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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Late yesterday and earlier today by me:
LOLOLOLOL Bernie and
Now Trump's Revenge Commences and
Primarily Speaking.
Here are some more things in the news today...
Earlier today, outside the White House, Donald Trump made his mendacious case for the upcoming war against the members of the intelligence community who investigated him due to the collusion that happens right out in the open. According to Trump, the investigation was "an attempted coup." This is no small charge for a sitting president to make.
It was an illegal investigation. Major. It was an illegal investigation. It was started illegally. Everything about it was crooked. Every single thing about it. There were dirty cops. These were bad people. You look at McCabe and Comey, and you look at Lisa [Page] and Peter Strzok. These were bad people. And this was an attempted coup. This was an attempted takedown of a president. And we beat them. We beat them.
So the Mueller Report, when they talk about obstruction — we fight back! And you know why we fight back? Because I knew how illegal this whole thing was! It was a scam.
In addition to the fact that these statements are terrifying, they are also simply
not true. The investigation was not illegal. It was not an attempted coup. The president is engaging in rank hyperbole (and projection) in order to rationalize the imminent attack he will levy on the people who have tried to hold him accountable.
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[Content Note: Nativism; abuse; death. Covers entire section.]
Salvador Rizzo at the Washington Post:
Trump Digs In on False Claim That He Stopped Obama's Family Separation Policy. "'President Obama had child separation. Take a look. The press knows it, you know it, we all know it. I didn't have — I'm the one that stopped it. President Obama had child separation. …President Obama separated children. They had child separation. I was the one that changed it, okay?' — President Trump, in remarks at the Oval Office, April 9, 2019. This is a Four Pinocchio claim, yet Trump keeps repeating it when he's pressed on family separations. Repetition can't change reality. There is simply no comparison between Trump's family separation policy and the border enforcement actions of the Obama and George W. Bush administrations."
No, repetition can't change reality. But it can obscure it. And Trump has successfully done precisely that again and again. He's doing it once more — and reframing himself as the savior of the very people his vile policies harm, in the process.
Admin at Transgender Law Center:
Nearly a Year After Roxsana's Death, ICE Still Shirks Responsibility for Her Care. "Today the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (NM OMI) released the autopsy report for Roxsana Hernandez, a 33-year-old transgender woman and asylum-seeker from Honduras who
died while in immigration enforcement custody after seeking protection and turning herself in at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in early May 2018. 'The NM OMI dragged their feet in releasing Roxsana's autopsy report only to let ICE run the show and use the report to do their dirty work of shirking responsibility for her care. It's absolutely appalling that they presented their findings to ICE prior to offering those findings to Roxsana's family’s legal representatives,' said Lynly Egyes, director of litigation for Transgender Law Center (TLC), about the report."
The Trump Regime is meanwhile pushing out anyone who might stand in the way of their escalating nativist malice:
This is so deeply scary.
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Caitlin Oprysko at Politico:
Trump: There's a 'Better Chance' of Middle East Peace with Netanyahu. "Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump congratulated one of his closest international allies [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was reelected to a fifth term]. 'It may be a little early but I'm hearing he's won it and won it in good fashion. So he has been a great ally. He is a friend. I would like to congratulate him,' he said. ...'The fact that Bibi won, I think we'll see some pretty good action in terms of peace,' he said. 'Look, everyone said — and I never made it a promise — but everybody said you can't have peace in the Middle East with Israel and the Palestinians. I think we have a chance. I think we have now a better chance with Bibi having won.'"
I think it's safe to say that Donald Trump's — and Benjamin Netanyahu's — definition of "peace" is very different than mine.
Lisa Rein and Damian Paletta at the Washington Post:
If Trump Has His Way, This Major Federal Agency Is on the Way Out. "The White House is moving to do what no president has accomplished since World War II: eliminate a major federal agency. If the Trump administration succeeds at dismantling the Office of Personnel Management, the closure could be a blueprint for shuttering other departments as it tries to shrink government. The agency would be pulled apart and its functions divided among three other departments. An executive order directing parts of the transition by the fall is in the final stages of review, administration officials said, with an announcement by [Donald] Trump likely by summer." Fucking hell.
