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:
Across the nation, Republican members of Congress are holding town halls, to which an unusually large number of people are showing up, because they are concerned about the GOP's promised repeal of the Affordable Care Act and/or the many other issues of concern to lots of citizens these days. So, naturally, Donald Trump had something to say about that.
The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2017
And, naturally, I had something to say about his having something to say about that.
It's called organization. Your chaotic dumpster fire of an administration should try it sometime. https://t.co/z5vrdKLpUi
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 21, 2017
The GOP spent years sneering at President Obama for being a community organizer. How y'all like organized communities now? Still chuckling?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 21, 2017
And the wonderful Donna Brazile noted, in response to Republicans' bitter complaints and conspiracy-mongering: "Stop calling taxpayers who attend townhall meetings paid agitators. We are citizens who pay the salary of public servants. #Democracy."
Fucking right. Engaged citizens pay the salaries of those dismissing engaged citizens as paid shills. Never forget it.
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[Content Note: Trans hatred; video may autoplay at link] Amanda Terkel at The Huffington Post: White House: States Should Get to Decide Whether to Discriminate Against LGBTQ Students. "White House press secretary Sean Spicer gave a clear indication Tuesday that the new administration will not be a forceful defender of transgender rights, saying President Donald Trump believes that issue should be left up to the states." Translation: The people who are most vulnerable by virtue of where they live are least likely to get the protection they need and deserve.
[CN: Nativism] Mallory Shelbourne at The Hill: DHS Confirms Plan to Send Non-Mexican Migrants to Mexico. "Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials confirmed Tuesday that they are working on a plan to send undocumented immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border back to Mexico, even if they are not Mexican citizens, ProPublica reported." Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly was supposed to be one of the "good" Trump nominees. Of course, in order to make that argument, one had to ignore his history of atrocious views on human rights. And now here we are.
Meanwhile, per Reuters: "JUST IN: Mexican foreign minister says 'will not accept' new U.S. immigration proposals, speaking ahead of Tillerson, Kelly meeting."
[CN: Nativism] Joel Rose, Richard Gonzales, and Linda Smitherman at NPR: Homeland Security Outlines New Rules Tightening Enforcement of Immigration Law. "Immigrant rights advocates say the rules are written so broadly that they make anyone in the country illegally a target for deportation—potentially, as many as eight to 11 million people. 'In my many years of practicing immigration law, I have not seen a mass deportation blueprint like this one,' said Maria Elena Hincapie, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center."
[CN: Self-harm] The BBC: Mexican Man Kills Himself After Being Deported from US. "A Mexican man has apparently taken his own life just half an hour after being deported from the United States. Guadalupe Olivas Valencia, 45, jumped from a bridge at the border after he was deported for the third time. ...Witnesses said Mr. Olivas was shouting that he did not want to return to Mexico and seemed to be in severe distress. ...Mr. Olivas was a native of Sinaloa, one of Mexico's most violent states and the stronghold of the cartel formerly led by jailed drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. Many Mexicans cite high levels of violence as a reason for leaving their homeland for the US." This makes me so fucking angry and so fucking sad. I am truly heartbroken by what my government is doing, has been doing, will be doing even more to undocumented immigrants.
[CN: Racism] Imani Gandy at Rewire: There Is Much for Black People to Fear from Trump's 'Law and Order' Presidency. "Trump doesn't have a clue about what goes on in Black communities. In his view, we are all utterly jobless; going to schools that are ill-equipped to educate us; and walking down so-called inner-city streets dodging bullets, risking a gunshot to the chest with every step that we take. As the self-announced 'least racist person,' Donald Trump finds this state of affairs unacceptable. But Trump doesn't appear to understand what an 'inner city' even constitutes, aside from a place where all Black Americans live in abject poverty. He has no idea of the terror overpolicing can inflict in Black communities—yet he continuously propagates myths about crime to justify that overpolicing."
Ashley Welch at CBS News: Study Sees U.S. Life Expectancy Falling Further Behind Other Countries. "Life expectancy in the United States is already much lower than most other high-income countries and is expected to fall even further behind by 2030, new research published today predicts. ...The United States also lacks universal health coverage available in other high-income countries and has the largest share of unmet health care needs due to financial costs."
[CN: War on agency] Nicole Knight at Rewire: Montana GOP Attacks Roe with Dubious Fetal Viability 'Science'. "GOP-backed legislation in Montana would set fetal viability at 24 weeks of gestation and outlaw abortion care at that point, with no exceptions."
[CN: Homophobia] Michael Fitzgerald at Towleroad: Montana Republicans Kill LGBT Anti-Discrimination Bill. "GOP Rep. Greg Hertz said the bill should not come to the floor because the issue is better-handled on the local level and passing a statewide law would be a 'mandate' that could divide some communities."
David Weigel and Robert Costa at The Washington Post: Trump's America Will Be on Vivid Display at Annual Conservative Gathering.
Thousands of activists will arrive in Washington this week for an annual gathering that will vividly display how Trump has pushed the Republican Party and the conservative movement toward an "America first" nationalism that has long existed on the fringes.CPAC begins today and lasts four days. Other speakers include Trump, Mike Pence, Ted Cruz, Sean Hannity, Rick Santorum, and Wayne LaPierre. The complete list of speakers can be found at their website. It's quite a line-up.
...Panels scheduled for the four-day [CPAC] conference include how the left does "not support law enforcement"; why the United States can't have the same security standards as heaven ("a gate, a wall, and extreme vetting"); and a discussion of 'fair trade' that will put Breitbart editor Joel Pollak and progressive anchor Ed Schultz, who hosts a show on Russian-owned RT, on the same side.
...This year's CPAC schedule represents a marked shift toward Trump's politics and penchant for showmanship. Nigel Farage, the pro-Brexit politician from Britain who spoke to an emptying room in 2015, will speak the same morning as Trump. Reality TV star Dog the Bounty Hunter will appear with a super PAC trying to draft Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a regular Trump supporter on the cable news circuit, into Wisconsin's 2018 Senate race.
...White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who led Breitbart before joining Trump's team and has been a standard-bearer for conservative populism, will speak Thursday alongside his colleague, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
...And Breitbart, which has been a sponsor of CPAC for years, has more visibility than ever. As Bannon has pointed out to associates, a site that once organized panels titled "The Uninvited" for guests too controversial for CPAC is now shaping the movement's agenda. The annual Breitbart party, usually held at the outlet’s Washington office, has been upgraded to an exclusive cruise along the Potomac River.
...Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally who has given a series of speeches recently on "Trumpism," said he is "impressed that CPAC has very intelligently anticipated the direction that Trump is going to take the country and understood that he'll be the dominant voice on the right for the foreseeable future."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
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