Leading Rivals Wear Robes FEB 9 A Lesson in Black History FEB 6 See More »

As I have written before, Reagan explained at nearly every stop that there was a woman in Chicago who ‘used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans’ benefits for four nonexistent, deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year.’

But it was not as it seemed.

As my colleague Paul Krugman wrote in 2007: ‘Reagan repeatedly told the bogus story of the Cadillac-driving welfare queen — a gross exaggeration of a minor case of welfare fraud. He never mentioned the woman’s race, but he didn’t have to.’

As Gene Demby perfectly summed up on NPR in 2013: ‘In the popular imagination, the stereotype of the ‘welfare queen’ is thoroughly raced — she’s an indolent black woman, living off the largess of taxpayers. The term is seen by many as a dog whistle, a way to play on racial anxieties without summoning them directly.’

So, then as now, economic anxiety and throbbing xenophobia were convenient shields behind which brewing racial animus could hide.

Indeed, Trump’s slogan ‘Make American Great Again’ was first used by Reagan.

And yet, Democrats in 1984 were quick to look for the lessons they could learn on how to reach out to the Reagan coalition, instead of condemning it.

In the days following Reagan’s win that year, The New York Times reported:

‘Democratic Party leaders began yesterday what they foresee as a long and agonizing appraisal of how they can renew their appeal to the white majority in presidential elections and still hold the allegiance of minorities, the poor and others who seek federal assistance.’"

(Via.).  The Death of Compassion - The New York Times:

Trump Intensifies His Attacks on Journalists and Condemns F.B.I. ‘Leakers’ - The New York Times

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"WASHINGTON — President Trump turned the power of the White House against the news media on Friday, escalating his attacks on journalists as ‘the enemy of the people’ and berating members of his own F.B.I. as ‘leakers’ who he said were putting the nation at risk.

In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr. Trump criticized as ‘fake news’ organizations that publish anonymously sourced reports that reflect poorly on him. And in a series of Twitter posts, he assailed the F.B.I. as a dangerously porous agency, condemning unauthorized revelations of classified information from within its ranks and calling for an immediate hunt for leakers.

Hours after the speech, as if to demonstrate Mr. Trump’s determination to punish reporters whose coverage he dislikes, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, barred journalists from The New York Times and several other news organizations from attending his daily briefing, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps."

(Via.).  Trump Intensifies His Attacks on Journalists and Condemns F.B.I. ‘Leakers’ - The New York Times:

NYTimes: White House Bars Times and 2 Other News Outlets From Briefing


"WASHINGTON — Journalists from The New York Times and two other news organizations were prohibited from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary on Friday, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps.

Reporters from The Times, CNN and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer only allowed in reporters from a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed to attend."

NYTimes: White House Bars Times and 2 Other News Outlets From Briefing

NYTimes: White House Bars Times and 2 Other News Outlets From Briefing

"WASHINGTON — Journalists from The New York Times and two other news organizations were prohibited from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary on Friday, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps.

Reporters from The Times, CNN and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer only allowed in reporters from a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed to attend. "

NYTimes: White House Bars Times and 2 Other News Outlets From Briefing

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Republican Health Plans Have Winners And Losers, Just Like Obamacare | FiveThirtyEight

"The Affordable Care Act sacrificed affordability in order to get more people insured. Prohibiting companies from denying people insurance because of pre-existing conditions, for example, opened up access to everyone, but it also made insurance more expensive for people who were healthy. Similarly, requiring insurers to offer a comprehensive set of benefits meant that low-cost plans offering only catastrophic coverage were no longer allowed for most people, which meant higher premiums for everyone. President Trump has promised to insure more people at a lower price, but it’s not clear how he could make that happen.



Now, Republicans who have promised for years to repeal and replace the ACA are tasked with balancing winners and losers, coverage and cost. GOP House members outlined their replacement plan last week. Here’s a look at how the main policy proposals would shake out against the current system.



Insuring the sickest Americans



Underlying the tradeoffs of any health policy is the world’s most expensive medical system. Until we do something about the high cost of care overall, someone has to pay, whether it’s the federal government with tax dollars, companies or individuals. But just a sliver of the population is responsible for the majority of health care spending in the U.S., and figuring out how to pay for the most costly patients is one of the biggest challenges in health care policy.