Eliana Johnson and Daniel Lippman at Politico:
Trump's 'Truly Bizarre' Visit to Mt. Vernon.
During a guided tour of Mount Vernon last April with French president Emmanuel Macron, Trump learned that Washington was one of the major real-estate speculators of his era. So, he couldn't understand why America's first president didn't name his historic Virginia compound or any of the other property he acquired after himself.
"If he was smart, he would've put his name on it," Trump said, according to three sources briefed on the exchange. "You've got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you."
The VIPs' tour guide for the evening, Mount Vernon president and CEO Doug Bradburn, told the president that Washington did, after all, succeed in getting the nation's capital named after him. Good point, Trump said with a laugh.
...Trump asked whether Washington was "really rich," according to a second person familiar with the visit. In fact, Washington was either the wealthiest or among the wealthiest Americans of his time, thanks largely to his mini real estate empire.
"That is what Trump was really the most excited about," this person said.
If Trump was impressed with Washington's real estate instincts, he was less taken by Mount Vernon itself, which the first president personally expanded from a modest one-and-a-half story home into an 11,000 square foot mansion. The rooms, Trump said, were too small, the staircases too narrow, and he even spotted some unevenness in the floorboards, according to four sources briefed on his comments. He could have built the place better, he said, and for less money.
...And despite his criticisms, Trump found something to like at Mount Vernon, too. Among the artifacts preserved there is the bed where Washington passed away from a throat infection in 1799. Trump, who is infamously picky about where he sleeps and resists spending nights away from home, felt out the bedpost and told the Macrons and Bradburn that he approved, according to three people briefed on the event.
"A good bed to die in," Trump said.
What a deeply unpleasant person he is. Even if he were not the president exploiting his power to destroy everything I value, I would still loathe him with the fiery passion of ten thousand suns, just on a personal level. YUCK.
But he is the president. And he is also, as
Eastsidekate described him in a private message (which I'm sharing with her permission), "a vile propagandist who wants to remake the country with himself as dictator." Accurate AF.
When he was not yet president, he couldn't stand the fact that people liked Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton more than they liked him. Now that he's president, he can't stand the fact that any president in all of U.S. history might be liked better than him.
That insecurity is going to fuel some incredibly fucked-up authoritarian maneuvers to obliterate history behind his own legacy.
He'll destroy the country just to contain it within his own shadow.
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[CN: LGBTQ hatred] Andy Towle at Towleroad:
6 of 11 Most-Challenged Library Books of 2018 Had LGBTQ Content. "The American Library Association reported its Top 11 challenged books in 2018, six of which were specifically objected to due to LGBTQ content. ...Notable among them was John Oliver's
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a parody of a book by Vice President Mike Pence's daughter, which made the lead bunny character gay."
[CN: Child abuse; privacy violations] catherine lizette gonzalez at Colorlines:
Chicago Implements GPS Monitoring Devices That Calls, Records Children without Their Consent. "Cook County, home of Chicago, Illinois, has implemented [an ankle monitor] GPS monitoring system that calls and records youth without their consent... The device, called ReliAlert XC3, allows electronic monitoring officers in criminal court and Track Group employees to contact — and record — individuals wearing the the ankle monitor. And while wearers can initiate contact with the monitoring center, they do not have the option to decline calls. Cook County officials and Track Group say the monitoring tool improves communication with children who are awaiting trial, but attorneys, experts, and advocates call its implementation an invasion of privacy and violation of the U.S. Constitution."
Josh Israel at ThinkProgress:
190 House Republicans Vote Against Bill to Reinstate Popular 'Net Neutrality' Internet Protections. "House Republicans sided with the Trump administration on Tuesday, opposing a bill to reinstate the Federal Communications Commission’s Obama-era net neutrality rules, despite growing support for such a move among consumers. The bill passed the House 232 to 190, but it unlikely to make it past the Republican-controlled Senate. Just one House Republican — Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) — voted for the bill."
Not only are Republicans behaving as though they'll never have to answer to voters again; they're going to great lengths to make sure they don't even have to hear from those of us who will be priced out of internet access.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Open Wide...
Shut Up!
