Will Bunch/philly.com:
This is how America ends as any kind of force for good. With a yellow bracelet.
I’ve been thinking about a 36-year-old Guatemalan woman named Alma Jacinto and her two boys, ages 8 and 11, as I try to comprehend the rapidly accelerating human-rights outrage taking place along America’s southern border. To be clear, the story of how the United States mistreats migrant families, so desperate for a better life, can be a confusing tale — especially as emotions flare on social media. It’s a discussion that can get bogged down in the evil banality of bureaucrats and in statistics — especially the 1,475 children that government agents took, and then lost track of — that generate shock yet somehow don’t do justice to the everyday inhumanity.
That’s why I’m grateful for the on-the-ground journalism of Curt Prendergast and Perla Trevizo of the Arizona Daily Star (local reporting matters, people) that put a human face on a horrible Trump administration “zero tolerance” policy by showing us the terror and the tears of Jacinto as the detained border crosser left the Tucson courtroom where a magistrate couldn’t answer her questions about where her two boys were going or when she would see them again.
Michael Cohen/Boston Globe:
Our president is a bigot
In addition to all this, Trump has referred to white supremacists as “very fine people.” He’s questioned whether President Obama was born in the United States. He pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been held in criminal contempt by a federal court for unlawfully targeting and racially profiling Hispanics.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
The context for Trump’s comments is actually quite clear: The president is a vile bigot. He regularly demonizes and scapegoats immigrants and persons of color. He uses isolated examples of crime committed by immigrants and Muslims to justify racist policies that seek to limit nonwhite Americans from entering the country – and deport those who are already here. He’s done this repeatedly since he announced his candidacy for president, in June 2015.
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. - Maya Angelou
Vanity Fair:
TRUMP BLAMES HIS OWN CRUEL CHILD-SEPARATION POLICY ON DEMOCRATS
The Trump administration is forcibly taking migrant children from their parents and placing them in separate detention centers, to “deter” illegal immigration. On Saturday morning, Trump claimed it is all Democrats fault.
WSJ:
Israeli Intelligence Firm’s Election-Meddling Analysis Comes Under Mueller’s Scrutiny
Psy-Group presentation outlines ways Trump campaign was helped by fake social media accounts
The presentation consists of nine slides and was prepared by the Psy-Group, a firm that boasts of ties to elite Israeli intelligence agencies. It isn’t clear who received the Psy-Group presentation, but it appears to have been created sometime after the 2016 election.
People familiar with the presentation describe it as an internal analysis drawn up by the firm to drum up U.S. political business—saying that it was essentially used as marketing material for the firm’s operation and analytical capabilities. It also represents a “proof of concept” of how a firm like Psy-Group would have manipulated the 2016 campaign as well as future campaigns, people said.
It is unclear how much of the presentation consists of the firm’s analysis of online activity during the campaign and how much is a hypothetical pitch.
The Hill:
Audio discredits Trump's claim that White House official 'doesn't exist'
Journalist Yashar Ali, who posted the audio to Twitter, identified the source as National Security Council official Matt Pottinger. In the clip, deputy press secretary Raj Shah introduces Pottinger at an on-background meeting and asks reporters to refer to Pottinger as "a senior White House official."
In a barrage of tweets Saturday morning, Trump attacked the article for suggesting disagreements within the administration on a diplomatic strategy for North Korea, and admonished the Times to use "real people, not phony sources."
Ilan Goldenberg/twitter:
1. Stop talking about Trump’s “negotiating playbook” or “strategy.”
Trump foreign policy is characterized by intellectual laziness from an egomaniac who refuses to take advice. Advisors pretend there’s a “strategy,” but are just reacting to Trump’s erratic moves.
MANY examples ….
16. Syria: he undercuts our position & leverage by announcing out of nowhere we are pulling out of Eastern Syria. If we were to do that the big winners would be ISIS, which would have new opportunities to come back & Iran which would have greater battlefield flexibility
17. cuts off all support for opposition groups in Southwest Syria who have played key role in keeping a buffer that protected JOrdan & Israel. And even held $200 million for things such as the White Helmets - a group that bravely digs Syrians out of the rubble after air strikes
18. By doing all that he’s dramatically reduced US leverage, creates opportunities for Russia/Iran/Assad/ISIS. And it will inevitably draw us in deeper when it blows up in his face
19. In all of these cases there has been no strategy. No plan. No consultation. The President wakes up and decides on his own & everyone scrambles. This is not a “playbook.” It is pure ignorance, ego & stupidity.
20. Fortunately we have yet to have a REAL foreign policy crisis like an Ebola outbreak or a genuine military standoff. Terrifying to think what happens at that point
AP:
Resistance makes subtle impact even where Trump is popular
“I just felt the bottom drop out of my world,” said Toombs, 61. She felt she’d failed her son, as if Donald Trump’s election was somehow her fault. She had to do something.
So, in one of the reddest cities in one of the reddest states in the union [Oklahoma], Toombs sought out the Resistance.
It wasn’t as easy as it might be in places like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., where multitudes of college-educated, predominantly white women have joined a rolling boil of activism since Trump’s election. The Democratic party and liberals are plentiful on the coasts, but light on the ground in swathes of the country that hold the majority of electoral votes and congressional seats.
But even in Edmond, Oklahoma, Toombs has found her sisters-in-arms. And it’s the reach of anti-Trump forces into red states like Oklahoma that gives Democrats hopes of a national resurgence, though no one suggests that the heartland will change its political allegiance on a dime.
