We Resist: Day 687

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: Trump Goes on Another Twitter Rampage About Mueller and Trump Says He Intends to Nominate Bill Barr as AG and Mueller's Sentencing Memos on Manafort and Cohen Scheduled to Be Issued Today.

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

Let's start with some good resistance news! Molly Hensley-Clancy at BuzzFeed: Democrats Have Officially Gained 40 Seats in the House of Representatives. "Democrats have now won a California House race that was called, erroneously, for the Republican incumbent on election night, giving the party a net gain of 40 seats in the House of Representatives. The delayed victory in California's 21st District is likely the final win for Democrats in the November midterms. It ties up a string of wins that has transformed what looked like a modest House victory on election night — some called it a 'blue trickle,' rather than the predicted 'blue wave' — into a Democratic rout, the party's strongest performance in a midterm in decades." Woot!

Speaking of a strong Democratic performance in the midterms... Alex Roarty at McClatchy: This Is the All-Female Number-Crunching Team That Delivered the House to Dems.

At every step of the 2018 election, House Democrats at the DCCC relied heavily on a data and analytics team that guided the committee through two years of tumultuous politics and an ever-fluctuating path back to the majority.

The results speak for themselves: Democrats gained 40 House seats, a gargantuan total for a party once hoping to simply eke out 23 seats necessary for a majority. They were the party's largest House gains in a single campaign since 1974.

DCCC officials were also delighted that, in an election where the party earned overwhelming support for women and benefited from a surge of female candidates, the team analyzing the numbers behind-the-scenes was also led by three women: Rosa Mendoza, who ran the analytics team at the group's independent expenditure operation; Amber Carrier, the group's director of polling and modeling; and Claire Low, the DCCC's targeting and analytics director.

Fuck yeah!

And, for a final trifecta of good Democratic news... Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer at the Washington Post: No Deal on Infrastructure Without Addressing Climate Change. "No doubt, a single infrastructure bill alone will not solve our climate problem. But it is an important and necessary first step to include at least some, if not many, of these ideas. Without them, Trump should not count on Democratic support in the Senate." GOOD. Now stick to it, Schumer! And don't budge an inch on infrastructure proposals that are privatization schemes, either.

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Sabrina Siddiqui at the Guardian: Trump to Name Former Fox Anchor Heather Nauert as Next United Nations Ambassador. "Donald Trump has decided to name the state department spokeswoman and former Fox News anchor Heather Nauert as the ambassador to the United Nations, a source familiar with his decision told Reuters. Trump will send a tweet on Friday morning about choosing Nauert to replace the outgoing UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, who announced her resignation in October, Fox News reported, citing multiple sources. ...Nauert, whose nomination would require Senate confirmation, is a former Fox News Channel correspondent and anchor. She does not have prior political or policy-making experience."

[Content Note: Disablist language] Aaron Blake at the Washington Post: Rex Tillerson on Trump: 'Undisciplined, Doesn't Like to Read,' and Tries to Do Illegal Things. "The fired secretary of state, who while in office reportedly called Trump a 'moron' (and declined to deny it), expounded on his thoughts on the president in a rare interview with CBS News's Bob Schieffer in Houston. ...'What was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented Exxon Mobil corporation,' Tillerson said, was 'to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn't like to read, doesn't read briefing reports, doesn't like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, 'This is what I believe.'' ...'So often, the president would say, 'Here's what I want to do, and here's how I want to do it,' and I would have to say to him, 'Mr. President, I understand what you want to do, but you can't do it that way. It violates the law,'' Tillerson said, according to the Houston Chronicle." And yet Tillerson didn't leave the administration until he was fired.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Deanna Hackney at CNN: George Papadopoulos Released from Prison. "Ex-Donald Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos was released from prison Friday morning after serving 12 days for lying to investigators about his contact with individuals tied to Russia during the 2016 campaign. ...As part of his sentence, Papadopoulos will now have 12 months of supervised release, must serve 200 hours of community service within about one year, and must pay a $9,500 fine." So, if you want to commit treason, just make sure you have $10,000 and 12 days to spare.

“I don't think I've ever seen a situation where illegal coordination seems more obvious," said former FEC chair Ann Ravel. "It is so blatant it doesn't even seem sloppy. Everyone involved probably just thinks there aren't going to be any consequences.” https://t.co/Cdgh9xWz0v

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 7, 2018

We know the NRA was infiltrated by the Russian government and that the FBI is investigating whether any Russian money went to the NRA. With this report, it raises the possibility that Russia funded the Trump campaign.

— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) December 6, 2018

Allegra Kirkland at TPM: 'Contagion': After Midterms, GOP Steps Up National Effort to Limit Voting Rights.

In the aftermath of the elections, Republican lawmakers across the country — and they are nearly all Republican — have moved to undermine those voter-approved ballot measures, or to impose new restrictions on the franchise.

The boldest version of this has played out in Wisconsin, where the GOP-controlled legislature followed the example North Carolina set in 2016 and used the lame duck legislative session to grant themselves additional powers at the expense of the new incoming Democratic governor and pass a grab-bag of policy priorities. One is a two-week limit on early voting.

Similar machinations are underway in Michigan, where the Republican-held legislature is using the lame-duck session to fiddle with two voter-approved constitutional amendments to expand voting access and prevent partisan gerrymandering.

In Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina, measures are being floated to the press, grinding their way through the legislature, or being mishandled in ways that would restrict access to the ballot or otherwise make voting more difficult.

Not coincidentally, these large, populous, varying-degrees-of-purple states will be essential in determining the outcome of the 2020 elections.

[CN: Threat of violence] Claudia Koerner at BuzzFeed: CNN's New York Office Was Forced to Evacuate After Receiving Another Bomb Threat. "CNN employees were forced to evacuate the news network's New York offices Thursday night after receiving a bomb threat. ...The building was reopened within an hour after the NYPD's strategic response group and emergency service unit deemed it safe, police said. The threat interrupted live programming, and it came one minute before [Donald] Trump tweeted about 'fake news' — an insult he often throws at CNN. 'FAKE NEWS — THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!' the president tweeted at 10:08 p.m."

[CN: Gun violence] Luke O'Neil at the Guardian: Trump's 'Fake News' Tweet Prompts Journalist's Tribute to Murdered Colleague. "Wendi Winters was 65 years old. She was a veteran editor and reporter with four children and quick with a sarcastic quip. On 28 June of this year, she was shot dead along with four others in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette in Maryland by a man with a grudge against the paper. Winters, who wrote a column called 'Teen of the Week,' was remembered in a moving thread on Twitter today by one of her colleagues at the paper, photojournalist Joshua McKerrow. ...McKerrow's thread has been shared over 40,000 times with messages of love and support, but one of the first replies you might see if you click on it is from an account replying simply: 'Fake news.' In that person's Twitter bio there's one word: 'MAGA!'"

McKerrow's thread, which begins here, reads in its entirety:

1. Today I did the annual story on holiday decorations at the Governor's residence. I've done it every year, for years. A very light but very fun story. Every year my reporting partner was Wendi Winters. This year, it was Selene. Wendi was murdered in June.

[Note from Liss: The above tweet quotes Trump's latest "enemy of the people" tweet, just to be clear that McKerrow was explicitly and directly responding to that.]

2. Selene did a great job, of course. And I really thought I could hold it together. I moved through the rooms with my tripod, focusing on the trees and ornaments. All I could think about was Wendi. I felt like she was with me, that she was actually present.

3. Not in a "ghost" sense, I hope she has moved on to a better world then Capital feature stories :) But she was there in my mind. I could almost hear her voice echoing through the empty rooms. "How many cookies are you making this year?", her favorite question.

4. I was ok til the very end. Interviewed the butler, like I have every year, and when we were done she took me aside and whispered, "I really miss Wendi. Next year I'm going to name a cookie for her."

5. And that was it. The tears started, and I'm standing in the Maryland Governors home weeping to myself about my dead friend. She died in The Capital newsroom on June 28th, shot by a man who wanted to kill every journalist he could.

6. We don't know what set him off yet. After years of silence. What finally pushed him far enough that he loaded his shotgun, drove the 40 minutes from Laurel, parked his car, walked through the busy lobby, barricaded our back exit, blasted the simple fragile glass door.

7. Five people died, Rebecca, Wendi, Gerald, Rob, John. I always type their names in the order I think they were killed. I think, Rebecca first, at the door. Wendi charged him. Gerald and Rob were trapped in their cubicle. John, trying to get out the blocked exit.

8. Wendi was no ones enemy.

9. Every year Wendi made us all Oreo holiday cookies. except for the one year she made us jarred pesto. The question came up yesterday in the newsroom, who is going to make the cookies this year? Selene spoke up, I will.

10. I don't have a wrap-up to this story. I cried on and off all day. I miss her very much. I'm comforted that in a way she's still with me, when I do the work that she loved to do. Journalism. Patriotic, truth telling, American. We'll keep on doing the work.

11. And if we die for it, someone else will pick up the threads, and report on the holiday decorations at the Governor's house. Its what we do.

[CN: Climate change] Mark Hand at ThinkProgress: Senate Narrowly Confirms Climate-Denying Nominee to Federal Energy Regulator. "The Senate voted Thursday, in a party-line vote, to approve [Donald] Trump's nominee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), despite video evidence that the nominee strongly favors fossil fuels over renewable energy and rejects the overwhelming scientific evidence behind human-caused climate change. The nominee, Bernard McNamee, will be replacing former Commissioner Robert Powelson, who left the agency in August to lead a water company trade group."

"'We don't know, when patients get denied a service, do most of them figure out a way to get it in some other way?' Guiahi told @Rewire_News. 'Or do most of them end up having outcomes that they were not hoping for?'" https://t.co/NR69Tp2zCb

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 7, 2018

[CN: Worker exploitation] Michael Sainato at the Guardian: U.S. Airport Workers Struggle to Make Ends Meet as Industry Profits Soar. "As the airlines and airport companies seek to boost profits, they have increasingly relied on low-cost air carriers and contractors that drive down wages, eliminate benefits, and infringe workers' rights, according to a recent report by Airport Workers United. The report noted airlines made $38bn in profits during 2017, a fourfold increase since 2013. Nearly half those profits are made by U.S.-based airlines. ...But those profits do not trickle down to the workers that generate them. In the United States, airports have cuts jobs and outsourced them to contractors despite increases in the number of travelers."

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