We Resist: Day 663

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: Midterm Elections: The Latest and Trump to Ask Kirstjen Nielsen to Pretend to Resign.

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

[Content Note: Wildfires; death and displacement] Dani Anguiano and Gabrielle Canon at the Guardian: California Wildfires: Camp Fire Becomes State's Deadliest with 42 People Killed.

The Camp Fire in northern California has killed 42 people, making it the deadliest in state history, authorities said.

The blaze is also the most destructive the state has ever seen, incinerating the town of Paradise and displacing more than 50,000 people as other blazes continued to rage farther south.

A total of 7,177 buildings have been destroyed, Cal Fire said. The fire grew to 183 sq miles Monday, and containment was up to 30%.

Two people have also died in the Woolsey Fire, a major blaze around Los Angeles.

On Monday officials said the Woolsey Fire had burned 91,572 acres and was 20% contained. "We are working all day and all night to increase and reinforce that containment," said the Los Angeles county fire chief, Daryl Osby. The fire had destroyed 370 structures, with 57,000 still at risk, Osby said.

My god. Some suggestions on ways to help can be found here.

Meanwhile, the president is spending his time dumping embarrassing tweetshitz, as usual. Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: Trump Mocks France for Being Invaded by the Nazis. "Trump unleashed a new round of Twitter rage Tuesday morning, this time aimed at French President Emmanuel Macron, whom he visited in Paris over Veterans' Day weekend. In one tweet, the president appears to mock France for having been invaded by Nazi Germany some 80 years ago. 'Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia,' he wrote. 'But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two — How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!'" JFC.

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In good resistance news...

Pete Williams at NBC News: State of Maryland Asks Judge to Declare Rosenstein Acting Attorney General. "The state of Maryland plans to ask a federal judge on Tuesday for an order declaring that Rod Rosenstein is the acting attorney general — not Matt Whitaker, who was appointed to that position last week after the forced resignation of Jeff Sessions. ...Maryland's attorney general, Brian Frosh, a Democrat, argues in court documents to be filed Tuesday that if Trump had the kind of authority the White House claims, he could fire the attorney general 'then appoint a carefully selected senior employee who he was confident would terminate or otherwise severely limit the investigation.' Maryland argues that Whitaker's selection by Trump violated federal law and exceeded the appointment authority in the Constitution." Right on!

As you may recall, Jeff Sessions found himself at the blunt end of Trump's ire ever since he recused himself from the Russia investigation. So Trump is sure to be thrilled about this! Nicole Lafond at TPM: Whitaker Talking with Ethics Officials About Possible Recusal from Mueller Probe. "Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker is currently in conversation with ethics officials within the Justice Department about his possible recusal from oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, DOJ officials said Monday night, according to Politico. ...Top Democrats have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from overseeing the probe, citing Whitaker's past comments disparaging Mueller and the investigation." That would be hilarious if it weren't signaling the end of the U.S. democracy.

And in other legal challenges to Trump's authoritarianism...

"CNN has filed a lawsuit against [Donald] Trump & several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of Jim Acosta's access to the White House. ...The suit alleges that Acosta and CNN's First and Fifth Amendment rights are being violated by the ban." https://t.co/6nS280y3NE

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 13, 2018

Good. I hope they prevail (she says, internally rage-thrashing about Trump's stacking the courts care of Mitch McConnell's unethical fuckery and grieving what a short window there is before no decent person will ever prevail in the courts against Republicans for at least a generation, if not forever).

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[CN: Nativism; gun violence] Yeganeh Torbati at Reuters: Fewer Foreign Students Coming to United States for Second Year in Row. "The number of international students entering U.S. colleges and universities has fallen for the second year in a row, a nonprofit group said on Tuesday, amid efforts by the Trump administration to tighten restrictions on foreigners studying in the United States. ...Several factors are driving the decrease. Visa and immigration policy changes by the Trump administration have deterred some international students from enrolling, college administrators and immigration analysts said. ...[H]eadlines about mass shootings also may have deterred some students, said Allan Goodman, president of IIE. 'Everything matters from safety, to cost, to perhaps perceptions of visa policy,' Goodman said."

[CN: Nativism; video may autoplay at link] Elise Foley at the Huffington Post: Trump Asylum Ban Will Extend to Thousands of Unaccompanied Immigrant Minors. "A controversial Trump administration policy suspending asylum for immigrants who cross the border illegally will also apply to kids and teenagers traveling to the United States without their parents, contradicting last week's comment by a high-level Trump official that it 'does not apply' to unaccompanied minors. 'This suspension does not apply to any unaccompanied alien children as defined in the [Immigration and Nationality Act],' a senior administration official told reporters Friday on a briefing call, which was jointly hosted by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice. (To participate in the briefing, reporters had to agree to quote the officials without using their names.) DHS issued a press release, titled 'DHS Myth vs. Fact,' on Friday that stated the rule 'does not limit the rights of unaccompanied alien minors.' But unaccompanied minors are, in fact, affected by the policy change."

