We Resist: Day 902

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, July 10, 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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Earlier today by me: Migrant Children Allege Sexual Abuse and Retaliation and Primarily Speaking.

Let's start out with some GOOD news today!

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Jenna Amatulli at the Huffington Post: Women's World Cup Soccer Champs Praised at NYC Parade with Glorious Signs. "The United States Women's National Team was honored in New York City with a parade on Wednesday after they brought home the 2019 Women's World Cup — and the signs did not disappoint." There is a great collection of the signs that greeted Donald Trump's least favorite professional sports team, but this one is defo my favorite:


So, yesterday, Amy McGrath announced that she is challenging Mitch McConnell for his senate seat, and then this happened... Kasie Hunt at NBC News: McGrath Raises a Record $2.5 Million on First Day of Senate Campaign. "Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath raised more than $2.5 million in the first 24 hours of her campaign against Mitch McConnell — over $1 million of it coming in just the first five and a half hours after she announced, according to her campaign. McGrath campaign manager Mark Nickolas said it's the most ever raised in the first 24 hours of a Senate campaign." RIGHT FUCKING ON.

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: California Becomes First State to Give Health Care to Some Undocumented Migrants. "California has become the first state to offer taxpayer-supported health care to some undocumented migrants after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law Tuesday. The new laws...will allow around 90,000 low-income adults below the age of 25 to access the state's Medicaid program, even if they're undocumented. ...Newsom said he plans to further expand coverage to more adults in the years to come." Woot!

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Ann E. Marimow and Jonathan O'Connell at the Washington Post: Appeals Court Dismisses Emoluments Lawsuit Involving [Donald] Trump's D.C. Hotel.
A federal appeals court Wednesday sided with [Donald] Trump, dismissing a lawsuit claiming the president is illegally profiting from foreign and state government visitors at his luxury hotel in downtown Washington.

The unanimous ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is a victory for the president in a novel case brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia involving anti-corruption provisions in the emoluments clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

In its ruling, the three-judge panel said the attorneys general lacked legal standing to bring the lawsuit alleging the president is violating the Constitution when his business accepts payments from state and foreign governments.
Crap.

[CN: Rape culture]


Nicole Lafond at TPM: DOJ Instructs Two Mueller Deputies Not to Appear for Closed-Door Testimony. "House Democrats are attempting to make arrangements for two of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's deputies to appear for a private, closed-door testimony on the same day that Mueller is set to testify — July 17. But the Justice Department has reportedly instructed the two special counsel staffers, James Quarles and Aaron Zebley, not to appear. According to new reports in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the DOJ's interference could muddy the deal that the department and lawmakers reached last month to get Mueller's testimony." Muddy the deal. That's polite.

Peter Jamison at the Washington Post: Trump's July Fourth Event and Weekend Protests Bankrupted D.C. Security Fund, Mayor Says. "Trump's overhauled July Fourth celebration cost the D.C. government $1.7 million, an amount that — combined with police expenses for demonstrations through the weekend — has bankrupted a special fund used to protect the nation's capital from terrorist threats and provide security at events such as rallies and state funerals. In a letter to the president Tuesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) warned that the fund has now been depleted and is estimated to be running a $6 million deficit by Sept. 30. The mayor also noted that the account was never reimbursed for $7.3 million in expenses from Trump's 2017 inauguration." Fucking grifter.

Ally Boguhn at Rewire.News: Trump's Human Rights Commission Could Undercut Human Rights.
The Trump administration launched an advisory commission this week tasked with examining human rights in foreign policy — but advocates worry it could undermine global reproductive rights.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced the creation of the U.S. State Department's Commission on Unalienable Rights. He said the commission will conduct "an informed review of the role of human rights in American foreign policy" and provide him "with advice on human rights." A notice published in the Federal Register in May said the commission will provide "fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation's founding principles of natural law and natural rights."

Though the State Department has an office devoted to human rights, the commission was "conceived with almost no input from" it, Politico reported. Officials told the outlet that the commission is "advisory and will not create policy, and maintain that everyone has 'unalienable rights,' including LGBTQ people and other minorities."

Mary Ann Glendon, a professor of law at Harvard University who teaches on human rights, will chair the commission. Glendon's anti-choice activism earned her the "Proudly Pro-Life Award" from National Right to Life in 2009. That year, Glendon turned down a medal from the University of Notre Dame, citing its decision to give President Barack Obama an honorary degree.
Fucking hell.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link; ableist language at link] Jonathan Cohn at the Huffington Post: Obamacare Had Another Bad Day in Court; That's Pretty Alarming. "[T]he mere possibility that the two Republicans would invalidate part, let alone all, of the Affordable Care Act is hard to fathom. The consequences of such a ruling would be devastating, and the underlying argument of the lawsuit is, according to a wide array of respectable legal experts, positively [absurd]. And yet, here we are."

Rishika Dugyala at Politico: Pence Aide Still Refuses to Reveal Why Trip Was Mysteriously Scrapped. "The mystery surrounding Vice President Mike Pence's scrapped trip to New Hampshire last week is still alive, with his chief of staff telling reporters Wednesday morning that he can't yet offer up an explanation. 'I can't talk about that,' Pence chief of staff Marc Short told reporters on the White House driveway. He said the public could expect an answer 'in a few weeks.'" What horseshit. [Background.]

[CN: Nativism] Josh Israel at ThinkProgress: GOP Congressman Claims without Proof That 80% to 90% of Asylum Claims Aren't Legit. "Texas Rep. Michael Cloud (R) falsely stated that few asylum seekers have legitimate claims of political persecution, and that their cases should therefore merit only a very brief evaluation lasting 30 minutes to two hours maximum. The House Freedom Caucus member combined debunked statistics and a misunderstanding of what makes people eligible for asylum in a Fox News interview." These fucking lying assholes.

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Maxwell Tani at the Daily Beast: CNN Tells Digital Staff: Take Some Cues from Fox News. "Fox News is already beating CNN on TV. Now, to ensure the conservative news network doesn't start winning online, CNN wants to make sure its employees know what stories Fox News is writing about. In recent months, CNN's newly revamped audience development team has begun highlighting the top daily stories people are searching for online in a widely seen company Slack messaging channel. The network has begun placing small fox emojis next to stories the right-leaning cable outlet covered online that CNN missed." Goddammit.

[CN: Misogyny] Larrison Campbell at Mississippi Today: Robert Foster, GOP Governor Candidate, Denies Woman Reporter Access Because of Her Gender. "In two phone calls this week, Colton Robison, Foster's campaign director, said a male colleague would need to accompany this reporter on an upcoming 15-hour campaign trip because they believed the optics of the candidate with a woman, even a working reporter, could be used in a smear campaign to insinuate an extramarital affair. 'The only reason you think that people will think I'm having a (improper) relationship with your candidate is because I am a woman,' this reporter said. Robison said the campaign simply 'can't risk it.'" Seethe.

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