We Resist: Day 586

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 Fannie: No, You Don't Have to "Tolerate" Nazi "Free Speech". And by me: Today in Rape Culture and A Point of Clarification.

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

Let's start out with some GOOD news, shall we?

[Content Note: Homophobia] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire.News: Appeals Court: Fair Housing Act Protects Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination. "A federal appeals court on Monday ruled a suburban Chicago senior living center could be held liable under federal fair housing law for failing to protect a resident from anti-gay slurs and other harassment targeting her sexual orientation. ...'Not only does it create liability when a landlord intentionally discriminates against a tenant based on a protected characteristic; it also creates liability against a landlord that has actual notice of tenant‐on‐tenant harassment based on a protected status, yet chooses not to take any reasonable steps within its control to stop that harassment,' the court ruled." GOOD.

Reuters wire at the Guardian: North Carolina Gerrymandered Districts to Benefit Republicans, Court Rules. "A federal court has ruled that North Carolina Republicans illegally drew up U.S. congressional districts in the state to benefit their party, suggesting that new lines should be crafted before November's midterm election. The three-judge panel for the U.S. district court for the middle district of North Carolina said in a 321-page opinion that Republican legislators responsible for the map conducted unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering to dilute the impact of Democratic votes. 'That is precisely what the Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly sought to do here,' the opinion, published on Monday, said. The panel gave parties until Thursday to file their recommendations to fix the problem."

Unfortunately, I don't think this is going to get resolved by the midterms, and Donald Trump is busily stacking the courts as fast as he can so that he and his party don't get rulings like this one which limit their power, but for now this is good news, and I am going to take it.

[CN: Guns; domestic violence] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: California Passes Trio of Gun Control Bills, Including Lifetime Ban on Domestic Violence Convicts. "The Democratic-controlled legislature sent the domestic violence bill, as well as two other measures — a lifetime ban on people placed on involuntary psychiatric holds twice in one year and new standard for residents to obtain a concealed weapon permit (eight hours of training and pass a live-fire shooting test) — to Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) desk for consideration. 'We must do more to ensure the safety of our survivors of domestic violence,' said Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio (D) on Monday, of the bill that extends the current 10-year ban."

This is particularly timely, given the shooting in Florida over the weekend, the perpetrator of which has a history of both profound mental illness and domstic violence:

"A decade before the shooting Sunday, a psychologist was asked in court if he believed David Katz could turn violent. 'There is the potential that David could lash out & become so angry that he would hit & hurt his mother,' Dr. Paul Berman told the court." https://t.co/qP0NQiG7cZ

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 28, 2018

He did eventually threaten his mother with a weapon, as well as punch a hole through her bedroom door. These are the events we know about because of 911 calls. There may have been (and likely were) additional incidents.

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Russia will next month hold its biggest war games since at least the 1980s, with around 300,000 troops and 1,000 aircraft, the defence minister says https://t.co/wVxZq02xiF

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 28, 2018

Meanwhile... Kimberly Dozier at the Daily Beast: Mattis Warns U.S. Drills May Restart without Progress on North Korea. "Trump's Pentagon chief raised the specter of restarting military drills with South Korea if there's no progress on North Korean denuclearization talks. "They've never been turned off,' Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said of future drills, in a rare press briefing Tuesday. 'We turned off several to make a good faith effort. We are going to see how the negotiations go and then we'll calculate...how we go forward. I don't have a crystal ball.' The Pentagon called off planned summer military exercises which [Donald] Trump has called 'provocative,' as part of a pledge in the Singapore summit with North Korea. But the negotiations have become mired in tit-for-tat demands, and Trump abruptly canceled this week's planned meetings with Pyongyang."

Everything is fine. (Everything is not fine.)

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Ashley Parker at the Washington Post: President Non Grata: Trump Often Unwelcome and Unwilling to Perform Basic Rituals of the Office.

Less than two years into his first term, Trump has often come to occupy the role of pariah — both unwelcome and unwilling to perform the basic rituals and ceremonies of the presidency, from public displays of mourning to cultural ceremonies.

In addition to being pointedly not invited to McCain's funeral and memorial service later this week — where former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush will both eulogize the Arizona Republican — Trump was quietly asked to stay away from former first lady Barbara Bush's funeral earlier this year. He also opted to skip the annual Kennedy Center Honors last year amid a political backlash from some of the honorees and has faced repeated public rebuffs from athletes invited to the White House after winning championships.

"We're not talking about a president going and having a rally in a state that voted against him," said Tim Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University who previously served as the director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. "We're talking about a president who can't even go and participate in a ritual where presidents are usually welcomed, and that is one of the consequences of his having defined the presidency in a sectarian way."

And one of the future consequences of Trump being disinterested in the traditions of the presidency and disinvited from many state functions is that any future president who can put on black tie and manage to get through the evening without mocking a disabled person or grabbing a woman's genitals is going to look "presidential" by comparison, even if he is a rank authoritarian.

Which brings us to... Andy Towle at Towleroad: Trump Biographer: Mike Pence Believes God Has Positioned Him as 'President-in-Waiting'. "Trump's biographer Michael D'Antonio sat down with John Berman on CNN's New Day for a conversation that revolved mostly around Mike Pence, or the 'shadow president' as D'Antonio calls him in the title of his new book. D'Antonio explained how Pence has quietly been building an infrastructure to ascend to the Oval Office... Said D'Antonio: 'Everything that Mike Pence does is oriented toward him becoming president… He thought that God was calling him to now be vice president and function as a president-in-waiting… So we see Donald Trump in this huge crisis, this rolling chaos, and I think with everyday, Mike Pence imagines he's one day closer to the Oval Office.'"

Related Reading: On Mike Pence's Destructive Ambition.

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Graham on replacing AG Jeff Sessions: “You have to replace him with somebody who is highly qualified and will commit to the Senate to let Mueller do his job.”

— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) August 28, 2018

JFC, Lindsey Graham. You are such a goddamned ghoul.

Claiming that the Clinton email "scandal" was a major crime is just a step up from Pizzagate. Nobody should ever take Graham seriously again (except as a threat to the republic) https://t.co/xIEhbjDlz3

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) August 28, 2018

GHOUL.

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[CN: Climate change. Covers entire section.]

E.A. Crunden at ThinkProgress: Facing Rising Temperatures and Pollution, Farmworkers Are Being Left Behind by Florida Lawmakers. "For decades, farmworkers in the Sunshine State have waged war — against pollution and pesticides, against hardline immigration laws, against low wages. Now, amid warming temperatures and shifting weather patterns, they are increasingly turning their attention to climate change. And they plan to address the issue with or without the willing cooperation of lawmakers. ...Farmworkers have long been among the most vulnerable people in the United States, largely cut out of labor protections and provided few rights under the law. Most are Black and Latinx, many are immigrants, and virtually all are low-income. Their vulnerable status has often seen them left out of conversations surrounding issues like climate change."

Nearly 68,000,000 are under heat advisories this week from Virginia to New England. https://t.co/QH5hEUDQCn

— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 28, 2018

Carla Green at the Guardian: 'Apocalyptic Threat': Dire Climate Report Raises Fears for California's Future. "California's summer of deadly wildfires and dangerous heatwaves will soon be the new normal if nothing is done to stop climate change, a report released on Monday warns. City heatwaves could lead to two to three times as many deaths by 2050, the report says. By 2100, without a reduction in emissions, the state could see a 77% increase in the average area burned by wildfires. ...The effects of those extreme heat days will probably weigh most heavily on the state's most vulnerable residents, including the more than 100,000 people who are homeless in California, many of whom live on the streets without reliable access to fans, air conditioners, or running water."

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