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: Mitt Romney: Still the Woooooorst and All of This Is Very Troubling and Trump Launches Trade War with Canada, Mexico, EU.
Here are some more things in the news today...
[Content Note: Gun violence]
"We are going to Dallas, we are going to Houston. We are going to have a little fun today. Thank you very much," President Trump says as he head to Texas to meet with the families of Santa Fe school shooting victims https://t.co/LJJOcM4YsX pic.twitter.com/2sDFcgdoCX
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 31, 2018
"Fun." This fucking guy.
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First Lady Melania Trump still hasn't been seen in public. It's been three weeks. But this tweet appeared on her account yesterday:
I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people!
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) May 30, 2018
Well, that definitely sounds like her (no it doesn't), so obviously there's nothing to worry about (yes there is), because it totally makes sense (not) that someone who is "feeling great" and "working hard" wouldn't just step in front of a camera to assuage concerns about her.
I ask again: Where's Melania?
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There was a flurry of news about presidential pardons, and potential pardons, today:
Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2018
Dinesh D’Souza is a conservative commentator who authored conspiratorial polemics about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, among other titles. He pleaded guilty in 2014 to making an illegal campaign contribution. https://t.co/WPpECJjWG2
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) May 31, 2018
Trump's decision to pardon Dinesh D'Souza, who pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions, is certainly an interesting (cough) message for a president to send in an election year.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 31, 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump says he's considering commuting sentence of ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, pardoning Martha Stewart.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 31, 2018
Rod Blagojevich was on Celebrity Apprentice.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 31, 2018
Martha Stewart hosted an Apprentice spinoff. https://t.co/EYLwvaKfAx
Dinesh D'Souza, Martha Stewart, and Rod Blagojevich may seem like random choices for pardons. They’re ... not. pic.twitter.com/uyvLHPsxbt
— golden state warrior blond (@goldengateblond) May 31, 2018
Jim Comey prosecuted Martha Stewart, and Comey’s best friend Pat Fitzgerald prosecuted Blagojevich and Scooter Libby.
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) May 31, 2018
It's as if Trump is building a squad of convicted felons who'll unite with him to battle the evil villain, Federal Prosecution.
In other news...
"Mr. McCabe’s memo reflects the anxiety of the early months of the Trump administration and presaged a relationship with law enforcement that has only grown more strained." Haha that's undeservedly polite. https://t.co/rQnEirwYsh
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 31, 2018
Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast reports that the "Senate intelligence committee has asked to interview Roger Stone, Donald Trump's longtime political adviser and self-described dirty trickster." Sure. Stone, meanwhile, said: "I will be targeted in an effort to trump-up charges against me to get me to turn on Donald Trump. Not happening… It is now abundantly clear that [Mueller] intends to frame me on some conjured-up, concocted offense in an effort to leverage my testimony against the president of the United States. I will never roll on him!" Cool.
"Dominated by white men, many of whom are under 50, it is the least diverse crop of new judges for a generation and may prove Trump’s most lasting legacy." https://t.co/VjOeyEzYAD
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 31, 2018
[CN: War on agency] Ally Boguhn at Rewire.News: Trump's HHS Installs Fake Clinic Leader to Oversee Family Planning Funds. "Diane Foley, who ran a Christian organization operating two Colorado anti-choice 'crisis pregnancy centers,' or fake clinics, was quietly installed on Tuesday as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, where she will lead the office responsible for the Title X federal family planning program." Of course.
Michael Weissenstein at the AP: Puerto Rico Grid 'Teetering' Despite $3.8 Billion Repair Job. (Shitty headline, AP. Fuck.) "After an eight-month, $3.8 billion federal effort to try to end the longest blackout in United States history, officials say Puerto Rico's public electrical authority, the nation's largest, is almost certain to collapse again when the next hurricane hits this island of 3.3 million people. 'It's a highly fragile and vulnerable system that really could suffer worse damage than it suffered with Maria in the face of another natural catastrophe,' Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello said." Awful. I'm so worried about Puerto Rico as another hurricane season looms.
And finally: [CN: Misogyny] David Bauder at AP/TPM: Samantha Bee Under Fire for Calling Ivanka Trump a 'Feckless C—'. "Bee called Ivanka Trump a 'feckless c—' toward the end of a segment about [Donald] Trump's immigration policies on her show, Full Frontal, on Wednesday. She used the slur in urging Ivanka Trump to speak to her father about policies that separate children from their parents. Bee said, 'Put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to f—ing stop it.' There was no immediate comment from TBS on Thursday." This is not how feminism works. For fuck's sake.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
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