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With Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing set to begin in less than one week, advocacy groups are highlighting the federal judge’s troubling record on issues ranging from reproductive rights to labor protections to campaign finance law.

Gorsuch will sit before the Senate Judiciary Committee starting Monday, March 20. According to Politico on Tuesday, “some Democrats are privately beginning to believe that Gorsuch—barring a blunder at his Senate confirmation hearings next week—will clinch the 60 votes he needs to be approved without a filibuster.”

“Based on his record, writings, and the circumstances of his nomination, we believe Gorsuch would put reproductive freedom in grave danger and pose an imminent threat to our constitutional rights.”
—50+ women’s rights groups

But that’s not stopping progressives from voicing their opposition, as more than 50 abortion-rights groups did in a letter (pdf) sent Tuesday to to all 100 Senate offices.

“Gorsuch has demonstrated he will go to extraordinary lengths to reach a result that would block women’s access to basic reproductive healthcare,” the groups wrote, noting that Gorsuch appears set to pass the “outrageous litmus test” established by President Donald Trump that any Supreme Court nominee be committed to overturning Roe v. Wade.

“By selecting Gorsuch, a candidate put forward by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, Trump made it clear he believes Gorsuch passes this dangerous test and earned the applause of anti-abortion groups—including Americans United for Life, Susan B. Anthony List, and the extremist group Operation Rescue,” the letter reads. “Based on his record, writings, and the circumstances of his nomination, we believe Gorsuch would put reproductive freedom in grave danger and pose an imminent threat to our constitutional rights.”

Also Tuesday, 121 democracy, civil rights, environmental, and labor organizations separately asked members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to probe Gorsuch’s position on the role of big money in politics. The letter (pdf) coordinated by Demos and Every Voice urges senators to ask this “essential question”:

(The groups’ call is perfectly timed. A Demos investigation published Tuesday “shows that 77 percent of money spent in competitive races in 2016 was directly attributable to Supreme Court rulings striking down basic protections against big money dominating our politics.”)

“Time after time, Judge Gorsuch has sided with the wealthy and powerful at the expense of everyone else,” said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO at Every Voice. “If promoted to the Supreme Court, Judge Gorsuch could hand even more influence to big donors and corporations in our elections. Senators have a responsibility to press Judge Gorsuch at his hearing on whether he will side with everyday Americans and ensure the influence of money in politics is kept in check.”

This argument is in keeping with elected Democrats’ planned “line of attack,” identified by the New York Times on Monday. Democrats plan to suggest, the Times wrote, that “Judge Gorsuch’s rulings have favored the powerful and well connected.”

The Times reported:

Furthermore, the Times added, “Mr. Trump’s decision last week to ask for the resignations of dozens of United States attorneys appointed by President Barack Obama—a prerogative of any president—is expected to sharpen Democrats’ focus on Mr. Trump’s respect for legal processes and Judge Gorsuch’s degree of independence.”

“We must have a Supreme Court that acts a check and balance, not a rubber stamp. Gorsuch has shown he is not up to the task.”
—Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Voces de la Frontera

As Voces de la Frontera executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz declared Tuesday, “Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on immigrants show that now more than ever, we must have a Supreme Court that acts a check and balance, not a rubber stamp. Gorsuch has shown he is not up to the task.”

Indeed, following last month’s public battle between Trump and the judiciary, GQ writer Jay Willis predicted that the matter of judicial independence will almost certainly feature prominently during Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing.

At the hearing, Willis wrote at the time, “[t]his question…will be near-impossible to duck”:

Left-leaning groups aren’t the only ones organizing around Gorsuch’s pending hearing. The National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Freedom Action Foundation has reportedly made a $1 million ad buy highlighting how gun rights hang in the balance given the current composition of the Supreme Court. The ads are set to run Tuesday through March 22, according to McClatchy, which also reported:

Tuesday’s efforts come on the heels of a letter sent earlier this month to Senate Democrats by 11 leading progressive groups, urging lawmakers to “do better” in resisting Gorsuch’s nomination.

“As a judge, Gorsuch opposed reproductive freedom and women’s rights; LGBTQ rights; civil rights; workers’ rights; immigrants’ rights; disability rights; environmental protections; and sought to increase the influence of corporate money in our elections,” they wrote. “Imagine how much damage he could do with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.”

