The Ambassador to Israel…

David M. Friedman, left, with Donald J. Trump and his daughter Ivanka in 2010. Mr. Friedman has said he does not believe it would be illegal for Israel to annex the West Bank. Credit Bradley C. Bower/Bloomberg.

David M. Friedman, left, with Donald J. Trump and his daughter Ivanka in 2010. Mr. Friedman has said he does not believe it would be illegal for Israel to annex the West Bank. Credit Bradley C. Bower/Bloomberg.

Once again, a Trump pick has proven to be the worst possible choice. David Friedman has been chosen as ambassador to Israel, and he’s considered to hold scarily far right views, even among the far right. I’m sure he has a “good brain” though, and that will make the specter of no peace whatsoever okay.

President-elect Donald Trump named David M. Friedman as ambassador to Israel on Thursday — proving that the Israel-Palestinian peace process is basically screwed for the next four years.

Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer and previously a Trump campaign adviser on Jewish world issues, has zero diplomatic experience and holds far right views on Israel — even among the far right in Israel. Friedman opposes a two-state solution because he believes that the number of Palestinians in modern-day Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza — currently over 6 million and expected to equal the number of Israeli Jews by the end of 2017 — is exaggerated.

“There are always creative ways to allow people to live in peace,” Friedman told Haaretz in June. “It is not always about the land. We don’t accept the idea it is only about land. Nobody really knows how many Palestinians actually live there.” He also told the publication that Trump doesn’t see a Palestinian state as “an American imperative at all.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that Friedman doesn’t believe Israeli settlements on Palestinian land — which are considered illegal under international law — are an obstacle to peace. In fact, he is president of the American Friends of Bet El; the Bet El settlement was build on private Palestinian land without approval, but Friedman’s group has sent it millions of dollars over the past few years. (Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has donated at least $20,000 to the organization.)

[…]

Friedman has also called for the United States to “veto any United Nations votes that unfairly single out Israel,” labelled the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement as anti-Semitic, and called Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands a “false notion.”

The appointment of Friedman falls in line with Trump’s own views on Israel and Palestine. The president-elect has shown remarkably little interest in helping the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Instead, he has said the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank should “keep moving forward,” promised to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and pointed to the illegal wall separating Israel and the West Bank — referred to as the “Apartheid Wall” or “Berlin Wall” by Palestinians — as inspiration for what the United States should do on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Think Progress has the full story.

No Peace for Our Time.

profits-of-the-indian-agent

This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you: ‘ … We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.

British PM Neville Chamberlain, 1938

Make no mistake: Donald Trump’s Administration is coming for Indian Country—we’re suddenly big targets on his radar. We haven’t had quite this big of a place on the national and international stage in a long time. It makes sense—Native communities have about 25% of the nation’s on-shore oil and gas reserves and developable resources and this upcoming administration is oil-thirsty.

And they’re coming for what Tribes have; Dakota Access was the warm-up. Trump’s line-up of cabinet nominees tells us that his Administration is coming squarely for Native land and Native natural resources. Rick Perry, who sits on the Board of Directors for the Energy Transfer Partners (the company that owns the Dakota Access Pipeline), was nominated as the Energy Secretary. Trump also nominated Scott Pruitt to be the new head of the EPA; Pruitt said that “hydraulic fracking, a technological innovation that has done more to reduce carbon emissions in this country than any other technological advancement of our time.” No really—that’s what he said. He also wrote a letter to Obama In 2012, Pruitt and Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal wrote a letter to President Obama asking to eliminate a Bureau of Land Management proposal that requires oil companies to disclose the chemicals used in fracking operations on Native American land.

These cats want to separate Native people from our lands and mineral resources. It’s westward expansion, manifest destiny!

Again.

Gyasi Ross has an outstanding article up at ICTMN about the current political mess, and what it’s going to mean to Indian Country:

The Thing About Skins: Make no mistake, Donald Trump’s Administration is coming for Indian Country.

In an earlier edition, Marty Two Bulls made his feelings about certain Indians active in the current mess quite clear:

ict_editoon_120716

© Marty Two Bulls.

Subway Therapy to Be Preserved.

(Reuters/Lucas Jackson).

(Reuters/Lucas Jackson).

Since the election of Donald Trump, the walls of New York City’s 14th Street Union Square subway station have become a release valve for grief-stricken New Yorkers, who, outside of Staten Island, overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton. Created by artist Matthew “Levee” Chavez, “Subway Therapy” invites anyone to write down their fears, hate and hopes on a Post-It note and tack it on the station’s tile walls.

