We Resist: Day 768

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: Democrats Prepare to Undo Trump's Emergency Order and Primarily Speaking and Michael Cohen Testifies to Congress This Week.

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

Brendan Morrow at the Week: House Committee Thinks It Has Evidence Trump Asked Whitaker to Put an Ally in Charge of Cohen Probe.

The House Judiciary Committee believes it has evidence that [Donald] Trump asked then-Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to put an ally in charge of an investigation into his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, The Wall Street Journal reports.

This follows a report from The New York Times that Trump made this request of Whitaker, asking him whether he could get attorney Geoffrey Berman to head the Southern District of New York's ongoing investigation, even though Berman is a Trump supporter who donated to his campaign and used to work with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Berman had also previously recused himself from the probe, which has looked into Trump's inaugural committee and has led to charges against Cohen, who implicated Trump in a crime.

The Judiciary Committee is also reportedly examining whether Whitaker may have committed perjury when he told Congress, "At no time has the White House asked for nor have I provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel's investigation or any other investigation." The Washington Post's Aaron Blake points out that Whitaker also said no one from the White House contacted him to express "dissatisfaction" with the SDNY probe.

Dirty rotten lying liars. Fucking hell.

Zoe Tillman at BuzzFeed: Paul Manafort's Lawyers Argue for a Lighter Sentence, Saying He's the Victim of "Public Vilification". "Paul Manafort's lawyers made the case for leniency Monday night, arguing in a new sentencing memo that Manafort had been unfairly 'vilified' by special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, and should get far less than the 10 years in prison he faces in one of his criminal cases. Manafort's lawyers did not advocate for a specific prison term in his DC case, asking that he receive a sentence 'substantially below' the maximum penalty. However, in highlighting the toll that pretrial incarceration had taken on Manafort's physical, emotional, and mental health, they noted that courts 'routinely' allow defendants 'who suffer from serious medical conditions' to serve no prison time at all."

What a novel argument! Manafort is hated because of his traitorous crimes and suffers ill health from having to face consequences for them, so he shouldn't have to go to prison. Okay, lol. "Your Honor, my client doesn't enjoy life as much as he did before he was caught!" Case closed.

My August 2018 oped on Manafort and Cohen: "Why did officials not react with appropriate alarm when two known criminal operatives took on major roles in a presidential campaign?"

This was not a rhetorical question; the public deserves an answer.https://t.co/ioyVsslq9F pic.twitter.com/13DOGdlf1Y

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) February 26, 2019

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[Content Note: Nativism; carcerality; loss of wanted pregnancy] Scott Bixby at the Daily Beast: Migrant Woman's Pregnancy Ends in Stillbirth, in ICE Detention.

A 24-year-old Honduran woman held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Texas immigrant detention facility went into premature labor on Friday, delivering a stillborn baby boy four days after she was apprehended by Border Patrol agents, the agency said on Monday.

The woman, who was not named in the press release outlining the circumstances around the stillbirth, remains in ICE custody.

In a statement, ICE explained that the incident was not revealed to the public for three days because, for investigative and reporting purposes, "a stillbirth is not considered an in-custody death."

So, a fetus is considered a person when ICE wants to deny detained pregnant migrants access to abortion, but not when a fetus is stillborn. What a very fascinating calculation that tries to have it both ways, to pregnant migrants' detriment in either case.

Under ICE policy, pregnant women in their third trimester — which begins in the 27th week of pregnancy — are not supposed to be detained, "absent extraordinary circumstances."

ICE policy also dictates that Congress, non-governmental organizations, and the media be notified of detainee deaths within two business days.

But she was detained despite policy, and the death was not reported within two days, because of the very convenient refusal to classify a stillbirth as "an in-custody death."

This is horrific. The cruelty is breathtaking. Malice is, clearly and indisputably, the agenda.

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David Nakamura and John Hudson at the Washington Post: In Hanoi, Kim Jong Un and a Culture Clash with the White House Press Corps. "As Kim's motorcade was barreling into Hanoi for the final leg of his nearly 70-hour journey from Pyongyang — which included a 65-hour train ride through China — authorities were scrambling behind the scenes to avert an all-out culture clash over the boundaries of free speech for a leader accustomed to an obedient state-controlled media. Kim was staying at the Melia hotel tower in the heart of the city, but the hotel also happened to have been booked by the White House as the filing center for the traveling press corps to cover the summit. Not long before Kim arrived, a notice was distributed to the press corps that the filing center would be moved to a separate site for the international press corps at the Cultural Friendship Palace." JFC. And that's the very least of the problems with this spectacle.

