We Resist: Day 35

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:

[Content Note: Trans hatred] Sandhya Somashekhar, Emma Brown, and Moriah Balingit at the Washington Post: Trump Administration Rolls Back Protections for Transgender Students.

The Trump administration on Wednesday revoked federal guidelines specifying that transgender students have the right to use public school restrooms that match their gender identity, taking a stand on a contentious issue that has become the central battle over LGBT rights.

Officials with the federal Education and Justice departments notified the U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday that the administration is ordering the nation's schools to disregard memos the Obama administration issued during the past two years regarding transgender student rights. Those memos said that prohibiting transgender students from using facilities that align with their gender identity violates federal anti-discrimination laws.

...Although it offered no clarity or direction to schools that have transgender students, the letter added that "schools must ensure that all students, including LGBT students, are able to learn and thrive in a safe environment."

Which is impossible if those students aren't even allowed to take a piss in a restroom that corresponds with their gender.

Fuck this entire administration and their vile hatefulness. I categorically refuse to pretend that this is anything but rank hatred. Of children.

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CPAC 2017 is already terrific:

.@KellyannePolls says she finds it hard to call herself a "feminist" because the movement is "anti-male" and pro-abortion. #CPAC2017

— Brenna Williams (@brennawilliams) February 23, 2017

Richard Spencer has arrived at #CPAC2017. No punch attempts so far pic.twitter.com/RorbpwyoCy

— Jack Holmes (@jackholmes0) February 23, 2017

Milo is out of @CPAC, but Scott Walker just made a tut-tutting reference to "angry mobs who stop people from speaking on campus."

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 23, 2017

I could go on, but you get the picture. Your general white supremacist, patriarchal, conservative nightmare gathering.

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Rachael Bade and John Bresnahan at Politico: GOP to Bury House Resolution on Trump Conflicts. "House Republicans next week plan to derail a Democratic resolution that would have forced disclosure of Donald Trump's potential ties with Russia and any possible business conflicts of interest, according to multiple House sources. Seeking to avoid a full House vote on the so-called 'resolution of inquiry'—a roll call that would be particularly embarrassing and divisive for the right—Republicans will send proposal by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to the House Judiciary Committee for a panel vote on Tuesday, two Democratic sources said. The GOP-controlled committee is expected to kill the resolution."

Utterly appalling. Meanwhile, cue the caterwauling about how Democrats "aren't doing anything," when they are trying desperately, but Republicans keep abusing their majority status to quash any and all attempts at accountability.

Howard Fischer at the Arizona Capitol Times: Arizona Senate Votes to Seize Assets of Those Who Plan, Participate in Protests That Turn Violent. "Claiming people are being paid to riot, Republican state senators voted Wednesday to give police new power to arrest anyone who is involved in a peaceful demonstration that may turn bad—even before anything actually happened. SB1142 expands the state's racketeering laws, now aimed at organized crime, to also include rioting. And it redefines what constitutes rioting to include actions that result in damage to the property of others. But the real heart of the legislation is what Democrats say is the guilt by association—and giving the government the right to criminally prosecute and seize the assets of everyone who planned a protest and everyone who participated. And what's worse, said Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, is that the person who may have broken a window, triggering the claim there was a riot, might actually not be a member of the group but someone from the other side."

There's no way this will pass constitutional muster, so, should this pass, let us hope it gets to the courts before Trump manages to stack them with traitors and vandals.

[CN: Nativism] Betsy Woodruff at The Daily Beast: Undocumented Woman with a Brain Tumor Locked up by ICE. "Earlier this month, according to her lawyers, Sara's head started hurting. And on Feb. 10, at the detention center, she collapsed. The detention center staff had her hospitalized at Texas Health Huguley Hospital in Burleson, Texas. And there, according to her lawyers, doctors concluded she had a brain tumor. ...As of press time, she can't talk to her lawyers or family. Sara's lawyers...said they've also been blocked from speaking to her on the phone because of ICE rules limiting communication with hospitalized detainees—despite what they believe is a situation of medical urgency."

Despicable. And why was Sara detained? Because she's an asylum-seeker who missed a deadline to file her paperwork.