Before the ACA, many states had high-risk pools: state-run programs for people with serious medical needs who couldn’t get health insurance elsewhere. Most enrollees had been turned down for coverage by insurance companies because of pre-existing health conditions and didn’t have an employer-sponsored plan. In 2007, 34 states had pools that spent more than $1.8 billion on the 201,000 people enrolled in these programs, which did little to reduce the overall uninsured rate but were life changing for many of the people they did cover.



By requiring that insurers cover everyone, including those with pre-existing conditions, the ACA did away with those programs. Republicans have pushed to bring this system back, because removing the people who cost the most to treat would result in lower premiums for everyone else in the general insurance pool. That shift would isolate the people with the greatest medical needs, however, and leave them open to funding shortfalls. The programs rely on sick people paying more for care, anywhere from about 120 percent to 250 percent of what a healthier counterpart would pay, which can be an added strain on families. In Minnesota, which had the oldest and largest high-risk pool in the country, a 60-year-old man in the program paid $685 per month for a plan with a $2,000 deductible in 2014, according to information gathered by Lynn Blewett, a professor at the University of Minnesota who has studied high-risk pools. “For people who could afford it, it was a good product,” Blewett said. “But there were a lot of people who couldn’t afford it.”



Republican Health Plans Have Winners And Losers, Just Like Obamacare | FiveThirtyEight

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

What the Jewish Cemetery Attack and Trump’s Movement Have in Common - The Daily Beast





"Jay Michaelson

JAY MICHAELSON



Why did it take the desecration of a Jewish cemetery for President Trump and Vice President Pence to finally condemn anti-Semitism?

There were, of course, multiple factors that finally teased out a condemnation from the president (issued, rather bizarrely, at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture): Ivanka Trump’s tweet on Monday, following the fourth round of bomb threats against Jewish community centers. The dread felt throughout the Jewish community after Trump not only failed to condemn anti-Semitism in response to a question at his press conference, but scolded the questioner, an ultra-Orthodox Jew. Surely some of that concern had percolated inward to Trump’s inner circle, as his own Jewish allies began asking just what was so difficult about condemning Jew-hatred.

But there’s something about cemeteries in general, and Jewish cemeteries in particular.

To desecrate an individual grave is a personal insult, but to vandalize an entire cemetery is to insult an entire people. Though the perpetrators are still unknown, it was against Jewish identity itself. It’s an outing, an othering: no, Jew, you are not one of us. Even in death, we will despise you. You are not an individual, not a person; you are a Jew. It’s a uniquely personal act of depersonalization.

There’s another reason why Jewish cemeteries, like African American ones, are laden with historical significance.

Twenty years ago, when I was a college student on a rail pass across Europe, I visited the old Jewish cemetery in Prague. Its crooked, crumbling stones seemed the fitting memorial to a community once proud, now devastated. And on one of them, someone had left a note saying, in German and English, vergeben und vergessen: forgive and forget. I left a second note, with the piety of a 21-year old, zachor: remember.

In fact, this cemetery had not been affected by the Holocaust. But we both knew what we were taking about.

Jewish cemeteries are a reminder of Jewish death, and Jewish death means the Holocaust, a genocide still unprecedented in scope and scale.

The bigoted, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, white supremacist far right knows this. (Their wanna-be “alt” signifier can go to hell.) Whoever committed the acts of vandalism in the Chesed Shel Emet cemetery, they knew that defiling a cemetery is a particularly loathsome act, and defiling the graves of dead Jews, many of whom were surely Holocaust refugees or survivors, has a very particular resonance..."



What the Jewish Cemetery Attack and Trump’s Movement Have in Common - The Daily Beast

Undocumented Woman With a Brain Tumor Locked Up by ICE - The Daily Beast

"The 26-year-old undocumented woman was in a detention center in Texas when she started complaining of headaches earlier this month.

The pain was caused by a brain tumor and, today, lawyers for the woman who remains in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fear she’ll die there without ever seeing or speaking to her family again.

It’s a scenario that advocates worry could become far more common under President Donald Trump’s new immigration enforcement rules.

According to her legal team, helmed by attorney Marcia Kasdan, the woman — who we will identify as Sara to protect her privacy — was being held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, when she started complaining of terrible headaches.

