We Resist: Day 578

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: Good Morning! Or Whatever Time of Day It Is in Your Part of the World! and Pope Francis Says Words; Takes No Action.

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

[Content Note: Nativism; abuse] When, following weeks of criticism for family separations, Donald Trump signed an executive order to "keep the families together" without rescinding his aggressively cruel "zero tolerance" policy at the southern border, I warned that it was a move that exploited our concern for undocumented immigrant families in order to lay the groundwork for family detention camps. I hoped that I was wrong, but.

Emma Platoff at the Texas Tribune: Judge Says Reunited Migrant Families Can Now Face a Choice: Stay Locked up Together, or Separate Again.

A federal judge says the government can now leave it up to immigrant parents: Keep your children locked up with you in an immigration detention center, or send them miles or states away to be cared for in a government-contracted shelter.

For months, the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy split parents and children who crossed the border illegally, inspiring a national backlash and, in June, a federal court order that migrant families must be kept together, and that families who were already separated must be reunited.

But keeping all those families together presented a problem for the federal government: It can't, under a longstanding legal constraint called the Flores settlement, detain children in immigration detention centers for longer than 20 days — far less than the months or years it can take to process an asylum case.

More than three weeks after the government's deadline for reuniting thousands of families split at the border, it has begun to butt up against that 20-day restriction. And for now, the government is not permitted to deport reunited families — also the result of a court order this week.

The Thursday court order gives the government some measure of a solution to that dilemma: U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw has agreed that families can waive that 20-day right and other Flores guarantees, keeping their children with them in immigration detention centers. Or they themselves can choose to re-separate. That means the government won't be forced to violate the Flores settlement as they wait for permission to deport some migrant families.

The Department of Justice did not return a request for comment Friday. But last month, Justice Department lawyer Scott Stewart said the government's goal is ensuring that migrant parents who would otherwise have been detained can't "bootstrap a right to release" just because they're reunited with their children.

This is so bad. And because Trump was immediately granted the benefit of the doubt and misleadingly favorable headlines when he signed that executive order, sans the scrutiny that made it obvious that this was the plan all along, most of the public, if they are paying attention to this issue at all, believe that Trump "fixed" the problem — and don't understand at all that families may now be detained together in indefinite detention camps within this nation's borders.

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"In the past" is exactly why it won't matter to Trump supporters even if a recording surfaces of Trump using a racial slur. https://t.co/JXXe6Rgixl

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 20, 2018

S.V. Date at the Huffington Post: Trump Says He Has 'Obliterated' ISIS; the Terror Group Seems Not to Have Noticed. "While [Donald] Trump claims he has 'eradicated,' 'wiped out,' and even 'absolutely obliterated' ISIS, there is one group that has ignored the president's words: the terrorists themselves. According to recent estimates by the United Nations and the U.S. Defense Department's inspector general, the self-described Islamic State has between 20,000 and 31,100 fighters ― figures nearly identical to CIA estimates of the terror group's strength in 2014 when it was near its zenith. ...'Despite the damage to bureaucratic structures of the so-called 'caliphate,' the collective discipline of ISIL is intact,' according to a July 27 report commissioned by the U.N. Security Council."

[CN: Homophobia] Andy Towle at Towleroad: Trump SCOTUS Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Praises Scalia's Dissent on Marriage Equality Ruling. "Not that one needs much convincing that Trump's SCOTUS nominee would turn back the clock on marriage equality, but...a new video posted by Senate Democrats [shows Brett Kavanaugh praising] Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent on the Obergefell marriage equality ruling."

Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Half of Sick Americans Are Uninsured or Have Affordability Problems Despite Health Coverage. "Nearly one in two sick Americans cannot afford health care, even those with health insurance, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. ...'We still have an uninsured problem in the U.S., but we have a far broader health care affordability problem that hits sick people especially hard,' writes Kaiser Family Foundation Drew Altman in his Axios column published Monday. Indeed, nearly half of all people in poor or fair health — or 46.4 percent — are either uninsured or have affordability problems despite having health insurance. 'It's not surprising that people who are sicker and need more care would have more problems paying for it. But arguably an insurance system should work best for people who need it the most,' Altman added."

