We Resist: Day 123

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 22, 2017
a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: Trump on the Road and Trump vs. the Intelligence Community.

Donald Trump just did an absolutely incredible thing, revealing that the source of the top-level classified info he shared with the Russians was Israel.


He did indeed! And he did it literally unprompted. Just volunteered the information.


This guy is a wreck. An extremely dangerous wreck.

* * *

[Content Note: White supremacy; violence; death; video may autoplay at link] Carrie Wells at the Baltimore Sun: Police, FBI Investigating University of Maryland Killing as Possible Hate Crime.
Authorities are investigating whether the stabbing death of a black college student who was visiting the University of Maryland during graduation weekend was a hate crime.

The chief of the university police said Sunday the suspect, a white University of Maryland student, is a member of a racist Facebook group. An FBI official said the federal agency will assist with the investigation.

The victim, identified by police Sunday as Richard Collins III, was due to graduate from Bowie State University this week. The Calvert County man had completed ROTC in college and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army on Thursday, according to school officials and a family spokesman. He was 23.

Police have charged Sean Christoper Urbanski, 22, of Severna Park with first-degree murder in the attack. He was being held without bail.

...Collins was waiting with two other students for an Uber ride outside the Montgomery Hall dormitory on Regents Drive near U.S. 1 at about 3 a.m. Saturday when he was attacked. ...Collins' friends told police they heard the suspect scream as he approached them.

The suspect said "Step left, step left if you know what's best for you," police wrote in charging documents. Collins said "no," police wrote. The suspect continued to approach, and stabbed him once in the chest.

Police said initially there was no indication that race played a role. But University Police Chief David Mitchell said information about the Facebook group was brought to their attention on Sunday.

The group, called "Alt-Reich Nation," contained racist posts, he said.

"When I look at the information that's contained on that website, suffice it to say that it's despicable, it shows extreme bias against women, Latinos, persons of Jewish faith and especially African-Americans," Mitchell said.
I will say again: Donald Trump did not invent white supremacy, but he sure as fuck is doing everything he can to empower it. And that has consequences.

[CN: Stalking; doxxing; anti-Semitism] On that very note... Ryan Broderick at BuzzFeed: Trump Supporters Have Built a Document with the Addresses and Phone Numbers of Thousands of Anti-Trump Activists. "The document posted by kanuke7 has since been removed, but according to a copy of it obtained by BuzzFeed News, it contains the names, addresses, and phone numbers of thousands of people, as well as links to their social media accounts."

This is rank intimidation. And Trump continues to empower that shit, too, with his own fascistic behavior. We are in a dark time, and it's only going to get worse.

* * *

Daniel Hemel at Take Care: Why Hasn't Rod Rosenstein Recused Himself from the Russiagate Probe? "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should recuse himself from the probe into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia and the President's apparent attempt to obstruct the FBI's inquiry. Rosenstein himself played a key role in the events at the center of the controversy, and his continued involvement casts a shadow over the ongoing investigation."

Associated Press: AP Source Says Flynn Will Invoke Fifth Amendment. "Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn will invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination on Monday as he notifies the Senate Intelligence committee that he will not comply with a subpoena seeking documents. That's according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. ...Legal experts have said Flynn was unlikely to turn over the personal documents without immunity because he would be waiving some of his constitutional protections by doing so. Flynn has previously sought immunity from 'unfair prosecution' to cooperate with the committee."

Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: White House Trying to Block Ethics Office from Seeing Former Lobbyists Hired by Administration. "The White House is trying to keep the Office of Government Ethics from viewing documents detailing which former lobbyists have been hired by the Trump administration for positions in the federal government, the New York Times reported Monday morning. The Trump administration asked Walter Shaub Jr., the director of the Office of Government Ethics, to withdraw his request for copies of the waivers for former lobbyists, arguing that Shaub did not have the legal authority to make such a request... Shaub told the New York Times that he was surprised by the White House's response to his request. 'It is an extraordinary thing,' he said. 'I have never seen anything like it.'"

Simon Maloy at the Week: The Trump White House Is Collapsing. "All of the administration's self-made crises are pushing the people on the inside to break ranks and feed dirt to reporters. An administration cannot expect to function properly under these circumstances. The White House is just oozing poison at this point, and the growing toxicity is undermining everything the president and his aides are trying to do. The accelerating Russia investigation paired with Trump's penchant for political self-destruction guarantee that things won't improve any time soon."

And, naturally, as the White House is embroiled in chaos and corruption, their domestic agenda continues to be fucking horrific, even as it receives comparatively little attention.

Damian Paletta at the Washington Post: Trump to Propose Big Cuts to Safety Net in New Budget, Slashing Medicaid and Opening Door to Other Limits.
Trump's first major budget proposal on Tuesday will include massive cuts to Medicaid and call for changes to anti-poverty programs that would give states new power to limit a range of benefits, people familiar with the planning said, despite growing unease in Congress about cutting the safety net.

For Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health care to low-income Americans, Trump's budget plan would follow through on a bill passed by House Republicans to cut more than $800 billion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this could cut off Medicaid benefits for about 10 million people over the next decade.

The White House also will call for giving states more flexibility to impose work requirements for people in different kinds of anti-poverty programs, people familiar with the budget plan said, potentially leading to a flood of changes in states led by conservative governors. Many anti-poverty programs have elements that are run by both the states and federal government, and a federal order allowing states to stiffen work requirements "for able-bodied Americans" could have a broad impact in terms of limiting who can access anti-poverty payments — and for how long.

...The White House also is expected to propose changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, though precise details couldn't be learned.

...After The Washington Post reported some of the cuts Sunday evening, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Trump was pulling "the rug out from so many who need help."

"This budget continues to reveal [Donald] Trump's true colors: His populist campaign rhetoric was just a Trojan horse to execute long-held, hard-right policies that benefit the ultra wealthy at the expense of the middle class," he said.
Welp.

* * *

Another cool snapshot from Trump's trip abroad...


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

Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.

blog comments powered by Disqus