rebecca LANDO

Jeff Sessions, who was deemed too racist to be a Federal District Court Judge in 1986 by a GOP-led judiciary committee, was confirmed as Trump’s Attorney General. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/us/politics/jeff-sessions-attorney-general-confirmation.html

Before the confirmation, Sean Spicer said he hopes Coretta Scott King would approve of Jeff Sessions, though the letter Elizabeth Warren tried to read by King last night was one of open condemnation. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259988-Scott-King-1986-Letter-and-Testimony-Signed.html#document/p1

Meanwhile Trump, who led the birther movement against Obama and has received a hearty thumbs up from the KKK, complained that the media is “pulling the racist card against him”: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-accuses-critics-pulling-racist-card-article-1.2966927?utm_content=buffer8cd17&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw Here’s a timeline of events that have gotten Trump accused of racism: http://www.ibtimes.com/donald-trump-racism-timeline-breaking-down-presidential-candidates-past-comments-2431421

Trump tweeted his rage at Nordstrom for removing Ivanka Trump’s brand from their stores. He sent the tweet during his scheduled intelligence briefing (https://twitter.com/kalpenn/status/829362249940791297). https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/business/ivanka-trump-nordstrom-tj-maxx.html

He sent Spicer to defend the action. this http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/318529-white-house-escalates-trumps-feud-with-nordstrom-over-ivanka-trump

Trump’s Supreme Court nominee called his attacks on federal judges “demoralizing”. http://www.npr.org/2017/02/08/514195859/gorsuch-calls-trump-tweets-about-judges-demoralizing-and-disheartening

Republicans are moving to take away a rule limiting overdraft fees, the main beneficiary is a big spender lobbyist. https://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewzeitlin/republicans-are-moving-to-scrap-rules-on-overdraft-charges?utm_term=.er9VQ43oYq#.ytqmo8lMRW

Trump erroneously claimed the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was finally approved today, is “not controversial”. http://heavy.com/news/2017/02/trump-dakota-access-pipeline-dapl-one-call-video-keystone-xl-stock-banks-no/

Sean Spicer said anyone who claims the Trump administration’s botched Yemen raid wasn’t a success is doing a disservice to the slain Navy SEAL’s life. Reminder that Trump has repeatedly called the war in Iraq a disaster. https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/829411942322155520

Trump selected conservative judge Neil Gorsuch as his Supreme Court nominee. He believes in interpreting the constitution literally, as he interprets it to have been intended upon it’s drafting, and famously ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby’s religious challenge to the ACA. http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/31/14450024/neil-gorsuch-supreme-court

Trump selected Jerry Falwell Jr. to lead a “higher education task force” (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jerry-falwell-jr-asked-lead-trump-education-task-force-n715116). He’s extremely homophobic and appears to have a shaky perspective on science. Here are some pages from his textbooks: https://twitter.com/kevinroose/status/826630781892251648

The Trump campaign is considering executive orders which would aim to weed out potential immigrants and deport current immigrants who rely on public assistance and tighten overall visa distribution.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-circulates-more-draft-immigration-restrictions-focusing-on-protecting-us-jobs/2017/01/31/38529236-e741-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d_story.html?postshare=2611485889175975&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.9950c3c001e6

The House Republicans announced plans to repeal an Obama-era rule that prevents coal companies from polluting nearby water supplies. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/gop-moves-undo-obama-rules-protecting-streams-coal-mines/

Trump promised top drug company executives that he would slash their regulations. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/health/trump-vows-to-ease-rules-for-drug-makers-but-prices-remain-a-focus.html

After refusing to accept an Obama appointment and threatening to fight anyone Hillary Clinton put forward if she were to win the presidency, Ted Cruz is now suggesting that Senate Republicans could try to change Senate rules to prevent a Democratic filibuster. http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/317109-cruz-republicans-could-change-rules-if-dems-filibuster-trumps-scotus-nominee

A half-dozen of Trump’s campaign aides have formed a nonprofit group to support his agendas. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/31/512690691/trump-political-advisers-now-raising-money-for-his-america-first-agenda

The White House has iced out CNN because they won’t “promote” Trump’s agenda. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-cnn-press-234455

Another sad Muslim Ban story. A green card-holding Iraqi woman who’s lived in America since 1995 died a day after being prevented from returning home by Trump’s Muslim Ban. http://time.com/4656182/trump-muslim-ban-woman-died-green-card-immigration/

Sean Spicer claimed the Muslim Ban was not a ban, and appeared to short circuit when a reporter pressed that both he and Trump himself had referred to it as a ban in the past. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sean-spicer-muslim-ban_us_5890ed19e4b0522c7d3da0bd

Trump weirdly started asking where Rudy Giuliani was during a “listening session” about cybersecurity. Giuliani was sitting in front of him. A weird repeat of his recent call of “where’s Pompeo” at the GOP retreat (http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/316339-trump-wheres-pompeo). http://www.mediaite.com/online/wheres-rudy-trump-doesnt-appear-to-realize-that-giulianis-sitting-right-across-from-him/

Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates for saying the Justice Department would not defend his executive order on immigration. The White House released a statement full of insults, claiming Yates “betrayed the Department of Justice” and “is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration”. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-fires-attorney-general-sally-yates_us_588ff493e4b0c90efeffbc2f To add insult to insult, this came after he whined on Twitter that the DNC was holding up his nominees for “purely political reasons”, which is the actual function of a politician. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/826229971584708608

Trump replaced the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement later this evening. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/317025-trump-boots-acting-ice-head-report

