We Resist: Day 816

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 Fannie: Dispatches From the Queer Resistance #8 — A Pete Buttigieg Special. And by me: Trump's Relentless Campaign of Stochastic Terrorism: Rep. Ilhan Omar Edition and Primarily Speaking.

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

Millions of Americans will put tax checks in the mail today. Meanwhile, the secretary of the treasury and head of the IRS continue to refuse to turn over Trump's tax returns to Congress for reasons even they can't clearly articulate. #TaxDay

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 15, 2019

Donald Trump still has not released his tax returns, and of course he is leveraging the power of his office to ensure that he will never have to release them.

Andrew Desiderio at Politico: Trump Attorneys Warn Accounting Firm Not to Hand Over Financial Records.

[Donald] Trump's attorneys are warning of potential legal action if an accounting firm turns over a decade of the president's financial records to the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

Trump attorneys William S. Consovoy and Stefan Passantino are urging Mazars USA not to comply with a subpoena that Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) plans to issue on Monday for Trump's financial documents, calling it a politically motivated scheme to take down the president.

"It is no secret that the Democrat Party has decided to use its new House majority to launch a flood of investigations into the president's personal affairs in hopes of using anything they can find to damage him politically," Consovoy and Passantino wrote to Jerry D. Bernstein, Mazars' outside counsel.

The attorneys said they were formally putting Mazars "on notice" — an implicit threat of legal action. They also urged Bernstein to hold off on providing the documents to Cummings until the subpoena can be litigated in court, suggesting that a protracted legal battle is likely to ensue.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is taking a different tack, by making the novel argument that members of Congress are too stupid to understand Trump's highly complicated taxes. No, really. Via Devan Cole at CNN: "'This is a dangerous, dangerous road and frankly, Chris, I don't think Congress, particularly not this group of congressmen and women, are smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume that [Donald] Trump's taxes will be,' Sanders told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. 'My guess is most of them don't do their own taxes, and I certainly don't trust them to look through the decades of success that the President has and determine anything,' she said, adding that attempts to obtain the returns are 'a disgusting overreach.'"

But as Eric Levenson at CNN reports, 10 members of Congress are certified public accountants: "In attacking the fight to obtain Trump's tax returns, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders argued that members of Congress aren't smart enough to understand them anyway. But three Democratic members of Congress are trained as certified public accountants — professionals licensed by their states to do just that. The Congressional Research Service said there are 10 accountants in this Congress, including two senators and eight House members."

Which isn't even relevant, as members of Congress have access to professional experts who can help them make sense of things in which they don't have personal expertise. Sarah Huckabee Sanders knows that, of course. She's just a mendacious shitwheel, like every other member of the Trump Regime.

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Devlin Barrett at the Washington Post: Mueller Report's Release Is Expected Thursday, Justice Department Says. But not so fast! It's not the whole report. "The Justice Department expects to release on Thursday a redacted version of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report on [Donald] Trump, his associates, and Russia's interference in the 2016 election, setting the stage for further battles in Congress over the politically explosive inquiry." A redacted version. And no mention of the hundreds of pages of exhibits. I expect what will be released is just enough to neuter calls to #releasethereport.

Meanwhile, the collusion is still happening right out in the open:

wow congratulations mitch mcconnell what are the odds a fuckin russian oligarch would choose your state to dump $200 million what are the odds https://t.co/AnC0r5d45a

— darth™ (@darth) April 15, 2019

There is just so much trash to cover every day, so I don't cover anti-democratic shitstain Mitch McConnell as much as I'd like. Let me just take this opportunity to observe that he is one of the worst people ever to serve in federal government in this nation's history. Ever.

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[CN: Stochastic terrorism; Islamophobia; misogynoir] Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: Trump Doubles Down on Islamophobic Attacks as Threats Against Ilhan Omar Rise. "Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said this week she's seen a surge in threats against her life in the days since [Donald] Trump targeted her in an Islamophobic video last week. The White House, however, is showing no signs of backing off its attack. ...Monday morning, Trump doubled down on his attacks, once more accusing Omar of being 'anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and ungrateful.' 'She is out of control,' Trump claimed." Now that's projection if ever I've heard it.

[CN: Misogyny; racism] Charles M. Blow at the New York Times: Demonizing Minority Women. "While white supremacy has historically tried to paint minority men as physically dangerous, it has routinely painted minority women, particularly those strong and vocal, as pathological and reprobate. There is a pattern here. It is expressed not only in the attacks on, and in elevation of, Omar, but also on Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Before them, Trump and his cohorts demonized Representative Maxine Waters, who Trump dubbed 'Low I.Q.,' and Representative Frederica Wilson of Florida."

[CN: Homophobia; death penalty]

BREAKING: The Supreme Court declined to take up the case of a death row inmate, Charles Rhines. He sought to challenge his sentence based on evidence of anti-gay bias in juror statements. https://t.co/VsS63rhsJx pic.twitter.com/dBkenYDWB2

— Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) April 15, 2019

[CN: Nativism; abuse] Justin Glawe and Justin Hamel at the Daily Beast: Border Patrol Holds Hundreds of Migrants in Growing Tent City away from Prying Eyes. "Hundreds of migrants are being held for days in an emerging tent city at a Border Patrol station in a preview of what the Trump administration is reportedly considering to absorb a surge on the border. Five U.S. Army tents meant for battlefield hospitals have been repurposed to hold men, women, and children, including infants. Two of the tents were erected over the past week, expanding the facility's capacity by several hundred people. The tents are tightly surrounded by fences topped with barbed wire, leaving virtually no space for people to roam outside. Inside the tents, according to a congresswoman who was granted access, hundreds languish in fetid conditions."

[CN: Nativism] Nicole Lafond at TPM: Trump Admin to Threaten Countries Whose Nationals Often Overstay Visas. "Trump is planning to launch broader efforts to curb legal immigration by threatening countries whose nationals often overstay their visas, The Wall Street Journal reported. An administration official who spoke to the WSJ said the plan is to put countries 'on notice,' by threatening that it'll be harder for their citizens to obtain visas, or the visas will be shorter, if they don't reduce their rates of overstay. The countries impacted include Nigeria, Chad, Eritrea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone." Those are all African countries.

[CN: Nativism] Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: ICE Now Aided by 'Enhanced' Spy Powers. "Under [Donald] Trump, ICE — the law enforcement agency that arrests and deports undocumented immigrants — has quietly grown closer to at least one of America's intelligence agencies, according to a letter from a top American intelligence official reviewed by The Daily Beast. The change, which came behind closed doors and without fanfare, has concerned civil liberties advocates. And the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), isn't answering questions about it."

And finally, in good resistance news... Tiarra Mukherjee at Colorlines: Yo-Yo Ma Performs at Border: 'Build Bridges, Not Walls'.

The renowned musician, whose Bach Project seeks to bring unity to 36 cities worldwide, performed Johann Sebastian Bach's six cello suites at the foot of the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, which connects Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, in Mexico.

"I've lived my life at the borders. Between cultures. Between disciplines. Between musics. Between generations," Ma told CNN. "In culture, we build bridges, not walls. A country is not a hotel and it's not full."

In an statement about the tour, Ma said there would be days of action in each city, giving him a chance to link with community organizers.

I love everything about that, including the reminder that resistance will look different for each of us, according to our own talents and abilities. Every one of us has something we can do, even if it takes awhile to figure it out, even if it's just to survive.

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