We Resist: Day 658

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: Mass Shooting in Thousand Oaks, California and The White House Attack on Jim Acosta Is Vile and Matthew Whitaker, Sessions' Replacement, Is Awful.

We'll start today with some election news, as some races are finally getting called or are still unresolved...

Kira Lerner at ThinkProgress: Stacey Abrams Vows to Fight On as Tens of Thousands of Ballots Are Still Uncounted in Georgia. "Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams vowed on Wednesday to fight on, demanding that all provisional and mail-in ballots in Georgia's Democratic strongholds be counted before the race is called. Republican Brian Kemp, meanwhile, declared victory during a press conference Thursday and announced he'd be resigning from his position as secretary of state. 'We know our opponent has had the secretary of state's office declare he is the winner,' Abrams' campaign said on a press call Wednesday night. 'We are here to say we don't accept that.'"

Steve Bousquet at the Tampa Bay Times: Recounts Loom Larger, Legal Action Begins as Margins Tighten in Key Florida Races. "As the Senate race between Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Bill Nelson appears headed to a statewide recount, both candidates are mobilizing teams of lawyers and legal skirmishes are well underway. Thursday dawned with Scott leading Nelson by just more than one-fourth of a percentage point. The candidates for agriculture commissioner are much closer, divided by 0.06 points, and in the contest for governor, Ron DeSantis' advantage of 0.52 over Andrew Gillum was close to the threshold for a mandatory machine recount."

⚠️ If you voted with a provisional ballot, you need to make sure your vote is counted. Contact your Supervisor of Elections office immediately before the 5 PM deadline. If you have questions, call our Voter Protection Hotline: (833) 868-3352 ☎️ https://t.co/tpd7dtEjiw

— Florida Democrats (@FlaDems) November 8, 2018

Adam Peck at ThinkProgress: Democrats Pick Up Another House Seat in the Georgia District That Once Belonged to Newt Gingrich. "Late Wednesday night, Rep. Karen Handel (R-GA) issued a statement conceding her reelection bid to upstart Democratic challenger Lucy McBath in Georgia's 6th congressional district, one of the most reliably Republican districts in the country. ...The seat will now be filled by Lucy McBath, the mother of 17-year-old Jordan Davis who, in 2012, was shot and murdered by a white man who complained Davis was playing his music too loudly. McBath made gun control a central pillar of her campaign, and was one of the handful of mothers who lost sons to gun violence to campaign across the country for Hillary Clinton in 2016." Blub. Congratulations, Lucy McBath!

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Jessica Boehm at the Arizona Republic: With Arizona Senate Seat at Stake, Republicans Sue County Recorders. "With the U.S. Senate seat hanging in the balance, the Yuma, Navajo, Apache and Maricopa County Republican parties filed a lawsuit against all Arizona county recorders and the Secretary of State late Wednesday. ...The Republican groups are challenging the way counties verify signatures on mail-in ballots that are dropped off at the polls on Election Day, according to the complaint obtained by The Arizona Republic. At stake is an unknown number of ballots that could tip the result of the U.S. Senate race. Just 17,000 votes separated Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema as of Wednesday evening, a cliffhanger that could take days, if not weeks, to call."

Michael Finnegan at the LA Times: Down Two, California Republicans Could Lose up to Four More House Seats. "California Republicans lost two House seats in Tuesday's midterm election and could surrender more as tens of thousands of ballots are counted in four other contests that remain too close to call. The party has an exceedingly small chance of holding the seats of Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Jeff Denham, historical voting patterns suggest. Two other Republicans, Rep. Mimi Walters and Young Kim of Fullerton, hold thin leads over their opponents that could also vanish."

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[Content Note: Bigotry; abuse] Goldie Taylor at the Daily Beast: Dear White Lady, What Are You Doing to Us?

I really want to understand how you — or, anyways, so many women like you — chose a man like Donald Trump over a vastly more qualified Hillary Clinton. I want to know if you honestly thought he had the moral compass, not to mention the mental wherewithal, to be president of these United States. There may be a good number of reasons that you're just flat out tired of the Clinton name. However, I can guarantee you that she wouldn't have left people to suffer in Puerto Rico. The City of Flint would have gotten the federal funding it needs to completely overhaul its water systems. We certainly would not be the laughingstock of leaders from around the globe. No one would have been snickering during her address to the United Nations.

...Surely, you heard the way he talked about women on that Access Hollywood tape? You weren't convinced when he called undocumented immigrants 'rapists' and 'murderers'? Or when he said in a nationally televised interview that women who seek reproductive healthcare to end an unwanted pregnancy should be punished? Seriously, I think he meant jail. According to a Pew public opinion poll, 40 percent of Republican women are pro-choice. Overall, more than half of all women believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But, y'all still voted for this guy.

...Did you not hear the fight in Stacey Abrams' voice? Did you not hear her when she dropped all the ideological talking points and crafted a plan for her state that prioritizes an investment in families? Did you not hear her when she said Republicans are actively declining $8 million a day in federal dollars because they refuse to expand Medicaid?

...I sincerely hope that one day I will be able to count on you as an ally, to call you — without hesitation — my sister.

This is a very good piece by Goldie. I don't pretend to know the minds of white women who vote Republican, and I don't know what on earth will reach them, but I desperately hope that they accept this plaintive but firm invitation.

Surely setting high expectations for conservative white women and inviting them to meet those expectations is a better strategy than calling all white women trash, without exception or caveat, of which I have seen far too much lately, especially from progressive white women.