We learned that the Muslim ban is just the start of a broader, race-based immigration reform concept developed by Steve Bannon, Steve Miller, and Michael T. Flynn http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-immigration-20170130-story.html

Trump signed yet another executive order, this time proclaiming that if a new business regulation is introduced, two must be cut in its place. He also pledged to dismantle the Dodd-Frank regulations placed on Wall Street after the 2008 economic crisis. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/politics/trump-dodd-frank-regulations.html

A self-proclaimed voter fraud expert Trump retweeted who made an unsubstantiated claim about fraud in the 2016 election was found to be registered to vote in three different states. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/trumps-voter-fraud-expert-registered-in-3-states.html

Trump tried to claim on Twitter that “only 109 people of 325,000 were detained” thanks to his Muslim ban. He had Sean Spicer later repeat this stat. That’s extremely misleading. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/30/the-number-of-people-affected-by-trumps-travel-ban-about-90000/?utm_term=.571cec659a02

Trump tried to blame the chaos and confusion at airports caused by his Muslim ban on Delta’s computer issues which grounded 150 domestic flights across the country days after his executive order. http://fortune.com/2017/01/30/donald-trump-muslim-ban-delta-protests/

Trump, who’s father was arrested at a KKK rally, teased Sen. Chuck Shumer, who lost his great grandmother and several great aunts and uncles in the holocaust, for crying over the Muslim ban. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/30/trumps-joke-about-schumers-fake-tears-sours-an-already-complicated-relationship/?utm_term=.f00968de5246

The White House continued to shrug off the fact that they committed mentions of Jews or antisemitism from their Holocaust Remembrance Day statement while refusing to say who wrote it. (It was almost definitely Steve Bannon, who has a history of antisemitism himself.) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/30/spicer-slams-pathetic-criticism-of-holocaust-statement-that-omitted-mention-of-jews/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_3_na&utm_term=.4ade3948f9e4

White House told State Department officials to quit if they disagree with the president, after they circulated a dissent cable warning that Trump’s Muslim ban could actually make America less safe. The White House barred the State Department from speaking to Congress (http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/317006-rubio-state-asked-not-to-talk-travel-ban-with-congress). https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/us/politics/sean-spicer-state-dept-travel-ban.html

Signed executive actions calling for immediate construction of a border wall between America and Mexico and penalties for sanctuary cities, citing danger and a loss of jobs to illegal immigrants. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-pledges-to-start-work-on-border-wall-within-months/2017/01/25/dddae6ee-e31e-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63_story.html?pushid=breaking-news_1485386463&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.fe87e4876bec) Paul Ryan confirmed the wall will cost between 8 and 14 billions dollars of federal money. (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-ryan-idUSKBN1592WD) Obviously, Trump spent the entire campaign claiming Mexico will pay for the wall. Allegedly, that’s still the plan, they’re just going to pay us back. Somehow. At some point. (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-trump-tells-abc-news-david-muir-construction/story?id=45007943)

Called for a weekly list of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities. Based on the administration’s record with patently false statistics so far this week, you can guess how truthful they’re likely to be. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/316145-trump-calls-for-weekly-list-of-crimes-committed-by-undocumented

Set the stage for voter suppression in 2018 and 2020 under the guise of an investigation into voter fraud. Sean Spicer admitted that the investigation will focus on states where Trump lost. “Urban areas” specifically. (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/sean-spicer-voter-fraud-investigation-suppression) Does that sound racist? That’s because the whole voter suppression narrative is apparently rooted in Trump half-remembering a story from an acquaintance: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/trump-bernhard-langer-voting-fraud.html?_r=0&referer=https://t.co/MU5TAHryYL Worth noting: when questioned about why he believes there was voter suppression by ABC, Trump cited a document that actually doesn’t prove voter fraud, and who’s author says as much. (https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/824401528555536387) 

Trump Hotels tripled U.S. expansion and cancelled its foray into China, in case you were wondering whether Trump still planned on profiting off the presidency. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-25/trump-hotels-to-triple-locations-in-u-s-expansion-ceo-says?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Trump lifted a ban on Black Site prisons (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/cia-detainee-prisons.html?_r=0) and told ABC that “torture works”. (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38753000)

Named Julie Kirchner, the former executive director of anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) as chief of staff at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/01/23/former-executive-director-anti-immigrant-hate-group-fair-joins-trump-administration

Mandated that EPA scientists’ work must be looked over by the Trump administration before being released to the public. Basically vetting the scientific research we’re allowed to know about based on whether the “voice reflects the new administration”. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/25/511572169/epa-scientists-work-may-face-case-by-case-review-by-trump-team-official-says

In a very direct and sketchy way, placed two young campaign volunteers in charge of the federally-funded 800 million dollar Voice of America network which only recently was allowed to broadcast in the United States. Basically this opens the door to a propaganda network. Rachel Maddow explains: http://www.msnbc.com/…/retooled-voa-set-to-be-trump-run-us-…

make lots of lists

make your bed

send lots of emails and only cry maximum 5 minutes before making phone calls

scream only mildly internally when strangers talk to you

i can recognize white people as a whole have systemically oppressed POC in america, which is where i live 

most people when they make white people jokes only mean the shitty white people and i am not a shitty white person 

Surrounded by dilapidated houses in a rundown part of Kansas, inspiring 50-year-old filmmaker Richard ‘R.G.’ Miller directs his cast of dolls and action figures in the weirdest 'blockbuster’-style feature films you’ve never seen. His dream audience? More than 9 people.

SIDESHOW: Sometimes there are other ideas that I think would be awesome. So think of these as guest blog entries from other sections of my brain.