Thousands of Post-Its have formed a thick and colorful wallpaper over the course of six weeks, with many passengers stopping to read notes or take a quick photograph of the growing collage. Chavez estimates about 2,000 new postings are added daily.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans to archive a large portion of the collection as a historical record. “Today, we preserve a powerful symbol that shows how New Yorkers of all ages, races and religions came together to say we are one family, one community and we will not be torn apart,” said Cuomo in a press statement Dec. 16. Cuomo himself posted a message of unity for New Yorkers during a Nov. 14 visit, scribbling down a line of poetry from the base of the Statue of Liberty.

The New York Historical Society will work with the NY Metropolitan Transit Authority to gather and preserve the sticky notes as part of its History Responds program. “We are ever-mindful of preserving the memory of today’s events for future generations. Ephemeral items in particular, created with spontaneity and emotion, can become vivid historical documents,” said the society’s president Dr. Louise Mirrer.

Other articles have noted that:

The New-York Historical Society will also let New Yorkers place notes on its glass walls starting Tuesday, Dec. 20 through Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

I think everyplace should have Subway Therapy, whether there’s a subway or not. I could use one here in nDakota, not that I think it would be allowed to stand for 10 seconds.

Via Quartz.

The Twelve Days of Trumpmas.

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The Religious Reich have a Xmas wish list, one they fully expect Santa Trump to fulfill. Just the wish list here, click over to Right Wing Watch for the grisly details.

After jettisoning all of their rhetoric about public morality and personal character in order to help Donald Trump get elected, Religious Right activists are now hoping the president-elect fulfills the promises he made to the social conservative movement during his campaign.

Trump, who received the support of around eight in ten white evangelical voters, spent months boasting that he is a “great Christian” who will restore the long-lost holiday of Christmas and create “the strongest Christian lobby.”

[…]

“Like President-elect Trump, we have much to celebrate this Christmas season,” the National Right to Life Committee declared in its December newsletter, rejoicing in Trump’s anti-choice policies and Cabinet picks.

As Christmas approaches, Religious Right activists are reminding Trump of the good deeds they did to help elect him and demanding that he, in turn, deliver on his promises. Here are just 12 of the gifts the Religious Right is expecting from Trump in the new year:

  1. Nominate conservatives to the Supreme Court.
  2. Repeal the Affordable Care Act.
  3. Sign the First Amendment Defense Act.
  4. Rescind Nondiscrimination Protections.
  5. Defund and Investigate Planned Parenthood.
  6. Reinstate the Mexico City Policy.
  7. Codify The Hyde Amendment.
  8. Sign a 20-week Abortion Ban.
  9. Sign The Conscience Protection Act.
  10. Repeal The Johnson Amendment.
  11. Federal Voucher Funding.
  12. Curb Immigration, Ban Muslims and Stop Refugee Resettlement.

The details aren’t pretty. If all this is managed, we’ll be well past the welcome to fascism stage. Via Right Wing Watch.

NC: Repubs Attempt Coup.

Rep. Garland Pierce (D-Scotland) addresses protestors during a special session at the North Carolina Legislature. CREDIT: AP Photo/Gerry Broome.

Rep. Garland Pierce (D-Scotland) addresses protestors during a special session at the North Carolina Legislature. CREDIT: AP Photo/Gerry Broome.

The Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature is not happy that voters last month chose a Democratic governor and a liberal majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court. And today, they could take advantage of an “emergency” legislative session to pass a series of bills that would minimize the impact of the voters’ choices by limiting the power of the other two branches of government.

This is from an earlier article on Think Progress, about the panicked coup attempt by NC repubs, who aren’t at all happy that Cooper won the election. In doing so, they have pulled out the dirty tricks playbook:

The Republican leaders of the North Carolina legislature called an emergency special session this week ostensibly to send funding to parts of the state devastated by Hurricane Matthew. Yet they used the opportunity to rush through a series of bills designed to limit the power of incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who unseated Republican Pat McCrory by a narrow margin in November.

“It now seems to me the hurricane session was just a ruse to get us here,” Sen. Jane Smith (D-Columbus) complained.

Rev. Dr. William Barber, the president of the North Carolina NAACP, agreed, and called the move “an insult to the democratic values held by all people of goodwill in this state.”

