A compendium of protest actions with emphasis on the Kremlin Annex protest in front of the White House every day.
In October 2017, some members of Gays Against Guns began writing Christmas carols about gun violence for an action called GAG Nog. We’d written about a dozen songs when the unthinkable happened—Trump was elected. We quickly turned our brains to music that captured our mood, and survived that very bleak December belting “Donny the Con Man” at Christmas markets around New York.
Mark Thompson heard us at one summer march, and before we knew it we were on Sirius XM’s Make It Plain. By the fall of 2017, we decided it to spin off from GAG. The Reflex became Sing Out, Louise! That may seem odd as a resistance credo, a line from a Broadway show, but to us it resonates: Get out there—make your voice heard! And that’s what we’re all about. We aren’t necessarily pretty, and we’re never polite. We don’t care if you can't sing a note—we want you to take the hymnal and sing along. We are reclaiming our time and having a blast doing it.
www.singoutlouisenyc.org
September featured Kathy Griffin
The performance was part of a series of daily demonstrations that have taken place in front of the White House since President Trump’s meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Monday was the 22nd night of the protests, which have been named the Kremlin Annex.
The cast members — who hailed from current and past runs of “Wicked,” “The Lion King,” “Hamilton,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and other shows — belted out songs meant to evoke a political edge or offer a tinge of hope for the hundreds of protesters who are disillusioned by Mr. Trump (who was in New Jersey during the performance). With demonstrators often singing along, the five-song set included climactic Broadway tunes such as “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from “Les Misérables” and “Everybody Rejoice/A Brand New Day” from “The Wiz.”
Ms. O’Donnell, who has been an adversary of Mr. Trump’s for more than a decade, organized the trip with James Wesley, the producer of Sirius XM’s “On Broadway,” and the show’s host, Seth Rudetsky, a fixture of the Broadway scene.
President Trump may have left his Bedminster golf course for the summer, but the first of six "Baby Trump" balloons were inflated just a few miles away in Califon in Hunterdon County.
A New Jersey Hills Media Group video posted to YouTube shows a giant orange baby, holding a cellphone in one hand and wearing nothing but a safety-pinned diaper, tethered to the ground and hovering in the air.
www.nj.com/...
The first two Baby Trump balloons have officially arrived in the New Jersey town where the president spent the first half of the month on vacation, and more are on the way.
Girvan said organizations, rather than individuals, will be considered to receive the babies, as he wants them to get as much play as possible. Interested parties can apply at babytrumptour(at)gmail.com.
www.nj.com/...
This week we speak with General Michael Hayden as well as the guys behind the #KremlinAnnex protests, Adam Parkhomenko, John Aravosis, joined by Jeff Crile. If you like the show, leave us a review! Enjoy and see you next week.
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The majority of hard narcotics seized by Customs and Border Protection come through ports of entry either in packages, cargo or with people who attempt to enter the US legally. The only drug that is smuggled in higher numbers between legal entry points is marijuana, according to information from Customs and Border Protection and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
For example, the majority of the heroin flow on the southern border into the US is through privately owned vehicles at legal ports of entry, followed by tractor-trailers, where the heroin is co-mingled with legal goods, according to the DEA's
2018 annual drug threat assessment.
The DHS presentation says there was a 38% increase in methamphetamine at the southern border from 2017 to 2018.
There was an
increase in both methamphetamine and fentanyl seizures at both ports of entry and between the legal entry points over the past year, but the percentage is unclear since data for the last month of fiscal year 2018 is unavailable.
A closer look at the numbers shows that in fiscal year 2018, Customs and Border Protection seized 67,292 pounds of methamphetamine at legal ports of entry, compared with 10,382 pounds by Border Patrol agents in between ports, based on available data.
[...]
"17,000 adults at the southern border with existing criminal records arrested by CBP and border agents (FY18)"
Customs and Border Protection data counts nearly 17,000 criminal aliens "encountered" by the Office of Field Operations and the Border Patrol in fiscal year 2018. But it should be noted that
large portions of the immigrants being arrested at the Southwest border committed nonviolent crimes, like illegal entry or re-entry -- the act of crossing into the US illegally -- and driving under the influence of alcohol. Customs and Border Protection statistics measure immigrants convicted of crimes in the US or abroad.
"3,755 known or suspected terrorists prevented from traveling to or entering the U.S. by DHS (FY17)"
This number is highly misleading and fits a pattern of statements by the administration that have sought to tie immigration on the US-Mexico border to Islamic terror. The figure, as the Department of Homeland Security writes, represents individuals blocked from "traveling to or entering the U.S." -- not necessarily along the Southwest border. It is not uncommon for an individual named on a federal watchlist to be denied access to a flight at a foreign airport or from obtaining a visa when they apply for entry at an embassy abroad.
"6,000 gang members, including MS-13, apprehended at the southern border and removed by ICE"
The way this number is presented appears to be misleading. The latest Customs and Border Protection statistics for fiscal year 2018 (which do not include the month of September) show that the Border Patrol apprehended
808 people affiliated with gangs at the border and across the nation. On the other hand, Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed or deported
5,872 gang members in fiscal year 2018, per its latest numbers. These arrests and removals take place in communities over the country. The way this category is worded could leave readers under the impression that 6,000 gang members were arrested solely at the Southwest border, and it again plays to fears stoked by the administration of dangerous individuals coming into the US through Mexico.