We Resist: Day 795

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: Thoughts on Mueller and What's Next and Suspected Arson Attack at California Mosque.

The news is, of course, overwhelmingly about the conclusion of Mueller's investigation. Just a couple of quick related items...

Mueller's report isn't even public yet, and it's "time for a reckoning," but it's still never time for a reckoning on their goddamn hideous coverage of Hillary Clinton, without which we wouldn't be here right now. https://t.co/mF4ZNevEqs

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 25, 2019

Andy Towle at Towleroad: Trump to Seek Revenge on Media and Former Officials Who Accused Him of Collusion. "After falsely declaring himself 'completely exonerated' by the Mueller Report, which nobody has seen aside from his appointee Attorney General William Barr, Trump plans to come for members of the media and former officials who have criticized him. The Washington Post reports: 'Within an hour of learning the findings, Trump called for an investigation of his critics and cast himself as a victim. Aides say Trump plans to highlight the cost of the probe and call for organizations to fire members of the media and former government officials who he believes made false accusations about him, while aggressively mocking his critics and one of his favored enemies, the news media.'"

Luke Barnes at ThinkProgress: Trumpworld Celebrates Mueller Report — and Looks for Retribution. "The president doubled down on those comments as he boarded Air Force One to return to Washington, describing the investigation as an 'illegal takedown that failed,' adding late Sunday that he hoped 'somebody is going to be looking at the other side.' Trump's tweet and follow-up remarks encapsulate his supporters' reaction to the Mueller report. Reaction in Trumpworld swiftly went from relief over the findings to a desire to inflict some sort of payback against those — namely Democrats and members of the media — who had spent the last two years assuming that Mueller would definitively prove collusion between Trump and the Kremlin. 'You're going to see him [Trump] use this as a political bludgeon,' Cliff Sims, a former Trump aide, told CNN."

This is going to get so ugly.

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In other news today...

Carlos Garcia, Carlos Jasso, Diego Ore, Brian Ellsworth, Maria Tsvetkova, and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber at Reuters: Russian Air Force Planes Land in Venezuela Carrying Troops. "Two Russian air force planes landed at Venezuela's main airport on Saturday carrying a Russian defense official and nearly 100 troops, according to media reports, amid strengthening ties between Caracas and Moscow. A flight-tracking website showed that two planes left from a Russian military airport bound for Caracas on Friday, and another flight-tracking site showed that one plane left Caracas on Sunday. That comes three months after the two nations held military exercises on Venezuelan soil that President Nicolas Maduro called a sign of strengthening relations."

Lauren Markham at the Guardian: Who Keeps Buying California's Scarce Water? Saudi Arabia. "But what business does a foreign company have drawing precious resources from a U.S. desert to offset a lack of resources halfway around the globe? What Fondomonte Farms is doing is merely a chapter in the long story of water management in the west, one that pierces the veil on the inanities of the global supply chain — how easy it is to move a commodity like alfalfa, or for that matter lettuce or clementines or iPhones, across more than 13,000 miles of land and sea, how much we rely on these crisscrossing supply lines, and at what cost to our own natural resources."

Catie Keck at Gizmodo: FEMA Breach Exposes Personal Data and Banking Information of 2.3 Million Disaster Survivors. "The Federal Emergency Management Agency may have put the personally identifying information of millions of disaster survivors at risk of fraud and identity theft, according to a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General. The March 15 report said that during an audit of FEMA's Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, it found that the agency shared and subsequently exposed the personal data of 2.3 million survivors of a number of natural disasters that included the 2017 California wildfires as well as hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Survivors of these incidents provided their private information to FEMA in order to obtain assistance such as temporary housing."

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[Content Note: Gun violence; self-harm; death. Covers entire section.]

Kaylee Hartung, Susannah Cullinane, and Holly Yan at CNN: Parkland Mourns 2 Student Suicides a Year After Stoneman Douglas Shooting. "Sydney Aiello, a 2018 graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, died by suicide last week. She survived the attack on Valentine's Day 2018 that killed 17 people at the Florida school — including 14 students and three staff members. Aiello, a Florida Atlantic University student, suffered from survivor's guilt and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, her mom told CNN affiliate WFOR. Then on Saturday, more tragedy struck Parkland when a second student died in what police describe as 'an apparent suicide.' ...'Unfortunately, what we've learned is that the survivors of a traumatic event like a school shooting carry with them a lot of guilt, anxiety, pressures, depression even,' said Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina Petty was killed in last year's shooting."

Nicholas Rondinone at the Hartford Courant: Father of Sandy Hook Victim Avielle Richman Found Dead at Edmond Town Hall After Apparent Suicide. "[Jeremy Richman, 49, the] father of Avielle Richman, one of 20 first-grade students and six educators killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting, was found dead of an apparent suicide at Edmond Town Hall early Monday, police said. ...Richman, who led the charge on mental health issues with his wife in the wake of the shooting, had an office for the Avielle Foundation at Edmond Town Hall. The foundation was Richman's foundation is dedicated to pushing for 'brain science research' to attempt to discover the reasons behind some individuals' murderous actions."

My condolences to the families, friends, classmates and/or colleagues, and communities of the people who died. I am so sorry.

These deaths are painful reminders that gun violence is a reverberating trauma. It changes — and sometimes ends — lives long after the bullets have been shot.

It's one of many reasons that gun violence in the United States is an urgent public health issue. Shame on any politician in this country who refuses to take necessary action to address it.

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