We Resist: Day 596

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, September 07, 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.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Kavanaugh Open Thread and Queen of Cassandras: Hillary Clinton and Mitch McConnell Is Unintentionally Honest.

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


In Wednesday's We Resist thread, I shared an item about an Emirates airplane being quarantined at JFK Airport after dozens of passengers became ill on the flight. Two additional flights were quarantined after arriving in Philadelphia:
All passengers were later released after being checked by health officials, CBP said in a statement. None were taken to hospitals.

The passengers reported sore throat, cough and none were identified with fever, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Benjamin Haynes. CDC officers, working with local responders, checked the travelers for influenza and other respiratory illnesses.

"None of the passengers are severely ill, and they will be released and informed of test results in 24 hours," Haynes said in a statement. "Passengers from the two flights who were not ill continued with their travel plans."

Some 250 people in both planes were "held for a medical review," as a precaution, according to a statement from Philadelphia International Airport.

Officials on Wednesday quarantined more than 500 passengers and crew on Emirates Airlines 203 flight that landed at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport. At least 19 passengers from that flight were confirmed as sick, with symptoms including fever, coughs, and vomiting. Tests confirmed influenza among some of those travelers.

In both the Kennedy Airport and Philadelphia cases, passengers had recently traveled to Mecca for the hajj.
So, although it sounds scary, it's likely just a fairly routine contagion from lots of human beings in close quarters: "Outbreaks of flu and respiratory illness are common among the millions who gather for hajj."

In more alarming news...


I'll note that, without knowing the exact location, these bombers could have been investigating the Canadian coast.

* * *

Lachlan Markay, Asawin Suebsaeng, Spencer Ackerman, and Erin Banco at the Daily Beast: 'We See Ourselves as Rebels': Trump's Internal Resistance [Sic] Celebrates. "'If there are senior people in leadership positions and these are their observations and feelings, then their efforts can't just stop at the op-ed or move to mitigate the president here and there. They need to take steps that are more bold,' said a State Department official who was not cleared to talk to journalists. 'Publicly resign, en masse.' Without mass resignations, the official considered the op-ed little more than reputational insurance. 'Folks have been looking to pay premiums on that policy for a while now. Anyone from the outside can see how dysfunctional it is, and you're complicit' as a political appointee, the official continued." Yup.

Also: As long as they stay working within the administration, every single horrible thing that Trump does now gets filtered through the prism of questioning whether it was one of the things they support, or one of the things they supposedly tried to stop but failed. Are they really unable to stop Trump's ongoing and escalating war on the press, for example, or are they actually okay with it?

Aaron Blake at the Washington Post: Trump Crosses a New Threshold for Anti-Media Rhetoric, Jokingly Praising a Congressman for Assaulting a Reporter. "Trump on Thursday night ratcheted up his not-so-veiled attacks on the media, making light of an assault perpetrated by a Republican member of Congress on a journalist and suggesting it was done on behalf of his state. At a rally in Billings, Mont., Trump ran through the state's GOP elected officials before landing upon Rep. Greg Gianforte. 'I'll tell you what: This man has fought — in more ways than one — for your state. He has fought for your state,' Trump said. 'Greg Gianforte. He is a fighter and a winner.' It's possible the White House will try to offer an alternate explanation for Trump's comments. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for instance, has repeatedly said Trump never 'promoted or encouraged violence' — despite clear, objective evidence to the contrary."

Also from the same rally:


The serious part of the dais jokester, however, is this: Selection of who gets seated behind the candidate is generally a problematic tradition, but it's typically justified with securing safety for the candidate, to which there's obviously some truth. And it's troubling that the Trump Regime clearly isn't doing good vetting of people who will be that close to the president.

The country would explode if something happened to Trump live during a rally. And his security team appears to be failing to adequately prevent that.

Which should make all of us wonder: Are the security staff part of the "White House Resistance" and deliberately letting things slide? How can we even know the answer to that question, even if we're reassured it isn't the case? After all, the anonymous official disclosed they are willing to lie to "protect the country," and we're supposed to just trust them that whatever that means to them will mean the same thing to us.

I hope you're beginning to see, if you didn't already, the many problems with the "White House Resistance."

Again: It's a fucking coup.

* * *

Nicole Lafond at TPM: Papadopoulos Sentencing Coming Friday After Weeks of Waffling over Plea Deal. "George Papadopoulos, a former [Donald] Trump campaign adviser, will be sentenced for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia on Friday, after pleading guilty to the charge nearly a year ago. The sentencing will be significant for special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia interference in the 2016 election, as Papadopoulos was the first person associated with Trump to agree to cooperate with the investigation, a move he recently was reconsidering."

[Content Note: White privilege] Jason Johnson at the Root: With Great Power Comes...Less Responsibility? How New DNC Rules Hurt a New Generation of Black Officials. "I'm sure Bernie Sanders and his supporters, some of whom are African American, don't see the weakening of superdelegates as check on black power. I'm sure they think these new rules make the Democratic primary fairer and — by extension — more democratic. But that's usually how race and power work. It's not about intentions. It's about consequences. And as a consequence of these rules, intended or not, black elected officials will have less say in 2020 than at any point in party history."


I'm sorry, are we supposed to judge negatively a person who demonstrates patriotism as a bid for the presidency, especially in this particular moment? Oh.

* * *

[CN: Police violence; death; racism; video may autoplay at link] Erik Ortiz and Jareen Imam at NBC News: Dallas Officer Enters Apartment She Mistakes for Her Own, Fatally Shoots Man Inside. "A Dallas man was killed late Thursday when a police officer returning home from her shift entered the wrong apartment in her building and eventually opened fire, authorities said. Details surrounding the death of Botham Shem Jean, a 26-year-old native of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, were not immediately available early Friday. His mother, Allie Jean, said in a phone interview that his family was stunned to learn of his death. 'He did no one any wrong,' she said. Dallas police in a statement said that preliminary information suggests the officer involved called for help, and told responding officers that 'she entered the victim's apartment believing that it was her own.'"

[CN: Police violence; misogynoir; child abuse] Casey Quinlan at ThinkProgress: Ohio Cop Faces Pre-Disciplinary Hearing After Tasering 11-Year-Old Girl at Grocery Store. "A Cincinnati police officer who used a Taser on an 11-year-old Black girl at a grocery store last month was placed on restricted duty and will face a pre-disciplinary hearing. Although the Cincinnati Police Department says officers are allowed to use a Taser on children over the age of 7 and adults under the age of 70, an internal review found that Officer Kevin Brown violated the department's use of force policy in using the Taser. ...The officer was doing off-duty security work at a Kroger's grocery store when he spotted the girl, Donesha Gowdy, attempting to leave with her friends. The officer said that he asked her to stop and she ignored him. Gowdy told NBC News that she was not 'aggressive' to the officer and did not try to fight him. Again, she is 11 years old."

[CN: Guns; racism; images of weapons at link] Kate Way at Mother Jones: A Firsthand Look at Teachers Training to Pack Heat. "So far, the majority of school districts that have said they are arming teachers have been in largely rural, mostly white communities. Yet schools serving low-income, black and brown students may feel the weight of misguided responses to school shootings. Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, concerns about school safety have often been met with an increase in police presence, metal detectors, and surveillance cameras, particularly in urban schools. The disproportionate effect of these security measures on students of color has been well documented. So far, the Trump administration's approach to mass school shootings would continue this trend."

[CN: Rape culture]


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

Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.

blog comments powered by Disqus