We Resist: Day 201

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, August 08, 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 Fannie: America: The Broken. And by me: Everything Is Fine. (Everything Is Not Fine.)

[Content Note: Terrorism; Islamophobia] Talal Ansari at BuzzFeed: People at the Minnesota Mosque That Was Bombed Are Waiting for Trump to Address the "Act of Terrorism".
Officials at the mosque that was bombed this weekend in a Minneapolis suburb are asking why [Donald] Trump hasn't addressed — or tweeted — about what the state's governor has declared an "act of terrorism."

"We invite the president to come and see — to come and see what happened," said Mohamed Omar, the center's executive director, who was getting ready for early morning prayers when what the FBI called an "improvised explosive device" was thrown into the imam's office.

"He is the president of this country, and this happened to us. He has to come here and at least express his feelings and say this is bad," Omar said in a room adjacent to where the blast happened at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center.

"We are wondering why President Trump has not tweeted about this. He seems to want to tweet about security and terror issues," said Asad Zaman, director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.
Of course Zaman isn't really wondering why. We all know why.

That we all know, that none of us are surprised in the least by Trump's bigotry and lack of compassion, does not make it any less disgusting or any less deserving of our outrage.

Trump is a terrible president, and a terrible human being.

* * *


By way of reminder: Erik Prince is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Amanda Holpuch at the Guardian: Trump Tweets Fox News Story with Anonymous Sources after Criticizing Practice.
Donald Trump shared a news story on Tuesday that cites anonymous sources and leaked intelligence less than 24 hours after criticizing the practice.

Trump, who is at the beginning of his 17-day vacation in New Jersey, criticized the New York Times for its "non-existent sources" and berated the "Fake News Media" on Monday night.

Then, early Tuesday morning, he shared three Fox and Friends news segments, including one about North Korea that cited "US officials with knowledge of the latest intelligence" but did not identify who the officials are, and quoted an "official who requested anonymity."

The Fox News story asserted that US spy satellites had detected North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to a patrol boat.

As president, Trump would probably have access to information in the articles he shares that credit anonymous sources.

Criticizing the practice of anonymous sourcing, then sharing a story that cites anonymous sources soon after, has become something of a monthly pattern for the president.
Good grief. Speaking of North Korea...

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, Kabir Khanna, and Anthony Salvanto at CBS News: Americans Uneasy about North Korea and Trump's Ability to Handle It. As well we should be!

graphic showing 35 percent of respondents are 'confident' about Trump's 'ability to handle North Korea nuclear situation' while 61 percent are 'uneasy'

Mary Louise Kelly: Cover Lifted, a CIA Spy Offers His Take on Trump and Russia. "Hoffman's long experience observing Russian spies at work leads to a surprising conclusion about one of the most sensational revelations from last year's election: that Trump Tower meeting in June 2016. The one attended by Donald Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign manager Paul Manafort — and Kremlin-connected Russians. 'To me,' Hoffman says, 'it pointed to a discoverable influence operation rather than some effort to establish a clandestine channel for collusion.' Both in NPR's interview and in an op-ed for The New York Times, Hoffman argues the meeting was meant to be discovered, that Putin deliberately left a trail of breadcrumbs from Trump Tower to the Kremlin. And that the objective was simple: to soil the U.S. political process and undermine the credibility of the 2016 election."

For the record, other intelligence analysts disagree with Hoffman. Seems to me it doesn't have to be an either-or scenario: The meeting could have been an attempt "to establish a clandestine channel for collusion" and a "discoverable influence operation" in which a trail of breadcrumbs was left to discredit the integrity of the election. Why not both?

Jason Zengerle at GQ: What If Mike Pence Becomes President? "His ascent has been spectacular, if under-appreciated. Until he was plucked by Trump last summer to help appeal to conservative voters, Pence was a scarcely known and largely unpopular governor facing an uphill re-election fight in Indiana. Today he's next in line to a deeply embattled president; a guy who's made himself seem vaguely right for the Oval Office simply by standing in contrast to its current occupant. ...Today, Pence benefits from his unearned status as an outsider — a guy brought along by Trump to help him drain the swamp. In truth, he's a G.O.P. loyalist who spent a dozen years in Congress before becoming Indiana governor. Holding on to Trump's supporters would likely require holding on to some of his popular promises, too."


Cameron Joseph at TPM: Kushner-Owned Company Lobbied Against Obamacare Repeal. "Jared Kushner owned a stake in his brother's Obamacare-dependent health insurance company when it hired lobbyists to fight repeal of the law shortly before he divested from it earlier this year. Kushner's younger brother, Joshua Kushner, co-founded Oscar Health Insurance to capitalize on Obamacare's individual insurance markets by offering a web-friendly insurance option aimed mostly at younger and urban consumers. The company is heavily dependent on Obamacare's private insurance exchanges." He really is Trump 2.0. No principles but the grift!

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