Not only are the Trump Regime a bunch of fucking liars, but they consistently try to justify their nationalist agenda by claiming to be protecting us from violent criminals and terrorists. The next time you hear that line of stinking horseshit, think of this...

[CN: Terrorism] Carol Rosenberg at McClatchy: Trump Closed an Office That Tracked Ex-Gitmo Inmates; Now We Don't Know Where Some Went. "The Trump administration closed a diplomatic office designed to keep track of released Guantánamo inmates and make sure they didn't return to their insurgencies. And now the U.S. government has lost track of several of them, including one who has returned to a terrorist-held part of Syria, a McClatchy investigation has found. ...An aide at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who was allowed to brief McClatchy on condition of anonymity, called Syria 'the worst place for an angry [former detainee] to turn up.'"

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[CN: Police brutality; racism; death; gun violence] Mark Guarino, Alex Horton, and Michael Brice-Saddler at the Washington Post: 'They Basically Saw a Black Man with a Gun': Police Kill Armed Guard While Responding to Call.

It began in a way gun advocates have suggested would curtail violence. A gun comes out. Shots are fired. A "good guy with a gun" steps in to help before police can respond.

The tidy theoretical doesn't account for the chaotic unknowns when police arrive and can't tell a "good guy" with a gun from a "bad guy" with a gun.

The theory turned to grim reality at Manny's Blue Room Bar in Robbins, Ill., outside Chicago early Sunday.

Police shot and killed the good guy. Jemel Roberson, 26, was working security.

"Everybody was screaming out, 'He was a security guard,' and they basically saw a black man with a gun and killed him," witness Adam Harris told WGN.

The tidy theoretical doesn't account for the chaotic unknowns. Yeah. "Chaotic unknowns" like deadly racism.

[CN: Death] Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, and David D. Kirkpatrick at the New York Times: 'Tell Your Boss': Recording Is Seen to Link Saudi Crown Prince More Strongly to Khashoggi Killing. "Shortly after the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated last month, a member of the kill team instructed a superior over the phone to 'tell your boss,' believed to be Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, that the operatives had carried out their mission... The recording, shared last month with the CIA director, Gina Haspel, is seen by intelligence officials as some of the strongest evidence linking Prince Mohammed to the killing of Mr. Khashoggi... While the prince was not mentioned by name, American intelligence officials believe 'your boss' was a reference to Prince Mohammed." Goddammit.

[CN: Misogyny] Lindsay Gibbs at ThinkProgress: Their College Told Them Running in Sports Bras Was 'Distracting' — Here's How They Fought Back.

A couple of weeks ago, members of the Women's Cross Country team at Rowan University were running grueling 5:30 mile repeats on the track, when the coach of the football team approached their coach and told them that they needed to cover up.

You see, some of the women on the team were practicing in sports bras, and apparently, that was distracting to the football players.

This did not sit well with the runners at all. On the ensuing Friday, there was a closed-door meeting at the Athletics Department to discuss the matter. The cross-country runners stood silently outside, as a way to show support for their coach, speaking on their behalf.

The Athletics Department's verdict just heaped further insult on the team.

Not only would the women not be allowed to practice solely in sports bras anymore, they were going to have to move their practices to the high-school track across the street so that their presence wouldn't upset the delicate balance of football practice, which takes place on the football field inside the track.

...Gina Capone, a junior who ran on the Cross Country team in 2017 and remains close with the current crop of runners, knew she had to do something. ...So last Thursday, after securing the permission of her former teammates — including sophomore Brianna De la Cruz and senior Hannah Vendetta — Capone penned a fiery article on The Odyssey, a self-publishing platform targeted at college students.

...In just four days, Capone's article has nearly 200,000 views, and the story has been covered everywhere from the New York Times to Sports Illustrated. It has been, in one word, 'overwhelming.'

It's also been effective, at least partially.

With everything else women have to deal with at this particular moment, I can't even fucking deal with the fact that women are having to deal with this retrofuck misogyny, too! FUCKING HELL. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER, MEN. JESUS JONES.

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And finally, I will end by saying (not for the first time and probably not the last) that I ♥ Rep. Elijah Cummings.

Nicole Lafond at TPM: Cummings Asks Colleagues, Incoming Dems to Ignore Anti-Pelosi Factions. "Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee and an influential Democrat in the House, sent a letter to colleagues and the incoming class of House Democrats on Monday, urging them to keep House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in leadership and ignore the faction of members whispering about her ouster. 'For two years, (a small group of House Democrats) asserted that with Nancy Pelosi as our leader, Democrats could never win back the House,' he wrote... 'They claimed that these relentless Republican attacks made Leader Pelosi appear too divisive and they argued that she should step aside for the good of the party. But then last Tuesday happened. And the American people obliterated the theory that Nancy Pelosi could not lead House Democrats to victory.'" YES!!!

Cummings is a man who knows how to effectively resist. Damn!

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