We Resist: Day 769

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: Thousands of Sexual Abuse Allegations by Unaccompanied Children in U.S. Custody and The First Day of Cohen's Congressional Testimony Reminds Us He Is a Liar and a Terrible Person and The 2020 Democratic Primary: For the Record. And by Fannie: Social Media and Disinformation Watch, #1.

Michael Cohen's testimony is expectedly taking up a whole lot of oxygen in the political press today. I've been watching, and my impression is essentially the same as it was after yesterday's testimony.

What's remarkable (though entirely unsurprising) is the Republicans' performance:

The Republicans keep saying they want a witness who isn't a liar and fraudster and criminal, but the only people who Donald Trump allows in his orbit are liars and fraudsters and criminals!

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 27, 2019

It's really rich for these Republicans to act OUTRAGED!!1! about Michael Cohen being a liar when their president lies on a constant basis and they manifestly refuse to hold him accountable for that.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 27, 2019

Someone should ask the GOP why, given Cohen's long history of criminal ties and behavior -- which was in the public domain before 2016 -- they made him the deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2017 #CohenTestimony

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) February 27, 2019

They're just shameless. Pretending like they don't understand how criminal investigations even work, i.e. witnesses for the prosecution who have turned are always liars and criminals. And getting a case of the vapors over the fact that Cohen is a liar, when Donald Trump lies like his life depends on it. They're calling Cohen a liar to protect an even bigger liar.

The whole thing is a depressing spectacle. And we still have no new information that will get us any closer to removing Trump and his entire corrupt administration from power.

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

Heidi Przybyla at NBC News: House Poised to Pass First Major Gun Bill in a Generation.

Democratic leaders say they have the votes to pass a bill requiring background checks on all commercial gun sales, including those at gun shows and over the internet. The bill also has five Republican co-sponsors, led by New York Rep. Peter King, who had tried — and failed — for several years to advance the bill while his party controlled the chamber.

Democrats taking control of the House has "really given it momentum. Hate to admit that, but that's the reality," King said in an interview with NBC News.

...Since the bill faces an uphill fight in the Republican-run Senate, the House leadership arranged a separate vote — a day later on Thursday — on a more modest measure that may be able to attract greater bipartisan support.

That bill would close the so-called "Charleston loophole," which allows the sale of a firearm to proceed if a background check is not completed within three days.

In the Senate, Democrats are hoping to pressure Republicans, including Tim Scott of South Carolina and Cory Gardner of Colorado — another state rocked by mass shootings — to align themselves with the measure and lean on McConnell to bring it for a vote.

[Donald] Trump has vowed to veto the current legislation, and many advocates remain skeptical that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will bring it up for a vote.

Two of the worst men on the fucking planet, standing in the way of even the most modest legislation to try to stem the tide of gun violence across the nation.

Philip Rucker and Josh Dawsey at the Washington Post: White House Bans Four Journalists from Covering Trump-Kim Dinner Because of Shouted Questions. "The White House abruptly banned four U.S. journalists [from the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, the Los Angeles Times, and Reuters] from covering [Donald] Trump's dinner here Wednesday with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un after some of them shouted questions at the leaders during their earlier meetings. ...Among the questions asked of Trump was one about the congressional testimony of his former lawyer Michael Cohen. The White House's move to restrict press access was an extraordinary act of retaliation by the U.S. government, which historically has upheld the rights of journalists while a president travels overseas. It was especially remarkable because it came during Trump's meeting with the leader of a totalitarian state that does not have a free press."

Rowena Mason, Jessica Elgot, and Heather Stewart at the Guardian: Theresa May Says Britain Can Still Leave EU on 29 March. "Theresa May has insisted it is still possible for the UK to leave the European Union on 29 March if enough MPs back a revised withdrawal deal, amid signs hardline Eurosceptics may be softening their demands. In an article in the Daily Mail, the prime minister pleaded with MPs to get behind her deal, after she was forced to give them votes on extending article 50 and ruling out no deal if her withdrawal agreement does not pass. ...In her statement to the Commons on Tuesday, May said she planned to hold the next meaningful vote on her Brexit deal by 12 March. If it was defeated again, it would be followed by a vote on 13 March on leaving with no deal and, if this was rejected, a vote on 14 March for an extension to article 50."

