We Resist: Day 572

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, August 14, 2018
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.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Trump Starts the Day by Expressing Contempt for the Rule of Law — Again and The Republican Party Abets Trump's Tyranny.

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


Alyza Sebenius at Bloomberg: Hackers Already Attacking Midterm Elections, Raising U.S. Alarms. "The U.S. midterm elections are at increasing risk of interference by foreign adversaries led by Russia, and cybersecurity experts warn the Trump administration isn't adequately defending against the meddling. At stake is control of the U.S. Congress. The risks range from social media campaigns intended to fool American voters to sophisticated computer hacking that could change the tabulation of votes. At least three congressional candidates have already been hit with phishing attacks that strongly resemble Russian sabotage in the 2016 campaign. Among them was Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat in one of the year’s most hotly contested races."

[Content Note: Racism; surveillance] Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian at the Daily Beast: Chinese Cops Now Spying on American Soil. "A major human rights crisis is unfolding in northwestern China, according to the United Nations, which said last week that there were credible reports that the Chinese government is holding one million or more ethnic minorities in secretive detention camps. Yet even for those who have escaped China, surveillance and intimidation have followed. As part of a massive campaign to monitor and intimidate its ethnic minorities no matter where they are, Chinese authorities are creating a global registry of Uighurs who live outside of China, threatening to detain their relatives if they do not provide personal and identifying information to Chinese police. This campaign is now reaching even Uighurs who live in the United States."

[CN: War; death]


Meanwhile, the U.S. president is engaging in Twitter Theater with his latest fake nemesis:


Even if Omarosa isn't actively coordinating with Trump to sell her books and help him out in the process, the press still hasn't learned to identify when supposedly negative narratives actually help Trump.

"OMG THESE TAPES ARE GONNA BE THE END OF HIM!" Oh are they now.

Omarosa is not an enemy of Trump, and he is not her enemy. They are two actors, staging a play, to their mutual benefit. They don't have to like each other, which isn't the point. It doesn't even matter to her if he's a racist, sexist piece of shit. (She knew all of that when she accepted the job in his administration!) He can help her, and she can help him, and that's all that matters to either of them.

But while the nation and world democracies collapse, we're back to debating whether Trump is really a racist and gossiping about whether there's a recording of him using a racist slur.


And that's really all I have to say about that.

* * *

[CN: Nativism; white supremacy; abuse. Covers entire section.]

Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: ICE Agents Set 'Trap' for Immigrants Seeking Legal Residency.
Two federal immigration agencies worked together in a coordinated effort to set deportation traps for unsuspecting immigrants seeking legal status, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleged in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen this week.

According to the Boston Globe, the two agencies arranged meetings for the undocumented immigrants at government offices, where they were subsequently arrested, and in some cases deported.

According to e-mails obtained by the Globe between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and employees of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), ICE asked government officials to space out the meetings so that the public wouldn't catch on and draw "negative media interests."

"As far as scheduling goes, I would prefer not to do them all at one time as it is [not] only a strain on our ability to transport and process several arrests at once, but it also has the potential to be a trigger for negative media interests, as we have seen in the past," Andrew Graham, an ICE officer, wrote to a USCIS employee in one email from October.
Rage seethe boil.

Jorge Rivas at Colorlines: Feds Crack Down on Volunteers Helping Migrants Survive the Arizona Desert. "Nine humanitarian volunteers with the group No More Deaths are facing federal charges after leaving water bottles for migrants in the Arizona desert. They are charged with misdemeanors for driving in a wilderness area, entering a wildlife refuge without a permit, and abandonment of property. ...One No More Deaths volunteer, Scott Warren, is facing felony human-smuggling charges for allegedly providing two migrants with 'food and water for approximately three days,' according to United States District Court of Arizona records."

Tina Vasquez at Rewire.News: New Immigrant-Led Coalition Is 'Going to Get People Out of Sanctuary'. "A new nationwide coalition has formed to free the people forced by the Trump administration to enter churches where they have been confined for weeks, months, and in one instance, more than a year. Called Colectivo Santuario, the coalition comprises immigrants in sanctuary, immigrant organizers, attorneys, and allies in faith communities spanning seven states—Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia. ...'I'm grateful to be here, but it's a certain kind of suffering being stuck in one place. I call it a 'golden cage.' So many good people help us, we are never lacking food, shelter; we have everything we need, but we can't leave,' [said Juana Luz Tobar Ortega, a 50-year-old immigrant from Guatemala who entered sanctuary in North Carolina in May 2017]."

* * *

Jay Michaelson at the Daily Beast: There Are Painful Problems in the Vetting of Brett Kavanaugh. "Arguably the most important domestic act of Donald Trump's presidency — shifting the Supreme Court to the right — is being carried out in an unprecedented and, if the standards of the legal profession were being applied, unethical way. That's because the release of the records of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's conservative pick to replace the centrist justice Anthony Kennedy, is being overseen by Kavanaugh's own former deputy at the Bush White House, William Burck, now working as an attorney for the former president."

[CN: Death penalty; torture]


[CN: Carcerality; class warfare] Imani Gandy at Rewire.News: New Lawsuit Challenges Illegal "Debtors' Prison" System in Arkansas County. "Thousands of White County residents have been and will be stripped of their constitutional rights, incarcerated solely because they are indigent and unable to pay the court fees and fines that they owe, according to the lawsuit filed by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. That's because District Judge Mark Derrick, who presides in in eight different courtrooms in eight different towns in White County (about an hour from Little Rock) and two additional courts in another county, has implemented a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to failure to pay court debt."


[CN: Animal harm] Mallory Pickett at the Guardian: Toxic 'Red Tide' Algae Bloom Is Killing Florida Wildlife and Menacing Tourism. "[This year] 267 tons of marine life, including thousands of small fish, 72 Goliath groupers, and even a 21-ft whale shark have washed up on the beach [of Sanibel Island off the coast of southwestern Florida] since July — thanks to a a disastrous 'red tide' of toxic algae. ...While algal blooms are common here, they are usually constrained to a few months in late summer or early fall, and are mainly noticeable for the dark, greenish-red color they give the water. But this bloom [of Karenia brevis] has lasted from one season into the next without reprieve, and achieved the unusually high densities believed to be responsible for killing so much wildlife."

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

Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.

blog comments powered by Disqus