In her court testimony, Sara acknowledged that she illegally crossed the border on Nov. 4, 2015, and border patrol agents apprehended her. A sworn statement from Border Patrol agent Roberto Gonzalez Jr. says Sara told him on Nov. 8, 2015 that she came to the U.S. to work, and not to seek asylum.

She told an immigration judge on Jan. 12, 2016, that she actually did come to the U.S. from her native El Salvador seeking asylum, and that she feared her aunt — who she said is gang-affiliated — would kill her because she was in a relationship with a Salvadoran police officer. But Sara missed the deadline to file her asylum claim, so the judge ordered her deportation. Her legal team, which began working with her after she missed that deadline and acknowledges that it was missed, appealed. She has been in detention since then."


Undocumented Woman With a Brain Tumor Locked Up by ICE - The Daily Beast

INS v. LOPEZ-MENDOZA | FindLaw

Relevant Case law setting guideline limits to ICE searches an seizures of undocumented aliens.


“United States Supreme CourtINS v. LOPEZ-MENDOZA, (1984)No. 83-491Argued: April 18, 1984    Decided: July 5, 1984Respondent Mexican citizens were ordered deported by an Immigration Judge. Respondent Lopez-Mendoza unsuccessfully objected to being summoned to the deportation hearing following his allegedly unlawful arrest by an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agent, but he did not object to the receipt in evidence of his admission, after the arrest, of illegal entry into this country. Respondent Sandoval-Sanchez, who also admitted his illegal entry after being arrested by an INS agent, unsuccessfully objected to the evidence of his admission offered at the deportation proceeding, contending that it should have been suppressed as the fruit of an unlawful arrest. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed the deportation orders. The Court of Appeals reversed respondent Sandoval-Sanchez' deportation order, holding that his detention by INS agents violated the Fourth Amendment, that his admission of illegal entry was the product of this detention, and that the exclusionary rule barred its use in a deportation proceeding. The court vacated respondent Lopez-Mendoza's deportation order and remanded his case to the BIA to determine whether the Fourth Amendment had been violated in the course of his arrest…..”

It's legal for an immigration agent to pretend to be a police officer outside someone's door. But should it be? - LA Times

"During a nationwide operation this month by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a team of ICE agents in Los Angeles approached the house of a man targeted for deportation.

“Good morning, police,” one agent announced in the pre-dawn darkness. 
A man opened the door moments later.

“Good morning, how you doing? I’m a police officer. We’re doing an investigation,” the agent said.
The exchange, captured on a video released publicly by ICE, seemed routine. But it has reignited long-simmering objections from immigrant rights attorneys and advocates, who say the scene illustrates unethical — and in some cases, illegal —  ruses ICE agents have used for years, portraying themselves as officers from local police departments to ensnare people or fool them into revealing the whereabouts of family members.
The use of the tactic, critics said, is particularly egregious in heavily immigrant cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, where police and elected officials have tried for decades to distinguish their cops from federal immigration agents, in an effort to convince immigrants living illegally in their cities that they can interact with local police without fear of deportation. The practice of using ruses predates the Trump administration. But the president’s announcement of his intent to dramatically increase the number of people ICE apprehends for deportation has increased concerns by immigrant advocates that the tactic will grow even more prevalent.

“There is something fundamentally unfair about ICE exploiting local and state policies that are trying to improve public safety by promoting immigrants’ trust in law enforcement,” said Frances Miriam Kreimer, senior attorney at Dolores Street Community Services in San Francisco.
Kreimer is challenging the legality of a ruse ICE officers used to arrest a client, in which they told the man they were police officers investigating a crime.

'I’m not going to do it.' Police aren't eager to help Trump enforce immigration laws'I’m not going to do it.' Police aren't eager to help Trump enforce immigration laws"

It's legal for an immigration agent to pretend to be a police officer outside someone's door. But should it be? - LA Times: ""

Trump on Slavery: ‘Boy, That Is Not Good’ - The Daily Beast

"President Trump on Wednesday visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture and was reportedly moved to audibly comment on the horrific nature of slavery during his tour. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece Alveda King accompanied the president and, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said that when Trump came upon a stone auction block for selling slaves, he commented: “Boy, that is just not good. That is not good.” Later, when he saw a set of shackles used on slave children, he said, according to King: “That is really bad. That is really bad.”



