We Resist: Day 824

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, April 23, 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.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: An Observation and No No No No No No No and Primarily Speaking.

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

As I've said before, I tend to avoid sharing Donald Trump's prolific tweetshitz here, but, occasionally, there is something worthy of comment. He really went off on a tear this morning, and this entry was particularly notable:


Trump is braying that the New York Times should "get down on their knees and beg for forgiveness" on the same day they published an execrable mess in which a Democratic former White House Press Secretary argues that Democrats should let Trump be continue to be president unimpeded.

I really hope the rest of the political press is paying attention. There is no sycophancy adequate enough to satiate Donald Trump. He is an abuser to his core, and he will continue to abuse the press, no matter how much they pander to him. If they write that he is the best president the U.S. has ever had, he will rage that they did not say he is the best president the world has ever had.

Abuse is the point. Discrediting them among his supporters will never cease. And indulging him is precisely the wrong response to that.

He's an unpopular aspiring authoritarian. Treat him accordingly.


Tom Hamburger at the Washington Post: White House Instructs Official to Ignore Democratic Subpoena over Security Clearances.
A former White House personnel security director has been instructed by the White House not to show up Tuesday for questioning by the House Oversight Committee.

The move appears to be the latest effort by the Trump administration to push back against congressional inquiries targeting the White House, which have proliferated since Democrats took control of the House in January.

White House deputy counsel Michael M. Purpura wrote a letter Monday asking the former security director, Carl Kline, not to show up as the committee had requested. Kline is now working at the Defense Department.

In a letter to Kline's lawyer obtained by The Washington Post, Purpura wrote that a committee subpoena asking Kline to appear "unconstitutionally encroaches on fundamental executive branch interests."

In a separate letter Monday, Kline's attorney, Robert Driscoll, told the panel that his client would adhere to the White House recommendation.
"Fuck your checks. Fuck your balances. Fuck you." — Donald J. Trump, probably.

Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky at Politico: Trump Isn't Just Reversing Obama's Foreign Policies; He's Making It Impossible for His Successor to Go Back to Them. "The administration is focused like a laser beam on irreversibly burning U.S. bridges to Iran and administering last rites to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And if you look at the administration's actual policies, it's clear they aren't just meant to overturn President Barack Obama's actions, but also to create points of no return — so that successor administrations cannot revert to past approaches even if they want to. If the administration succeeds — and it's well on its way to doing so — it will have fundamentally damaged U.S. national interests for years to come."

That is what I mean when I say that Trump "leverages the power of the presidency to destroy our democracy as swiftly and irreparably as he can."

[Content Note: Sexual violence]


That, of course, is a direct rebuke of Hillary Clinton's foreign policy agenda. Sob.

Speaking of Hillary Clinton... [CN: Misogyny] Alex Roarty and Katie Glueck at McClatchy: 'There's Still a Lot of Sexism': Dem Leaders Frustrated by Double Standards Facing Female Candidates.
Stephanie Schriock shudders when she remembers how critics reacted to Elizabeth Warren's 2020 campaign announcement, sharply questioning whether she was likable enough to become president.

It's not a question Schriock thinks even the most cantankerous male candidates face.

"Elizabeth Warren spent the first week of her presidential campaign battling back whether she was likable enough," said Schriock, president of EMILY's List, a group that supports Democratic women in favor of abortion rights. "Now, I worked in the Senate, and I have seen Senator [Bernie] Sanders. And I'm just going to tell you, he's not that likable."

Schriock's frustration with perceived double standards for women candidates is shared by many influential Democrats, who argue that their party's half-dozen female presidential candidates have been repeatedly hindered by unfair treatment in the early stages of the campaign. In interviews, a group of leading Democrats sought to sound the alarm about what they regard as embedded sexism in the 2020 primary — both from their own voters and in some media coverage — that has resulted in a tilted playing field.

"I feel frustrated because I don't feel that the women candidates are getting the same kind of coverage," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Some female candidates receive short-lived attention when they roll out a sweeping set of policy proposals, the Washington Democrat added, "Whereas candidates do something like get on a countertop and that gets covered for days."

She was referring to Beto O'Rourke, whose penchant for standing on tabletops while campaigning has made headlines. Jayapal, Schriock, and other Democrats interviewed emphasized that they didn't mean to direct their criticism at male candidates, most of whom they described as talented and qualified.

But they did want to take aim at the broader cultural dynamics that they think have tipped the scales in favor of these men — even as a record-number of serious female candidates compete for the nomination.
Gee, it's almost like it really wasn't just that Hillary Clinton was uniquely unlikeable after all. Huh! Who could have predicted.

[CN: Islamophobia] Erin Banco at the Daily Beast: Sen. Lindsey Graham Bewilders Ivanka Trump's Women's Conference with Terrorism Rant. "While on a trip to Côte d'Ivoire last week to help Ivanka Trump promote women's access to capital in Africa, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned of religious wars with 'radical ideology' that would be 'hell on earth for women' if they are not 'destroyed.' 'It's the enemy of mankind, not just the United States,' Graham said, of the theoretical invaders, according to a recording provided to The Daily Beast. 'Some of our soldiers will be needed, but not a lot. Most of the fighting will be done by people in the region. I promise you the enemy will lose because very few mothers or fathers want to turn their daughters over to ISIS, al Qaeda, or any other group.' As the senator spoke, confused attendees could be heard on the recording asking each other in hushed tones what he was talking about."


[CN: Rightwing violence; video may autoplay at link] Staff at CBS News: Militia Leader Allegedly Told FBI They Were Training to Assassinate Obama, Hillary Clinton. "The leader of a militia group who's been detaining migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border allegedly told the FBI his militia was training to assassinate former President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Democratic donor George Soros. Larry Hopkins, head of the United Constitutional Patriots, is charged with possession a firearm as a felon and could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted." JFC.

[CN: Sexual abuse] Staff at NBC New York: Thousands of Boy Scout Leaders Face New Child Sex Allegations; Names Expected to Be Released Today. "Thousands of Boy Scouts of America leaders face new charges of sexual abuse, claims that are expected to be revealed in detail Tuesday in New York and New Jersey. Names of nearly 200 of the accused are also expected to be released. The allegations came to light Monday night and a group of alleged victims was expected to testify about the widespread pattern abuse within the scouting organization later Tuesday. The victims' attorney, Jeff Anderson, called it a system of denial and cover-ups. He claims the Boy Scouts have files on child abusers within their ranks dating back to the 1940s." Unfathomable. I take up space in solidarity with the victims of this vile systemic abuse.

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