We Resist: Day 728

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: No Collusion! No Collusion! Okay, Maybe Some Collusion! and Just a Regular Reminder That the Scoundrels Destroying the Country Are as Embarrassing as They Are Wicked and Nancy Pelosi Knows What She's Doing. And late yesterday ICYMI: What a Mess, Britain.

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

Barbara Starr at CNN: Trump Is Fraying Nerves Inside the Pentagon. (Join the club, Pentagon!)

Two years into his presidency, Donald Trump is fueling unprecedented uncertainty and anxiety inside the Pentagon. In private conversations over the past month, many of them unsolicited, more than a dozen key military officers, enlisted personnel, and senior civilians have expressed worry and concern to CNN. None of the officials have spoken publicly about this, as military law prohibits active-duty personnel from criticizing a sitting president.

It's not just Trump's unpredictable decision making that has officials on edge, it's also his penchant for politicizing the military — something that's come into focus in recent months as he's struggled to fulfill his campaign promise to crack down on immigration and build a border wall. His decision to draw down troops in Syria and his claims that ISIS is defeated have also rankled military commanders who felt it wasn't well thought out.

Some of the highest-ranking officers say there is a new atmosphere of unease inside the Pentagon, particularly among some of the most senior ranks, over the president's inclination to use the military to achieve certain partisan policy objectives. Behind the scenes officials are trying to keep it all at bay. "The amount of time we have to spend making sure our statements and what we say is apolitical is astronomically higher than ever before," one senior military officer told CNN.

...Pentagon officials have also been unnerved by requests from the White House National Security Council, which continues to ask the Pentagon for options to attack Iran. Military planners CNN has spoken to say these requests are concerning since there is no real understanding of how Iran might react — or exactly what military objective the Trump Administration is trying to achieve.

Emphasis mine. Holy fuck.

Btw, that should probably (definitely) be the lede, instead of being buried six paragraphs into the story.

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[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse] Julia Ainsley at NBC News: Thousands More Migrant Kids Separated from Parents Under Trump Than Previously Reported. "Thousands more immigrant children were separated from their parents under the Trump administration than previously reported and whether they have been reunified is unknown, according to a report released Thursday by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services. ...The families separated under 'zero tolerance' were represented in a class action lawsuit, where a federal judge ordered that the government reunify them. However, the government had no such order to reunify children separated prior to 'zero tolerance.' Some may have been released to family or nonrelative sponsors, but it is not known how many have been reunified."

There is a whole lot to detest about this report, but this just about takes the fucking cake: "HHS officials did not keep track of whether children they were releasing from their custody had been separated from their parents at the border or whether they crossed the border without a parent. 'We don't have any information on those children who were released prior to the court order,' an official from the HHS Office of Inspector General told reporters on a call Thursday."

Goddammit. Two thoughts: 1. Only a court order forced this regime to care about the children it was taking into their custody, and they are stacking the courts as quickly as possible with judges who won't force them to care ever again. 2. This is based on the regime's own reporting, so we can be reasonably certain it is far worse than they are even admitting here.

[CN: Nativism; child abuse] Alexandra Villarreal at the Guardian: The U.S. Detention Center Where Sick Children Receive 'the Bare Minimum'.

Since attorney Jacquelyn Kline began representing immigrant families detained at Berks in the summer of 2014, she said the majority of her clients have gotten sick. Usually, the illnesses have been minor. But sometimes, when common problems have gone ignored or untreated, they have spiraled to become something more.

"In my experience, [the staff] do the bare minimum and they don't want to do more than that unless it becomes a situation where they have to do it," Kline said. "Because they don't address things when there are minor issues, it allows them to become more serious issues."

...The fact that serious medical conditions occur and go untreated for days, weeks or months while immigrant children are under the government's protection may come as a surprise to many. But advocates who have been on the ground at detention facilities under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are well acquainted with stories such as these that point to a wider trend.

"I am surprised that more children or parents have not died while in DHS custody, given the systemic failure on the part of the government to provide medical services," said Kathryn Shepherd, national advocacy counsel for the Immigration Justice Campaign at the American Immigration Council.

Rage seethe boil.

[CN: Nativism; racism; disablism] Eli Rosenberg at the Washington Post: A Latino Marine Veteran Was Detained for Deportation, Then ICE Realized He Was a Citizen. "Richard Kessler, an immigration lawyer in Grand Rapids, Mich., said he was surprised when a woman he had worked with called to tell him that her son, a 27-year-old Marine veteran with mental-health issues, was being held in an immigration facility, apparently awaiting a possible deportation. Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, whose service as a lance corporal and tank crewman included time in Afghanistan, was born in the Michigan city of 200,000. Kessler said he didn't understand what was going on. 'I was shocked,' he said in an interview. 'Everybody knows that Jilmar is a U.S. citizen and a Marines vet.' ...'I immediately called ICE and shouted at them,' he said. 'And they called me back and said, kind of, 'Oops, yeah, come and get him.' They didn't say, 'Our bad,' but kind of implied that.'" JFC.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to scream about his fucking wall, while still telling rank lies in its defense:

At the Pentagon officially to speak about the Missile Defense Review, Trump returns to his pitch for a border wall. He blames Democrats for the shutdown, claims the party has been taken over by the "radical left," and warns of new caravans that include unknown people.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 17, 2019

The entire appearance was really something, and Aaron Rupar has a terrific thread with video if you want to see the lowlights of Trump slurring his way through it, looking and sounding like he was on ten thousand biebergrams of downers.

