Fascism Watch, January 21-22: The Women’s March

(image by Daryl Cagle)

Protests

Between 3 and 4 million people attended Women’s Marches on all seven continents–even Antarctica. The New York Times has a great photo gallery.

It appears to have been the largest protest in US history.

When more people show up to the #WomensMarchOnWashington than to Trump's inauguration 🤷🏼‍♀️✊🏻✊🏽✊🏿 pic.twitter.com/cLn5zKipN0

— kyle (@kylesingerrr) January 21, 2017

Boston Police estimated a crowd of 125,000 people today at the Boston Women's March. #BosWomensMarch
(pic @maura_healey, @WCVB) pic.twitter.com/nItLHqRBcL

— BostonTweet (@BostonTweet) January 21, 2017

A #WomensMarch in Antarctica, too https://t.co/6uYISDfh24 @RaeHodge pic.twitter.com/8WktRDBLTF

— David Beard (@dabeard) January 21, 2017

The March’s organizers have a new campaign, 10 Actions for the first 100 Days.

Trump

Threads connecting Trump to Russian business (and crime) go back decades

Trump’s first press conference: propaganda delivered in front of the CIA’s Memorial Wall.

On his first full day in the White House, President Trump went to the CIA presumably to try and offer an olive branch to members of the intelligence community he often maligned over their conclusions that Russia had conspired to influence the U.S. elections.

Instead, he falsely denied that he had ever criticized the agency, falsely inflated the crowd size at his inauguration on Friday, attacked the media and told intelligence officers gathered to, “Trust me. I’m like a smart person.”

He had Sean Spicer lie about the size of the inaugural crowds, saying, “This was also the first time that fencing and magnetometers went as far back on the Mall, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from being able to access the Mall as quickly as they had in inaugurations past.” The Secret Service (!) has refuted this claim.

Kellyanne Conway then defended Spicer’s “alternative facts” and told Chuck Todd how to be a journalist:

Respectfully, your job is not to call things ridiculous that are said by our press secretary and our president. That’s not your job. You’re supposed to be a news person. You’re not an opinion columnist.

In a separate interview, she said:

“It’s really time for him to put in his own security and intelligence community,” she said. “We really would prefer the intelligence community that’s going out the door to be much more respectful toward the President.”

Trump’s inaugural address was written by Steve Bannon, white nationalist, and Stephen Miller. The White House has just hired another Breitbart writer.

The first two petitions on the newly refreshed petitions.whitehouse.gov: release Trump’s tax returns and divest from his businesses. The tax return petition surpassed the threshold for a required response in less than 24 hours.

The response: “He’s not going to release his tax returns. We litigated this all through the election. People didn’t care.”

Trump’s “America First” slogan is a KKK phrase lifted from anti-Semitic rhetoric from WWII.

Trump’s inaugural cake was commissioned to look exactly like Obama’s, and was made mostly of styrofoam.

The National Museum of American History’s gift shop briefly sold a book on Trump “riddled with falsehoods.”

Lawyers are filing a lawsuit Monday morning over Trump’s violation of the Emoluments Clause.

James Comey, whom Trump had previously called “corrupt,” got a pat on the back at a White House reception today.

Cabinet Appointees

Mike Flynn was sworn in as National Security Adviser today. He’s still under investigation for collusion with Russia.

After finally receiving her completed ethics forms, the HELP committee delayed Betsy DeVos’s confirmation vote.

She is, however, retaining her position as co-trustee of three family trusts, at least one of which has an indirect financial stake in Sextant Education, which operates a chain of for-profit colleges, through its parent company AEA Investors. Though DeVos lists AEA as one of the assets she intends to divest, it’s unclear whether she would retain a partial stake through the trust. And the other two trusts have no assets listed, so there is no sense of whether they have investments in other education companies.

Having previously said he’d support Tillerson for Secretary of State when “pigs fly,” McCain is now supporting Tillerson’s confirmation. Rubio is not, and had a private 90-minute meeting with Pence and Priebus last week. Tillerson’s vote is being held tomorrow.

Voting

AZ Rep. Bob Thorpe wants to prevent college students from using dorms or other temporary addresses on voter registrations in Flagstaff.

What You Can Do

Call your reps about Tillerson’s confirmation vote on Monday, Sessions’s on Tuesday, and “alternative facts” every damn day of the week. This is not normal.