YES, IT CAN HAPPEN HERE, AGAIN

Yes, it can happen in America, again ... 

In simple terms, when you place an entire group of people into a suspect class, it becomes easier to question their claim to the legal protections that are an integral part of the American experience. This makes it easier to take away their constitutional rights and, eventually their human rights.

It's happened in America before ...

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PILGRIMAGE from Tadashi Nakamura on Vimeo.
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Unfortunately, many Americans choose to ignore this history because they believe the fear they feel today is so great that it justifies taking away the rights of others. 

  

- Mark

JES SUIS SWEDEN

After the tragedy in Sweden, which was so eloquently spoken about by President Trump, we should all stand with our IKEA-producing friends ...

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Sigh ...

- Mark

Kudos to Leonel for the meme.

UPDATE: Just in, via my friend Leonel (who else?) ... "This video of the terrorist attack on Sweden mentioned by President Trump is horrifying! Warning: Not for the squeamish."

LATE WEEKEND READING (Feb. 19, 2017)

Why pre-industrial life was anything but paradise (ATI).

'Data-driven' campaigns are killing the Democratic Party (Politico).

The classroom where fake news fails (NPR).

With billions at stake a federal judge just nullified the GOP's most cynical attack on Obamacare (LA Times).


JAMES COMEY HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO
The mysterious James Comey (Washington Monthly).

James Comey has some Goddamn explaining to do (GQ).


WHY WE SHOULD BE WORRIED
Trump's refusal to condemn Putin as a 'Killer' (The Atlantic).

'Last night in Sweden'? Trump's remark baffles a nation [and Sweden] (NY Times).

Yemen withdraws permission for U.S. antiterror ground missions (NY Times).

REPORT: Paper trail suggests Trump was paid off to do 180 degree pivot on China policy (Reverb Press).


DEMOCRACY IN PERIL?
North  Carolina is no longer classified as a democracy (The Hill).

Democracy at the Tipping Point (Spiegel Online).

"We have at most a year to defend American democracy, perhaps less" (SZ International).


THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN IT ALL FALLS APART
Paying attention: Senator Elizabeth Warren on Financial Regulation (attn:).

Donald Trump is targeting an agency that has recovered $11.8 billion for consumers (Fortune).

Trump is being handed  a great economy/ What happens when it goes wrong (Denver Post).

Non-partisan congressional tax report debunks core conservative economic theory-GOP suppresses study (Forbes).

Trump's OMB pick seems poised to ignite a worldwide financial crisis (Washington Post).

OTHER THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN IT FALLS APART
Day 26: Clusterfuck (WTFjusthappenedtoday).

Trump campaign aides had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence (NY Times).

Who told Fynn to call Russia? (Politico Magazine).

Mike Flynn might be done - but Trump's nightmare has just begun (The Guardian).

The spy revolt against Trump (Observer).

Donald Trump's Russia Scandal is Just Getting Started: The White House says Mike Flynn was going rogue, but there's no good reason to believe that (Foreign Policy).

Donald Trump firing Sally Yates isn't the big story. How he did it is (Washington Post).


SERIOUSLY? (and, yeah, they're idiots)
Pro-Trump propaganda outlets are blaming an Obama shadow government for massive anti-Trump protests (Media Matters).

GOP congressman urges self-rationing of human health care after Obamacare repeal (Huffingpost).

After bullying remarks about environmentalists and immigrants, Rep. Tom McClintock calls for 'civil discussion' (Michael Hiltzik/LA Times).

Shoker! Rediculous choker Trump attaks and dishoners English with ever-dummer spellings (San Jose Mercury News / Dana Milbank).

White House official repeated massive lie that should worry you (attn:).


YEAH, THEY'RE MISINFORMED CLOWNS TOO 
U.S. Military sources claim Trump approved Yemen strike without enough preparation (New York Magazine).

Trump says terror attacks 'under-reported': is that true? (BBC).

Donald Trump was right, there was a recent attack in Sweden. By Neo-Nazis on a refugee centre (Independent).

Anderson Cooper shuts down the White House's terrorism list in just 45 seconds (Huffington Post).

Trump's entire campaign was a bait-and-switch: Washington's a mess, and it's all the president's fault (Salon).


OH, YEAH, THEY'RE ALSO NAZIS
How White House advisor Stephen Miller went from pestering Hispanic students to designing Trump's immigration policy (Univision).

Here's a list of 39 white terrorists for the smug congressman who challenged CNN to name more than two (Slate).

White Baton Rouge judge calls black woman the N-word at local restaurant (The Root / WBZR2).

Texas high school students make Nazi salute and shout 'Hail Trump' in senior class photos (Raw Story).


MISCELLANEOUS
In mapping the Holocaust, a horrifying lesson in Nazi "paths to persecution" (PBS).

