We Resist: Day 193

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, July 31, 2017
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 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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Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: Any Politician Who Says Our Voting Machines Are Secure Is Lying and "Economic Anxiety".

I'll begin today's thread with a special FUCK YOU to the Democrats who are obliging us to divide our energies and resist their anti-choice indecency, too, like we don't already have enough to deal with: Dem Campaign Chief Vows No Litmus Test on Abortion.
Democrats will not withhold financial support for candidates who oppose abortion rights, the chairman of the party's campaign arm in the House said in an interview with The Hill.

Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said there will be no litmus tests for candidates as Democrats seek to find a winning roster to regain the House majority in 2018.

"There is not a litmus test for Democratic candidates," said Luján, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman. "As we look at candidates across the country, you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America."

...Luján, serving his second term as the DCCC's chairman, has cast a wide net for candidates. A map on his office wall highlights districts held by dozens of Republican that he hopes to oust in the 2018 midterm elections.

"To pick up 24 [seats] and get to 218, that is the job. We'll need a broad coalition to get that done," Luján said. "We are going to need all of that, we have to be a big family in order to win the House back."
Did he really just say "we have to be a big family in order to win the House back" to justify compromising on abortion rights? Jesus fucking Jones.


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Robbie Gramer, Dan De Luce, and Colum Lynch at Foreign Policy: How the Trump Administration Broke the State Department. "Veterans of the U.S. diplomatic corps say the expanding front office is part of an unprecedented assault on the State Department: A hostile White House is slashing its budget, the rank and file are cut off from a detached leader, and morale has plunged to historic lows. They say [Donald] Trump and his administration dismiss, undermine, or don't bother to understand the work they perform and that the legacy of decades of American diplomacy is at risk. By failing to fill numerous senior positions across the State Department, promulgating often incoherent policies, and systematically shutting out career foreign service officers from decision-making, the Trump administration is undercutting U.S. diplomacy and jeopardizing America's leadership role in the world, according to more than three dozen current and former diplomats interviewed by FP." Fucking hell.

There is literally nothing this administration does that I don't compare (inevitably unfavorably) to what Hillary Clinton's presidency would have looked like, and all of it is painful, but I am left particularly grief-stricken by the damage being done to the State Department and U.S. diplomacy, given Clinton's experience, knowledge, and talents in this area.

Louis Nelson at Politico: Pence: We Will 'Hold Russia Accountable for Its Actions'. Okay, player! "Pence's remarks came before members of the U.S., French, British, and Estonian militaries and followed a meeting between the vice president and the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Pence offered optimism that the U.S.-Russia relationship might improve but said that any warming would come with a shift in Moscow's behavior. ...'Under [Donald] Trump, the United States will continue to hold Russia accountable for its actions — and we call on our European allies and friends to do the same,' Pence said Monday in Estonia."

Trump's totes gonna continue (???) to hold Russia accountable, y'all! Great news! And we know we can believe it because Mike Pence always tells the truth! *jumps into Christmas tree*

Hey, speaking of Mike Pence, why is the Washington Post not speaking about Mike Pence?


¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Fredreka Schouten at USA Today: Secret Donations Are Helping to Boost Trump's Agenda, Fights with Investigators.
Groups spending millions in anonymous donations are leading the outside efforts to either defend [Donald] Trump or sell his agenda with voters and Congress, despite the president's repeated calls to "drain the swamp" in Washington of special-interest money.

The political empire affiliated with billionaire Charles Koch has spent $2 million to date to advance Trump's tax-cut blueprint and will hold events this week in Washington to kick off the next phase of its multimillion-dollar campaign to drive congressional support for a comprehensive tax plan to slice corporate tax rates and enact broader tax cuts.

Americans for Prosperity, the Koch network's grass-roots arm, already has 50 events scheduled in August and September to help promote the tax plan.

The pro-Trump Great America Alliance is spending $450,000 on a TV and digital ad that casts special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible collusion between Russia and Trump's campaign as a "rigged game."

The group already has pumped more than $3 million in advertising to advance Trump's policies and has committed to spending $5 million more, said Eric Beach, a Republican strategist who helps run the group.

The Judicial Crisis Network, which spent $7 million to push Trump's top judicial nominee, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, is "prepared to spend whatever we need to spend to help [Donald] Trump fulfill his promise of restoring balance to our federal courts," policy director Carrie Severino said in a statement.

Trump has more than 100 judicial vacancies to fill.

Another pro-Trump group, America First Policies, has spent $5 million push his agenda and to help a Trump-supported congressional candidate in Georgia.

All operate as nonprofits, can accept unlimited funds from virtually any source but are not required to disclose their donors publicly.
That all seems fine.

cartoon image of me with flames of anger crawling up the sides of my face

Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: Trump's Latest Attempt to Gut Obamacare Could Backfire Spectacularly. "As soon as this week, according to Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, Trump intends to decide whether to cut off payments intended to stabilize insurance markets and make health care affordable for many Americans with modest incomes. Trump apparently believes that cutting off these payments will help 'implode' Obamacare. Yet, if Trump should stop the payments, that could have the unintended effect of expanding access to health insurance, even potentially making some health plans free for many families of modest means. The reason why involves a fairly complicated formula governing how most Obamacare exchange customers pay for their health plans, and Trump's apparent unfamiliarity with how that formula operates." It would be nice if one of his spectacular fuck-ups accidentally ended up helping people.

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