We Resist: Day 627

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, October 08, 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: Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day and How to Not Forget and So It Turns out That Trump Server Communicating with Russia Was a Big Deal After All (No Kidding).

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

[Content Note: Rape culture. Covers entire section.]

While many of us are resolving to not forget the fuckery that went down during the Kavanaugh confirmation, the fuckers responsible for it aren't letting anyone forget even if we wanted to.


Meanwhile, as these wrecks of humanity toast Kavanaugh's confirmation to the nation's highest court while simultaneously still whining that his life has been "shattered," Christine Blasey Ford still can't even go home, because she's still being threatened.

Kate Riga at TPM: Blasey Ford Lawyers: She's 'Horrified' at Trump's Mockery, Receiving 'Unending' Threats. "Lawyers for professor Christine Blasey Ford gave some insight into how their client has fared in the days since her harrowing testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that she is 'horrified' at the jokes [Donald] Trump has made at her expense and that she and her family have not yet been able to move home due to 'unending threats.' 'Her family has been through a lot,' attorney Debra Katz told MSNBC's Kasie Hunt. 'They are not living at home. It's going to be quite some time before they're able to live at home. The threats have been unending. It's deplorable. It's been very frightening.'"

And Trump continues to pour gas on the flames, calling the allegations against Kavanaugh a Democratic hoax: "Trump once again reiterated his support for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Monday, while railing against alleged discussions about impeaching the recently confirmed nominee. 'Now they're thinking about impeaching a brilliant jurist, a man that did nothing wrong, a man that was caught up in a hoax that was set up by the Democrats,' Trump told reporters. He later called the alleged impeachment movement 'an insult to the American people,' and claimed that the 'dishonesty' and 'charade' from the Democrats would hurt them in the midterm elections. 'It was all made up, it was fabricated, and it's a disgrace,' Trump concluded. 'And I think it's really gonna show you something come November 6th.'"

That the Democrats overreached in trying to prevent Kavanaugh's confirmation is a major Republican talking point ahead of the midterms. McConnell and Trump have been pushing this shit constantly.


See also:

Stephanie Griffith at Think Progress: Trump Says His Attacks on Christine Blasey Ford Helped Get Kavanaugh Confirmed.

Ed Pilkington at the Guardian: Republicans Say Bitter Kavanaugh Fight Energizing Base as Collins Defends Vote.

Chas Danner at NYMag: McConnell Says Kavanaugh Outrage Will 'Blow Over' — and GOP Takeover of Courts Will Continue.

From Danner's piece:
"Harassing members at their homes, crowding the halls with people acting horribly, the effort to humiliate us really helped me unify my conference," McConnell told the New York Times. "So I want to thank these clowns for all the help they provided."
So, that's just the Senate Republican leader calling protesting survivors and our allies "clowns" in the midst of an argument that our resistance is unifying conservatives behind Trump, which sure doesn't make a whole lot of sense, given that Kavanaugh is aggressively unpopular, even among Republicans.

This nonsensical talking point is, I fear, what they are planning to use to explain an otherwise unexplainable midterm win.

We know already that our elections are indubitably unfair: Gerrymandering, voter suppression, felon disenfranchisement, voter ID laws, dark money, corrupt media, unreliable voting machines, social media meddling, and so on.

The only question is whether there will be straight-up interference on election day, from foreign or domestic parties. And it seems incredibly unlikely that there wouldn't be, given that our president and his governing party have shown zero interest in holding accountable anyone who interferes to their benefit.

I am going to vote. I really hope it matters, and fear that it won't.

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[CN: Climate change] Coral Davenport at the New York Times: Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040. "A landmark report from the United Nations' scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has 'no documented historic precedent.' The report, issued on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, describes a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 — a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population."


Jane Perlez at the New York Times: Mike Pompeo and His Chinese Counterpart Trade Harsh Words.
In unusually blunt language to an American secretary of state, China's foreign minister accused the United States on Monday of interfering in its internal affairs and of harming his nation's interests on the question of Taiwan.

In a face-to-face exchange with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the foreign minister, Wang Yi, chided the Trump administration for "ceaselessly elevating" trade tensions and "casting a shadow" over relations between the two countries.

Mr. Pompeo, who sat across the table from Mr. Wang at the start of talks in Beijing, said in a tart response that the United States had a "fundamental disagreement" on the issues that China raised.

The sharp tit-for-tat stripped away the customary veneer of diplomatic niceties during public remarks. It came days after Washington laid down a tough new China policy announced by Vice President Mike Pence, who declared in a speech that the United States would "not stand down."
[CN: Police brutality; shooting; racism; death]


[CN: Sexual violence; murder] Luke Barnes at ThinkProgress: Bulgarian Investigative Journalist Viktoria Marinova Found Brutally Murdered in Ruse. "A popular Bulgarian journalist, who reported on alleged corruption involving European Union funds, has been brutally raped and murdered in the town of Ruse, on the border with Romania. The body of Viktoria Marinova, 30, was discovered in a park next to the River Danube on Saturday. According to the European Federation of Journalists Marinova had been beaten and strangled, and the attack was so vicious that she wasn't able to be identified until Sunday night." My god. My condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues. Fucking hell.

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