We Resist: Day 298

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, November 13, 2017
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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 Latest on Roy Moore, GOP Senate Candidate and Sex Predator.

[Content Note: Sexual assault; covers this entire section]

There are a number of new stories breaking regarding powerful men and sexual assault allegations. I am not excerpting any of them here; please take care to read them as you are able. Note that there are descriptions of sexual assault at links.

Ryan Parker at the Hollywood Reporter: George Takei Accused of Sexually Assaulting Former Model in 1981.

Jada Yuan at Vulture: L.A. Writer Says Richard Dreyfuss Sexually Harassed and Exposed Himself to Her in the 1980s.

Lisa Ryan at the Cut: Celebrity Hotel Owner André Balazs Accused of Groping Multiple Women.

Tim Molloy at the Wrap: Three More Women Accuse Atomic Blonde Producer David Guillod of Rape.

Mo Ryan at Variety: Supergirl, Arrow Producer Suspended Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations by Warner Bros.

Marlow Stern at the Daily Beast: Brand New Frontman Jesse Lacey Confesses to Serial Sexual Misconduct.

Jessica Testa, Tyler Kingkade, and Jay Edidin at BuzzFeed: The Dark Side of DC Comics: An Editor Rose Through the Ranks Even After Being Accused of Sexual Harassment.

Gwilym Mumford at the Guardian: Danish Authorities Investigating Claims of Sexual Abuse at Lars Von Trier's Studio Zentropa.

And on a related note:


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[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Andreo Calonzo and Jennifer Jacobs at Bloomberg: Trump Bonds with Duterte over Their Dislike of Obama, Avoids Human Rights. That is quite a headline.


[Previously: Trump and Duterte: A Match Made in Authoritarian Hell.]

Scott Neuman at NPR: Trump Caught Off-Guard by 'ASEAN-Way Handshake'. Ridiculous. But as we know, presidents who are unsophisticated and unworldly always look ridiculous on the global stage. There is a reason that President Obama never did, and it's because he was a resident and student of the world.

Meanwhile, back at home...

Juliet Eilperin and Amy Goldstein at the Washington Post: Trump Picks Alex Azar to Lead the Health and Human Services Department. "Trump has tapped Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical executive and a top health official during the George W. Bush administration, to lead the Health and Human Services Department. The decision to enlist the 50-year-old Azar — who served as president of Lilly USA, the biggest affiliate of Eli Lilly and Co., before stepping down in January to work as a health-care consultant — represents a pragmatic pick." Drain that swamp, yo!

Doina Chiacu at Reuters: Trump Urges Lawmakers to End Health Mandate, Cut Top Tax Rate. "Trump on Monday pushed lawmakers debating tax reform proposals in the Republican-controlled Congress to end the Obamacare individual mandate and cut the top income tax rate to 35 percent. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate were debating their respective plans this week before heading home for the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday. Republicans are aiming to achieve a significant overhaul of the U.S. tax code and hand Trump his first major legislative victory. The two chambers hope to resolve their differences in time to enact the legislation by the end of the year." I hope they continue to fail. Big league.

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[CN: White supremacy; eliminationism; Islamophobia; anti-Semitism] Matthew Taylor at the Guardian: 'White Europe': 60,000 Nationalists March on Poland's Independence Day. "Tens of thousands of nationalist demonstrators marched through Warsaw at the weekend to mark Poland's independence day, throwing red-smoke bombs and carrying banners with slogans such as 'white Europe of brotherly nations.' Police estimated 60,000 people took part in Saturday's event, in what experts say was one of the biggest gathering of far-right activists in Europe in recent years. Demonstrators with faces covered chanted 'Pure Poland, white Poland!' and 'Refugees get out!'. A banner hung over a bridge that read: 'Pray for Islamic Holocaust.' ...Some participants marched under the slogan 'We Want God!', words from an old Polish religious song that the US president, Donald Trump, quoted during a visit to Warsaw earlier this year."

[CN: Same as previous item] Rick Noack at the Washington Post: How Poland Became a Breeding Ground for Europe's Far Right. "Saturday's march was not organized or officially promoted by the governing right-wing Law and Justice party. Yet, despite the extremist slogans and posters, officials refrained from condemning the march, and even voiced public support: In a statement on Monday, Poland's Foreign Ministry defended the march as a largely patriotic event and 'a great celebration of Poles,' although the ministry condemned racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic remarks. The interior minister had previously called the rally 'a beautiful sight.'"

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[CN: White supremacy; anti-Blackness] Douglas Jacobs at the New York Times: We're Sick of Racism, Literally. "More than 700 studies on the link between discrimination and health have been published since 2000. This body of work establishes a connection between discrimination and physical and mental well-being. With all of these effects, it is no wonder that more than 100,000 black people die prematurely each year. ...[W]e know that racism doesn't have to be experienced in person to affect our health — taking it in the form of news coverage is likely to have similar effects. After all, studies have shown that when television viewers observe scenes depicting racism, their blood pressure remains elevated long after the scenes are over. That means it's reasonable to believe that every time we see a TV news segment or even get a notification on our phones about an event, statement, or policy that we believe represents discrimination, our bodies pay the price."


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Alex Lockie at Business Insider: The U.S.'s Most Secretive Intelligence Agency Was Embarrassingly Robbed and Mocked by Hackers. "The National Security Agency, the U.S.'s largest and most secretive intelligence agency, has been deeply infiltrated by anonymous hackers, as detailed in a New York Times exposé published Sunday. The NSA, which compiles massive troves of data on US citizens and organizes cyberoffensives against the U.S.'s enemies, was deeply compromised by a group known as the Shadow Brokers, which has made headlines in the past year in connection to the breach, whose source remains unclear. The group now posts cryptic, mocking messages pointed toward the NSA as it sells the cyberweapons, created at huge cost to US taxpayers, to any and all buyers, including US adversaries like North Korea and Russia. 'It's a disaster on multiple levels,' Jake Williams, a cybersecurity expert who formerly worked on the NSA's hacking group, told The Times."

Meg Kelly at the Washington Post: All the Known Times the Trump Campaign Met with Russians. Spoiler Alert: It's a lot!


Kevin Maurer and Spencer Ackerman at the Daily Beast: Green Beret Discovered SEALs' Illicit Cash — Then He Was Killed. "Melgar, a staff sergeant in the Army's 3rd Special Forces Group, was specifically selected for an intelligence operation in the West African nation of Mali. He was well respected by the American Embassy staff and the partner forces there, a former U.S. Africa Command official said. But shortly before he died, Melgar told his wife that he had a bad feeling about two of his partners in that effort, both of whom were members of SEAL Team Six. ...Now those two Navy SEALs are under investigation for killing Melgar — an investigation, first reported by The New York Times, sending shockwaves throughout the special-operations community. Military experts were hard-pressed to think of another case where elite U.S. troops turned on one another." Fucking hell.


[CN: Climate change; video may autoplay at link] Andrew Griffin at the Independent: 15,000 Scientists Give Catastrophic Warning about the Fate of the World in New 'Letter to Humanity'. "A new, dire 'warning to humanity' about the dangers to all of us has been written by 15,000 scientists from around the world. ...If the world doesn't act soon, there be catastrophic biodiversity loss and untold amounts of human misery, they warn. ...'Soon it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory, and time is running out,' the letter warns. 'We must recognize, in our day-to-day lives and in our governing institutions, that Earth with all its life is our only home.'"

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