We Resist: Day 719

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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Late yesterday and earlier today by me: No and No, Trump. and The Trump Regime Will Horrify You; I Hope My Typo Will Delight You and Democrats Will Present Rebuttal to Trump Tonight.

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

Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky at the Washington Post: Russian Lawyer at Trump Tower Meeting Charged in Separate Case. "A Russian lawyer whose role at a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower has come under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was charged Tuesday in a separate case with obstructing justice in a money-laundering investigation. Natalia Veselnitskaya became a central figure in the Mueller probe when it was revealed that in June 2016, she met with Donald Trump Jr., after an intermediary indicated she had dirt on Hillary Clinton. But the charges unsealed Tuesday say she made a 'misleading declaration' to the court in a civil case."

Meanwhile, BuzzFeed's Zoe Tillman reports on Twitter: "Paul Manafort's lawyers filed his submission due yesterday re: the allegations of a plea deal breach under seal, per spokesman Jason Maloni — 'Mr. Manafort's counsel filed their opposition yesterday under seal.'" She adds: "Recall that parts of the special counsel's filing re: what they say Manafort lied about after signing a plea deal were redacted, so it's not totally surprising that Manafort would seek to file under seal. We could see a redacted version later."

Also: Greg Stohr at Bloomberg: Supreme Court Receives New Filing in Apparent Mueller Case. "A new U.S. Supreme Court filing suggests the public may soon get more information about a mystery case believed to be tied to the criminal investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The filing stems from an appeals court ruling that upheld fines against a mystery company, owned by an unidentified foreign country, for failing to comply with a grand jury subpoena. The filing seeks permission to file an appeal of the ruling under seal. It also asks the Supreme Court to let a redacted version of the appeal be made public, according to the court's online docket."

Obviously, I don't know which company the filing regards, but I have a few ideas. It could be Prevezon, which is the company in the aforementioned civil case related to the charges brought against Natalia Veselnitskaya — although I'm not sure that's state-owned. I also think there's a good chance it could be Rosneft. My best guess, however, is that it's Vnesheconombank, because of the meeting Jared Kushner had with the chief of Vnesheconombank, Sergey N. Gorkov, at the urging of Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, after Vnesheconombank was on the U.S. sanctions list. I've always wondered why that meeting never seemed to get any scrutiny, but maybe it has.

In more related news: Dan Mangan at CNBC: Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Says Mueller Asked About Meeting Russian Putin Pal in Seychelles. "Blackwater founder Erik Prince said Monday that he would have preferred getting a 'proctology exam' to being interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team of investigators about his meeting with a Russian investor linked to Vladimir Putin. But the controversial security consultant told CNBC's Squawk Box that his previously reported sit-down with Mueller's team regarding that curious encounter in the Seychelles islands, which took place shortly before Donald Trump became president, was 'much ado about nothing.' Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos is Trump's Education secretary, is a supporter of the president. 'I answered their questions, and they haven't talked to me since,' said Prince, a former Navy SEAL."

There's a lot of investigative news today which Donald Trump would surely likely to overshadow. More and more reason to fear a big announcement tonight.

And speaking of Trump's immigration lies... Salvador Hernandez at BuzzFeed: Trump Claimed Former Presidents Told Him They Should Have Built a Border Wall; All Four Living Presidents Say That's Not True. "Providing no evidence, Trump has claimed wide support for the wall and, on Friday, dragged his predecessors into the ongoing debate, claiming that past presidents had privately told him they should have built the wall during their administrations. 'This should have been done by all the presidents that preceded me, and they all know it,' Trump told reporters. 'Some of them have told me that we should have done it, so we're not playing games. We have to do it.' But representatives for all four living past presidents, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, have said this is not true."

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Erdogan refuses to meet Bolton while his press secretary demands no delay in US withdrawal of troops from Syria https://t.co/A5VOpk3YFx

— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) January 8, 2019

Julian Borger at the Guardian: Trump Administration Downgrades EU's Status in U.S., without Informing Brussels. "The Trump administration has downgraded the diplomatic status of the EU mission in Washington, without informing the mission or Brussels, officials confirmed on Tuesday. The downgrade from nation state to international organisation status reverses an Obama administration decision in 2016 to grant the EU an enhanced diplomatic role in Washington, and is being seen in Brussels as a snub reflecting a general antipathy to the EU in the Trump administration. The president has supported Brexit and has described the EU as a 'foe.' The change, first reported by the German news agency Deutsche Welle, potentially means that the EU mission would have less clout and access to U.S. officials."

Lauren Hirsch at CNBC: Sears Plans to Shutter After 126 Years in Business as Chairman Eddie Lampert's Bid Fails. "Sears Holdings has rejected Chairman Eddie Lampert's bid to save the 126-year-old company, setting the storied retailer with more than 50,000 employees on a path to liquidation, people familiar with the situation told CNBC on Tuesday. Sears, which also owns Kmart, planned to announce its liquidation plans Tuesday morning, the people said. Lampert had put forward a $4.4 billion bid to save Sears by buying it out of bankruptcy through his hedge fund ESL Investments. His offer, though, was deemed insufficient by Sears' advisors, the people said."

Sears and Kmart (which Sears now owns) used to be some of those common community retailers with reliable employment, both for career service employees and for people who'd been laid off. Sears and Kmart saw through an awful lot of laid-off steelworkers in my community in the 1980s. Either probably would have made a good temporary gig for a number of federal workers during a shutdown, if the entire economy that supported Sears hadn't collapsed. Sob.

Emily Holden at the Guardian: Carbon Emissions up as Trump Agenda Rolls Back Climate Change Work. "A new analysis shows US greenhouse gas levels are increasing as the Trump administration unravels efforts to slow climate change. Carbon emissions rose sharply last year, increasing 3.4%, according to new estimates from the economic firm Rhodium Group. That year's jump in emissions is the biggest since the bounce back from the recession in 2010. It is the second largest gain in more than two decades. ...The Environmental Protection Agency chief, Andrew Wheeler, often trumpets declines in greenhouse gases, citing data showing that they fell 2.7% from 2016 to 2017. But the EPA is rescinding Obama-era climate work... 'The tailwinds of Obama administration policy are dissipating,' said Trevor Houser, a partner at [Rhodium Group]."

Charlie Pierce at Esquire: A Joe Biden 2020 Campaign Would Be the Most Divisive Thing for the Democratic Field. "Joe Biden has run for president twice before and he was a genuinely terrible candidate both times. He found his groove — and his half-ironic, half-campy fame — only as Barack Obama's sidekick. In a time in which Hillary Rodham Clinton is being told to disappear because she lost twice, the idea that important parts of the Democratic Party are thinking about nominating Biden is bound to be notable for its obvious hypocrisy. ...Moreover, Biden has a track record that puts him on the wrong side of every issue that currently energizes his political party." Yup.

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