One defiant memo is now at the center of a Supreme Court case addressing deportation protections for nearly 700,000 “Dreamers.”
Tag: Trump administration
The hold and what motivated it is at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
👓 Leaked Emails Show Stephen Miller’s Unfiltered Anti-Immigrant Views | Mother Jones
Noah Lanard (Mother Jones)Miller promoted white nationalists, cited a racist novel, and praised a eugenicist president.
In private emails in 2015 and 2016, President Donald Trump’s top immigration adviser touted a vilely racist novel that warns of a migrant invasion, promoted the ideas of white nationalist publications, and raged at retailers who stopped selling Confederate flags in the wake of the massacre of black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
On Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center published excerpts of emails Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s assaults on immigrants, sent to the right-wing outlet Breitbart. Miller’s embrace of ideas and language used by the “white replacement” conspiracy theorists who populate alt-right forums has long been known. But the unusual thing about the emails, which were provided to the SPLC by a disaffected former Breitbart editor, Katie McHugh, is that they come from a time when Miller was willing to put his ideas in writing. These days, well aware that he’s a target for Trump’s critics, he’s careful to avoid a paper trail by sticking to phone calls.
👓 Lt. Colonel Vindman Fired | Daily Kos
What bugs me even more than the firing of Vindman for just doing his job, protecting the national security of the U.S., is the continued gaslighting, saying that the firing was not retaliation, but just a routine personnel move.
This is so patently a lie, that one would think O’Brien would be ashamed to let it out of his mouth.
But you check your integrity at the door to stay in the employ of the Orange Mousseolini.
More likely he was retasked, but still a retaliatory move…
👓 Why a Government Lawyer Argued Against Giving Immigrant Kids Toothbrushes | The Atlantic
The sheer effrontery of the government’s argument may be explained, but not excused, by its long backstory.
We certainly have a lot of things we need to fix in this country, but knowing a bit of the history of how we got here may also help to fix the problem.
Elaine Chao has boosted the profile of her family’s shipping company, which benefits from industrial policies in China that are roiling the Trump administration.
If this were written into a spy thriller, you probably wouldn’t believe it.
hat tip:
The NYT heard way back in Oct 2017 that State Depart. officials had raised ethics concerns abt a pending trip by DOT Sec. Elaine Chao to China. After we asked abt the trip, it was cancelled. We sued State Depart to get the emails. Here is the result https://t.co/fsMdwZsPMp
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) June 3, 2019
🎧 On Matters of War | On the Media | WNYC Studios
Controversy erupted over news that President Trump may grant more pardons for alleged war criminal Edward Gallagher and others. This week, On the Media looks at Fox News’s influence on the president’s decision. And, how the Navy may be spying on a reporter who's tracked Gallagher's case. Plus, how the latest Julian Assange indictment could spell disaster for the future of investigative journalism.
1. James Goodale, former General Counsel for The New York Times and author of Fighting For The Press, on the disastrous new Julian Assange indictments. Listen.
2. Adam Weinstein [@AdamWeinstein], an editor with The New Republic, on the unofficial Fox News campaign to push the president to pardon alleged war criminals. Listen.
3. Andrew Tilghman [@andrewtilghman], Executive Editor of the Military Times, on the Navy's troubling assault on press freedom. Listen.
4. Scott J. Shapiro [@scottjshapiro], professor of philosophy and law at Yale, on how militaries across the globe navigate the horrors of war. Listen.
❤️ RepKatiePorter on @SecretaryCarson, REOs, and OREOs
Rep. Katie Porter (Twitter)I asked @SecretaryCarson about REOs - a basic term related to foreclosure - at a hearing today. He thought I was referring to a chocolate sandwich cookie. No, really. pic.twitter.com/cYekJAkRag
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) May 21, 2019
“The best people” indeed. I’m guessing we should have asked a few more questions like “the best people” at what? Screwing up the country? Carson may have been a half-decent pediatric neurosurgeon, but he obviously doesn’t seem to know anything else about anything else.
I’ll be he follows this up with something idiotic like, “I’m a big picture guy.”
🎧 A Tell-All Memoir And An NDA | the Media | WNYC Studios
This week, the latest tell-all memoir from a former White House staffer hit bookstores. Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House is by Cliff Sims — who was, depending on who you ask, either key player as Director of Message Strategy or, as Trump tweeted this week, “nothing more than a gofer.”
The book, of course, is a landfill of trash and dirt on his former colleagues. And even as Sims toured the morning shows, the late shows and the everything-else shows to hawk his book, Trump Campaign COO Michael Glassner was threatening to sue him for violating the campaign's non disclosure agreement. Sims says he remembers signing some paperwork, but doesn’t remember if there was an NDA in there and, as other lawyers have since chimed in, there is established precedent that would make it very hard for the campaign to silence a former federal employee.
The subject of NDAs comes up a lot for people in Trump’s orbit — which is why the team at Trump, Inc. (produced here at our station, WNYC) did a whole episode on the topic. We present that episode for you as our podcast extra this week. Enjoy!
🎧 The Daily: The Brief, Controversial Tenure of Kirstjen Nielsen | New York Times
As homeland security secretary, she enacted and publicly defended the family separation policy. In President Trump’s eyes, she didn’t go far enough.
👓 Attorneys General Sue Trump Administration Over School Nutrition Rollbacks | The Salt | NPR
Allison Aubrey (The Salt | NPR )A coalition of state attorneys general is suing the Trump administration for weakening the federal nutrition standards for school meals that are fed to about 30 million children across the country.
"Over a million children in New York — especially those in low-income communities and communities of color — depend on the meals served daily by their schools to be healthy, nutritious, and prepare them for learning," New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. Joining James in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont.
👓 Second Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Census Citizenship Question Plans | NPR
A second federal judge has issued a court ruling against the administration's plans to ask whether every person living in the country is a U.S. citizen in the 2020 census.
👓 Joshua Tree National Park’s Signature Trees Are Among Shutdown Victims | New York Times
The park said that an unspecified number of its spiky-leafed trees had been destroyed by visitors during the shutdown.
📺 “Face the Nation” on January 13, 2019 | CBS
On this "Face the Nation" broadcast moderated by Margaret Brennan:
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (read more)
- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (read more)
- Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro (read more) (full interview)
- Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson (read more)
- Michael Crowley, Jeffrey Goldberg, David Nakamura, Seung Min Kim (watch)
👓 First on CNN: Hundreds of TSA screeners calling out sick | CNN
Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers, who are required to work without paychecks through the partial government shutdown, have called out from work this week from at least four major airports