Trump on Slavery: ‘Boy, That Is Not Good’ - The Daily Beast

FIRED FOR CRITICIZING PRESIDENT TRUMP

"TRUMP TOWER Was Built By UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS

Today Trump Honored Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington And... Ben Carson

CIA analyst quits over Trump disregard for intelligence Edward Price, former CIA analyst and NSC spokesman, talks with Rachel Maddow about how his dismay and alarm at the conduct of the Trump administration led him to quit a job he thought he'd never leave.The Rachel Maddow Show on msnbc




The Rachel Maddow Show on msnbc – Latest News & Video

Pres. Trump’s Lawyer Denies Delivering Russia-Ukraine Peace Plan | MSNBC




Pres. Trump’s Lawyer Denies Delivering Russia-Ukraine Peace Plan | MSNBC

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Rep. Maxine Waters: Trump advisors with Russia ties are ... | MSNBC




Rep. Maxine Waters: Trump advisors with Russia ties are ... | MSNBC

Trump's latest phone call leaves Taiwan in “perilous place”: report - The China Post





















U.S. President Donald Trump's recent phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping may have 
disadvantaged Taiwan, a report published in the Atlantic on Monday suggested.
The article written by Jon Emont said that Trump's decision to honor the "one-China" policy
 put Taiwan in a "perilous place" that may result in the renegotiation of the cross-strait status 
quo, or a reversion to relations before President Tsai Ing-wen placed a congratulatory call to 
Trump late last year. It added that Tsai's advisers were now realizing the "high price" the 
phone call with Trump may have incurred.

Trump's latest phone call leaves Taiwan in “perilous place”: report - The China Post

Hate groups increase for second consecutive year as Trump electrifies radical right | Southern Poverty Law Center





"The number of hate groups in the United States rose for a second year in a row in 2016 as the radical right was energized by the candidacy of Donald Trump, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) annual census of hate groups and other extremist organizations, released today."



Hate groups increase for second consecutive year as Trump electrifies radical right | Southern Poverty Law Center

Will Keith Ellison Move the Democrats Left? - The New Yorker

Ellison is favored by many progressives, who have spearheaded opposition to Trump.



"Ellison is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the putative left-wing answer to the brinksmen of the Freedom Caucus on the right, and he was an early and fervent supporter of Sanders’s Presidential campaign. Like Sanders, he consistently opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal sought by the Obama White House in its final two years which was attacked by populists in both parties. (President Donald Trump recently withdrew the U.S. from the T.P.P.) Ellison announced his candidacy for the D.N.C. chairmanship six days after the Presidential election. Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, predictably endorsed him—but so did establishment figures, such as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, and his predecessor, Harry Reid. One of the early objectives of Schumer’s leadership has been to placate the increasingly powerful Sanders, whom he made a member of his leadership team, and Schumer has said that he endorsed Ellison because Sanders recommended him. This may have been a canny bit of political maneuvering, but it also indicated to Sanders’s supporters that the populist wing of the Democratic Party was poised to lead the opposition against Trump."



Will Keith Ellison Move the Democrats Left? - The New Yorker

The Most Dangerous Man In President Trump's World Is VP Mike Pence | The...

Jewish Community Centers in the U.S. Face Bomb Threats - The Atlantic





"The Nashville Jewish Community Center has now gotten so many telephone bomb threats that the dates run together, said Leslie Sax, the executive director. The first call came on January 9, when Nashville was one of the first 15 JCCs to get threats. The next call was January 18, accompanying yet another national wave. The latest was just this weekend, on Presidents’ Day, when 11 JCCs around the country were threatened, according to a spokesperson for the national organization. The Nashville facility, more full than usual with people exercising on the holiday weekend, was evacuated before security gave the all-clear.



“Most people just feel sadness—they’re sad that this is happening,” Sax said. “Everyone keeps saying they’re disheartened and frustrated.” But even though people are upset, they don’t seem to be scared. “I haven’t heard fear,” she said."



Jewish Community Centers in the U.S. Face Bomb Threats - The Atlantic

President Trump denounces anti-Semitism | MSNBC

I am confused. Why did Trump hire Bannon, the former head of Brietbart News? "Breitbart Calls Trump Foe “Renegade Jew.” This Is How Anti-Semitism Goes Mainstream"  https://goo.gl/ZizAsq

New Trump Deportation Rules Allow Far More Expulsions - The New York Times

NewImage

 

 "WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday released a set of documents translating President Trump’s executive orders on immigration and border security into policy, bringing a major shift in the way the agency enforces the nation’s immigration laws.