A cheering crowd gave a rousing endorsement to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ plan to introduce Medicare-for-All, or single-payer, legislation to Congress in the coming weeks, announced this weekend at a Vermont town hall meeting.

“We have got to end the international disgrace of being the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a right not a privilege,” Sanders (I-Vt.) told the 1,000-strong audience in Hardwick, Vermont, where he appeared alongside the other members of the state’s congressional delegation. “Within a couple of weeks I am going to be introducing legislation calling for a Medicare-for-All, single-payer program.”

Vermont Public Radio said the announcement “drew thunderous applause” from the crowd at Hazen Union High School.

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As Common Dreams reported, last week’s defeat of TrumpCare (also known as the American Healthcare Act or AHCA) left an opening for such a push. Multiple analyses have shown that replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) with a universal, single-payer health system is in fact the only way to increase coverage and fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign promises on healthcare. And as Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) co-founders David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler asserted in an editorial on Wednesday, “Democratic politicians are feeling pressed and emboldened to embrace progressive policies” as the resistance shows its strength.

That call will only grow louder. The Huffington Post reported Saturday that a broad array of progressive groups—including the Working Families Party, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Credo, Social Security Works, and the National Nurses United (NNU)—is coalescing behind the single-payer goal in the wake of last week’s political wrangling.

“The problem is the insurance companies, Big Pharma—they’re gonna come back and use the chaos to their advantage,” Social Security Works executive director Alex Lawson said to HuffPo. “If Democrats go with a half-a-loaf policy, Republicans are going to blame them for the failures of Big Pharma. They have to immediately pivot to expanding Medicare.”

Meanwhile, Sanders’ Democratic colleague in the House, Rep. Peter Welch, said that once Sanders’ measure is introduced in the Senate, he’d put forth a companion bill in his chamber.

“It’s a goal,” Welch told Vermont Public Radio after the Hardwick town hall meeting. “In this Congress, we won’t pass it. But I think we have to keep the goal out there, because we need in this country, like any industrialized country, a healthcare system that’s affordable, accessible, and universal.”

VPR reported:

Indeed, at a televised town hall forum in West Virginia earlier this month, that appeal was on display as a roomful of Trump voters cheered loudly for Sanders’ assertion that universal healthcare is a right.

Sanders reiterated his plan on CNN‘s “State of the Union” on Sunday, telling anchor Dana Bash: “Ideally, where we should be going is to join the rest of the industrialized the world and guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. And that’s why I’m going to introduce a Medicare-for-All, single-payer program.”

Watch below:

Sanders also spoke of shorter-term goals in his interview on CNN: “Let us do, among other things, a public option. Let us give people in every state in this country a public option from which they can choose. Let’s talk about lowering the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 55. Let’s deal with the greed of the pharmaceutical industry.”

The senator from Vermont also tweeted on Saturday, “Right now we need to improve the Affordable Care Act and that means a public option.”

But corporate crime watchdog and single-payer advocate Russell Mokhiber warned against embracing the public option as a stand-in or even a stepping stone for Medicare for All.

In a piece published Sunday, Mokhiber quoted pediatrician and PNHP member Margaret Flowers, who co-directs the group Health Over Profit for Everyone. She said:

“We look to Senator Sanders to act on what he promised during his presidential campaign, a national improved Medicare-for-All now, not tomorrow,” Flowers said. “Tomorrow never comes. It is not up to him to decide if single-payer can pass in Congress. That task is for the people to decide.”

In addition to slashing funding for the arts, education programs, climate change research, and worker protections (among many other things), another lesser known casualty of President Donald Trump’s “morally obscene” budget proposal: Amtrak.

The president’s so-called “skinny budget” will eliminate all federal funding for Amtrak’s national train network, meaning 220 cities will lose all passenger service, the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) warned this week.

“It’s ironic that President Trump’s first budget proposal undermines the very communities whose economic hardship and sense of isolation from the rest of the country helped propel him into office,” said NARP president Jim Mathews.

“These working class communities—many of them located in the Midwest and the South—were tired of being treated like ‘flyover country,'” Mathews continued. “But by proposing the elimination of Amtrak’s long distance trains, the Trump administration does them one worse, cutting a vital service that connects these small town economies to the rest of the U.S..”

“These hard working, small town Americans,” he added, “don’t have airports or Uber to turn to; they depend on these trains.”

