As a part of Holocaust Remembrance Day, on which we remember the systematic extermination of six million Jews and millions more who were killed because of who they were, PoliticusUSA’s Adalia Woodbury talks about living in Trump’s America as the direct descendant of a Holocaust survivor....

A while ago, I was advised to put more of myself into my writing. It went against my training, but the biggest reason is because it hurts too much.
For the past 3 years I’ve felt as if I’m relieving my mother’s nightmare – but at a different stage in life and in a different part of the world. This was supposed to be part of the world that valued and accepted everyone; that recognized knowledge as a virtue....


The worst thing is that Trump made all of us the walking wounded for the rest of our lives. Sure, there are some freaks of nature out there salivating as Trump calls human beings scum, dogs, animals, and other equally dehumanizing labels. But we’re all walking wounded. Some of us just don’t know it. Others know it too well.
I know about the walking wounded, because that was my mother. She was a brilliant scientist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize. It was one of those times when yeah, it’s a big deal just to be nominated. That’s because my mother was an immigrant, a Holocaust survivor and a woman. In those days, on this side of the Atlantic – who you were still determined what you could accomplish in life. Unless you were born here, were white and Christian, you had to be truly extraordinary to be considered adequate.

Monuments dedicated to Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson do not belong in public spaces such as government land, schools and parks. The SPLC catalogued more than 1,700 Confederate symbols located across the U.S. Since the Charleston massacre, 115 have been removed from public spaces and 15 in Virginia alone.

Not only are we reminded of the mythological Lost Cause through these Confederate symbols of our past that litter the American landscape, but we’ve seen a surge in white nationalist hate groups operating in the United States, which increased nearly 50 percent between 2017 and 2018. It is clear that this is not just an issue at home, but is now a global issue. The threat from white nationalists needs to be taken seriously.

This Ramadan, human rights groups and Muslim organizations are urging U.S. Muslims to boycott products made in China, where authorities have for years cracked down on Muslims fasting.
“People say, ‘Oh, I can’t boycott China, everything is made in China,’” said Hena Zuberi, director of outreach for the nonprofit Justice for All, who helped found the Fast From China campaign this month. “Well, we have the spiritual wherewithal to refrain from eating and drinking during the day in Ramadan. This is a time to control your nafs (self).”
Launched April 19 by the Sound Vision Foundation’s Save Uighur project, the Fast From China initiative aims to get Muslims to rethink their everyday purchasing decisions and replace items bearing a “Made in China” label with products made in other countries.

It starts with your sitting silent while he lies, both in public and private, making you complicit by your silence. In meetings with him, his assertions about what “everyone thinks” and what is “obviously true” wash over you, unchallenged, as they did at our private dinner on Jan. 27, 2017, because he’s the president and he rarely stops talking. As a result, Mr. Trump pulls all of those present into a silent circle of assent.
Speaking rapid-fire with no spot for others to jump into the conversation, Mr. Trump makes everyone a co-conspirator to his preferred set of facts, or delusions. I have felt it — this president building with his words a web of alternative reality and busily wrapping it around all of us in the room.
I must have agreed that he had the largest inauguration crowd in history because I didn’t challenge that. Everyone must agree that he has been treated very unfairly. The web building never stops.

The global climate crisis and Medicare for All are top issues for a large majority of Democratic voters, according to new polling results published Tuesday by CNN.
The survey (pdf), conducted last week, asked Democrats and left-leaning Independents how important they considered certain policy items.
Most people polled said it is somewhat or very important that the Democratic candidate for president in 2020 support party priorities like stricter gun laws, tuition-free public college, impeaching President Donald Trump, paying reparations to slaves' descendants, and restoring voting rights for all convicted felons.

But two issues stood out at the top.

I don’t think they can put Mueller off much longer…Because I think they realize the public pressure is going to be too great. And that’s why I think Barr has conceded I’m not going to oppose Mueller testifying before Congress. What he has wanted to do is part of the same pattern which is even though Mueller had a summary of his own, even though Mueller wanted me to release his own summaries, I released my summary to set the false narrative. That wasn’t enough though. When the Mueller report was going to come out and I knew it was going to come out and it was bad for the president, I decided I was going to give my own preview that morning.

This year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue is going to feature trailblazer Halima Aden.
Aden will be the first woman to sport a hijab and burkini in the magazine, which hits newsstands on May 8, SI revealed Monday.
In a photo shared to the official Instagram page for the issue, Aden, 21, smiles while submerged in the water.

A U.S. federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Democrats in Congress can move forward with a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of violating the law by accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments through his businesses.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan denied a motion by Trump to dismiss the lawsuit filed by 198 members of Congress. The lawmakers charge the president violated the Constitution’s “emoluments” clause, which prevents federal officeholders from accepting payments from foreign governments without the “consent” of Congress.

In an emotional ten minute testimony, dying activist Ady Barkan delivered a message to Congress: pass a Medicare For All bill—now.
Barkan emphasized the increased efficiencies of Medicare For All as opposed to the current healthcare system and pointed out how the for-profit insurance industry hinders, rather than helps, ordinary Americans.
And, Barkan said, half measures won't cut it:
It is very important to emphasize the following point: these cost savings are only possible through a genuine Medicare For All system. Other proposals to increase health insurance coverage, such as those that would make Medicare compete with private insurance, would not facilitate administrative and billing savings.