We Resist: Day 823

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 Thursday and earlier today by me: A Divided Nation and World News: Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, and a Russia-North Korea Summit and Primarily Speaking.

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

When CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked Donald Trump about "the portrayal in the Mueller report that his staff often ignored his directives," Trump replied: "Nobody disobeys my orders." Another reporter then asks him, as he is walking away, if he's worried about impeachment. He stops, turns, and says stridently, "Not even a little bit." Then he continues walking away.

Here’s video of Trump telling reporters, “Nobody disobeys my orders.” pic.twitter.com/wtOcKT6xDL

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2019

He sounds more and more like an authoritarian dictator every goddamn day.

And acts like one, too. John Wagner and Rachael Bade at the Washington Post: Trump Sues in Bid to Block Congressional Subpoena of Financial Records.

[Donald] Trump and his business sued House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) in a bid to block a congressional subpoena of his financial records on Monday.

The lawsuit seeks a court order to prevent Trump's accounting firm from complying with what his lawyers say is an improper use of subpoena power by congressional Democrats.

"Democrats are using their new control of congressional committees to investigate every aspect of [Donald] Trump's personal finances, businesses, and even his family," the filing by Trump claims. "Instead of working with the President to pass bipartisan legislation that would actually benefit Americans, House Democrats are singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the President politically."

The filing, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, further escalates a clash between the White House and the Democratic-controlled House over congressional oversight.

That's a very euphemistic way of saying that the sitting president doesn't believe that Congress has the right to do their Constitutional duty of holding him accountable.

Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Carrie Dann at NBC News: The Mueller Report Makes a Damning Case About Trump's Dishonesty. "One of the unmistakable takeaways after reading the Mueller report is how the president of the United States wasn't honest with the American public when it came to Russia and the entire Russia probe." Correct. Also: The president of the United States isn't honest with the American public about literally anything.

Melanie Schmitz at ThinkProgress: Giuliani Defends Trump Campaign's Use of Stolen Russian Information. "Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani defended Russian interference efforts in the 2016 election on Sunday, claiming that 'people had a right to know' what was in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails and those stolen by Russian hackers from the Democratic National Committee. ...'I wonder if there isn't an argument that the people had a right to know that information about Hillary Clinton,' Giuliani said. 'People had a right to know that Hillary Clinton and the people around her were as dishonest, as deceptive, as duplicitous as they actually are.'" The fucking nerve.

Editorial Board at the Washington Post: Trump Is Accused of Gross Abuse of His Office. We're Not Talking About the Mueller Report. "Instead, it concerns the $85.4 billion AT&T-Time Warner merger that the president reportedly sought to pressure the Justice Department to block. ...Even the appearance of impropriety in antitrust enforcement is damaging to public trust. T-Mobile executives spent $195,000 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington after the carrier announced its plan to purchase competitor Sprint. Any decision the Justice Department makes on the merger will now be viewed through that lens: The company has at least given the appearance of believing it could exert influence over enforcers through the chief executive."

Ben Schreckinger at Politico: Reagan's Supply-Side Warriors Blaze a Comeback Under Trump. "Those decades of free-market machinations are now paying off, as a quintet of Ronald Reagan administration alumni — Larry Kudlow, Art Laffer, Steve Forbes, Stephen Moore, and David Malpass — united by undying affection for each other and for laissez-faire economics, have the run of Washington once more. Members of the tight-knit group have shaped Trump's signature tax cut, helped install each other in posts with vast influence over the global economy, and are working to channel Trump's mercantilist instincts into pro-trade policies." Reaganomics destroyed the working class in the '80s, and now its architects want to deliver the death blow.

Staff at the Daily Beast: Trump Admin Cuts Off Waivers for Iran's Oil Sanctions. "The Trump administration said it is ending its 180-day oil waivers against U.S. sanctions that were granted to eight countries that rely on Iranian oil exports, The Wall Street Journal reports. China, India, and Turkey are among those had hoped for an extension of the waivers when they expire May 2. Instead, the White House signaled it will end the dispensation in an attempt to drive Iran's oil exports down to zero."

And despite, or because of, all of the above — authoritarianism, dishonesty, collusion, corruption, harmful policy — Alex Isenstadt reports at Politico: Trump Wins Over Big Donors Who Snubbed Him in 2016. "Deep-pocketed Republicans who snubbed Donald Trump in 2016 are going all in for him in 2020, throwing their weight behind a newly created fundraising drive that's expected to dump tens of millions into his reelection coffers. The effort involves scores of high-powered businessmen, lobbyists, and former ambassadors who raised big money for George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney — and who are now preparing to tap their expansive networks for Trump after rebuffing his first presidential bid."

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[Content Note: LGBTQ discrimination] Robert Barnes at the Washington Post: Supreme Court to Decide If Anti-Discrimination Employment Laws Protect on Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

The Supreme Court on Monday added what could be landmark issues to its docket for the next term: whether federal anti-discrimination laws protect on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The court accepted three cases for the term that begins in October. They include a transgender funeral home director who won her case after being fired; a gay skydiving instructor who successfully challenged his dismissal; and a social worker who was unable to convince a court that he was unlawfully terminated because of his sexual orientation.

The cases shared a common theme: whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, is broad enough to encompass discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Some states protect gay and transgender workers, but federal courts have split on whether federal law provides protection.

These are going to be massive cases, and I am desperately hoping for the best while fearing the worst.

[CN: Nativism] Dakin Andone and Artemis Moshtaghian at CNN: A Member of an Armed Group Detaining Migrants at the Border Has Been Arrested by the FBI. (GOOD.) "Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, is a member of an armed group that had reportedly detained hundreds of migrants near Sunland Park, New Mexico, state Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement. Hopkins — also known as Johnny Horton Jr. — was arrested on felony charges of being in possession of firearms and ammunition, according to a statement from the FBI's Albuquerque field office. Earlier this week, videos posted online purported to show migrants being held by a militia known as the United Constitutional Patriots before being turned over to U.S. Border Patrol." This sort of vigilantism must be nipped in the bud swiftly and decisively.

[CN: Environmental misogyny and racism] Osub Ahmed at Rewire.News: The Threat That Climate Change Poses to Women's Health Is Real. "As we celebrate Earth Day, we should take a moment and consider what our planet is trying to tell us: Extreme weather events and natural disasters are becoming the norm. But less discussed is the impact of climate change on certain communities, particularly women and people of color. The intersection of climate change, women's health and safety, and current federal and state restrictions on reproductive rights is a perfect storm that will put the lives and well-being of women, disproportionately women of color, at risk." A must-read.

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