good morning, it's 12 march 2017

So we have a big stack of connected stories from yesterday (and a few from a couple of days before) about the fired Michael Flynn, about Russian contacts with the Trump campaign, and a series of connections between urges-to-investigate Trump's use of the White House to further his business interests and the sudden firing of US Attorneys without replacements.

* Trump adviser admits to contact with DNC hacker
* Michael Flynn Apparently Paid Retired-FBI Agent Embroiled in Clinton Email Scandal

* Ethics Watchdogs Want U.S. Attorney To Investigate Trump's Business Interests
* Trump Abruptly Orders 46 Obama-Era Prosecutors to Resign
* The Showman: How U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara struck fear into Wall Street and Albany.
* Preet Bharara Is Fired After Refusing to Step Down as U.S. Attorney

Neat stuff.

In Texas, we have a neat story about how "Trump is about to pull off one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history and Texas will lose." Well, shoulda maybe not voted for him given that this was one of the central planks of his platform. Given that we're going to be hurt by this too, is a big ol' HA-ha out of line?

Less funny are "How President Trump has already hurt American democracy — in just 50 days" and "The Words We Use About Donald Trump," about the normalisation of neofascism.

Introduced in the House is "H.R.610: To distribute Federal funds for elementary and secondary education in the form of vouchers for eligible students and to repeal a certain rule relating to nutrition standards in schools." Definitely keep track of that.

Border issues continue to be fun; two on refugees fleeing the US for Canada, and one pocket guide to getting across the US border without handing over a copy of all your data. "A run for the border," "A perilous, frozen trek into Canada was the only option for three terrified migrants. The alternative was to face death in their home country," and "EFF’S POCKET GUIDE TO PROTECTING YOUR DATA AT THE U.S. BORDER" (PDF booklet).

We have our first anti-gay law passed at the state level since the election - South Dakota takes that shitty crown. "South Dakota Governor Signs Anti-LGBTQ “License to Discriminate” Bill into Law."

This isn't the election's fault, but cuts to the CDC won't help anybody deal with "Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S."

And today's alt-reality headline, "White Evangelicals Believe They Face More Discrimination Than Muslims" is actually pretty explainable - it's a combination of just outright lying about anything anyone else faces, pity party, and most of all, a zero-sum view of rights; they quite sincerely believe that if they can't oppress others in law (queers particularly, but by no means just) then they are being oppressed and their religious liberty (to oppress others) is being taken away. They've been taught this for decades and this was well and firmly in place even before the 1990s, and it hasn't really changed. Their media have been calling themselves the most oppressed people in America for ages. So really, there's literally nothing new about this story, but it's a good reminder.

( It's March 12, 2017; this is the news )

good morning, it's 13 march 2017

Good morning. We have three immigration/roundup stories: "Exclusive: Trump admin. plans expanded immigrant detention," "It’s Still a Muslim Ban," and "BBC reporter Benjamin Zand‏ harassed, questioned about ancestry at US customs." Plans include intentional removal of children from families of those seeking asylum as a way to pressure asylum-seekers to abandon the attempt.

We have a set of stories on environmental issues and government suppression of data. "Trump's actions raise fears about access to government data," "Inside the GOP's Latest Effort to Gut Science at the EPA," and the terrible clickbait headline "This climate lawsuit could change everything. No wonder the Trump administration doesn’t want it going to trial" for which the Washington Post should be embarrassed. On a not-unrelated note, we also have "Conservation group maps land protection strategy in 3 states." Being private, hopefully _that_ one won't get shot down.

In other reality-altering news, we have "Trump's budget director claims Obama was 'manipulating' jobs data" - they're doubling down (of course) on the claim that the Obama-era jobless numbers were "fake" but their identically-derived numbers are "real" now because they're coming from the Trump administration.

20/20 (on ABC News) had a story on Gay Conversion Camps, the fundamentalist abuse and torture facilities used to try to turn queer kits straight. "Undercover at a so-called gay conversion camp" is only the short form for the longer story, but it's what I have online.

Russians and impeachment: "Trump Adviser Had Twitter Contact With Figure Tied to Russians," "If Russia Inquiry Is Not ‘Legitimate,’ Democrats May Abandon It" (meaning they won't participate in a coverup or sham investigation - hopefully), "Flynn told Trump team he might register as a foreign agent," meaning more lies from the Trump administration about this whole thing, "Democracy 21 letter to United States Attorney Preet Bharara" - the request to investigate that probably got Mr. Bharara fired, and "Donald Trump could be impeached on four grounds, former Labor Secretary says."

Five Thirty Eight talks about the surprise factors in the election in "There Really Was A Liberal Media Bubble."

A couple of health-care updates: "What Do Republicans Believe?" (spoiler: FUCKING NOTHING) and "What the GOP health-care plan might mean for Washington state."

And finally, two other miscellaneous: "During his political rise, Stephen K. Bannon was a man with no fixed address," and "Emboldened by Trump, some police unions seek to overhaul Obama’s reforms."

( It's March 13, 2017; this is the news )