A series of incidents in which U.S. troops have been arrested in cases involving white nationalism is of “significant concern, particularly given their combat and weapons training," several House Democrats said in a letter on Monday, pressing the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security for information about how they screen for recruits.

Maryland Reps. Elijah Cummings, Anthony Brown and Jamie Raskin and California Rep. Jackie Speier wrote that they applaud the actions taken by federal agencies in the arrest this month of Coast Guard Lt. Christopher P. Hasson, a self-proclaimed white nationalist who authorities say had a list of journalists and politicians that he planned to kill.

But citing that case and others in 2017, the lawmakers asked acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan and Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversees the Coast Guard, how Hasson and others who demonstrated extremist views were able to circumvent the military’s checks.

“Our hope is that these incidents are isolated events and are not indicative of a larger, systemic issue within the United States Armed Services,” the lawmakers wrote. “Beyond the extremes of domestic terrorism, we are additionally concerned with low level racism and other identity-based harassment that disrupts unit cohesion, impacts readiness, and degrades the ability of our servicemembers to protect our nation. Servicemembers who experience or witness racist or hateful behavior must be able to report such behavior without fear of repercussions.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/02/25/house-democrats-press-us-military-about-how-it-is-screening-white-nationalism-other-extremism-ranks/?utm_term=.3a69d13d56d2&tid=sm_tw&__twitter_impression=true&noredirect=on

https://democracynow.org - The Academy Awards take place this weekend, and one of the top contenders is the movie “Green Book,” which has renewed interest in the history of “The Negro Motorist Green Book.” So today we look at a remarkable new documentary called “The Green Book: Guide to Freedom,” that offers a real look at the history of a travel guide that helped African Americans safely navigate Jim Crow America. The film premieres Monday on the Smithsonian Channel and details the violence, insults and discrimination black travelers faced on the road, as well as the pride and sense of community they felt in the safe spaces they created around the country, in the form of restaurants, hotels and vacation retreats. We feature excerpts and speak with writer and director Yoruba Richen, professor in the documentary program in the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Kitbull, directed by Rosana Sullivan and produced by Kathryn Hendrickson, reveals an unlikely connection that sparks between two creatures: a fiercely independent stray kitten and a pit bull. Together, they experience friendship for the first time.

Whenever friends tell me they are feeling blue, I tell them to take a weekend, stock up on cold seltzer, and binge “Pose.” The show, which aired on FX last year, takes place in the spangled, sparkling demimonde of the New York drag-ball scene in the nineteen-eighties, where glamour met house music met vibrant queer expression met a hot-glue gun and a prayer. The show is a Funfetti cake of visual pleasure, and one of the highlights is Billy Porter, who plays the ballroom m.c. Pray Tell, barking orders from the stage in neon-green suits and enormous fedoras. Porter, who also has had major success on Broadway (he won a Tony for playing the drag queen Lola in “Kinky Boots”), has been making the most of the press circuit for his show’s début season, working every red carpet that he has appeared on this year with a zeal and creativity that makes everyone else look drab. At the A.F.I. Awards, in January, Porter wore a floor-length gown the color of farm-fresh egg yolks beneath a golden blazer. At the Golden Globes, two days later, he wore a hot-pink cloak, displaying the garment like a bird of paradise flapping its way through a mating dance. And, at the Critics’ Choice Awards, he wore a chocolate satin suit with a comically oversized soft-peach bow at the hip, a fanciful caricature of a cummerbund.

On the Oscars red carpet, on Sunday night, Porter managed to outdo himself yet again. He wore a “tuxedo gown” by the designer and “Project Runway” winner Christian Siriano, a sumptuous collision of butch-femme aesthetics. The top half of the outfit fit like a traditional men’s tuxedo, in plush black velvet, with oversized satin lapels; the bottom half, also an inky river of velvet, flared out into a massive bell skirt. His torso looked like it was smoking a cigar with a brandy, while his skirt looked like it was ready for a gothic Victorian-era coronation. Porter, who interviewed celebrities on the red carpet as part of ABC’s pre-show special, was one of the first people to arrive, and his dramatic look felt like a dare to everyone who would follow.

In his red-carpet work, Siriano has made a concerted effort to dress queer artists, plus-size bodies, and women of color, offering celebrities who have felt ignored or excluded from the world of high fashion a chance to drape themselves in old-Hollywood glamour. In 2016, the actress Leslie Jones tweeted that no designers wanted to dress her for the premier of “Ghostbusters.” Siriano came to the rescue, and Jones’s off-the-shoulder red gown became a coveted item—“we sold hundreds of that red gown,” Siriano later said.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/billy-porter-won-the-oscars-red-carpet-before-it-even-began?utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social&mbid=social_twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_brand=tny

LANSING — She has been in office for just over six weeks, but Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has dramatically changed the political trajectory of the office after 16 years of Republican control.

Nessel, a Plymouth Democrat, has withdrawn the state from 23 controversial cases that former Attorney General Bill Schuette joined during his eight years in office.

They range from abortion and gun rights cases to environmental issues and religious freedom battles. Schuette joined with Republican governors in the vast majority of cases to support the conservative point of view.

In contrast, Nessel joined with 15 other attorneys general around the nation on Monday to fight President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, bypassing Congress, which only allocated $1.3 billion for a wall at the border while he had demanded more than $5 billion.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/24/attorney-general-dana-nessel/2942416002/