Under the Obama administration, undocumented immigrants convicted of serious crimes were the priority for removal. Now, immigration agents, customs officers and border patrol agents have been directed to remove anyone convicted of any criminal offense.
That includes people convicted of fraud in any official matter before a governmental agency and people who “have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits.”

The policy also calls for an expansion of expedited removals, allowing Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to deport more people immediately. Under the Obama administration, expedited removal was used only within 100 miles of the border for people who had been in the country no more than 14 days. Now it will include those who have been in the country for up to two years, and located anywhere in the nation.
The change in enforcement priorities will require a considerable increase in resources. With an estimated 11 million people in the country illegally, the government has long had to set narrower priorities, given the constraints on staffing and money.
In the so-called guidance documents released on Tuesday, the department is directed to begin the process of hiring 10,000 new immigration and customs agents, expanding the number of detention facilities and creating an office within Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help families of those killed by undocumented immigrants. Mr. Trump had some of those relatives address his rallies in the campaign, and several were present when he signed an executive order on immigration last month at the Department of Homeland Security.

The directives would also instruct Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol, to begin reviving a program that recruits local police officers and sheriff’s deputies to help with deportation, effectively making them de facto immigration agents. The effort, called the 287(g) program, was scaled back during the Obama administration.
The program faces resistance from many states and dozens of so-called sanctuary cities, which have refused to allow their law enforcement workers to help round up undocumented individuals.

Senior Homeland Security officials told reporters Tuesday morning that the directives were intended to more fully make use of the enforcement tools that Congress has already given to the department to crack down on illegal immigration. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity during a morning conference call, emphasized that some of the proposals for increased enforcement would roll out slowly as the department finalizes the logistics and legal rules for more aggressive action.

In particular, the officials said that returning Central American refugees to Mexico to await hearings would be done only in a limited fashion, and only after discussions with the government of Mexico, which would most likely have to agree to accept the refugees.

The officials also made clear that nothing in the directives would change the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which provides work permits and deportation protection for the young people commonly referred to as Dreamers.
But the officials also made clear that the department intended to aggressively follow Mr. Trump’s promise that immigration laws be enforced to the maximum extent possible, marking a significant departure from the procedures in place under President Barack Obama.

That promise has generated fear and anger in the immigrant community, and advocates for immigrants have warned that the new approach is a threat to many undocumented immigrants who had previously been in little danger of being deported.

New Trump Deportation Rules Allow Far More Expulsions - The New York Times: ""

Firsthand Account: The Assassination of Malcolm X - Video - NYTimes.com

Firsthand Account: The Assassination of Malcolm X - Video - NYTimes.com

Outside coastal bubbles, to say 'America is already great' rings hollow | Society | The Guardian





"Anthony Rice’s house in Youngstown, Ohio is a mile away from a river valley once filled with factories offering jobs. Many of those left in the 1980s, and with them, many residents.



His home is one of the few occupied on the street. Empty lots or boarded-up homes make up most of the block. He points to those remaining, listing his neighbors and their age. They are all over 70. “This neighborhood is okie-dokie, although not much goes down here”, he says. “Stores used to be all around here, but they mostly gone. The people left are either too old to move or waiting for someone to buy them out.”



The road itself is a patchwork of potholes. “This street hasn’t been paved in like forever. They just don’t care about us. But we used to that.”



Youngstown is the largest city in Mahoning County, Ohio, where Donald Trump narrowly lost a county Barack Obama won twice easily. That was partly because turnout in Youngstown – which is lower income, younger, and close to half African American – dropped by roughly 15%.



It was a blueprint replicated across the US – getting just enough working class, older, and wealthier suburban whites to flip and turn out for Trump, while a small enough sliver of minorities and younger white voters did not turn out. It was achieved in just the right places: Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin."



Outside coastal bubbles, to say 'America is already great' rings hollow | Society | The Guardian

#Resistance Is Not Futile

Move Left, Democrats - The New York Times



#ManchurianPresident #ResistanceIsNotFutile
"By Steve Phillips, www.nytimes.com February 21st, 2017

"The Democratic National Committee will choose its next leader on Saturday, and when it does it should choose a leader who will resist the pressure to pursue the wrong white people. Hundreds of articles have been written about the imperative of attracting more support from white working-class voters who supported Barack Obama in 2012 but then bolted to back Donald J. Trump.