Specifically, Trump’s proposal slashes $2.4 billion (or 13 percent) from transportation spending, threatening long distance routes including the east coast’s Silver Star and Silver Meteor lines, the New York-Chicago Cardinal train service, the Empire Builder, which connects Chicago to the Pacific Northwest, as well as the effort to restore the Gulf Coast line.

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Raising concern about the violations of privacy occurring in the name of U.S. border security, a coalition of consumer rights groups on Tuesday launched a new campaign opposing the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) so-called “extreme vetting” practice that requires travelers to reveal their social media passwords.

“Asking people to hand over the passwords to their accounts will make all of us less safe, not more safe.” —Evan Greer, Fight for the Future”Even if you support ‘extreme vetting,’ password for entry is an extremely bad idea that sacrifices privacy and digital security for political posturing and ‘security theater,'” said Nathan White, senior legislative director at Access Now, one of the 29 organizations launching the ‘Fly Don’t Spy’ campaign.

“We’re launching this campaign today to make it clear to Secretary John Kelly that we will not tolerate discrimination or a reckless disregard for privacy and cybersecurity,” White added, inviting others to include their name on a petition directed at the DHS chief.

The campaign was launched the same day that Kelly gave a speech in Washington, D.C. defending his tactics. Since his confirmation, Kelly has overseen implementation of President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration policies, which include the currently-defunct ban on individuals from majority-Muslim nations, the mass-deportation of immigrants, and stepped-up border security which many say unfairly targets Muslim travelers.

According to the right-leaning Washington Times, Kelly also accused the Obama administration of “politically meddling” in a way that “discouraged” DHS employees from carrying out their jobs. Further, he reportedly “said he and President Trump have made a decision to free up agents to enforce the laws as written, and he said he and his department won’t apologize for that.”

Rights groups are particularly concerned about a plan that would make certain travelers “disclose their social media handles and passwords and answer questions about ideology as a condition of admission to the country,” Jameel Jaffer, founding director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, wrote last week.

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Despite a federal judge’s ruling on Monday rejecting a challenge to an election commission established by President Donald Trump, the privacy watchdog behind a lawsuit aimed at blocking the collection of detailed voter data from across the country vows to press ahead with its opposition.

The ruling from the federal court in Washington, D.C. relates to the controversial panel which critics argue is using bogus claims of “voter fraud” to compile data on nearly every voter in the country—information that could then be used to actually supress the vote in future elections.

“Now that this body exists,” wrote the Washington Post‘s EJ Dionne in his latest column, “it will almost certainly try to find ways to rationalize purging legitimate voters from the rolls and erecting yet more barriers to voting.”

On Monday’s 35-page ruling on Monday, Politico‘s Josh Gerstein reports,

In response to the ruling, EPIC expressed disappointment and said they would continue to challenge the collection.

“EPIC will push forward,” said Marc Rotenberg, the group’s president in a statement (pdf). “The Commission cannot evade privacy obligations by playing a shell game with the nation’s voting records.”

The group said they will continue to monitor the behavior of the commission and noted a section of Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling in which she said that future behavior of the panel will be monitored by the court.

“Defendants have represented that they are only collecting voter information that is already publicly available under the laws of the states where the information resides; and Defendants have clarified that such information, to the extent it is made public, will be de-identified. All of these representations were made to the Court in sworn declarations, and needless to say, the Court expects that Defendants shall strictly abide by them.”

Due to the ongoing corona crisis, shows on location with real models remain a challenge. However, fashion brands are coming up with original alternatives: from online performances to a three-dimensional ‘digital village’. But the prize for the most charming, and, admittedly a bit uncomfortable, goes to Moschino’s puppet show, last Sunday during Milan Fashion Week SS21.

This is not a puppet show, this is a fashion show: Moschino’s puppets for SS21

The presentation takes the form of a short film in which designer Jeremy Scott encounters a puppet show at a fair where a puppet version of himself is hoisting a model into a miniature couture dress. “Ah, I love puppet shows,” sighs the real Jeremy, in which the little designer contradicts him: “This is not a puppet show, this is a fashion show!” A little door swings open in the décor, and behind it, there’s the cream of fashion in the form of dolls. Anna Wintour is there, as well as Nina Garcia, Edward Enninful, Andrew Bolton and Vanessa Friedman.

