We Resist: Day 439

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, April 03, 2018
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 (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) 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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Earlier today by me: The U.S. President Continues His War on the Free Press and EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Will Weaken Emissions Standards.

Here are some more things in the news today...


Oh. A "computer failure," huh? That affects half of the flights in Europe, you say? That sounds normal.

(That does not sound normal.)

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Cristina Maza at Newsweek: Will Russia Cut Underwater Internet Cables? Military Leaders Warn Suspicious Naval Activity Could Have Catastrophic Consequences.
Russian activity near underwater internet cables is causing concern once again, as a U.S. naval commander warned this week of suspicious activity unlike any seen since the Cold War.

Russian ships have allegedly been lurking near the underwater cables, sparking concern that Moscow might be planning to either cut the cables completely or use them to intercept communications.

Around 400 fiber-optic cables are responsible for transporting data for most of the world's emails, text messages, and phone calls. Cutting several of the cables at strategic points could have a major impact on communication channels worldwide. General Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of the U.S. European Command, told Congress in March that Russian naval ships and submarines are poking around the cables.

It's unclear exactly what the Russian submarines are doing, but experts have said they suspect Russia is collecting information that would allow it to tamper with the cables quickly if a major conflict broke out.
By way of reminder: Russian diplomats, presumed to be Russian intelligence agents, have been "waging a quiet effort to map the United States' telecommunications infrastructure, perhaps preparing for an opportunity to disrupt it," and Russia has developed "a cyberweapon that has the potential to be the most disruptive yet against electric systems that Americans depend on for daily life."

And the United States has a president who is Vladimir Putin's stooge, and whose occasional willingness to look like he cares about Russian aggression is transparent horseshit:


Meanwhile, we keep getting news about what that president is doing from the Kremlin: "Trump proposed meeting Vladimir Putin at the White House in a March phone call, the Kremlin said Monday, a fresh revelation about a conversation that stirred controversy over Trump's friendly tone toward the Russian leader amid mounting tensions with the West. After the March 20 phone call — in which Trump congratulated Putin for a reelection victory in a vote widely criticized as not free and fair — Trump told reporters that the two leaders had discussed a possible meeting to discuss Syria, Ukraine, North Korea, and 'the arms race.'"

And the media is still largely failing to straightforwardly address what is happening. For example:


We are in real trouble, my friends. As far as I can tell, it looks like we are fucked if Donald Trump continues to do Putin's bidding, for obvious reasons, and we are fucked if he doesn't, because Putin is prepared to pull the trigger on our infrastructure. Which he may do anyway, once Trump outlives his usefulness.

Fucking hell. Maude save us. Because no one else is coming.


Welp.

Judd Legum at ThinkProgress: At Chicago Nightclub, George Papadopoulos Allegedly Makes Explosive New Claim About Jeff Sessions. "On Thursday at a Chicago nightclub, Papadopoulos had some drinks and, in a conversation with a new acquaintance, allegedly made new and explosive claims about Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Papadopoulos, according to this new acquaintance, said that Sessions was well aware of the contact between Papadopoulos and Joseph Mifsud, an academic from Malta with high-level connections in Russia. Papadopoulos' indictment revealed that Mifsud had told Papadopoulos that the Russians had ''dirt' on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of 'thousands of emails.'' Jason Wilson, a computer engineer who lives in Chicago, told ThinkProgress that Papadopoulos said during their conversation that 'Sessions encouraged me' to find out anything he could about the hacked Hillary Clinton emails that Mifsud had mentioned."

Wonder if that will matter. Wonder if anything ever will.

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[CN: Nativism; militarism]


Not good. Not good at all.

Relatedly:


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Jill McCabe at the Washington Post: The President Attacked My Reputation; It's Time to Set the Record Straight.
I am an emergency room pediatrician and an accidental politician — someone who never thought much about politics until I was recruited to run for state office after making a statement about the importance of expanding Medicaid. That decision — plus some twisted reporting and presidential tweets — ended up costing my husband, Andrew, his job and our family a significant portion of his pension my husband had worked hard for over 21 years of federal service. For the past year and a half of this nightmare, I have not been free to speak out about what happened. Now that Andrew has been fired, I am.

One day in 2014, an entourage of politicians came through the ER, and a reporter pulled me aside to ask how Medicaid expansion would affect my patients. I did not think any more of it until a year later, when I received a voice mail asking whether I might be interested in running for the state Senate.

I was stunned... [Later] I started to become more interested, thinking, "Here's a way I can really try to help people on a bigger scale than what I do every day."

...I lost my race in November 2015. It was disappointing, and particularly hard for me because I have always been the kind of person who gives everything her all. But I felt good about my effort and enjoyed returning to normal life.

Almost a year later, everything changed. A reporter called my cellphone on a Sunday in October 2016, asking questions about contributions to my campaign and whether there had been any influence on Andrew's decisions at the FBI.

This could not be further from the truth. In fact, it makes no sense. Andrew's involvement in the Clinton investigation came not only after the contributions were made to my campaign but also after the race was over.

...After the 2016 election, I thought for a while that it was all over — at least now that [Donald] Trump won, he would stop coming after us. How naive that was.

...I have spent countless hours trying to understand how the president and so many others can share such destructive lies about me. Ultimately I believe it somehow never occurred to them that I could be a serious, independent-minded physician who wanted to run for office for legitimate reasons. They rapidly jumped to the conclusion that I must be corrupt, as part of what I believe to be an effort to vilify us to suit their needs.
Just another reminder that Donald Trump is not just a terrible and deeply unethical president, but an absolute horror show of a human being.

[CN: Sexual assault] "If"?


[CN: Class warfare] Addy Baird at ThinkProgress: GOP Congressman 'Outraged' That Homeless People in His County Will Get a Place to Sleep. "Republicans have made a habit of saying the quiet part out loud lately — and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) appears to be the latest offender. ...'As a parent who owns a modest home in an Orange County neighborhood, I join the outrage that we are assuming responsibility for homeless people, taking care of their basic needs, and elongating their agony by removing the necessity to make fundamental decisions about the way they live their lives,' he said. Providing them with 'a place to stay and basic sustenance,' he added, 'will not change them for the better and will encourage more such people to come to Orange County.'" Republicans think people aren't entitled to food. Or shelter.

And finally, in GOOD RESISTANCE NEWS...

Robyn Powell at Rewire: Sen. Tammy Duckworth Saves the Americans with Disabilities Act — for Now. "Last week, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and 42 of her Democratic Senate colleagues wrote to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pledging to block a vote on the ADA Education and Reform Act (HR 620). Passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in February, HR 620 would devastate the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) by undermining enforcement provisions that safeguard accessibility in public accommodations. Forty-three senators committing to oppose a Senate version of HR 620 is enough to filibuster the legislation, making it unlikely that a vote will go to the floor at this time. This, advocates say, warrants a celebration."

WOOT!!!

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