“It is immoral, it is unconstitutional, and this illegal session is a direct attack on the people of North Carolina,” he said. “To convene in Raleigh under the pretext of a special session called by the Governor to provide relief to those affected by the hurricane and wildfires continues the worst of this extremist legislature’s legacy: making unjust laws to give more power to themselves, on the backs of those most vulnerable.”

There are now active protests taking place once again in North Carolina, where it just wasn’t enough for the voters to speak their mind and oust McCrory.

Via Think Progress.

Oh, How Conservative Times Have Changed.

Herblock March 29, 1950 cartoon that originally defined McCarthyism.

Herblock March 29, 1950 cartoon that originally defined McCarthyism.

McCarthyism hadn’t been long over when I was born, and the effects of the hunt for communists and other undesirables had far reaching ripples. The John Birch Society was still going strong, and Russia was most definitely perceived as The Enemy. This sentiment echoed right on down the 1960s, and I remember being called a commie hippie more than once. Anything conservatives didn’t like was labeled “commie” – engaged in activism for peace? Commie. Against the Vietnam war? Commie. And fluoride in the drinking water was a commie plot, too. You couldn’t get away from the intense anti-Russia sentiment, it was everywhere, and there was a great and abiding fear of Russia, too. The Cold War was everywhere, and Nikita Khrushchev was in the news every 5 minutes for years.

If there was one thing you could count on from conservatives, it was their united hatred and fear of Russia. Although this quieted down in subsequent decades, it never really went away, in spite of Gorbachev and Glasnost. There were always cons somewhere, pointing a trembling finger at Russia. Given all that, it’s remarkable just how much things have changed, in a very short time.

A new YouGov/Economist poll found that among registered Republicans and Trump voters, more than a third now hold a “favorable” view of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Though a majority still view Putin negatively, right-wing media — which spent years holding Putin up as a “better leader” than President Barack Obama — set the stage for Republican opinions to shift in the autocrat’s favor, leading to a nearly 50-point swing in support from conservatives in just over two years. And after the United States intelligence community publicly disclosed that its members believe Russia interfered in the 2016 election, many right-wing media figures doubled down on their support for Putin and are downplaying Russia’s involvement in the election.

Putin is an authoritarian “strongman” who has cracked down in Russia on freedom of speech and freedom of the press, signed into law draconian anti-gay legislation, and invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine. Nevertheless, for years, right-wing media have praised Vladimir Putin as a great leader, comparing him favorably against Obama. Fox figures have consistently lauded the Russian autocrat as “a real he-man” and have claimed that Putin has “come to the diplomatic rescue” of President Obama. One Fox host even went so far as to proclaim that she would like Putin to be president of the United States “for 48 hours,” so he could fight ISIS. In 2014, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan suggested that Putin is “one of us” and applauded him for “planting Russia’s flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity” with his policies against reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights — evidence, Buchanan suggested, that God is on Putin’s side in his clash with the West. Even conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh once admitted that Putin was “saying things I agree with” when the Russian president announced that he “opposed the adoption of Russian orphans by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender foreign couples.”

Primed by right-wing media, Trump voters now hold a more positive view of Putin and Russia. Since July 2014, Republican voters’ opinions overall of Putin have improved by 56 points, and in 2016 they voted for a candidate in Trump who is openly sympathetic to the autocrat and even invited his government to hack personal emails from Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. According to the poll, 35 percent of Trump voters and 37 percent of registered Republicans now hold a “favorable” view of Putin.

netgraph

Now, even though the U.S. intelligence community has stated that its members are “confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations,” some right-wing media are siding with Putin and downplaying the severity of the hacks.

My, my. A complete shift from Enemy to Saviour. Via Media Matters.

1,200 Scholars Agree.

A student protests against Donald Trump's proposals at Rutgers University on November 16. Albin Lohr-Jones/Sipa USA via AP.

A student protests against Donald Trump’s proposals at Rutgers University on November 16. Albin Lohr-Jones/Sipa USA via AP.

Concerned by the hateful rhetoric that has accompanied President-elect Donald Trump’s transition to the White House, a group of 1,200 historians and other scholars have put out a powerful statement urging Americans to stand guard against civil rights abuses.

“Looking back to history provides copious lessons on what is at stake when we allow hysteria and untruths to trample people’s rights,” the scholars wrote. “We know the consequences, and it is possible, with vigilance and a clear eye on history, to prevent tragedy before it is too late.”

