We Resist: Day 314

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, November 29, 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: Matt Lauer Fired for "Inappropriate Sexual Behavior".

Donald Trump's morning tweetshitz were really something today. He engaged in a little more press intimidation by tweeting this horseshit at Joe Scarborough:


[Content Note: Islamophobia] Trump also retweeted Islamophobic hate messages from the deputy leader of white nationalist group Britain First, one of which purported to show a Muslim man abusing a white child but was actually a white man abusing a white child.

When asked to address Trump's retweet of the mendacious, inflammatory video, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it doesn't even matter if it's real, because he's only using it as propaganda to fearmonger on behalf of his agenda, anyway.


That is just extraordinary. We are so far through the looking glass that literally nothing matters anymore. Terrifying.

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[CN: Sexual harassment and/or assault] Garrison Keillor has also been sacked for "sexual misconduct," just a day after defending Al Franken in an op-ed for the Washington Post.


Perhaps one day our reprehensibly irresponsible press — and everyone else in this consent-forsaken society — will finally learn that defending sexual abusers is a big red flag.

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Philip Bump at the Washington Post: Deeply Unpopular Congress Aims to Pass Deeply Unpopular Bill for Deeply Unpopular President to Sign. "It's not odd that Republicans are pushing for a tax bill that's tilted toward business and the wealthy. ...Republicans control the House, they control the Senate, they control the White House. This tax bill is the Republican agenda, and advancing political priorities when you have the majority is how representative democracy works. It's just that everything about it is so unpopular." Yes. The Republicans continue to govern like a party that believes they never have to worry about winning fair elections ever again. I wonder why that might be. Cough.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Toluse Olorunnipa at Bloomberg: Trump's Tax Promises Undercut by CEO Plans to Reward Investors. "Major companies including Cisco Systems Inc., Pfizer Inc., and Coca-Cola Co. say they'll turn over most gains from proposed corporate tax cuts to their shareholders, undercutting [Donald] Trump's promise that his plan will create jobs and boost wages for the middle class." They're just outright admitting it. The money from tax cuts is going straight to the top. Like I keep saying: This is class warfare. This is a wealth redistribution upwards plan.


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Zoe Tillman at BuzzFeed: A Judge Won't Stop Trump from Installing His Own Pick to Lead the CFPB. "A federal judge on Tuesday handed a win to the Trump administration in the latest fight over the scope of [Donald] Trump's authority, denying a request for an emergency order to block Trump from appointing Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, as the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. US District Judge Timothy Kelly, announcing his decision from the bench on Tuesday afternoon, said that Leandra English — the CFPB official suing Trump and Mulvaney and claiming to be the rightful acting director — had failed to show that she was likely to succeed in her lawsuit at this stage of the case. ...The fact that Trump nominated Kelly hasn't been raised as an issue in the case." This is what authoritarianism looks like.

And this is what warmongering looks like:


Remember: Lindsey Graham is supposed to be the last moderate Republican. Welp.

Steve LeVine at Axios: McKinsey: Automation May Wipe Out 1/3 of America's Workforce by 2030. "In a new study that is optimistic about automation yet stark in its appraisal of the challenge ahead, McKinsey says massive government intervention will be required to hold societies together against the ravages of labor disruption over the next 13 years. Up to 800 million people — including a third of the work force in the U.S. and Germany — will be made jobless by 2030, the study says. The bottom line: The economy of most countries will eventually replace the lost jobs, the study says, but many of the unemployed will need considerable help to shift to new work, and salaries could continue to flatline. 'It's a Marshall Plan size of task,' Michael Chui, lead author of the McKinsey report, tells Axios." Trump is not up to the task. And the GOP has no interest in a universal basic income. We are so fucked.

And finally: Please take time today to make your calls about Net Neutrality!


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