Pamela Constable and Joanna Slater at the Washington Post: Pakistan Shoots Down Two Indian Aircraft in Its Airspace, Captures Pilot. "Pakistan shot down two Indian aircraft over its territory Wednesday and launched strikes inside Indian-controlled Kashmir, a day after Indian jets bombed targets in Pakistan for the first time since 1971 in retaliation for a terrorist attack. The tit-for-tat airstrikes and accompanying aerial dogfight marked the most serious military escalation between the two nuclear-armed rivals in two decades."

Peter Beaumont at the Guardian: Infant Mortality in Venezuela Has Doubled During Crisis, UN Says. "Infant mortality in Venezuela has soared by roughly 50% during the prolonged political crisis in the country. Briefing the UN security council, the UN’s political and peace building chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, depicted a devastating collapse in Venezuela's health system. She warned that 40% of medical staff had left the country and said hospital stocks of medicine had dwindled to 20% of the required level. DiCarlo said the 'protracted crisis' in the country had led in recent weeks to an 'alarming escalation of tensions.' Four people died and hundreds were injured in clashes last weekend at the country's borders."

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[Content Note: Homophobia] Emma Green at the Atlantic: Conservative Christians Just Retook the United Methodist Church. "The United Methodist Church has fractured over the role of LGBTQ people in the denomination. At a special conference in St. Louis this week, convened specifically to address divisions over LGBTQ issues, members voted to toughen prohibitions on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy. This was a surprise: The denomination's bishops, its top clergy, pushed hard for a resolution that would have allowed local congregations, conferences, and clergy to make their own choices about conducting same-sex marriages and ordaining LGBTQ pastors. This proposal, called the 'One Church Plan,' was designed to keep the denomination together. Methodist delegates rejected its recommendations, instead choosing the so-called Traditional Plan, which affirmed the denomination's teachings against homosexuality."

[CN: Homophobia; HIV/AIDS stigma] Lachlan Markay and Sam Stein at the Daily Beast: Pence's Incoming Chief of Staff, Marc Short, Disparaged People Living with AIDS for 'Repugnant' Gay Sex in College Column. "Vice President Mike Pence's incoming chief of staff Marc Short disparaged people living with HIV and AIDS and claimed that the transmission of the disease was largely the result of 'repugnant' homosexual intercourse in an early '90s column for his college newspaper [at Washington & Lee University]. ...The column was published in The Spectator, a conservative student newspaper that Short co-founded as an undergraduate in 1989. Short served as an editor for the publication until he graduated in 1992."

[CN: Homophobia; white supremacy] Alys Brooks at Rewire.News: Funding Hate: GOP License Plate Programs Pour Funds into Fringe Groups. "Specialty license plates that fund nonprofits aren't unusual — many states have dozens supporting causes like organ donation and wildlife conservation. But some license plates fund groups that promote hate and misinformation, as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has done since the 1990s. And now state-level Democratic lawmakers are hitting back against license plate programs that fund these causes. Since 2011, ADF has received over $1 million through Arizona's license plate program, according to data compiled by the office of state Sen. Juan Mendez (D-Tempe). The license plates fund only a small portion of ADF's $50 million annual budget."

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[CN: Misogyny; toxic masculinity] Stephanie McNeal at BuzzFeed: This College Student Shared How Different Her Boyfriend Acts IRL Versus on Social Media and Now Every Straight Man Is Called Out. It's a collection of screenshots of private texts men sent their female partners (which are loving and kind) juxtaposed against screenshots of social media images the men posted of their female partners (which are objectifying and shitty). We're meant to find it funny, of course, but since I am the Most Humorless Feminist in all of Nofunnington, I will point out that this is a sinister example of how toxic masculinity harms women (by encouraging abuse against them) and men (by limiting their range of healthy emotions and encouraging them to be abusive toward the people around them). Fuck the patriarchy forever.

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