Meanwhile, at TPM, Esme Cribb reports: Trump Says His Admin's Deportation Enforcement Is a 'Military Operation'. "'All of a sudden for the first time we're getting gang members out, we're getting drug lords out, we're getting really bad dudes out of this country,' Trump said during a listening session with manufacturing CEOs. 'And it's a military operation because what has been allowed to come into our country.'" THIS IS NOT NORMAL.

Tara Palmeri at Politico: How Trump's Campaign Staffers Tried to Keep Him off Twitter. "The key to keeping Trump's Twitter habit under control, according to six former campaign officials, is to ensure that his personal media consumption includes a steady stream of praise. And when no such praise was to be found, staff would turn to friendly outlets to drum some up—and make sure it made its way to Trump's desk. ...One Trump associate said it's important to show Trump deference and offer him praise and respect, as that will lead him to more often listen. And if Trump becomes obsessed with a grudge, aides need to try and change the subject, friends say. Leaving him alone for several hours can prove damaging, because he consumes too much television and gripes to people outside the White House."

This is terrifying when one contemplates what Trump will be like in a crisis, when there is no time to soothe his ego to deliver advice on issues of far greater importance than his Twitter usage.

[CN: Islamophobia] Rumana Ahmed at The Atlantic: I Was a Muslim in Trump's White House. "I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman—I was the only hijabi in the West Wing—and the Obama administration always made me feel welcome and included. Like most of my fellow American Muslims, I spent much of 2016 watching with consternation as Donald Trump vilified our community. Despite this—or because of it—I thought I should try to stay on the NSC staff during the Trump Administration, in order to give the new president and his aides, a more nuanced view of Islam, and of America's Muslim citizens. I lasted eight days."

Andy Towle at Towleroad: Voters Trust the Media and Courts over Trump by a Wide Margin. "American voters today give President Donald Trump a negative 38–55 percent job approval rating, his worst net score since he took office... 'President Donald Trump's popularity is sinking like a rock,' said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. 'He gets slammed on honesty, empathy, level headedness and the ability to unite. And two of his strong points, leadership and intelligence, are sinking to new lows.'" Also: A majority of people say Trump is an embarrassment. Correct.

Christopher Matthews at Axios: Mnuchin's Ambitious 3% Growth Plan. "Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is hard at work on the Trump Administration's tax plan, which he says could come by August, according to interviews Thursday with the Wall Street Journal and CNBC. Mnuchin says that tax reform, along with other Trump policies, can move the U.S. back to its postwar average of sustained 3% growth. But given a slower-growing population and recent weak productivity growth, economists are skeptical that such a goal is realistic." I am no economist, but I am also skeptical, since I've spent the last 30 years of my life watching trickle-down economics not working!

Margaret Hartmann at New York Magazine: Secretary of State Tillerson Looks to Media to Get President's Attention. "Tillerson is looking for a way to signal to both staffers and foreign governments that the State Department's influence isn't waning. Politico reports that he's asked aides to draft a paper explaining ways that he can increase his access to reporters and boost his media presence." There's only room for ONE EGO in the Trump administration, sir! And it isn't yours.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton held a townhall event yesterday, and it didn't go so well. A woman whose husband is dying yelled at him and demanded to know what kind of health insurance he has (for which we pay), and he got owned by a 7-year-old. How Cotton and his colleagues can listen to people plead with them to do the right thing and just continue to shit all over us is beyond me. They have no empathy, and no decency.

[CN: Anti-Semitism; terrorism] The Anti-Defamation League received a bomb threat yesterday. And Trump stayed silent on one of the nation's most prominent Jewish organizations being terrorized.

[CN: Police misconduct; racism] Matt Hamilton, Kate Mather, Melissa Etehad, and Frank Shyong at the L.A. Times: 300 Protest in Anaheim After Videos Show Off-Duty LAPD Officer Firing Gun in Dispute with Teens. "Many of the protesters were young people who had seen the video on their social media feeds and wanted to do something. Jocelyne Gutierrez, 21, and her friend Karla Zuniga, 20, decided to join the protest at around 9 p.m. Gutierrez said she saw herself in the boy in the video. 'It could have been me, my friend or someone from my family,' she said." If you have not seen the video, you can view it here. Wilfred Chan at Fusion has more on the incident and the boy who was nearly shot.

It's appalling to me that anyone could look at that video and think, "Yeah, that's how I want cops to behave."

Police violence like this did not start with the election of Donald Trump, but it's only going to get even worse under his "law and order" regime.

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