Breathless in  Bakersfield: is the worst air pollution in the US about to get worse [yes]? (The Guardian).

How the welfare state helped make America what it is today (ati).

Rachel Carson: The American Experience (PBS)

- Mark

DONALD TRUMP'S DELUSIONS, OUR REALITY

- Mark

Click here for Trump's "I inherited a mess" quote.

UNFORTUNATELY, WE'VE SEEN THIS BEFORE ...

History doesn't repeat itself, 

but it does rhyme."

- Mark Twain

- Mark

YES, WE KNEW ... AND, YES, WE KNEW ABOUT DONALD TRUMP'S RUSSIAN TIES

My good friend Leonel Martinez (no relation) posted the following on his FB page ...

We knew President Trump had questionable ties to Russia before he was elected. 

We knew he lied. 

We knew he had shady business dealings. 

We knew he was sued for racial discrimination, disparaged immigrants and demeaned women. 

We knew he had little to no knowledge of foreign policy. 

We knew he had no background in politics, was incredibly self-absorbed and wasn't exactly an intellectual heavyweight.  

Why did millions of Americans ignore those facts when they entered the voting booth? Our country will pay the price now

Incredibly, we knew so much about Donald Trump's Russian ties - a fact I pointed out back in July - Hillary Clinton was able to spell out what we knew during the third presidential debate ...

So, yes, we knew all about Donald Trump's ugly character traits AND his compromised position with Russia. Yet millions of Americans ignored these basic facts, in part because many prefer to live in an alternative universe ... which has given rise to the "alternative facts" universe many conservatives openly accept.

Leonel's final observation - "Why did millions of Americans ignore those facts when they entered the voting booth? Our country will pay the price now" - are spot on, and an appropriate way to close this post.

- Mark

TRUMP'S GROWING RUSSIA PROBLEM

This should be troubling, even for Trump's most ardent supporters. It makes Hillary Clinton's "so called" email scandal look like a bungled Inspector Clouseau investigation. Specifically, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich discusses "The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins" (my italics/bold) ...

Disturbing news this morning about how much “truth” about the rest of the world is getting to Trump. 

1. The Observer reports that the U.S. intelligence community is so convinced that Trump and his administration has been compromised by Russia that they are no longer giving the White House all of their most sensitive information, lest it end up in Putin's hands. A senior National Security Agency official explained that the National Security Agency was systematically holding back some of the “good stuff” from the White House, fearing Trump and his staff cannot keep secrets. 

2. The intelligence community is concerned that even the Situation Room – the conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings -- has been compromised by Russia. A senior Pentagon intelligence official stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM. There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in frustration. 

3. The New York Times reports “chaotic and anxious days inside the National Security Council.” Council staff get up in the morning, read Trump’s tweets, and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls. Some staff members have turned to encrypted communications to talk with their colleagues, after hearing that Mr. Trump’s top advisers are considering an “insider threat” program that could result in monitoring their cellphones and emails for leaks. 

4. National security adviser Michael T. Flynn has hunkered down since investigators began looking into what, exactly, he told the Russian ambassador to the United States about the lifting of sanctions imposed in the last days of the Obama administration, and whether he misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. His survival in the job may hang in the balance. 

Bottom line: U.S. foreign policy is now in the hands of a man with a severe personality disorder, who is not getting the information a president needs about the rest of the world. If that doesn’t worry you, nothing will ... 

If you are a Republican, and had problems with Hillary's emails, but have no issue with Trump's Russian problem you need to reconsider what being an American patriot is all about. Your political priorities and sense of national honor are seriously distorted.

It's one thing to say you're OK with Russia meddling in our elections, as long as your guy wins (which I still have a serious problem with), but it's entirely another matter if our president has put our nation's security at risk because he and his team are viewed as potentially compromised moles by the intelligence community.

- Mark

21st CENTURY WOMEN FIGHTING 20th CENTURY BATTLES (and, yes, they're fighting the mindless hypocrisy too)

Since Donald Trump became president it's almost as if we've taken a step back into the 20th century. The ugliest parts of the early 20th century, that is ...

Specifically, the silencing of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for reading a letter from Coretta Scott King, which criticizes Senator Jeff Sessions for his antagonistic positions on civil rights, takes us back to a day when women were expected to shut up and let the men do the 'manly' work.

Men tearing up a suffragette banner
in front of the White House, 1917.

Below is a a clip of Senator Warren effectively being asked to shut up and sit down by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) because there's a rule against U.S. Senators criticizing other U.S. Senators on the Senate floor ...

There's only one problem with Senator McConnell objecting to Senator Elizabeth Warren reading Coretta Scott King's letter on the Senate floor, which compelled the acting president of the Senate to tell Senator Warren to "take her seat": Republicans have violated the same rule many times, without penalty.

