We Resist: Day 19

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.

So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.

Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.

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Here are some things I've read today:

Elle Hunt at the Guardian: Images of Donald Trump in a Bathrobe Flood Twitter After Spicer Says He 'Doesn't Own One'. "An article published in the New York Times on Sunday painted an unsettling picture of life in the White House, with aides unable to locate light switches being forced to meet in the dark, visitors being left to find their own way out of the building after meetings and a 'darkened, mostly empty West Wing.' The president, it was reported, spent considerable time 'watching television in his bathrobe' and marking up negative news reports with a black Sharpie. ...Spicer took particular issue with the bathrobe report, which he said was 'literally the epitome of fake news.' 'I don't think the president owns a bathrobe,' he said. 'He definitely doesn’t wear one.'" Then people found a million pictures of Trump in a bathrobe. But here's the thing:

Love that Spicer thinks the bathrobe ITSELF is the point & not that Mr. Big League Stamina is a lazy shit who knocks off at 6:30.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 6, 2017

This administration will: 1. Lie about anything. 2. Continually get wrapped up in details that don't matter, because the president himself is fixated on them. Not good. Not good at all.

Chris Massie at CNN: WH Official: We'll Say 'Fake News' Until Media Realizes Attitude of Attacking the President Is Wrong. "'There is a monumental desire on behalf of the majority of the media, not just the pollsters, the majority of the media to attack a duly elected President in the second week of his term," [Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump], a former Breitbart editor who also holds a PhD in political science, told syndicated conservative radio host Michael Medved. 'That's how unhealthy the situation is and until the media understands how wrong that attitude is, and how it hurts their credibility, we are going to continue to say, 'fake news.' I'm sorry, Michael. That's the reality,' he added." Chilling.

Meanwhile, they will continue to promulgate actual fake news: The White House Is Using a Fake News Lie to Baselessly Discredit Anti-Trump Protests. They continue to insist that protesters are being paid, which is absurd for a dozen different reasons, but also? So what if they were? I thought Trump was going to a "jobs president."

John Wagner at the Washington Post: Trump: I'll Take 'Common Sense' Travel Ban to the Supreme Court, if Necessary. "President Trump said Tuesday that he is prepared to take the case for his now-frozen travel ban to the Supreme Court—but added that he hopes it doesn't come to that." Well, if it does, the "so-called" justices of the U.S. Supreme Court can tell you it's unconstitutional, too.

Seung Min Kim at Politico: Cotton and Trump Plot Crackdown on Legal Immigration. "Overlooked in Donald Trump's campaign crusade against illegal immigration was his vow to crack down on legal immigration, too. Now, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a reliable Trump ally, is taking steps to execute that part of the president's immigration vision... Cotton's new legislation, being formally proposed Tuesday with Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and detailed exclusively with POLITICO in advance of its release, swings an axe at the nation's green-card system by eliminating several avenues for U.S. citizens and permanent residents to sponsor family members for green cards. ...The bill also dumps the diversity visa lottery, which allots about 50,000 visas per year for citizens of countries that traditionally have low rates of immigration to the United States. And it would limit refugees to 50,000 annually."

Aaron Rupar at Think Progress: President Trump Baselessly Accuses the Media of Covering up Terrorist Attacks. Meanwhile, David Smith at the Guardian: White House's 'Under-Reported' Terror List Includes Many Well-Known Attacks.

Tom Hamburger at the Washington Post: Melania Trump Missed out on 'Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity' to Make Millions, Lawsuit Says. "Richard Painter, a White House ethics counsel under President George W. Bush and a critic of Trump's decision to retain ownership of his real estate and branding empire while in office, said Monday that he was troubled by the suggestion in the new suit that Melania Trump intended to profit from her public role. 'There has never been a first lady of the United States who insinuated that she intended to make a lot of money because of the 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity of being first lady,' said Painter." This whole family.

During an interview with Bill O'Reilly, Trump was (again) talking about how the U.S. should have (illegally) seized Iraq's oils, and actually said the words "to the victor belong the spoils." JFC.

Paul Kane at the Washington Post: Mike Pence, a Man of the House, Becomes Trump's Eyes and Ears in the Senate. Every day, it keeps getting cooler to see dudes at major papers writing things I was predicting seven months ago!

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?