I’ve become very aware over the last few months that many of my friends and family are simply not seeing the same news I am. I follow a number of journalists and activists on Twitter, and my Tumblr feed is half social justice issues and half fandom nonsense. As a result, things that are common knowledge among my online cohort, like Purvi Patel’s incarceration in Indiana, are totally unknown to my conservative relatives.
We can hardly agree on political opinions if we can’t even begin with the same set of facts.
To correct the disparity, I’ve begun copying said news items from Twitter and Tumblr into Facebook roundups, and I’m going to do the same here. Because our President-elect is setting up a fascist government for himself (whether intentionally or through sheer ignorance of the law, it’s hard to say), I’m calling it the Fascism Watch.
This is on the memorial in DC to the Japanese internment camps. pic.twitter.com/n3Kq5QmPnf
— ☮️ David Swanson ☮️ (@davidcnswanson) November 18, 2016
I’ll categorize the items pretty broadly as: Trump, his family, and his businesses; Pence; other transition team members and cabinet appointees; voter fraud, suppression, hacking, and gerrymandering; protester suppression; and general fascist nonsense.
With that, here’s my roundup of outrageous things happening in America on Monday, November 21:
Trump
Trump used his congratulatory call from the President of Argentina to push his business interests in Buenos Aires. Ivanka Trump was in on at least part of the call despite not having any official role in the government. The Trump Tower Buenos Aires was held up in approvals until November 15, when it was suddenly cleared after a post-election phone call between the government and the developer, a friend of Eric Trump’s.
The developer behind Trump Tower Manila has been named a special trade envoy to the US.
While he slammed Hillary Clinton for donations the Clinton Foundation received from Saudi Arabia, during the campaign Trump started eight companies in Saudi Arabia.
Trump continues to meet with Indian executives about his businesses in Mumbai and apparently has no intention of separating himself from his companies’ dealings.
Maggie Haberman of the NY Times notes that news of Trump’s conflicts of interest is largely coming from foreign media, because American journalists have not been allowed to observe his meetings.
The FEC has found $1.3m in illegal donations to the Trump campaign.
The $25m court settlement over the fraudulent Trump University will be tax deductible.
Trump, who made a huge deal about copies of Clinton’s emails being stored on a private server, allowed himself to be photographed with an uncovered DHS agenda that includes plans for mass deportations and voter suppression.
Pence
Transition Team & Cabinet Appointees
Pam Bondi is joining the transition team. As Attorney General of Florida, Bondi was accused of accepting a $25m campaign donation in return for dropping an investigation of Trump University.
Voting
A federal court has declared Wisconsin’s districts illegal gerrymandering.
Protests
Dakota Access Pipeline protestors were hit with rubber-coated bullets and water canons in sub-freezing temperatures. Donald Trump is an investor in Energy Transfer Partners, the builder of the pipeline.
Other Fascist Nonsense
He railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the “children of the sun,” a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donald J. Trump, were “awakening to their own identity.”
CNN chyron quotes neo-Nazi Richard Spencer asking “if Jews are real people.”
A new website, professorwatchlist.org, has been set up “to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”
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