Showing posts with label abortion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abortion. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 908

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, July 16, 2019
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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: Nancy Pelosi, Please Do Something Real and Feeling the Heat and Primarily Speaking.

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

The President of the United States tweeted this today: "'Billionaire Tech Investor Peter Thiel believes Google should be investigated for treason. He accuses Google of working with the Chinese Government.' @foxandfriends A great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone! The Trump Administration will take a look!" Trump has previously accused Google, among others, of news- and election-rigging against him, so now announcing his administration "will take a look" at investigating them for treason is extremely chilling.

Caitlyn Byrd at the Post and Courier: Mark Sanford, SC Republican, Former U.S. Rep, Considers Presidential Run Against Trump. "Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina congressman ousted from office after [Donald] Trump urged voters to reject him, is considering a run for president. Sanford, in an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Post and Courier, confirmed he will take the next month to formulate whether he will mount a potential run against Trump as a way of pushing a national debate about America's mounting debt, deficit, and government spending. He would run as a Republican." Oh for fuck's sake.

Danielle McLean at ThinkProgress: Democrats Sue over a Florida Law That Puts Trump's Name Ahead of Rivals on the 2020 Ballot. "The Democratic Party and civil rights groups in Florida are suing over a number of state laws meant to suppress the votes of people of color and give Republicans an edge in the state, which has had numerous whisker-close elections in its recent past. This latest legal challenge, filed by Florida voters and several Democratic groups last year at U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, seeks to end a nearly 70-year-old law mandating that candidates belonging to the governor's political party be listed first on the ballot. A four-day federal court trial began in the case on Monday."

[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism] Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett at the Washington Post: Justice Department Will Not Charge Police in Connection with Eric Garner's Death.
The Justice Department will not bring federal charges against any police officers involved in the death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old Black man whose recorded takedown in New York in 2014 helped coin a rallying cry for those concerned about law enforcement's treatment of minorities, two people familiar with the matter said.

For Garner's supporters, the decision is a disappointing — albeit long expected — end to a case that had languished for years as various components of the Justice Department disagreed about what to do.

At a news conference Tuesday, Gwen Carr said the Justice Department had "failed us," and called on the New York City police commissioner to fire the officer who was caught on video wrapping his arm around Garner’s neck before he died.

"Five years ago, my son said, 'I can't breathe' 11 times, and today we can't breathe, because they have let us down," Carr said.
Rage. Seethe. Sob.


[CN: War on agency; anti-choicery] AP at the Guardian: Trump Administration to Ban Abortion Referrals at Taxpayer-Funded Clinics. "Taxpayer-funded family planning clinics must stop referring women for abortions immediately, the Trump administration has announced, declaring it will begin enforcing a new regulation hailed by religious conservatives and denounced by medical organizations and women's rights groups. The head of a national umbrella group representing the clinics said the Republican administration is following 'an ideological agenda' that could disrupt basic health care for many low-income women." FUCKING GODDAMMIT.

* * *

[Content Note: Nativism; abuse. Covers entire section.]

Ginger Thompson at ProPublica: A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It's Really Like to Guard Migrant Children. "Referring back to the grim conditions inside the Border Patrol holding centers, [the Border Patrol agent] said: 'Somewhere down the line people just accepted what's going on as normal. That includes the people responsible for fixing the problems.' ...Most of his colleagues, he said, fall into one of two camps. There are the 'law-and-order types' who see the immigrants in their custody, as, first and foremost, criminals. Then, he said, there are those who are 'just tired of all the chaos' of a broken immigration system and 'see no end in sight.'"


Kate Morrissey of the San Diego Union-Tribune at Stars and Stripes: Customs and Border Protection Denies Marine Corps Veteran Entry for Scheduled Citizenship Interview. "A deported Marine Corps veteran who has been unable to come back to the U.S. for more than a decade was denied entry to the country Monday morning when he asked to be let in for a scheduled citizenship interview. Roman Sabal, 58, originally from Belize, came to the San Ysidro Port of Entry around 7:30 on Monday morning with an attorney to ask for 'parole' to attend his naturalization interview scheduled for a little before noon in downtown San Diego. Border officials have the authority to temporarily allow people into the country on parole for 'humanitarian or significant public benefit' reasons." He was denied entry.


This is hell on earth.

* * *

I'll wrap it up with some good news...

[CN: Death penalty] Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg at the Appeal: Philadelphia D.A. Asks Court to Declare Death Penalty System Unconstitutional.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner — who vowed as a candidate not to seek the death penalty — has asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to declare that the sentence, as applied, violates the state's Constitution.

"Because of the arbitrary manner in which it has been applied, the death penalty violates our state Constitution's prohibition against cruel punishments," states a brief filed by Krasner's office tonight in the case Jermont Cox v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"It really is not about the worst offenders," Krasner told The Appeal. "It really is about poverty. It really is about race."

The new brief is part of a broader push that started last August, when lawyers representing Cox and another death row prisoner, Kevin Marinelli, asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on Pennsylvania's use of the death penalty.

"Pennsylvania administers a system of capital punishment that is replete with error, a national outlier in its design, and a mirror for the inequities and prejudices that plague American society," lawyers for Cox and Marinelli wrote to the court in February.
Fingers crossed that another state will soon outlaw the death penalty.

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

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We Resist: Day 907

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, July 15, 2019
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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 last week and earlier today by me: The Trump Revisionism Begins and Recommended Reading and Trump Is a F#@king Racist, Part One Zillion in an Endless Series and Primarily Speaking.