The Republican Party's political hypocrisy and outright misogynistic whining about Senator Warren makes it clear something is seriously wrong in Trump's Republican led America.

Still, what happened after Senator Warren was shut down provides a glimmer of hope in an otherwise increasingly ugly political environment.

* In a show of unity, Senate Democrats took to the Senate floor and read King's letter after Senator Warren was told to quit speaking.

* Senator Marco Rubio stood up in the U.S. Senate to say "we are becoming a society incapable of having debates." Later in his commentary he said, "If this body isn't capable of having those debates there will be no place in this country where those debates can occur."

* The Washington Post picked up on the hypocrisy and asked, "Why wasn't Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex) silenced in the summer of 2015 when he all but accused McConnnell [of] lying on the Senate floor?"

Another development from the GOP's attempt to silence Senator Warren is their efforts appear to have backfired. Senator Warren has benefited from a surge of strongly supportive social media attention after Senator McConnell's political tantrum dominated the mainstream medias coverage.

Still, after watching Senator Warren get shut down on the U.S. Senate floor, I'm sure many women (and men) feel that, in many ways, little has changed from our early 20th century beliefs and experiences ...

Suffragette arrested in London, May 1914.

- Mark

For additional photos of suffragettes being arrested by the police click here.

THREE LIES IN ONE TWEET ... A NEW TRUMP RECORD?

Did President Trump just outdo himself by triple whining about stuff that isn't true, again? Check out this Tweet of Three Lies ...

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For all the Trump supporters who probably need this stuff spelled out, the three lies are ...

1. A DISGRACE?
It's not a "disgrace" that his cabinet picks aren't in place today (Feb. 9). There's a process, and it takes time. The real disgrace is how the GOP is rolling over and allowing President Trump's unqualified nominees to be confirmed.

2. LONGEST DELAY?
Look, if you're going to lie, at least do it so your critics have to spend some time looking things up. The "longest delay in the history of our country"? Seriously? You don't have to leave the 21st century to see that Trump is a lying SOS.

3. OBSTRUCTION BY DEMOCRATS?
Only an ADD-addled chimp, who's bought into the first two lies, would believe this. Oh, and Fox viewers too. Fox viewers, no doubt, also believe Democrats are obstructing the process ... I have no evidence on the Fox viewers claim, but Trump's supporters don't seem to care about the truth so I'm OK, right?

Seriously, the real disgrace here is that Trump's GOP supporters don't care about his lies. The lies actually embolden their position. What's worse, they get mad when Trump's lies are pointed out to them, as if we're the bad guys.

Sigh ...

- Mark

JPMORGAN CHASE RIPPING OFF AMERICANS ... AGAIN. THIS IS WHAT WEALTH EXTRACTION LOOKS LIKE

From Bloomberg Markets we get yet one more example of wealth extraction in America, courtesy of JPMorgan Chase. This time it comes at the expense of people doing their civic duty, and having JPMorgan Chase cashing in on someone elses precious time and sacrifice. Check it out ...

For some people, jury duty is a dreaded American civic obligation. Now, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is adding another unwelcome element: banking fees. 

In a handful of jurisdictions, the biggest U.S. bank by assets handles administration of the juror-compensation system, issuing debit cards instead of the age-old system of paper checks. 

In addition to the juror pay, the cards also come loaded with fees -- for balance inquiries, for inactivity, for using non-Chase ATMs, for charges with insufficient funds and for cash or check issuance. The funds become impossible to withdraw from an ATM once the balance falls below $20, and in at least one jurisdiction -- Washington, D.C. -- there are no Chase branches or ATMs within 90 miles (145 kilometers), ensuring the funds will eventually be frittered away to the bank. 

William Mark Scott, a lawyer who served on a jury in Washington last year, sued JPMorgan, accusing it of unjust enrichment and violation of the Consumer Protection Act. He’s seeking to represent all other jurors who were paid with JPMorgan debit cards. 

"Chase uses its monopolistic control over juror funds to steal captive jurors’ money by assessing unconscionable and deceptive fees," Scott claims. "By making it prohibitively expensive to receive an over-the-counter cash withdrawal from, or to receive a check drawn upon the debit card, Chase ensures a ‘rump’ balance will be left on each debit card -- and forfeited" ...

You would think that when American do their civic duty that companies like JPMorgan Chase should do their civic duty and provide bank cards free of charge. It's not like their the ones funding the cards with their cash, right? 

The focus is on wealth extraction rather than wealth creation by big financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase is endemic, and helps explain why America is in trouble, in so many ways. 

You can read the full JPMorgan Chase rip-off story here.

- Mark

UPDATE: Via CNBC we learn that a U.S. federal judge on Wednesday upheld an Obama-era rule designed to avoid conflicts of interests when brokers give retirement advice, in a possible setback for President Donald Trump's efforts to scale back government regulation ... You can read the rest of the story here.