That, by the way, is not a suggestion to take it easy on conservative white women — they're doing immense harm. It's an observation that there is a space between giving them a pass and dismissing them all out of hand, and, in my estimation, Goldie blazed a good path in the middle ground here, holding conservative white women accountable while also communicating that they could, and should, do better.

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Eileen Sullivan and Adam Liptak at the New York Times: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospitalized with 3 Broken Ribs. "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court was hospitalized on Thursday morning, with three broken ribs after falling in her office Wednesday evening, a spokeswoman said. Justice Ginsburg, 85, went home after her fall, but experienced discomfort over the night. She was admitted to George Washington University Hospital, where doctors found three broken ribs on her left side, Kathy Arberg, a Supreme Court spokeswoman, said in a statement. The next sitting of the Supreme Court begins on Nov. 26, and Justice Ginsburg's history suggests the injuries are not likely to keep her away. She broke two ribs in 2012, without missing work." Get well soon, RBG!

Josh Rogin at the Washington Post: Democrats Prepare to Investigate All Aspects of Trump's Foreign Policy. "For two years the Trump administration has largely ignored attempts by congressional Democrats to oversee — much less investigate — the execution of U.S. foreign policy by the executive branch. But the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), told me his committee will waste no time before beginning inquiries into how the White House, the State Department and even the Trump Organization have been conducting foreign policy. 'The White House needs to take us seriously, and if they don't, we are going to make sure they take us seriously,' Engel said in an interview Wednesday. 'I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. …But if not, I intend to use every prerogative that I have to ensure oversight.'"

[CN: White supremacy] Elliot Hannon at Slate: White Nationalist Leader Posts Pictures of Casual White House Visit a Day After Midterms. "A day after the midterms, the stakes of the Trump presidency were again on display Wednesday, as Patrick Casey, the leader of the white nationalist neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa visited the White House. Casey posted pictures on Twitter of the South Lawn of the White House along with the caption 'Evropa has landed at the White House!' It's unclear the nature and extent of the visit, but the area Casey is accessing is pretty clearly outside the bounds of what would be a normal White House tour. For access to the working parts of the White House, visitors must be accompanied by a staff member. Casey posed for photographs outside the South Portico of the White House and in front of the Oval Office from South Lawn Road."

[CN: Racist apologia] Gideon Resnick at the Daily Beast: Bernie Sanders on Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams: Many Whites 'Uncomfortable' Voting for Black Candidates. "'I think you know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American,' Sanders told The Daily Beast, referencing the close contests involving Andrew Gillum in Florida and Stacey Abrams in Georgia and that ads run against the two. 'I think next time around, by the way, it will be a lot easier for them to do that.'"

[CN: Threats; rape culture] Tim Mak at NPR: Kavanaugh Accuser Christine Blasey Ford Continues Receiving Threats, Lawyers Say. "Christine Blasey Ford is still being harassed after leveling sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, her lawyers say. 'Justice Kavanaugh ascended to the Supreme Court, but the threats to Dr. Ford continue,' said Ford's lawyers, Debra Katz, Lisa Banks, and Michael Bromwich, in a statement to NPR. ...She's had to move four times, she wrote last month. She has had to pay for a private security detail. She hasn't been able to return to her job as a professor at Palo Alto University. A spokeswoman for the school did not respond to a question about whether there was a timeline for Ford to return."

Josh Kovensky at TPM: Ex-Manafort Son-in-Law Allegedly Bragged About Aiding Mueller Probe as Part of Scam. "Paul Manafort's former son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai boasted about having 'turned state's evidence' on his ex-father-in-law in order to to swindle investors into a real estate scam, according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint. ...Yohai's bragging about his nonexistent ties to the Mueller probe — though false — allegedly earned him a brief payday. The investor agreed to go into business with Yohai, and claimed to have lost $200,000 from the venture."

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[CN: War; violence] Bethan McKernan and Patrick Wintour at the Guardian: 'The Violence Is Unbearable': Medics in Yemen Plead for Help.

Aid agencies and medical staff on the ground in Hodeidah have begged the international community to intervene to stop the violence in the besieged Yemeni city as coalition and Houthi rebel forces struggle to gain the upper hand ahead of a planned ceasefire at the end of the month.

"The violence is unbearable, I cannot tell you. We're surrounded by strikes from the air, sea, and land," said Wafa Abdullah Saleh, a nurse at the barely functioning al-Olafi hospital in the Houthi-controlled city centre.

"The hospital treats the hungry and people injured in airstrikes day in and day out, but there is a serious shortage of medicine," she said. "Even if we try our hardest we cannot treat patients because we lack the necessities for basic operations."

...In a joint statement on Thursday, several international aid agencies condemned the intense new violence in Hodeidah, calling it a "deeply disturbing development," and calling on all parties to the conflict to cease the fighting and engage with the UN-sponsored peace process.

A new round of peace talks to end the war — which has killed an estimated 56,000 people and left 14 million on the brink of starvation — are scheduled for early December in Sweden.

At the UN, diplomats were working frantically to get agreement on a draft resolution by next Friday that would demand a ceasefire and the free flow of humanitarian aid. But there is concern that the U.S. is demanding the draft include passages criticising Iran's role in Yemen that might be sufficient to prompt a Russian veto.

Fucking hell. The Democrats' scrutiny of Trump's foreign policy cannot come soon enough. Literally.

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