We Resist: Day 677

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, November 27, 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: Manafort Deal Collapses. Or So It Seems. and All They Did Was Look Across the Border and The Trump Economy Is Garbage for Working People. And ICYMI late yesterday: GM Announces Massive Layoffs, Production Reduction.

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

Anne Applebaum at the Washington Post: Russia's Latest Attack on the Ukrainians Is a Warning to the West. "Whatever the other motives for this staged attack, this kind of passivity may well be what the Russians are counting on. This is the modus operandi they have followed in the past: Take a few steps forward; wait for a reaction. If there isn't one, move farther. If there is one, wait for the emotions to die down — and then move farther. This incident may or may not end here, but consider it a warning: If we don't have a broader strategy for ending this war, that will be the pattern for years to come."


Emily Holden at the Guardian: Trump on Own Administration's Climate Report: 'I Don't Believe It'. "Donald Trump has told reporters he doesn't believe his own government's climate change findings that the U.S. economy will suffer substantially with continued warming from greenhouse gas pollution. 'I've seen it, I've read some of it, and it's fine,' he said outside the White House on Monday. 'I don't believe it.' The report, called the National Climate Assessment, was quietly released the day after Thanksgiving. ...The Trump administration also published another report on climate change on Friday, laying out that oil and gas produced from drilling on public land accounted for almost a quarter of carbon dioxide pollution in the U.S. between 2004 and 2015."


Luke Harding and Dan Collyns at the Guardian: Manafort Held Secret Talks with Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy, Sources Say. "Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015, and in spring 2016 — during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump's push for the White House. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers."

Kyla Mandel at ThinkProgress: Emails Reveal Cozy Relationship Between Fox & Friends and Pruitt's EPA. "The close relationship between the Fox News network and the Trump administration is no surprise, but new emails reveal the extent of the coordination between the two. Fox coordinated its interviews with former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt with the EPA's press team, according to the emails. As The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday, Pruitt's team would choose the interview topics, and Pruitt would know the questions in advance. In one instance, his team even approved part of Fox & Friends' script."

Brian Faler at Politico: House Republicans Unveil Giant Tax Package. "House Republicans on Monday evening unexpectedly released a 297-page tax bill they hope to move during the lame-duck session of Congress. The legislation would revive a number of expired tax provisions known as 'extenders,' address glitches in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and make a range of changes to savings- and retirement-related tax provisions. Other parts of the bill would revamp the IRS, provide new tax breaks for start-up businesses, and offer assistance to disaster victims. The measure amounts to House Republicans' opening bid in negotiations with the Senate. They'll need Democratic support there to move any changes, and it's unclear lawmakers will agree to any of the provisions before adjourning for the year."

Seems like the entire point was to retroactively not make Trump a liar, since he recently said that a tax bill was imminent. And of course by throwing in a disingenuous disaster relief provision, Republicans can accuse Democrats of not wanting to help disaster victims when they refuse to support the bill. Such assholes.

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[Content Note: Nativism. Covers entire section.]

Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza at the AP: Desert Detention Camp for Migrant Kids Still Growing. "The Trump administration announced in June it would open a temporary shelter for up to 360 migrant children in this isolated corner of the Texas desert. Less than six months later, the facility has expanded into a detention camp holding thousands of teenagers — and it shows every sign of becoming more permanent. By Monday, 2,349 largely Central American boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 17 were sleeping inside the highly guarded facility in rows of bunk beds in canvas tents, some of which once housed first responders to Hurricane Harvey. More than 1,300 teens have arrived since the end of October alone. ...More people are detained than Tornillo's tent city than in all but one of the nation's 204 federal prisons, yet construction here continues."

Quint Forgey at Politico: Contradicting Border Chief, Trump Claims 3 Officers 'Very Badly Hurt' by Migrants. "Donald Trump, back on the campaign trail for the first time since the midterm elections, made a slew of dubious statements Monday about Central American migrants at the southern border. Speaking with reporters in Mississippi, where he held two rallies for Republican Sen. Cindy-Hyde Smith, the president claimed that three border patrol officers 'were very badly hurt, getting hit with rocks and stones' Sunday during a melee with migrants attempting to enter the United States at a border crossing in San Diego. 'We've had some very violent people and frankly we don't want those people in our society,' Trump said, according to a pool report. 'We don't want those people in our country. We have tremendous violence.' Trump's account contradicted U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan."