You can read the statement in full at Mother Jones. I keep wondering what in the hell it’s going to take, to wake people up. How about Fashwave?

How about the never-ending incidents of hate?

img-4855-1-259x345 img-4856-259x345

What is it going to take?

‘Man, you’re really a diverse-looking bunch of white people.’

"It's felt pretty Civil War-ish," says one comic of the changing atmosphere in clubs. Illustration by Ryan Casey.

“It’s felt pretty Civil War-ish,” says one comic of the changing atmosphere in clubs. Illustration by Ryan Casey.

The current political scene has long been fodder for comedians, and generally speaking, people have usually taken political humor with grace, even if it’s been at the expense of their personal views. Not anymore. The people who voted for Trump don’t seem to have much of a sense of humor, and their aggrieved entitlement has taken a toxic front seat at comedy venues, making comedians change everything. Rolling Stone has a good look at how the current political climate is changing the comedy scene.

But since the election, Mattern, Rodriguez and other comedians have observed that Trump backers are much more vocal in clubs – intimate settings where comics can become the hyper-focused target of frustrations, pride and insensitivity. And after getting ridiculed in clubs throughout the campaign season, Trump supporters are lashing out in victory.

“They dare you to be the opposition now,” Rodriguez says of some Trump-supporting audience members she’s encountered. “They’re emboldened; they yell out shit they know they’re not supposed to say.” Rodriguez recounts a recent set when she referred to the President-Elect as “the guy from The Apprentice” and was told by someone in the crowd to “get the fuck off the stage.” Lately, Mattern says, he’s perceived a dip in comedy club attendance on the part of minorities. “If there’s a diverse crowd I’ll say, ‘Look at how different you all look! This is great that you’re all together.’ And of late I’ve had to kind of tweak it to, ‘Man, you’re really a diverse-looking bunch of white people.'”

This is a really bad sign, of just how fast bigotry and oppression spread, along with the intolerance of fascism.

The full article is at Rolling Stone.

Fracking, It’s Bad for Water.

Fracking water needs a closer look, EPA says. CREDIT: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley.

Fracking water needs a closer look, EPA says. CREDIT: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley.

Has everyone recovered from the surprise and shock that fracking is bad for water? I suppose it’s good that the EPA finally managed to spit this one out, now that it will most likely be dismantled.

The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can affect drinking water.

In light of the facts that tap water near some fracking wells has become flammable, that two families in Pennsylvania last year won a court case over the impacts of fracking on their water, and that scientists have found arsenic in water sources near fracking, the EPA’s announcement Tuesday should not come as a surprise.

But it does, since just 18 months ago, a draft version of the EPA’s fracking report said that the EPA “did not find evidence that these mechanisms have led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States.”

[…]

It’s not clear that the science will continue to be investigated, at least in the near term. President-elect Donald Trump has suggested dismantling the EPA, and his nominee to head the agency has come out strongly in favor of oil and gas development.

Trump is in the process of assembling what will be the most anti-environment, pro-fossil fuel cabinet in modern history. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has fought EPA regulations for years, has been tapped to run the EPA.

It’s worth noting that water quality is not the only thing at risk from fracking. Fracking has been linked to numerous air quality concerns, including in areas where fracking wells are located close to schools. Fracking has been tied to asthma, migraines, and other health impacts.

And let’s not forget that fracking causes earthquakes. We really don’t need to cause earthquakes, they are bad enough when they happen naturally. The government that is poised to take power seems to want to hasten the death of our earth, and all of us on it.

Full story at Think Progress.

A History of False Balance Journalism.

CREDIT: NAACP via the Library of Congress.

CREDIT: NAACP via the Library of Congress.

Racist mobs murdered African Americans with bullets, nooses, and knives. Innocent people were mutilated, strung up, and roasted alive. In the late 1800s, when these killings reached their peak, more than a thousand African Americans were killed in just five years. In one year, 1892, “there were twice as many lynchings of blacks as there were legal executions of all races throughout the United States.”

And yet, as media scholar David Mindich details in his book, Just the Facts: How “Objectivity” Came to Define American Journalism, elite press coverage of these murders typically presented them as morally ambiguous affairs that pitted a crowd’s desire for immediate justice against the horrific — and, very often, fabricated — crimes of the black victim.

