We Resist: Day 770

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: The Trump-Kim Summit Was Authoritarian Theater and The Second Day of Cohen's Congressional Testimony Reminds Us That Republicans Are Truly Terrible and Primarily Speaking.

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

John Wagner at the Washington Post: Trump: Republicans Who Cross Him on National Emergency Are 'at Great Jeopardy'.

Trump warned Thursday that fellow Republicans who vote to nullify his national emergency declaration at the U.S.-Mexico border are putting themselves "at great jeopardy" politically.

Trump's comments come as the Senate prepares to vote on a measure aimed at thwarting the president's use of the declaration to direct billions of dollars more in funding to border barriers than Congress has authorized.

"I think that really it's a very dangerous thing for people to be voting against border security," Trump said in an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity [to air in full Thursday night]. "I really think that Republicans that vote against border security and the wall, I think you know, I've been okay at predicting things, I think they put themselves at great jeopardy."

Just the President of the United States publicly threatening members of his own party if they don't give him what he wants. JFC.

Yuliya Talmazan and Paul Goldman at NBC News: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Be Indicted on Bribe and Fraud Charges. "Israel's attorney general announced Thursday that his office plans to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges after a two-year investigation. The prime minister faces one count of bribery and two counts of fraud and breach of trust. ...The indictment would mark the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime." It's 39 days before the general election, by the way.

This fucking guy. https://t.co/BCSWWBjJ18

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 28, 2019

[Content Note: Bigotry; disablist language; GIF at link] Rafi Schwartz at Splinter: CPAC Is off to a Typically Horrifying Start. "It's that time of the year again: The annual Conservative Political Action Conference is underway just outside of Washington DC, and with it comes the largest concentration of goons, grifters, and complete [shitwheels] this side of an Infowars taping. ...First up was convicted criminal-turned-National Rifle Association president Ollie North, who took the stage just one day after Republicans demanded the American public reject anyone who'd have the audacity of lying to Congress. He got a standing ovation."

ThinkProgress' Aaron Rupar is watching CPAC so we don't have to, and he's got a thread on Twitter of video highlowlights beginning here:

.@RepMarkMeadows begins CPAC with this rip-roarer: "You know, with this Green New Deal, they're trying to get rid of all the cows. But I've got good news -- Chick-fil-A stock will go way up because we gonna be eating more chicken!" pic.twitter.com/aoYJm7jHBM

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 28, 2019

[CN: Anti-choicery] Katelyn Burns at Rewire.News: CPAC Anti-Choice Activists Heap Praise on Trump. "Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of anti-choice group Susan B. Anthony List, said abortion rights opponents would 'go on offense' over later abortion care in a Thursday speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), calling Roe v. Wade 'a profound betrayal.' ...CPAC, hosted at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, is administered by conservative activist Matt Schlapp, whose wife Mercedes works for the Trump White House. Rewire.News reported in November that many anti-choice groups, such as Dannenfelser's SBA List, met with senior administration officials, including Schlapp and Vice President Mike Pence, in a meeting at the White House to discuss the administration's anti-choice agenda."

[CN: Assault on reproductive rights] Dr. Leana Wen at the Washington Post: The Trump Administration Wants to Censor Doctors: It's Unprecedented — and Unethical. "The Trump-Pence administration just made an unprecedented move to implement an unethical 'gag' rule, prohibiting doctors and nurses from providing millions of patients with full information about their health-care options. This is a serious threat to the deep trust between health-care providers and our patients, and an attack on access to health care for those who need it most. ...The Title X gag rule interferes with the sacred physician-patient relationship by censoring doctors, nurses, and other health-care providers who participate in Title X, our nation's dedicated program for affordable birth control and reproductive health care."

[CN: Anti-choicery] Staff at Feminist Daily Newswire: Anti-Abortion Attack Forces Abortion Services Clinic to Relocate. "Last Thursday, Whole Woman's Health, an abortion clinic located in North Austin, Texas, closed its doors after a faith-based pregnancy center, Austin LifeCare, bought out their lease in an attempt to prevent abortion access. This is the second time an organization has tried to buy their lease out from under them, but previously Whole Women's Health was able to raise the money necessary to keep the location open the first time. However, in order to extend the lease they would have to pay an additional $200,000 from what they originally were paying."

[CN: Anti-choicery] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Emboldened Missouri Lawmakers Pass Abortion 'Trigger Law' Bill and 'Fetal Heartbeat' Ban. "Since Congress confirmed [Donald] Trump's second justice to the Supreme Court last October, state lawmakers have been emboldened to pass extreme anti-abortion laws. ...The latest example of this trend happened in Missouri this week, where lawmakers moved to effectively ban all abortions in the state. On Wednesday, the male-majority Missouri House passed a slew of restrictions, in a 117-39 vote, including a so-called trigger ban that outlaws abortions except in cases of medical emergencies should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, without exceptions for rape or incest."