Tina Vasquez at Rewire.News: Sanctuary Leader 'Kidnapped' by ICE at Immigration Appointment.
The day after Thanksgiving, federal immigration agents in plainclothes tackled a North Carolina man to the ground in front of his son before throwing him into the back of a waiting car.

Advocates are calling what happened to Samuel Oliver-Bruno — who is known as one of several sanctuary leaders across the country — "a kidnapping."

Bruno had been in sanctuary at CityWell United Methodist Church in Durham, North Carolina, for 11 months when he left the grounds of the church on Friday with a large group of supporters to attend what should have been a routine biometrics appointment at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in Morrisville, North Carolina.

Submitting biometrics is the next step in petitioning for deferred action, an immigration benefit that would have given Bruno a temporary reprieve from detention and deportation. He sought sanctuary last December after receiving an order for deportation.

...Following his arrest over the holiday weekend, advocates claim Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) worked with USCIS to lure Oliver-Bruno out of his sanctuary church to quickly detain and deport him. [Democratic U.S. Reps. David Price and G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina] also said it appeared as if ICE "acted in concert with officials at USCIS" in a joint statement condemning the federal agency's actions.

...UPDATE, November 27, 8:00 a.m.: On Monday night, U.S. Reps. Price and Butterfield announced that USCIS had denied Samuel Oliver-Bruno's appeal for deferred action and that ICE "intends to immediately move forward with [his] deportation to Mexico." The representatives have called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to reverse Oliver-Bruno's order of removal.
Rage seethe boil.

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[CN: Wildfire; gender essentialism] Andy Towle at Towleroad: New Video of Border Patrol Agent's 'Gender Reveal' Party Explosion That Caused 47,000 Acre Wildfire. "New video has emerged of an explosion that was part of a border patrol agent's 'gender reveal' party which sparked a 47,000 acre wildfire and cost $8 million to put out. Border Patrol Agent Dennis Dickey ignited the explosion to reveal the gender of his wife's baby and was fined $220,000. ...'The wildfire began when Dickey shot a target that contained Tannerite, an explosive substance designed to detonate when shot by a high-velocity firearm, U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Brent Robinson wrote in an affidavit filed Sept. 20 in U.S. District Court. The explosion was caught on film by a witness. Tannerite is a legal compound that has been linked to wildfires in several other Western states.'" JFC.

[CN: Homophobia] Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: Supreme Court Poised to Drastically Reverse LGBTQ Equality. "There are now six different cases implicating LGBTQ rights sitting before the Supreme Court. While the conservative-majority Court has not yet agreed to hear any of them, a circuit split between two of the cases and the fact that [Donald] Trump's transgender military ban is at the heart of another strongly suggest at least one of them will advance to oral arguments. The cases span a variety of different issues, including employment, education, military service, and public discrimination. At the heart at most of them is a question about whether discrimination against LGBTQ people counts as discrimination on the basis of 'sex.' If the Court rules against queer people in just one of them, it could set a precedent that hinders LGBTQ equality across all of the different issues."


And finally, in good news... Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: The New House Will Have an Unprecedented Number of Members Who Support Repealing Hyde.
By ThinkProgress' count, at least 183 House members support repealing the Hyde Amendment, a legislative provision that prohibits federal Medicaid dollars from covering abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment. Hyde is not permanent law but written and passed through congressional appropriations bills annually. Reproductive rights and justice advocates are cautiously optimistic 2019 is finally the year Congress doesn't attach the coverage restriction or other similar riders to an appropriation bill. The number of members backing repeal so far is a feat of its own.

Lawmakers will also have the opportunity to formally put an end to Hyde. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) told ThinkProgress she will re-introduce the EACH Woman Act for the second time next year; the legislation ensures that anyone who gets health care through the federal government will have coverage for abortion services and that legislators cannot interfere with what private insurance covers.
YES!

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