We Resist: Day 481

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, May 15, 2018
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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: Five Things to Read on the 70th Anniversary of Nakba and "Something's wrong in America." and This Seems Important.

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

So, in case you're unaware, Axios is a news outlet known for its great access to the White HOuse and BIG SCOOPS from anonymous leakers who are definitely Donald Trump. Bear that in mind as we hit this first item.

Jonathan Swan and Mike Allen at Axios: Scoop: Inside Trump's 2020 Startup.
As [Donald] Trump's campaign aides quietly launch his reelection campaign, they're eyeing two states as possible pickups for 2020: Minnesota, where Trump came close in 2016 without even trying; and Colorado, where his hands-off approach to marijuana enforcement is a possible selling point.

What's happening: The addition of those states is part of a plan that's coming together in a basement suite at the Republican National Committee, where the Trump campaign has moved from Trump Tower. The campaign, now fewer than 10 people, eventually will number hundreds.

The reelection campaign will mostly work under the radar until after midterms, providing Trump assets (volunteers, fundraising, rallies) to other campaigns.

But we got a first look at campaign manager Brad Parscale's plans to build what amounts to a massive marketing machine, selling the world's most prominent product.

Why it matters: In 2016, Trump Tower campaign staffers were proud of their pirate-ship ambush of the Republican establishment, then of the U.S.S. Clinton. But this time they won't have the advantage of surprise.

So the Trump team has to build a longer range, more systematic plan, without suffocating Trump's improvisational essence.

Parscale, who considers past presidential campaigns archaic, is emphasizing digital innovation, technological streamlining, and corporate efficiency.

Parscale told us: "We're crushing it in prospecting."
There is no way to NOT read this planted item at Axios as a communication with Russia about where and how to direct their resources on behalf of Trump. "Colorado. Weed. Get on it, Vlad."

Further, the entire piece — which also includes this helpful piece of info: "Parscale had no history in politics before the 2016 campaign, and doesn't plan to work in politics beyond the 2020 campaign." — is setting up the narrative that will be used to explain Trump's 2020 victory, despite being a wildly unpopular president.

It won't be that the Russians intervened again to assist him, but that his "unconventional" campaign manager with his "innovative" ideas figured out a way to again "ambush" the establishment.

The collusion (and the narrative-creation to obfuscate it) is happening right out in the open.

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I mean, in theory, yes, Trump does have to decide that. But, in reality, I'm guessing Trump will just let the deadline pass without filing anything at all, or file it but full of lies, because who's gonna hold him accountable?

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Robert Maguire at McClatchy: $1 Million Mystery Gift to inauguration Traced to Conservative Legal Activists. "One of the largest contributions to [Donald] Trump's inaugural committee in 2016 appears to have been orchestrated by a set of powerful conservative legal activists who have since been put in the driver's seat of the administration's push to select and nominate federal judges. ...While the source of the money used to make the gift was masked from the public, a trail of clues puts the contribution at the doorstep of some of the same actors — most notably Leonard Leo, an executive vice president at the conservative Federalist Society — who have helped promote Trump's mission, and that of his White House counsel, Don McGahn, to fill judicial vacancies as quickly as he can with staunchly conservative, preferably young jurists." And that of his Vice President Mike Pence.

Ed Pilkington at the Guardian: How Rightwing Groups Wield Secret 'Toolkit' to Plot Against U.S. Unions. "Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that a network of radical conservative thinktanks spanning all 50 states is planning direct marketing campaigns targeted personally at union members to encourage them to quit. The secret push, the group hopes, could cost unions up to a fifth of their 7 million members, lead to the loss of millions of dollars in income, and undermine a cornerstone of U.S. progressive politics. ...The anti-union marketing drive is the brainchild of the State Policy Network, a coast-to-coast alliance of 66 rightwing thinktanks that has an $80m war chest to promote Donald Trump-friendly regressive policies such as low taxes and small government."


[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism] Breanna Edwards at the Root: A Black Man Died During an Arrest in Louisiana; a Local Coroner Has Ruled the Death as Homicide by 'Asphyxia'.
On Thursday, 22-year-old Keeven Robinson died shortly after a chase and "brief struggle" with narcotics detectives from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana.

At first, authorities hinted that his death may have been related to his medical history of asthma, the Washington Post reports, noting that an air-quality alert had warned residents of unhealthy ozone levels that day.

However, when a young black man dies at the hands of police, tensions and suspicions run high. Robinson's family was not convinced.

On Monday, a Jefferson Parish coroner vindicated some of those suspicions, confirming that an autopsy had concluded that Robinson's death was a homicide.

To be precise, the cause of death was ruled as "compressional asphyxia" with an autopsy Saturday showing "significant traumatic injuries to the neck, the soft tissue of the neck," the coroner, Gerald Cvitanovich, announced in a news conference.
And meanwhile...


[CN: Nativism] Relatedly:


And finally: [CN: War on agency] Brie Shea at Rewire.News: The Weekly Roundup of State-Based Anti-Choice and Anti-LGBTQ Legislation. With an overview of the bills Rewire.News is watching at the moment in Louisiana, South Carolina, Delaware, Minnesota, Missouri, and Utah.

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