The models, also puppets, show a collection of forty sophisticated looks, complete with doll bags and doll heels. The dolls were made in the studio of the late Jim Henson, the man behind the Muppets, Sesame Street and The Dark Crystal. Scott has worked with the studio before: in 2011 he dressed Muppets character Miss Piggy for the big Muppet movie.

Lovely as it was, the presentation had something alienating at the same time. Perhaps because the Moschino show also seems to be a critique of the traditional fashion show, which has been described by critics more than once as a ‘puppet show’: as a spectacle in which models and audience are ‘played’. Seen in this light, the show fits in well with the oeuvre of Scott and Moschino as a brand that likes to magnify the bizarre emblems and mechanisms of the fashion world and thus bring them to attention.

Take a look at the images below:

Photo credits: Moschino SS21 via Catwalkpictures

This article was previously published on FashionUnited.nl. Translation and editing: Andrea Byrne

Julian Castro, secretary of Housing and Urban Development under former President Obama, issued a warning to Sen. Ted CruzRafael (Ted) Edward CruzSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote The Hill’s Morning Report – Trump’s public standing sags after Floyd protests GOP senators introduce resolution opposing calls to defund the police MORE (R-Texas) after Democratic candidate Doug Jones won the Alabama Senate race Tuesday.

“Be afraid, @tedcruz . Be very afraid,” Castro tweeted.

Be afraid, @tedcruz . Be very afraid.

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) December 13, 2017

Jones’s stunning victory over Republican opponent Roy Moore comes after a closely watched campaign to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff SessionsJefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsMcCabe, Rosenstein spar over Russia probe Rosenstein takes fire from Republicans in heated testimony Rosenstein defends Mueller appointment, role on surveillance warrants MORE.

Moore was accused of sexual misconduct last month by multiple women, including one woman who said Moore initiated a sexual encounter with her when she was 14 years old and he was in his 30s.

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Moore denied the allegations, but faced calls to drop out of the race from top Republicans.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE threw his support behind Moore, however, urging his followers on Twitter to vote for Moore and holding a campaign rally near the Alabama border in support of Moore.

Jones becomes the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama since 1992.

His victory tightens Republicans’ margin in the Senate, giving them just a 51-49 advantage over Democrats heading into the 2018 midterm elections.

Cruz is facing a challenge from Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) in 2018. O’Rourke has raised nearly $2.8 million since he jumped into the race, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Congressional efforts to secure election systems from cyberattacks are picking up steam with lawmakers under pressure to prevent hacks in the 2018 midterms.

After the revelation that Russia tried to probe election systems in 21 states in the 2016 election, security experts, state officials and others demanded federal action to help states upgrade outdated voting machines and bolster security around voter registration databases.

Last week, a bipartisan coalition of six senators introduced the Secure Elections Act, which includes a measure authorizing grants for states to upgrade outdated voting technology and shore up their digital security.

“It is imperative that we strengthen our election systems and give the states the tools they need to protect themselves and the integrity of voters against the possibility of foreign interference,” Sen. James LankfordJames Paul LankfordTim Scott to introduce GOP police reform bill next week Senate GOP shifts on police reform McConnell taps Tim Scott to assemble GOP police reform legislation MORE (R-Okla.), a Senate Intelligence Committee member, said when unveiling the bill.

Moscow’s targeting of state systems, including breaching voter registration databases in Arizona and Illinois, was part of a broader effort to meddle in the election. It led the Obama administration to designate election systems as critical infrastructure in its waning days.

The issue of Russian interference has generated significant attention in Washington over the past year, but little successful legislative action.

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But the bill introduced by Sens. Lankford, Amy KlobucharAmy KlobucharHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police Democrats demand Republican leaders examine election challenges after Georgia voting chaos Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk MORE (D-Minn.) and others is evidence of a growing effort to pass legislation specifically addressing voting infrastructure cybersecurity.

The bill comes as state officials are clamoring for swifter action ahead of the 2018 midterms.

“When we had instances last year all over the country related to people trying to get into other peoples’ data and voter files – why are we waiting for something bad to happen to start doing something about it?” said Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan (R).

“Let’s be honest, it’s not going to happen if we all stay quiet about it,” Reagan added.

Advocacy groups are lining up in support of the bill. They hail it as a long-awaited, multifaceted approach that both incentivizes states to bolster voting system cybersecurity and provides resources to replace insecure election technology.

“There needs to be more urgency,” said Rudy Mehrbani, a senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, a left-leaning public policy institute that supports the bill. “There [are] only a limited number of months left between now and the 2018 elections.”

