We Resist: Day 574

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, August 16, 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: Trump's War on the Press: The Press Fights Back and Trump Revoked Brennan's Security Clearance Because "Something Had to Be Done."

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

On the same day that over 300 news organizations are publishing editorials about Donald Trump's attacks on the free press, he tweeted this trash:


Meanwhile, at his propaganda outlet... JM Rieger at the Washington Post: On Fox News, Robert Mueller Is Often a Bigger Bogeyman Than Vladimir Putin. "When conservative radio host Mark Levin appeared on Fox News' Hannity last week to discuss the latest in the Russia investigation, he ended up baffling even some of his most conservative allies. 'Robert Mueller is a greater threat to this republic and the Constitution than anything Vladimir Putin did during the campaign,' Levin said. ...It also closely aligns with another fringe theory long-pushed by Fox: Mueller is part of a coup d’état to overthrow Trump. No fewer than nine Fox hosts and pundits have suggested as much since February 2017... Fox pundits have also called the investigation a 'witch hunt,' 'illegitimate,' and 'corrupt,' and Hannity called it 'a direct threat to this American republic' on the anniversary of Mueller's appointment."

Speaking of Bob Mueller's investigation... Tom McCarthy at the Guardian: Paul Manafort Trial: Judge Hands Case to Jurors After Closing Arguments. "A Virginia court heard closing arguments Wednesday in the trial of the former Donald Trump campaign chairman on charges of bank fraud, tax fraud, and failure to disclose foreign bank accounts. ...Judge TS Ellis III handed the case to jurors Wednesday evening. Deliberations were scheduled to begin in earnest on Thursday morning on the 18 charges."

In other Russia news, cough..


Everything is fine. (Everything is not fine.)

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[Content Note: Nativism; abuse. Covers entire section.]

Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: The Trump Administration Hasn't Shared the Number of Separated Kids Under 5 for More Than a Month. "The family separation story that dominated headlines in June and July has now seemed to have fallen from public consciousness, at least in the communities not directly affected. But the crisis is far from resolved as the government failed to reunite hundreds of families it separated as part of its 'zero tolerance' immigration policy. And one critical question remains: How many kids are still separated from their parents? The government has not updated the public — or the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is representing migrant kids in court — in more than a month on the status of kids under the age 5. In mid-July, they estimated that 45 kids remained separated from their parents."

David Yaffe-Bellany, Jay Root, and Juan Luis García Hernández at the Texas Tribune: Asylum-Seekers Say They Cross the Border Illegally Because They Don't Think They Have Other Options. "Every month, thousands of asylum-seeking families cross the Rio Grande and turn themselves in to Border Patrol rather than line up at a port of entry. Since October, more than 40,000 family members traveling together have presented themselves at the ports of entry without proper documentation; nearly twice that many have crossed into the country illegally over the same time period. ...'If you are seeking asylum for your family, there is no reason to break the law and illegally cross between ports of entry,' Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen declared on Twitter at the height of the family separation crisis in June. But that message ignored the deep-rooted factors — from smuggling practices to the complexities of U.S. immigration law — that drive Central American asylum-seekers to the river, despite the risks of a clandestine crossing."

Hamed Aleaziz at BuzzFeed: The Trump Administration Is Seeking to Restart Thousands of Closed Deportation Cases. "The Trump administration has requested the restarting of thousands of deportation cases that immigration judges previously had suspended, according to statistics provided Wednesday by the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts. So far this fiscal year, attorneys for Immigration and Customs Enforcement have sought the reactivation of nearly 8,000 deportation cases that had been administratively closed — meaning pushed off the court's docket."

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Katelyn Burns at Rewire.News: Trump's Labor Department Is Expanding Its Imposition of Religious Fundamentalism. "The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) moved to further cement the imposition of fundamentalist Christian religious beliefs on economic and employment policies last week through a new directive and an appointment to the federal agency. ...'This is an attempt to encourage businesses to take taxpayer dollars and then fire people for being transgender,' said Harper Jean Tobin, director of policy at the National Center for Transgender Equality in a statement. 'Religious organizations have ample protections under federal law, but they are not allowed to use federal money to discriminate against people. The language of this directive is so broad and so vague because it is part of a long line of attempts by this administration to sow confusion and encourage any employer to act on their worst prejudices.'"

[CN: Domestic violence] Melissa Jeltsen at the Huffington Post: Violence Against Women Act Is About to Expire. "The Violence Against Women Act — which directs the national response to crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking — will expire at the end of September if lawmakers don't act fast. In late July, House Democrats introduced a measure to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA. Then House lawmakers went on recess. When they return on Sept. 4, they will have only a few weeks before the law expires. ...While VAWA was reauthorized in 2000, 2005 and 2013 with bipartisan support, the current House bill does not have a single Republican co-sponsor to date."


[CN: Police brutality; racist violence; white supremacy] Breanna Edwards at the Root: Prosecutors Cannot Call Laquan McDonald, 17-Year-Old Shot and Killed by Chicago Cop, a 'Victim' During Murder Trial. "A Chicago judge ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors will be unable to call Laquan McDonald, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer, a victim until closing arguments. ...'Here we have the defense of self-defense. So, if it's justified, justified use of force, then there is no victim,' Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan said. 'Certainly, there is a person that's dead as a result of this tragic situation but that doesn't mean that the person is a victim legally.' ...Gaughan then conceded that prosecutors could use the word 'victim' in closing arguments 'if the evidence supports it.'"


Lawrence Mishel and Jessica Schieder at the Economic Policy Institute: CEO Compensation Surged in 2017. "[I]n 2017 the average CEO of the 350 largest firms in the U.S. received $18.9 million in compensation, a 17.6 percent increase over 2016. The typical worker's compensation remained flat, rising a mere 0.3 percent. ...CEO compensation has grown far faster than stock prices or corporate profits. CEO compensation rose by 979 percent (based on stock options granted) or 1,070 percent (based on stock options realized) between 1978 and 2017. The corresponding 637 percent growth in the stock market (S & P Index) was far lower. Both measures of compensation are substantially greater than the painfully slow 11.2 percent growth in the typical worker's compensation over the same period."

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