The same ethic, in other words, that leads modern day reporters to claim Hillary Clinton’s denunciation of racists is the moral equivalent of Donald Trump’s racism also led journalists from another century to be extra careful to include the murderers’ perspective when writing about lynching.

[…]

Eighty-five years after Wells’ death, newspapers are hardly blind to the financial incentives that placed balance before truth.

Many opinion editors, the Washington Post reports, are alarmed that they do not have any columnists who share the racist belligerence of our incoming president. They are now struggling mightily to find writers who will defend the views of a man that a large minority of Americans voted for.

Meanwhile, writers who suggest that the news media did a sub-optimal job of explaining the relative shortcomings of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are often met with a brush off no less dismissive than the one the Times gave to Ida B. Wells.

Ian Millhiser’s article about false balance journalism is fascinating, and provides a much needed insight into just how journalism works, and who and what is the driving factor in most media. Highly recommended reading: The dark history of how false balance journalism enabled lynching.

Oceti Sakowin Camp.

Photo by Tom Jefferson.

Photo by Tom Jefferson.

There are still people at the Oceti Sakowin camp, a considerably smaller number, around 2,000, who will stay until DA is gone. They are requesting that no one new come into camp right now, as weather conditions are very harsh. Those of us fighting the Black Snake still need help. You can signal boost, get involved in various actions, or donate, all is appreciated, deeply.

Have a look at the Oceti Sakowin Camp site, and see if there is a way to add your voice to the many.

The Dakota Access Pipeline may be on hold, but Water Protectors are still fighting for their freedom.

This Is The Age of Puritan Nazis.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

Republicans from all over the place have been jubilant over the possibilities of legislating their hatred, in particular, their hatred of LGBTIA people. Much old legislation is having the dust blown off, polished up, and gleefully presented once again, their hopes high on being able to oppress people, and have that oppression stick.

FADA is a bill (HR 2802) that would create a special status of protection exclusively for individuals who oppose same-sex marriage or premarital sex. The federal government would be prohibited from taking any “discriminatory action” against them, including denying tax exemptions, withholding grants or contracts, or denying any federal benefit. In other words, it would require the federal government to prop up anti-gay (and anti-sex) discrimination.

“Hopefully November’s results will give us the momentum we need to get this done next year,” Conn Carroll, Lee’s spokesman, told BuzzFeed. “We do plan to reintroduce FADA next Congress and we welcome Trump’s positive words about the bill.”

FADA co-sponsor Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) similarly boasted, “The prospects for protecting religious freedom are brighter now than they have been in a long time.”

This is not about protecting religious freedom, or religious anything, and it never has been. This is the bare assertion that Christians have a legal right to hate, and to oppress people based on a specific religious belief. Christians do not need protecting, in any way, shape, or form. In spite of their constant desire to present themselves as persecuted, nothing could be further from the truth here in uStates. People are free to pray wherever the hell they want to, and unless you’re into the anti-biblical kind of showy praying, how would anyone even know you’re praying? You can carry a bible anywhere you like. The fact that others are free to walk away, argue, or criticise you if you whip it out? That’s not persecution. If you think you require legal protection from all the evil sluts who want something horrific, like contraception, then I’d suggest the field you find yourself in is not a good fit. Really, it’s not difficult to get along without crying a persecution game, and convincing yourself you need protection from the menacing tide of perfectly normal, nice people is simply evil.

Christians just love a narrative of persecution, implying they are the brave soldiers, standing strong for their god, a god who must be quite the weakling, considering it can’t ever stand up for itself, but the insistence on legislating bigotry and hate points to only one thing: cowardice. Craven, cringing, cowardly Christians, who just cannot face a day where they might encounter a queer person doing something hideous, like offering money for a service, oh my!

The only refuge LGBT people might find if both Congress and the White House turn against them is in the courts. For example, in July, Federal Judge Carlton Reeves, an Obama appointee, ruled against Mississippi’s HB 1523, which largely mirrors FADA’s protections for those who oppose marriage equality. “A law declaring that in general it shall be more difficult for one group of citizens than for all others to seek aid from the government is itself a denial of equal protection of the laws in the most literal sense,” he wrote.

But if FADA or similar legislation passes, LGBT people will have to fight it with the Justice Department working against them.

If we can be sure of one thing, it’s that republicans will be presenting a near overwhelming amount of anti-LGBTIA legislation, and at least some of it is sure to pass.

Zack Ford has the full story at Think Progress.