The concerns surrounding election infrastructure cybersecurity are two-pronged.

Officials maintain that Russia did not target voting machines, which are not connected to the internet. Many say the decentralized nature of the U.S. voting system makes it difficult for hackers to actually change a result.

Still, some security experts say that voting technologies are vulnerable to hacking and have called for election officials to swap out paperless direct-recording electronic voting machines for systems that yield an auditable paper ballot, to increase confidence.

Currently, five states still rely completely on paperless digital machines to tally votes, while several more have mixed infrastructure with some localities using the technology.

“In every single case where a U.S. voting machine has been tested in the laboratory and given rigorous security scrutiny, it has been found to have vulnerabilities that would allow a sophisticated adversary to manipulate votes,” said J. Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer science professor.

“All we need to do is make sure we have a physical safeguard, a physical fallback mechanism.”

Earlier this year, Virginia officials raced to phase out paperless machines less than two months before the November gubernatorial election, after security experts demonstrated the ease with which machines could be hacked at the DEFCON cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas over the summer.

Some have also raised concerns about the possibility of hackers targeting voter registration databases to change voter data — creating chaos on election day.

The Department of Homeland Security has stepped up to provide cyber hygiene testing and other services to states that request help as part of the critical infrastructure services, though some states face up to nine-month wait times for vulnerability screenings, officials told Politico.

Still, state officials, whose own legislatures are strapped for cash, contend that, without additional resources, election officials will fall short of securing their systems from cyber threats.

In mid-December, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) pressed Congress to appropriate the remaining $396 million from the 2002 Help America Vote Act so states can update aging election systems to enhance security.

“We’re already behind the eight ball here and we need Congress to step up and move quickly,” said Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos (D), the incoming president of NASS.

Still, legislating the issue at the federal level could prove tricky. Some state officials are wary of federal money coming with too many strings attached.

“Is the federal government then going to ask for oversight? Are they going to mandate we or do or don’t do certain things?” Reagan reflected. “If there are some strings, so be it — but what would that be? But we’re eager to have that conversation.”

The Secure Elections Act, for example, would offer grants to states to implement cybersecurity guidelines developed by an independent advisory panel.

At the same time, it is constructed to keep state officials happy by affirming their lead on administering federal elections. It also aims to quicken and improve information sharing between the Department of Homeland Security and relevant election officials, which has been a source of tension between states and federal officials over the past year.

Lawmakers had a long road to get to the bill.

The U.S. intelligence community released its Russian interference assessment in January, saying that Moscow aimed to sow discord, damage Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE, and help elect President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE.

For several months, the conversation in the media and Washington has largely focused on the special counsel investigation into whether Trump campaign associates coordinated with Moscow.

As Russian hacking efforts in the states came into full focus over the summer, some lawmakers began to seek legislative solutions to the problem.

Sens. Klobuchar and Lindsey GrahamLindsey Olin GrahamHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Joint Chiefs chairman says he regrets participating in Trump photo-op | GOP senators back Joint Chiefs chairman who voiced regret over Trump photo-op | Senate panel approves 0B defense policy bill GOP senators back Joint Chiefs chairman who voiced regret over Trump photo-op MORE (R-S.C.) introduced an unsuccessful amendment to the annual defense policy bill to develop “best practices” for state election cybersecurity and provide grants to states to bolster security and update systems. Both lawmakers have signed on to support the latest legislation.

Less than a year out from the 2018 midterms, these efforts have yet to prove fruitful, though, spawning broad frustration.

Michael Chertoff, who served as Homeland Security Secretary under former President George W. Bush, described lawmakers’ and election officials’ “lackadaisical response” to election cyber risks as “both staggering and distressing” in a September Wall Street Journal op-ed. Chertoff pushed for federal cybersecurity standards for election technology.

Broadly, the efforts by the Republican-led Congress to respond to Russian interference have attracted criticism. Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell and former GOP Rep. Mike RogersMichael (Mike) Dennis RogersThe Hill’s Morning Report – Capitol Hill weighs action on racial justice as protests carry on Bottom line Officials warn Chinese hackers targeting groups developing coronavirus treatments MORE (Mich.) wrote in The Washington Post this week that, despite Congress levying additional sanctions against Moscow this summer, “the United States has failed to establish deterrence in the aftermath of Russia’s interference.”

