We Resist: Day 767

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, February 25, 2019
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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: Primarily Speaking and Another Sexual Assault Allegation Against Trump.

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


Donald Trump is a disgusting human being. His cruelty and depravity know no bounds. Goddammit.

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In good resistance news...

Zachary Warmbrodt at Politico: House Democrats Target Trump's Personal Finances. "The House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees have been staffing up for their probes into the bank and Trump's Russia ties. Democrats on the panels say that with Deutsche Bank they are willing to pursue a key area that Mueller may have avoided — crossing what Trump sees as a 'red line' into his personal finances. 'There's a heightened need to look into anything that could compromise the president or the country, particularly if it's not being investigated elsewhere,' House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told Politico. 'I don't know that to be the case but I just haven't seen any external signs that that's happening.'"

Ed Pilkington at the Guardian: 'We Should Be Outraged': Alabama Congresswoman Tackles Voter Suppression. "The Democratic party this week launches a major push to repair America's broken electoral system and counter a wave of voter suppression that has swept the country, depriving hundreds of thousands of citizens of the right to vote. Terri Sewell, an Alabama congresswoman from the civil rights crucible of Selma, is sponsoring the Voting Rights Advancement Act that will be introduced to the House of Representatives on Tuesday. She told the Guardian it was time to restore and advance American democracy: 'We don't want just to shatter the glass ceiling; we want to break down the door.' She added: 'We should be making it easier for people to vote. We should be strong enough as a nation that everybody can have a voice.'"

[Content Note: White supremacy; terrorism] Dan Lamothe at the Washington Post: House Democrats Press the U.S. Military About How It Is Screening for White Nationalism and Other Extremism in the Ranks.
A series of incidents in which U.S. troops have been arrested in cases involving white nationalism is of "significant concern, particularly given their combat and weapons training," several House Democrats said in a letter on Monday, pressing the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security for information about how they screen for recruits.

Maryland Reps. Elijah Cummings, Anthony Brown, and Jamie Raskin and California Rep. Jackie Speier wrote that they applaud the actions taken by federal agencies in the arrest this month of Coast Guard Lt. Christopher P. Hasson, a self-proclaimed white nationalist who authorities say had a list of journalists and politicians that he planned to kill.

But citing that case and others in 2017, the lawmakers asked acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan and Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversees the Coast Guard, how Hasson and others who demonstrated extremist views were able to circumvent the military's checks.

"Our hope is that these incidents are isolated events and are not indicative of a larger, systemic issue within the United States Armed Services," the lawmakers wrote. "Beyond the extremes of domestic terrorism, we are additionally concerned with low level racism and other identity-based harassment that disrupts unit cohesion, impacts readiness, and degrades the ability of our servicemembers to protect our nation. Servicemembers who experience or witness racist or hateful behavior must be able to report such behavior without fear of repercussions."
This has been a problem for a very long time. It needs more attention desperately.

Andy Towle at Towleroad: Former GOP Lawmakers Warn Congress to Vote Against Trump's National Emergency or Risk Undermining Their Constitutional Authority. "A group of almost two dozen former Republicans have sent a letter to GOP lawmakers, warning them to reject Donald Trump's border wall national emergency or risk undermining their institution and the U.S. Constitution. ...Meanwhile, Trump is warning Republicans that they better vote for him, or else, tweeting: 'I hope our great Republican Senators don't get led down the path of weak and ineffective Border Security. Without strong Borders, we don't have a Country — and the voters are on board with us. Be strong and smart, don't fall into the Democrats 'trap' of Open Borders and Crime!'" Thus proving the authors of the letter absolutely correct.

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[CN: Video autoplays at link] CNN: U.S. May Drop Demand for North Korea's Nuclear Inventory. "As [Donald] Trump prepares to head to Vietnam for his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, CNN has learned from administration officials that the U.S. is weighing watering down its own demands from North Korea." Of course.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW): New Report: Trump Appears to Have Committed Multiple Campaign Finance-Related Crimes. "There is compelling evidence that [Donald] Trump may have personally committed up to eight criminal campaign finance and related offenses while running for president and during his first year in office... In a new report, A Campaign to Defraud, CREW combs through the facts behind these apparent crimes, based on admissions by two of [Donald] Trump's likely co-conspirators and news reports, detailing how criminal law can already be applied to publicly known facts. Most of [Donald] Trump's potential violations are related to illegal campaign contributions meant to cover up evidence of Trump's affairs with two women, preventing voters from learning the truth about his behavior ahead of the election, though at least one continued well into his first year in office."

[CN: War on agency; misogyny] Laura Huss and Katelyn Burns at Rewire.News: What You Need to Know About Trump's Attacks on the Federal Family Planning Program. "In order to provide public funding and support to family planning services nationwide, the federal grant program commonly referred to as 'Title X' was created as part of the Public Health Service Act, signed into law by Republican President Nixon in 1970. With Title X, Nixon made good on his campaign promise that 'no American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition.' ...According to advocates, the Trump administration presents a threat to the family planning grant program that hasn't been seen before." Katelyn Burns has even more here: Trump Administration Releases Final Text of Domestic 'Gag Rule' Restriction on Title X.

[CN: Nativism] Shani Saxon at Colorlines: ACLU Wants Government to Account for All Migrant Children Separated from Families. "The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked a federal judge on Thursday (February 21) to order the government to provide an accurate accounting of all migrant children separated from their families at the southern border... The OIG originally put the number of family separations executed under Trump administration's 'zero tolerance policy' at just under 3,000 last spring, but the new report says that 'thousands of children may have been separated during an influx that began in 2017, before the accounting required by the court.'"

[CN: Anti-Semitism] Evan Simko-Bednarski and Augusta Anthony at CNN: Police in NYC Are Investigating the Second Set of Swastikas Found in the Last Three Days. "For the second time in three days, the New York City Police Department is investigating swastikas found scrawled in places where children play. Two swastikas were discovered some time between Sunday night and Monday morning at Brighton Playground in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, according to the NYPD. The Nazi symbols were written in black marker beneath a slide. The graffiti was discovered just two days after dozens of swastikas, a Nazi eagle, and the words 'Hail Hitler' (sic) were found Friday morning drawn in chalk on the pavement of a Queens schoolyard. The two incidents are being investigated by the NYPD's hate crime task force, according to police."

Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: The Supreme Court Is About to Hear the Biggest Threat to Separation of Church and State in Decades. "The Supreme Court will hear two cases on Wednesday that never should have been filed in the first place. The outcomes in American Legion v. American Humanist Association and Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission v. American Humanist Association, two consolidated cases considering the fate of a cross-shaped monument in Maryland, are as preordained as anything in the Supreme Court can be. Every single member of the Court's conservative majority will almost certainly vote to uphold the cross. They may even be joined by some of the liberal justices."

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