RAICES @RAICESTEXAS

Marvin, a 32 yr old man from El Salvador, died in front of his 8 yr old daughter this morning in a CBP detention center.

The mother of their child is not yet reunited w/her grieving daughter.

This is the 8th death in CBP custody in 9 months.

RIP, Marvin,

Via - @angelcanales



https://twitter.com/RAICESTEXAS/status/1157072286878273536

“They said ‘send her back’ but Speaker Pelosi didn’t just make arrangements to send me back, she went back with me. So grateful for the honor to return to Mother Africa.”





https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1157032597362491393

Someone who was in Rep. Steve King’s office recently noticed a small plastic fetus behind his family photos and thought it was so bizarre they took a pic and sent it to me.

(I assume the fetus is some kind of anti-abortion thing.)





https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1156971220539191296

President Donald Trump spoke Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the only reason anybody knows about the call is because the Russians publicly disclosed it. The White House made no public mention of it until late Wednesday night.

According to the official Russian account of the call, shared to the Facebook page for Russia’s U.S. embassy, the discussion of the call focused on the wildfires currently ravaging Siberia. Putin spoke of a “powerful group of aircraft” they were using to fight the wildfires. Trump offered to help with this effort, and Putin regarded this offer “as a sign that it is possible that full-scale bilateral relations will be restored in the future.”

This latest round of Trump and Putin cozying up comes just a week after former special counsel Robert Mueller testified that Russians are still very much meddling in U.S. elections. A new report from the Senate Intelligence Committee last week confirmed the extent of Russia’s interference in 2016 and how ill-prepared the country is as it enters its 2020 election cycle. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is also facing massive public scrutiny for his unwillingness to let the Senate take up any election security legislation (#MoscowMitch).

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Wired this week that there is every reason to worry about what’s to come. “The intelligence community’s own reporting was that Russia didn’t throw its full force of efforts in 2018,” he warned. “Chances are they’ll reserve those for the presidential election.”

Early into Trump’s first term, his administration provided only the most basic readouts of calls with foreign leaders, providing far less context as to what was discussed compared to past administrations. It was also far less than what other countries were releasing about the calls. In 2017, the full transcripts of two such calls leaked, revealing how easily foreign leaders manipulate Trump in these isolated one-one-on conversations.

Last year, the White House said it would end the long tradition of releasing any summaries whatsoever of calls Trump has with world leaders. This week’s call with Putin seems to suggest that the administration went a step farther by ending the practice of even acknowledging when the calls have taken place.

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-spoke-to-putin-this-week-and-hardly-anyone-noticed-b72dddc2ccd6/