Yesterday, NFL owners established a new league rule that effectively prohibits players’ ability to kneel during the national anthem. The league will fine teams whose players kneel.
The owners provided players with an option to remain in the locker room during the anthem, but this completely disregards the main point of kneeling on the field: bringing national visibility to legitimate concerns around police brutality and racial profiling.
One team official admits the NFL is “terrified of Trump,” who blew a white supremacist, racist dog whistle on Fox & Friends this morning, saying that players who refuse to stand for the anthem “maybe shouldn’t be in the country.”
ACTION OF THE DAY
Reject Rent Hikes. In the midst of an affordable housing crisis, HUD Secretary Ben Carson wants to triple the minimum rent for households who can least afford it. After passing a tax bill designed to enrich the 1%, the Trump Administration plans to pay for it by burdening those who most need access to stable, affordable housing. Sign the petition to tell Congress: reject rent hikes.
NORTH KOREA SUMMIT IS NO MORE
It appears the art of diplomacy is more difficult than the art of the deal. This morning, Trump announced the cancellation of the upcoming North Korea summit. As experts predicted, Trump may have underestimated the difficulty of negotiating an historic denuclearization summit. The question now is whether Trump is willing to continue real diplomacy to address real threats, or if all he wanted all along was a big show and a Nobel Peace Prize.
TRUMPIFICATION OF THE COURTS
Some days, the Trump presidency seems like it might last forever—and in one way, it will.
Federal judgeships are lifetime appointments, open-ended opportunities for ultraconservative nominees to attack progressive rights and values. Trump’s nominees will shape the law in his image long after the Trump presidency is (mercifully) over.
Several of Trump’s judicial nominees are up for votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Some lowlights:
- Staunchly anti-choice nominee Wendy Vitter was the first nominee to refuse to answer whether Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided.
- Andy Oldham—anti-immigrant and anti-environment—also refused to answer Senator Blumenthal’s simple Brown v. Board question.
- Ryan Bounds is a double blue slip violation from Oregon with a history of racist writings that he withheld from his state nominating commission. He would be the first judicial nominee in history to be confirmed over the objection of both home state senators.