And just as a reminder that Trump's #2 is just as big an indecent, dishonest sack of shit as he is:

On the same day that ISIS claimed responsibility for a deadly explosion that killed US service members in the Syrian city of Manbij , VP Pence just said at a conference “The caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated."
Pence made no mention of the attack or deaths.

— Allie Malloy (@AlliemalCNN) January 16, 2019

And in more news about how their entire party is full of vile, white supremacist gremlins...

[CN: White supremacy; Holocaust denialism] Will Sommer at the Daily Beast: GOP Congressmen Meet with Holocaust-Denying Troll Chuck Johnson. "Notorious alt-right figure and Holocaust denier Chuck Johnson met with two Republican lawmakers in Congress on Wednesday. Johnson's visit was first noted by a HuffPost reporter, who tweeted a picture of Reps. Andy Harris (R-MD) and Phil Roe (R-TN) walking with Johnson. Johnson, a former Breitbart reporter, has denied the magnitude of the Holocaust, expressing doubt that gas chambers were real and questioning whether six million Jews were really killed — a figure that has been well documented by scholars and historians. He also ran crowdfunding efforts for white supremacist causes, including the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer. In statements, the lawmakers confirmed that they had met with Johnson to discuss genetic testing and DNA, but claimed they weren't aware of Johnson's history of making racist statements."

"We were only meeting with a Holocaust denier to discuss eugenics, but we didn't know he was a racist!" is quite a defense, guys.

[CN: White supremacy] Erin Mansfield at the Tyler Morning Telegraph: Tyler Congressman Louie Gohmert Says Steve King Raised a Fair Question. "A congressman from East Texas says his colleague raised a fair question about Western civilization and is being treated unfairly. U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert said that U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa — who has been disciplined by Republican leaders for comments about white supremacy and white nationalism — is not getting due process, and he is still a friend."

Of course Louie Gohmert defended Steve King. Of course he did.

[CN: White supremacy; voter suppression] Alan Pyke at ThinkProgress: Lindsey Graham Just Accidentally Admitted That Suppressing Black Voter Turnout Is a Core GOP Goal. "Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions had wielded his power to thwart non-white voters from accessing the franchise, [National Urban League head Marc Morial] reminded Graham. ...In his scramble to regain the momentum in the exchange, Graham accidentally gave the game away. 'Elections have consequences,' the senator interjected... 'If you don't expect elections to matter, that's a mistake,' he said, confirming for a second time that to vote for Republicans is to vote for a government that supports the systematic disenfranchisement of [Black voters]."

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Ben White at Politico: Recession Warnings Pile Up as Shutdown Wraps Up Fourth Week. "The partial government shutdown was supposed to be a brief non-event for the economy. Now it's starting to look like a serious crisis that could nudge the U.S. toward recession and threaten [Donald] Trump's economic message during his reelection campaign. Across Wall Street, analysts are rushing out warnings that missed federal paychecks, dormant government contractors, and shelved corporate stock offerings could push first-quarter growth close to or even below zero if the shutdown, which is wrapping up its fourth week, drags on much longer."

Which is a very anodyne way of saying that the shutdown will come for all of us, eventually — so, you know, maybe self-interest will serve as a motivating factor for people if basic human decency can't move them to care about the people who are being immediately affected by the shitdown (typo and I'm leaving it).

Yikes. https://t.co/d7VOPquO9N

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 17, 2019

Casey Michel at ThinkProgress: The Latest Front in Russian Infiltration: America's Right-Wing Homeschooling Movement. "The group and its origins sound innocuous enough. But the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) — a right-wing group founded 36 years ago — has deepened connections between America's religious right and Russians even as the latter have been sanctioned by the United States, according to a ThinkProgress investigation. By networking with Russians, the HSLDA — now America's largest right-wing homeschooling association — has provided the Kremlin with a new avenue of influence over some of the most conservative organizations in the United States."

[CN: Homophobia; retaliation] Andy Towle at Towleroad: N.C. Deputies: We Were Fired for Reporting Lieutenant's Homophobic Remarks. "Two former deputies in Wake County, North Carolina (home of Raleigh) say they were fired in retaliation for reporting their supervisor's homophobic remarks. Former Master Deputy Gray Speight and former Master Deputy Steven Williamson told WRAL that then Lieutenant Teddy Patrick (who was recently promoted to the higher rank of Captain by new sheriff Gerald Baker) outed a fellow deputy and signaled to members of the squad who were engaged in 'sensitivity training' sessions that he didn't like gay people. ...When Gerald Baker became sheriff, an office with 'legal authority to hire and fire as they wish' according to WRAL, he promoted Patrick to Captain and fired Speight and Williamson."

Where are all the good cops? Fired, for doing the right thing apparently.

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