We Resist: Day 894

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, July 02, 2019
a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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: Quote of the Day and Congressional Delegation Finds Appalling Conditions at Border; Another Death After Detention by ICE and Primarily Speaking.

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

There's a breaking story that is very weird, and I'm not exactly sure what to make of it, but here's what we know as of publication time: Mike Pence was abruptly called back to the White House as he was about to depart for an event in New Hampshire, and administration officials insisted it's not because either Donald Trump or Pence is having any kind of health issue.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has reportedly canceled his plans for today to meet urgently with his defense minister. But administration officials also insist that nothing to do with why Pence was called back to the White House. Just a coincidence.

But.

This is also breaking news: "Fire erupts on one of the Russian navy's deep-sea submersibles, killing 14 sailors, Russian Defense Ministry says."

Now, when I read "fire erupts on one of the Russian navy's deep-sea submersibles," all I can think of is this piece I wrote in March: Russia Threatens to Arm Submarine with Nuclear Doomsday Devices — the second part of which was about Russian ships allegedly lurking near underwater internet cables, with the presumed intent to interfere with them in some way.

The sub in question is "a Russian AS-12, the smallest nuclear sub in the world and also one of the deepest diving." According to Russia's defense ministry, the sub was "studying the bottom of the world ocean" when the fire broke out.

If that sounds neither honest nor reassuring to you, you are certainly not alone.

Anyway. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's something. I'm just putting this here now because I have a suspicion that it will make more sense, and be a useful reference, in the future.

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Andy Sullivan and Makini Brice at Reuters: Trump Plans Tanks and Flyovers at Fourth of July Celebration in Washington.
Donald Trump said on Monday that he plans to display battle tanks on Washington's National Mall as part of a pumped-up Fourth of July celebration that will also feature flyovers by fighter jets and other displays of military prowess.

The military hardware is just one new element in a U.S. Independence Day pageant that will depart significantly from the nonpartisan, broadly patriotic programs that typically draw hundreds of thousands of people to the monuments in downtown Washington.

...Also on the agenda are an extended fireworks display and flyovers by Air Force One, the custom Boeing 747 used by U.S. presidents, and the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels jet squadron.

"I'm going to say a few words, and we're going to have planes going overhead," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "And we're going to have tanks stationed outside."
And that's not all, naturally. [Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Samuel Osborne at the Independent: Trump 'Demands U.S. Military Chiefs Stand Next to Him' at 4th of July Parade. "Mr. Trump has asked the chiefs for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines stand next to him as aircraft from each of their branches of the military fly overhead, the New York Times reports. The event is likely to raise concerns over Mr. Trump's desire to parade U.S. military forces through the streets of the capital in a similar manner to authoritarian regimes such as North Korea, Iran, and China."

Editors of the Washington Post: Trump's Fourth of July Plans Just Keep Getting Worse. "Equally, if not more troubling, is his insistence on a display of military might that will include a flyover of warplanes and the stationing of tanks or other armored military vehicles on the streets of the capital. What this will cost the Defense Department and the National Parks Service is anyone's guess. (Officials have refused comment.) But the question of expense pales in comparison with the message that will be sent by a gaudy display of military hardware that is more in keeping with a banana republic than the world's oldest democracy."

[CN: White supremacy; misogyny] Will Sommer at the Daily Beast: Proud Boys and Allies to Rally in D.C. to Capitalize on 'Trumpstravaganza'. "Members of the far-right Proud Boys men's group and their allies will rally in D.C. on July 6, just a week after violence at rival Portland rallies ratcheted up tensions between groups on both the right and left. ...The Proud Boys — self-described 'Western chauvinists' who adhere to a dizzying array of rules, including restrictions on how much they can masturbate — will be joined by a number of right-wing internet personalities at the 'Rally for Free Speech' at D.C.'s Freedom Plaza. The event's website lists a number of right-wing internet provocateurs, including conservative smear-pusher Jacob Wohl, anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer, British far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos, and former Pizzagate promoter Jack Posobiec."

Fucking hell.

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Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Trump Administration 'Misses Deadline' to Print Census Forms. "The Trump administration has missed its own July 1 deadline to print the paper forms needed for next year's Census, NPR reports. A website tracking the progress of 2020 Census materials shows they're yet to be officially approved by the White House's Office of Management and Budget, which is headed by Trump's acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney."

They are, as Danielle McLean rightly notes at ThinkProgress, deliberately slow-walking the printing.

This, after Trump threatened last week to delay the census if he's not allowed to include his nativist citizenship question. As I noted at the time: This is almost certainly a test ahead of the 2020 election. If Trump is allowed to "delay" or suspend the census without consequence, there is nothing that will stop him from "delaying" or suspending the election, which he already constantly suggests is being "rigged."

[CN: Nativism]


So not only does Trump have nativist allies running all three arms of immigration, but he's got the entire Justice Department being run by a narivist ally, too. JFC.

[CN: Nativism; child abuse. Video may autoplay at link.] Chantal da Silva at Newsweek: Lawyers Who Visited Detained Migrant Children Say Border Officials Barred Them from Seeing the Sickest Kids, Who Were Held Separately.
In an interview with Newsweek, Human Rights Watch U.S. Program Executive Director Nicole Austin-Hillery said U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency personnel refused to grant her and other lawyers visiting the Clint detention center last month access to a "sick ward" where sick children were being detained.

"We asked if we could visit with children who were sick and who had been ill for a few days because our understanding was that there was an area of the facility called the 'sick area' or the 'sick ward' and so, we said we wanted to see those children," Austin-Hillery said. "We wanted to see how those children, who are most vulnerable right now, how they are being treated and being cared for."

However, despite repeated requests, Austin-Hillery said CBP officials refused to grant lawyers access, claiming it was for their own health and safety.

"We were prohibited from seeing those children and we were told it was for our own safety," Austin-Hillery said.

"We told them, 'We don't care. We're not concerned about catching a cold,'" she said.

Ultimately, however, the lawyers were forced to leave the facility without being able to see the children who would be among the most vulnerable at the detention center.
[CN: Nativism] Staff at Reuters: Asylum Seekers Returned to Uncertainty, Danger in Mexico. "The United States government should cease returning asylum seekers to wait in Mexico during their U.S. immigration court proceedings, Human Rights Watch and the Hope Border Institute said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch's 50-page report, ''We Can't Help You Here': U.S. Returns of Asylum Seekers to Mexico,' finds that thousands of asylum seekers from Central America and elsewhere, including more than 4,780 children, are facing potentially dangerous and unlivable conditions after U.S. authorities return them to Mexico."


[CN: Nativism; abuse] Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Homeland Security Admits It's Using Abhorrent Conditions at Detention Centers to Deter Migration. "Poor conditions including overcrowding, flu outbreaks, and a lack of clean clothes are just par for the course at an El Paso border station, according to a report released Monday by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Inspector General. In the report, border patrol argues that these conditions are necessary to stem the flow of migrants to the United States."

Malice is the agenda.

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Philip Bump at the Washington Post: Trump Is Incapable of Accepting That Most Americans Don't Like Him. Yeah, well, I've got news for him: Most of the rest of the fucking planet doesn't like him, either.

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