"The idea of an orbital missile shield keeps on resurfacing because people want it to work, not necessarily because it can work," Victoria Samson, a space expert with the Secure World Foundation in Colorado, said. https://t.co/tJ8M0wJWhg

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 20, 2018

Mark Hand at ThinkProgress: Zinke Caught Red-Handed Trying to Sell off Public Lands. "Environmental groups caught the Department of the Interior trying to sell off part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, despite a pledge by Secretary Ryan Zinke never to put public lands up for sale. After massive backlash from environmental groups and the public, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) late Friday canceled all plans to sell off the land. ...'We believe the Department only walked it back because those who are closely reading the management plans brought this to light,' Nicole Croft, executive director of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, said in a statement in response to the Interior Department changing its mind. Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners is a nonprofit group that works to protect the landscape and wildlife habitats the of the national monument." Huzzah!

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"Rising temperatures in the Arctic have slowed the circulation of the jet stream and other giant planetary winds, says the paper, which means high and low pressure fronts are getting stuck and weather is less able to moderate itself." https://t.co/NbdcsBcXWE

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 20, 2018

[CN: Police misconduct; self-harm] Breanna Edwards at the Root: Family, Protesters Demand Answers Following Death of 15-Year-Old Black Teen Who Police Say Killed Himself Following Foot Chase. "More than 100 people gathered in Chicago on Sunday evening to protest the death of Steven Rosenthal, a 15-year-old boy who police say shot himself in the stairwell of his West Side home, following a brief chase with officers. Police say that officers tried to question the teen after seeing him with the weapon just before 7 p.m. on Friday. The teen ran, officers gave chase, and a short time later, Rosenthal had sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the head, the Chicago Tribune reports. The medical examiner's office ruled the death a suicide. However, Rosenthal's family members are not so convinced, rejecting the notion that the teen would have killed himself, and blaming officers instead, whom they accused of shooting the teen." It's also possible, of course, that Rosenthal accidentally shot himself while trying to flee police chasing him through the stairwell.

Officials are defending closing almost all of the polling places in a majority black county in Georgia, saying the locations aren't compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ACLU and local residents think their justification is absurd https://t.co/sLR1K8sxlF

— Sam Levine (@srl) August 17, 2018

Remember that, in case Stacey Abrams loses her bid for the governorship of Georgia and people try to argue it's because she didn't pander sufficiently to straight white cis men.

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[CN: Sexual assault; rape culture. Covers entire section.]

Staff and agencies at the Guardian: Asia Argento Accused of Paying off Actor Who Says She Sexually Assaulted Him at Age 17. "One of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment recently settled a complaint filed against her by a young actor and musician who said she sexually assaulted him when he was 17, the New York Times reported. Asia Argento, 42, settled the notice of intent to sue filed by Jimmy Bennett, who is now 22, for $380,000 shortly after she said last October that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her, the Times reported. Argento and Bennett co-starred in a 2004 film The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, in which Argento played Bennett's mother. Bennett says in the notice that he [was assaulted by] Argento in a California hotel in 2013. The age of consent in California is 18."

Lisa Ryan at the Cut: The Asia Argento Assault Allegations Shouldn't Undermine #MeToo. "Since the story came out, some have insinuated that the accusation undermines the #MeToo movement. ...It's imperative that we do not let this be used as an excuse to derail the #MeToo cause. Asia Argento is both a survivor and perpetrator of sexual assault — but that doesn't mean her accusations against Weinstein should be dismissed. At the same time, Argento's advocacy also does not mean that she should not be held accountable for her actions. If anything, the new allegation shows the pervasiveness of sexual violence and the need for a comprehensive approach to addressing it."

Correct. That said, as I noted on Friday, it's probably a wise idea to elevate as movement leaders only people who have a long, demonstrated record of integrity. For a whole lot of reasons.

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