[CN: Anti-choicery; rape; child abuse; self-harm] Uki Goñi at the Guardian: Girl, 11, Gives Birth to Rapist's Child After Argentina Refuses Abortion.

An 11-year old girl who became pregnant after being raped was forced to give birth after Argentine authorities refused to allow her the abortion to which she was entitled.

The authorities ignored repeated requests for an abortion from the child, called "Lucía" to protect her identity, as well as her mother and a number of Argentine women's right activists. After 23 weeks of pregnancy, she had to undergo a caesarean section on Tuesday. The baby is unlikely to survive.

The move has been described as the "worst kind of cruelty for this child" and has been blamed on an anti-choice strategy in the country to force girls to carry their pregnancies to term.

Lucía told the psychologist at the hospital to which she was admitted after two suicide attempts: "I want you to remove what the old man put inside me."

Sob. This is just unmitigated cruelty. And it's what the Republican Party wants America to look like.

[CN: Misogyny] Ephrat Livni at Quartz: Only Six Countries Worldwide Have Equal Legal Rights for Women and Men. "In a new report, the World Bank examined 35 indicators of legal equality in 187 countries, covering everything from property ownership and inheritance laws to job protections and pension policies, along with rules governing marriage, movement, and travel, pay, and personal safety. It found that men and women are completely equal, legally speaking, in just six countries, where women are provided with all of the same opportunities as men and legislating protections that promote gender parity, such as parental leave and equal pay laws." Those countries are: Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Sweden. And I'm guessing many women who live in those countries would still have something to say about that.

[CN: Trans hatred] Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: Trump Administration Tells Congress That Being Transgender Is Like Having a Disease. "While the Michael Cohen hearing was stealing the spotlight Wednesday, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel held its own hearing on [Donald] Trump's transgender military ban. After stirring testimony from a panel of five out trans service members, two representatives from the administration then attempted to defend the ban — and ended up doing so by comparing being transgender to having a disease." In good news, the Democrats on the subcommittee pushed back on that horseshit, hard.

[CN: Anti-vaxxers; harassment] Julia Carrie Wong at the Guardian: Anti-Vaxx 'Mobs': Doctors Face Harassment Campaigns on Facebook.

When the naturopath Elias Kass testified before a Washington state senate committee on 20 February with a baby on his chest and a pacifier in his hand, he knew that his arguments would be unpopular with the anti-vaccine activists in the room. Amid a measles outbreak that has infected 66 people so far, legislators were considering a bill to eliminate personal and philosophical exemptions for childhood vaccinations, and Kass was one of several practitioners to speak in support of the measure.

Kass faced some anger in the hallway after the hearing, he said, with one person calling him "a disgusting liar." But it wasn't until several hours later that "the shit hit the fan." That's when Kass realized that his Facebook page was being flooded with one-star reviews calling him everything from a "disgrace" and a "pedophile" to a "Nazi pharma shill" and "scumbag shilling for infanticide." Kass disabled the Yelp-like reviews feature on the page, but that didn't stop the onslaught, which moved into the page's comments and across the ecosystem of anti-vaxx Facebook pages and groups. By Monday, five days after his brief testimony, he had compiled a photo gallery with hundreds of screenshots of abusive comments.

[CN: Anti-Semitism; video may autoplay at link] Karma Allen at ABC News: 12-Year-Old New York Boy Arrested in Connection with Anti-Semitic Graffiti at School. "A 12-year-old boy was arrested on Wednesday after officials found anti-Semitic graffiti scribbled along the grounds of an elementary school playground in New York. A custodian discovered dozens of swastikas and anti-Semitic messages like 'Hail Hitler' and 'No Jews Allowed' written in chalk outside of P.S. 139 in Queens last Friday, police said. The boy was arrested by the New York Police Department's Hate Crimes Task Force, Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said in a statement Wednesday."

And finally... Makena Kelly at the Verge: Nevada Senator Takes on Racial Ad Targeting in New Data Privacy Bill. "Today, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) is introducing a data privacy bill that would explicitly bar platforms like Facebook and Google from serving targeted ads that discriminate against protected groups, particularly by race, sexual orientation, or gender. The DATA Privacy Act would empower the Federal Trade Commission to put in place specific definitions for what is considered discriminatory behavior in targeted ad and data practices. It would also extend the FTC's civil penalty authority for violations of those rules, alongside broader protections on user data." Long overdue.

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