The far more important — and largely untold — story of the election is that more Obama voters defected to third- and fourth-party candidates than the number who supported Mr. Trump. That is the white flight that should most concern the next D.N.C. chairman, because those voters make up a more promising way to reclaim the White House. The way to win them back is by being more progressive, not less.

To be clear, all white voters matter. But Democrats must make tough, data-driven decisions about how to prioritize their work. Right now, too many are using bad math and faulty logic to push the party to chase the wrong segment of white voters. For example, Guy Cecil, who spent nearly $200 million as head of the progressive “super PAC” Priorities USA, urged the party to rebuild trust with the “millions of white voters who voted for President Obama and Donald Trump.”

The math underlying that conclusion is incorrect (Mr. Trump picked up not “millions,” but only 784,000 white votes in the 10 battleground states he won by single digits). And it misses the bigger — and more fixable — problem of white Democratic defections to third- and fourth-party candidates.

Representative Keith Ellison, a contender for Democratic National Committee chairman, spoke outside the Capitol early this month. Credit Alex Wong/Getty Images
Photo by: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton lost the decisive states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan by 77,744 votes; the number of Democratic votes dropped significantly from 2012 levels, and the Republican total increased by about 440,000 votes. The third- and fourth-party surge, however, was larger than the Republican growth, with 503,000 more people choosing the Libertarian or the Green candidate than had done so in 2012. When you look at the white vote in those states, the picture is even more stark.

In Wisconsin, according to the exit poll data, Mrs. Clinton received 193,000 fewer white votes than Mr. Obama received in 2012, but Mr. Trump’s white total increased over Mitt Romney’s by just 9,000 votes. So where did the other 184,000 Wisconsin whites go? A majority went to third and fourth parties, which, together, received 100,000 more white votes than they did in 2012.

In Michigan, where 75 percent of the voters were white, Mrs. Clinton received about 295,000 fewer votes than Mr. Obama did, but the Republican total increased by just 164,000 votes. The ranks of those voting third and fourth party leapt to more than 250,000 last year from about 51,000 in 2012, and Mrs. Clinton fell short by just 10,704 votes.

In Pennsylvania, the Democrats’ problem was not with white voters, but with African-Americans. Mrs. Clinton actually improved on the Democratic 2012 results with whites, but over 130,000 unenthused black voters stayed home, and she lost by about 44,000 votes.

If Democrats had stemmed the defections of white voters to the Libertarian or Green Parties, they would have won Michigan and Wisconsin, and had they also inspired African-Americans in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Clinton would be president.

If progressive whites are defecting because they are uninspired by Democrats, moving further to the right will only deepen their disillusionment. But if the next D.N.C. chairman can win them back, the country’s demographic trends will tilt the field in Democrats’ favor. As Mrs. Clinton’s popular vote margin showed, there is still a new American majority made up of a meaningful minority of whites and an overwhelming majority of minorities. Not only is there little evidence that Democrats can do significantly better with those white working-class voters who are susceptible to messages laced with racism and sexism, but that sector of the electorate will continue to shrink in the coming years. Nearly half of all Democratic votes (46 percent) were not white in 2016, and over the next four years, 10 million more people of color will be added to the population, as compared with just 1.5 million whites.

Keith Ellison, a D.N.C. chairman candidate, has a proven record of engaging core Democratic voters rather than chasing the elusive conservative whites, and the party would be in good hands under his stewardship. (Thomas E. Perez, the former labor secretary, has less electoral history, but his reliance on political superstars such as the strategist Emmy Ruiz, who delivered victories for Democrats in Nevada and Colorado, is encouraging.)

Whoever prevails as chairman must resist the pressure to follow an uninformed and ill-fated quest for winning over conservative white working-class voters in the Midwest. The solution for Democrats is not to chase Trump defectors. The path to victory involves reinspiring those whites who drifted to third-party candidates and then focusing on the ample opportunities in the Southwest and the South.

Mrs. Clinton came closer to winning Texas than she did Iowa. She fared better in Arizona, Georgia and Florida than she did in the traditional battleground state of Ohio. The electoral action for Democrats may have once been in the Rust Belt, but it’s now moving west and south."


Move Left, Democrats - The New York Times