We Resist: Day 475

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, May 09, 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: Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Drops a Bombshell on Donald Trump's Lawyer and Trump Continues His Attacks on the Free Press and Trump Threatens Sanctions on European Allies.

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

Let's start with an ACTION ITEM: Contact your senators and tell them to support the Senate vote to PRESERVE NET NEUTRALITY.


MAKE YOUR CALLS.

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[Content Note: Anti-Blackness; white supremacy. Covers entire section.]

Today in Shopping While Black: Kia Morgan-Smith at the Grio: Nordstrom Under Fire after Police Called on Black Teens Falsely Accused of Shoplifting Prom Clothes. "High school students Mekhi Lee, Dirone Taylor and Eric Rogers II were reportedly shopping for prom clothes and noticed that several employees started following them around the store. 'I was nervous the whole time,' Lee recalled. 'Every time we move, they move. When we looked up, they looked up.' Feeling uneasy about the situation, the teens decided to leave the store by were immediately surrounded and confronted by Brentwood Police in the parking lot. CBS News reports that police then informed the teens they were called to the scene because the store accused them of stealing. The police investigated and found the claims to be false and released them without charges."

Today in Working While Black: Katie Jane Fernelius at Indy Week: A Duke University VP Walked into the Campus Joe Van Gogh, Heard a Rap Song, Demanded That the Employees Be Fired. "On Friday, [vice president for student affairs Larry Moneta] came in during an afternoon rush. The baristas had a habit of playing music from Spotify over the speakers, usually on playlists curated by the service. When Moneta walked in, 'Get Paid' by Young Dolph was playing. The song's titular refrain included the n-word, as Young Dolph raps, 'Get paid, young nigga.' Britni Brown, who was manning the register, was in charge of the playlist that day. When he approached the counter, Moneta, a white man, told Brown, an African-American woman, that the song was inappropriate. ...She says she shut the song off immediately. She grabbed him a vegan muffin and offered it free of charge. ...On Monday morning, Brown and [Kevin Simmons, the other barista on duty] were called into Joe Van Gogh's Hillsborough office and asked to resign."

Today in Graduating While Black: Alex Harris and Madeleine Marr at the Miami Herald: Black UF Students Were 'Manhandled' off Graduation Stage. "It's a tradition for culturally black sororities and fraternities to 'stroll' across the graduation stage and perform their Greek organization's signature dance, but that tradition was interrupted Saturday at the University of Florida by an 'aggressive' graduation marshal. Video footage showed the orange-and-blue clad marshal physically hustling the celebrating students off the graduation stage — at one point bear-hugging a male student and dragging him away. The videos have spread widely on social media, with many critics calling the actions racist. On Tuesday, the school announced the faculty member serving as a marshal has been placed on paid administrative leave 'pending a review of the appropriate administrative steps.' He was not identified."

To realize the plea inherent in the call #BlackLivesMatter, Black people's lives must matter in all spaces and at all times. The relentless double standards that mean Black people are subjected to harassment and humiliation just for fucking existing as Black human beings must end.

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That said, if the actual objective is stalling for time to allow the authoritarians to consolidate power, then a year is definitely not long enough. *side-eye*

Here is a piece of good news: Carol Morello, Anna Fifield, and David Nakamura at the Washington Post: North Korea Frees 3 American Prisoners Ahead of a Planned Trump-Kim Summit. "Three American men who had been imprisoned by North Korea are on their way to the United States, [Donald] Trump announced Wednesday after they were released to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his visit to Pyongyang."

I'm very glad indeed for Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim, and Kim Hak-song that they are no longer imprisoned in North Korea.

I am also very angry that Donald Trump continues to say that President Obama failed to secure freedom for the three men, when two of the men were taken into custody in 2017, after Trump had taken office.

[CN: Class warfare] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Health Insurers Say higher Obamacare Premiums Are Coming, and It's Republicans' Fault. "Health experts warned this would happen. In fact, insurers who set the premium rates cautioned that costs would rise if lawmakers continued to undermine the Obamacare exchanges and not shore up the market. A letter issued to lawmakers in November from major health industry players said '[e]liminating the individual mandate by itself likely will result in a significant increase in premiums, which would in turn substantially increase the number of uninsured Americans.' Now the public at large is learning what it meant for Congress to repeal the individual mandate, the tax penalty for not having insurance, and then not doing anything to improve a fragile market."

Speaking of Republicans being unfathomable assholes...


[CN: Misogyny; queer hatred; child abuse] Samantha Schmidt at the Washington Post: Mormon Church Breaks All Ties with Boy Scouts, Ending 100-Year Relationship. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday it will sever all ties with the Boy Scouts of America, ending a century-old tradition deeply ingrained in the religious life of Mormon boys. ...Church officials did not cite specific Scouts policy changes that spurred the split, but the two groups have increasingly clashed over values in recent years, particularly after the Boy Scouts' move to include openly gay troop leaders. The announcement also came less than a week after the Boy Scouts announced it would be changing its flagship name to Scouts BSA, promoting its decision last year to welcome girls into the program for the first time."


[CN: Sexual assault and harassment] And speaking of turning an indifferent eye toward sex abuse:


Does NBC imagine that this reflects well on them? Because it doesn't.

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