We Resist: Day 174

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, July 12, 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.

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Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: The World Is Literally Falling Apart and Good Grief, This Guy and Take Action to Preserve Net Neutrality Today and An Observation.

REMINDER: KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS TO TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON TRUMPCARE.

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Sahil Kapur and Laura Litvan at Bloomberg: Senators Explore Bipartisan 'Plan B' to Troubled GOP Health Bill. "More than half a dozen Republican and Democratic senators have discussed alternatives to the embattled GOP health-care bill, even as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he plans a vote next week to muscle the Obamacare repeal measure through the Senate. Talks about a bipartisan fallback are based on the idea that Obamacare insurance markets have problems and would need to be fixed if the health-care bill dies. For Democrats, it would avert a repeal of a signature achievement that they admit needs improvement. For some GOP moderates, it would be a concrete act that would help their constituents amid a maelstrom of partisan bickering." What it would mean for actual people who need health insurance...? WHO CARES POLITICS IS A GAME NOTHING MATTERS THE UNIVERSE IS AN ILLUSION.

[CN: Disablist language] Nicole Lafond at TPM: Cruz: It's 'Crazy' to Go to August Recess Without Repealing Obamacare.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is joining the group of Republican senators who are willing to give up their August vacation in order to come up with a plan to repeal Obamacare, saying it would be "catastrophic if we fail to deliver on that promise."

Appearing on the Sean Hannity show on Fox Monday night, the conservative senator said he's been spending "every waking moment" trying to come up with a plan to unify his party on health care.

"For seven years Republicans have promised the voters, 'If you elect us, the one thing we said is we will repeal Obamacare.' … I am trying to bring together conservatives and moderates and leadership and the administration, get everyone on the same page and say 'Let's deliver on the promise when it comes to Obamacare,'" he said. "I think the voters would naturally say 'To heck with all of you' if we can't get our act together and get it done."

He said he has no plans to take the August recess until the GOP can get something put together.

"It's crazy that we would be taking a recess. There are a bunch of us, myself included, that have been urging leadership back from January, 'Let's not take any recesses. Let's work weekdays, let's work weekends, let's work until we get the job done,'" he said.
Republican Congresspeople are the laziest shits on the planet, but they'll WORK DAY AND NIGHT to take away your healthcare!

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Christopher Wray, Donald Trump's nominee to replace James Comey as FBI Director, is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing today, and it's going pretty much exactly as you'd expect.


"Does not inspire confidence." LOL. Yeah.

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Emily Shugerman at the Independent: Jared Kushner 'Tried and Failed to Get a $500m Loan from Qatar Before Pushing Trump to Take Hard Line Against Country'. "Jared Kushner tried and failed to secure a $500m loan from one of Qatar's richest businessmen, before pushing his father-in-law to toe a hard line with the country, it has been alleged. This intersection between Mr Kushner's real estate dealings and his father-in-law's international issues highlights the difficulties of an administration besieged with an unprecedented number of conflicts of interest." Difficulties, lol! Indeed!

Rachael Bade at Politico: Gowdy Fumes at Trump Administration over Latest Russia Controversy. "House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy lashed out at the Trump administration Tuesday over the 'drip, drip' in the ongoing Russia controversy, sarcastically suggesting that officials get checked for amnesia about any contacts with Russia. ...'If you had a contact with Russia, tell the special counsel about it! Don't wait until the New York Times figures it out!' an exasperated Gowdy said in a brief interview outside the Capitol Tuesday. ...Gowdy, frustration evident, suggested the Russia matter has become a distraction for Hill Republicans. 'I don't want to talk about it at all,' he admitted." I'll bet he doesn't.

By way of reminder: "Gowdy is helping lead the House Intelligence Committee's probe of Russia's interference in the election." So.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Sam Stein and Jason Cherkis at the Huffington Post: Hillary Clinton Campaign Aide to Press: We Told You Russia Was a BFD. "Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's campaign communications director, recounts how she tried to repeatedly get reporters to write about Russia, to little effect. 'It was so surreal. I felt as if I had been catapulted into another dimension where we would have these surreal conversations about the Russians and Trump and Mike Flynn and Carter Page and Donald Trump Jr. saying, 'We're really invested in Russia,'' she explains. 'And no one in the press really cared.'" Welp.

Cough.

photoshopped image of a book cover featuring a photo of Hillary Clinton drinking a beer, the title of which is: 'Fuck All, Y'all: A Memoir' by the Bitch who fucking warned you

Aaron Rupar at ThinkProgress: House Republican Threatens New Clinton Investigations Unless Democrats Stop Talking About Russia. "During a CNN interview Wednesday morning, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) issued a threat — if Democrats don't move on from the enlarging scandal surrounding the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia, Republicans will have no choice but to further investigate the Clintons. ...Republican members of Congress have repeatedly tried to distract from Trump's scandals by trying to gin up new ones surrounding Hillary Clinton." What assholes.

[CN: Sexual violence; rape apologia; misogyny] Linda Yang at Broadly: Betsy DeVos to Meet with Men's Rights Groups, Reports Say. "The Secretary of Education, who is expected to soon make a decision on amending the Obama administration's guidance on college sexual assault, plans to meet with both rape survivors and groups that dismiss sexual assault allegations. ...While the Department of Education has scheduled meetings with sexual assault advocate groups such as the National Women's Law Center, Know Your IX, and End Rape on Campus, they have also reached out to SAVE: Stop Abusive and Violent Environments, Families Advocating for Campus Equality, and National Coalition for Men, a group that describes itself as 'dedicated to the removal of harmful gender-based stereotypes, especially as they impact boys, men, their families, and those who love them.'"


Remember how I said all last fall that the 2016 election was a referendum on how this nation views women? Yeah. Well, here we are.

[CN: Homophobia; transphobia] SPLC Hatewatch Staff: Attorney General Jeff Sessions to Address Anti-LGBT Hate Group in Closed-Door Event. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions reportedly will be delivering a speech to the anti-LGBT hate group Alliance Defending Freedom at 5.30 PM PDT today, July 11, at ADF's Summit on Religious Liberty in California. The event is closed to the press, and no venue information has been released. Civil rights and Department of Justice reporter at Buzzfeed Dominic Holden Tweeted about the scheduled remarks. According to his Twitter feed, he asked the DOJ why Sessions was speaking at this anti-LGBT event and whether it signaled a new Department of Justice position in court. The DOJ declined to comment. Right Wing Watch noted that the event is closed to the press and pointed out that ADF is the largest of the religious right organizations battling LGBT and reproductive rights around the world." Goddammit.

[CN: Animal harm] Tatiana Schlossberg at the New York Times: Era of 'Biological Annihilation' Is Underway, Scientists Warn. "From the common barn swallow to the exotic giraffe, thousands of animal species are in precipitous decline, a sign that an irreversible era of mass extinction is underway, new research finds. The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, calls the current decline in animal populations a 'global epidemic' and part of the 'ongoing sixth mass extinction' caused in large measure by human destruction of animal habitats. The previous five extinctions were caused by natural phenomena. Gerardo Ceballos, a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City, acknowledged that the study is written in unusually alarming tones for an academic research paper. 'It wouldn't be ethical right now not to speak in this strong language to call attention to the severity of the problem,' he said." Fucking hell.

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