Joe Parkin Daniels at the Guardian: Univision's Jorge Ramos Detained in Venezuela After Maduro Interview, Network Says. "The Mexican-born journalist was interviewing Venezuela's embattled president, Nicolás Maduro, when he and his crew were detained after asking a question the combative Maduro did not approve of, according to a tweet by the network's U.S. president, Daniel Coronell. The team's equipment had also been confiscated, Coronell said. Coronell later said Ramos and his team had been released and he had spoken to the journalist. The equipment as well as the material that upset Maduro were confiscated. Reuters reported that Venezuela was going to deport the group. Ramos told Univision that the offending line of questioning came when he showed Maduro images taken on Ramos's phone of Venezuelans eating out of the trash to prove people were living a humanitarian crisis."

This is just unreal!
Putin spokesman Peskov’s daughter works in European Parliament as an intern and has access to many EU documents. Why?
She works for Chauprade, a French member of parliament, who supported Russia’s invasion of Crimea https://t.co/s0CpknTP8y

— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) February 25, 2019

Peter Walker and Heather Stewart at the Guardian: MPs Offered Vote on No-Deal Brexit and Possible Delay. "Theresa May has promised MPs the chance to reject a no-deal Brexit and possibly delay the departure date, while repeatedly declining to say whether or not she and the government would support such moves. In a significant first concession that Brexit could take place after 29 March, following months of insistence the deadline could not be shifted, May sought to appease restive Conservative backbenchers, but prompted concern from pro-Brexit MPs. In a sign of the continued uncertainty, the cross-party backers of a plan to be debated by MPs on Wednesday intended to prevent no deal said they would still table the amendment, pending further assurances from ministers." What a clusterfuck.

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In good resistance news... [CN: LGBTQ hatred] Andy Towle at Towleroad: Daughter's Public Shaming Prompts Kansas GOP Lawmaker to Withdraw Support from Vile Anti-LGBTQ Bill.

Earlier this month we reported that Kansas GOP state Representatives Randy Garber, Owen Donohoe, David French, Cheryl Helmer, Ron Highland, Steve Huebert, and Bill Rhiley introduced a set of vile and hateful legislation.

The legislation seeks to ban same-sex marriage, legally deny the existence of transgender people, allow harmful and debunked gay conversion therapy, and much more. One of the bills describes sexual orientation as a "mythology," but that's just where the hate begins.

Highland this week withdrew his support from the bill after his daughter publicly shamed him in an open letter on Facebook.

Wrote Christel Highland on Facebook: "This has been a strange and difficult week indeed. My name is Christel Highland, and my Father, Representative Ron Highland of Wamego, KS was a co-sponsor of the legislation, bill HB2320, that will likely never make it to Governor Laura Kelly's desk for veto. As a proud member of Kansas City's LGBTQ+ community, a Mother, a Partner to the love of my life, an Artist active in my creative community, and a hard-working Businessperson, I am personally offended by the egregious nature of Kansas Representatives' proposed legislation, most notably, my father's."

...NBC News reported: "Following his daughter's public Facebook post about the controversial marriage bill, Ron Highland told local news outlets that he made a 'mistake.'"

Whoa. I regret that Christel Highland was obliged to write that letter, but what a remarkable act writing it was. You're damn right you made a mistake, Ron Highland. A BIG ONE.

[CN: Contagious disease] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: What the Federal Government Can Actually Do About Anti-Vaxxers. "After virtually eliminating the extremely contagious virus in the United States at the turn of the century, measles are back thanks to anti-vaccination misinformation. More than 150 people, mostly children, in 10 states, have been infected by measles so far in 2019. These outbreaks are primarily linked to travelers from other countries, like the United Kingdom, who brought the measles into communities with low vaccination rates. The public health crisis is largely seen as a policy failure: lawmakers have made it too easy for parents to opt out of getting their kids vaccinated." No shit.

And finally: At Earther, Yessenia Funes has two articles about the very different ways two nations are addressing climate change as we barrel down the road to 2050.

The Marshall Islands Plans to Raise Its Land to Survive Rising Sea Levels: "The Republic of the Marshall Islands isn't going to allow the rising seas to wipe it off the map. Instead, the islands will attempt to rise above. Literally. President Hilda Heine announced a plan to elevate the country's islands in an interview with the Marshall Islands Journal Friday, reports RNZ Pacific. Sea level rise and erosion are set to make most island atolls uninhabitable by 2050, and small island nations have become increasingly vocal about this existential threat. They're also thinking about radical ways to adapt."

Costa Rica Lays Out Plan to Zero Out Carbon Emissions by 2050: "Time to pack my bags and move to Costa Rica. The tiny Central American country is setting an example with a plan to fully decarbonize by 2050. President Carlos Alvarado officially signed the decree to decarbonize by mid-century on Sunday. On Monday, he followed it up by announcing that the country would extend its moratorium on oil exploration to 2050, too. The government has been extending this since moratorium 2002, so hopefully, it'll continue the tradition after 2050 as well. In short? Costa Rica is doing what we all need to be doing."

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