Some worry it might be too late for any legislation to help prevent hacking efforts targeting states in 2018.

“Now we’re on the verge of another federal election,” said Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Edgardo Cortés.

“At this point, additional resources from Congress — it’s going to be difficult to make them useful in time to have an impact on 2018.”

Just a few weeks after he congratulated autocratic Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on a controversial referendum win, U.S. President Donald Trump invited Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte—who has presided over a violent “war on the poor” in his country and is the subject of a mass murder complaint before the International Criminal Court (ICC)—to the White House.

A statement from the White House Press Office said the two leaders spoke on Saturday but gave no indication of when the visit might occur.

Since his inauguration in June 2016, Duterte has overseen an anti-drug campaign dubbed “Operation Double Barrel” that, according to Human Rights Watch, “has targeted suspected drug dealers and users ostensibly for arrest but in practice has been a campaign of extrajudicial execution in impoverished areas of Manila and other urban areas.”

The rights group said last month that “Duterte’s outspoken endorsement of the campaign implicates him and other senior officials in possible incitement to violence, instigation of murder, and in command responsibility for crimes against humanity.”

Amnesty International also declared earlier this year that “[u]nder President Duterte’s rule, the national police are breaking laws they are supposed to uphold while profiting from the murder of impoverished people the government was supposed to uplift. The same streets Duterte vowed to rid of crime are now filled with bodies of people illegally killed by his own police.”

Manila resident Miguel Syjuco, an author and professor, wrote last August:

Duterte has in fact admitted to personally killing criminal suspects as mayor of Davao.

But such wrongdoing appears not to faze the Trump administration, which is defending its decision to host Duterte at the White House. When pressed on the subject on Sunday, Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus said the invitation was a sign that “the issues facing us, developing out of North Korea, are so serious that we need a cooperation at some level from as many partners in the area as possible.”

The Huffington Post reported:

Watch the interaction with Priebus below:

Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, pushed back against the White House’s position. “The facts of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s abusive war on drugs are not that he’s ‘fighting hard to rid [his] country of drugs,’ but that he’s pursuing a murderous war against the poor that has resulted in the brutally violent deaths of thousands of Filipinos,” Kine said Sunday.

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“Countries with close bilateral ties to the Philippines, particularly the United States, have an obligation to urge accountability for the victims,” he continued, “rather than roll out the red carpet for official state visits by its mastermind.”

Kine and others offered more thoughts on Twitter:

With the national anti-Trump resistance movement continuing its fight against the White House and Republican agendas on all fronts, 200 members of a local Indivisible group in California on Saturday took their message to the Trump National Golf Course in the town of Rancho Palos Verdes and aimed it at the sky: Resist!

With bodies folded against one another on a green near the course’s clubhouse, the aerial shots are not likely to be included in the country club’s brochure anytime soon.

Peter Warren, a member of Indivisible San Pedro, explained to local news channel CBS2 that the protest was calling for a special prosecutor to begin an independent probe into whether there was Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election and if there was collusion of any kind with the Trump campaign or people affiliated with it.

Thousands of local Indivisible groups have popped up around the country since Trump took over the White House in January. Spawned by former legislative aides in Washington, D.C. who wrote the “Indivisible Guide” and posted it online, the groups have formed one of the main arteries for grassroots resistance against both Trump and the Republican lawmakers who now control both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

As The Hill noted, the San Pedro group’s Facebook describes them as “a group of concerned citizens that realize the Trump administration’s agenda will take America backwards, and must be stopped.”

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Opposition Rises Against Anti-Woman, Pro-Corporate Nominee Neil Gorsuch

"Thunderous Applause" Welcomes Sanders' Call for Medicare-for-All

Cutting Off 'Fly-Over' States, Trump to Axe Amtrak for 220 Cities

Groups Decry Trump Plan to Demand Social Media Passwords at US Border

Despite Court Ruling, Privacy Watchdog Vows to Keeping Fighting Against Trump's Election Panel

In pictures: Moschino makes puppet show for presentation SS21

This is not a puppet show, this is a fashion show: Moschino’s puppets for SS21

Julian Castro to Cruz after Ala. Senate election: 'Be afraid'

Pressure builds to improve election cybersecurity

Outrage as White House Set to 'Roll Out Red Carpet' for Murderer Duterte

Hundreds Gather at Trump Golf Course and Spell It Out: 'Resist!'