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

[Content Note: Racism; nativism; abuse. Covers entire section.]

Martin Pengelly and Jamiles Lartey at the Guardian: Republicans Silent as Trump Renews Racist Attack on Congresswomen.
In the face of international condemnation — but very little comment from his own party — Donald Trump returned to the offensive against four Democratic congresswoman he targeted with racial invective on Sunday.

True to provocative form, the president accused the Democrats of "spewing" "racist hatred" — precisely the offence of which he has been widely accused.

In a tweet early on Monday, the president wrote: "When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel, and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them [and] their horrible [and] disgusting actions!"

He added: "If Democrats want to unite around the foul language [and] racist hatred spewed from the mouths and actions of these very unpopular [and] unrepresentative Congresswomen, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I can tell you that they have made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S."

The tweets reflected others Trump sent late on Sunday amid the storm created by his initial demand that the unnamed congresswomen should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime[-]infested places from which they came."
It's quite honestly not even worth remarking upon that his party refuses to condemn him. They aren't merely silent; many of them are openly defending him.


Senator Lindsey Graham in particular has been eagerly defending Trump's nativist malice. Kevin Fitzpatrick at Vanity Fair: Lindsey Graham: "I Don't Care" If Migrants "Stay in These Facilities for 400 Days."
Speaking with Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network, Senator Lindsey Graham vehemently disagreed with humanitarian concerns raised by Vice President Mike Pence's recent tour of a migrant detention facility in Texas. "I don't care if they have to stay in these facilities for 400 days, we're not going to let those men go that I saw," said Graham. "It would be dangerous."

Graham was referring to now-viral footage of Pence's tour, which saw the vice president blithely overlooking a fenced room filled to capacity with migrants protesting unsanitary conditions. Pence subsequently claimed over Twitter that the men "were in a temporary holding area because Democrats in Congress have refused to fund additional bed space," and derided CNN for allegedly "ignoring the excellent care being provided to families and children" in a separate facility.
This is what both Graham and Pence are defending:


That is an image of a concentration camp.

Garrett M. Graff at Politico: The Border Patrol Hits a Breaking Point. "The problems underlying CPB's almost theatrical failures trace all the way back to its creation amid the post-9/11 reorganization of the Department of Homeland Security and have been exacerbated by a longstanding failure of leadership that extends up to both Congress and the White House and has lasted through three administrations. Both the modern Border Patrol and its parent CBP have been plagued by poor leadership and management at all levels, and by recruiting challenges that have left them with a subpar, overstressed workforce and a long-running toxic culture." This is a must-read.


Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Trump Administration Files Regulation That Would All but End Asylum for Non-Mexican Migrants.
The Trump administration published an interim final rule on the federal register Monday further that effectively ends asylum protections for Central American migrants. Under the rule, migrants — including unaccompanied minors — who travel through Mexico without first applying for protection in a “safe third country” are ineligible for asylum in the United States.

The majority of people who claim asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border are from Central American countries in its Northern Triangle region, including Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Migrants from these countries routinely flee gangs, political unrest, and domestic violence. Traveling by foot or bus through Mexico is the only viable way they can receive asylum protections in the United States.

"It would end asylum for Central Americans," Ur Jaddou, former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told Buzzfeed News last month, when the rule was under consideration. It's not just Central Americans who will be impacted by this new rule, so too will the thousands of migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, and countries in Africa who apply for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Goddammit.


Meanwhile, Trump is still thrashing over having been thwarted (for now) from including a nativist citizenship question on the census. Hans Nichols, Kayla Tausche, and Hallie Jackson at NBC News: Trump Weighs Ousting Commerce Chief Wilbur Ross After Census Defeat. "Donald Trump has told aides and allies that he is considering removing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross after a stinging Supreme Court defeat on adding a citizenship question to the census, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations. ...[S]ome White House officials expect Ross to be the next Cabinet secretary to depart, possibly as soon as this summer, according to advisers and officials."

* * *

Unlike Ross, Trump is still keen on Mick Mulvaney, to our lasting misfortune. Seung Min Kim, Lisa Rein, Josh Dawsey, and Erica Werner at the Washington Post: 'His Own Fiefdom': Mulvaney Builds 'an Empire for the Right Wing' as Trump's Chief of Staff. "[Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is] a former tea party lawmaker who has built what one senior administration official called 'his own fiefdom' centered on pushing conservative policies — while mostly steering clear of the Trump-related pitfalls that tripped up his predecessors by employing a 'Let Trump be Trump' ethos. ...Mulvaney has focused much of his energy on creating a new White House power center revolving around the long-dormant Domestic Policy Council and encompassing broad swaths of the administration. One White House official described Mulvaney as 'building an empire for the right wing.'" Shiver.

[CN: War on agency; misogyny] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire.News: Republicans Get Another Win in Their Fight to Gut Title X. "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled the Trump administration's domestic 'gag rule,' which bans federal family planning dollars from going to health-care providers who perform abortions or refer patients for abortion services, can take effect everywhere but the state of Maryland. The ruling jeopardizes comprehensive reproductive health-care access for nearly 4 million people. 'This is devastating news for the millions of people who rely on Title X for cancer screenings, HIV tests, affordable birth control, and other critical primary and preventive care,' Dr. Leana Wen, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's president and CEO, said in a statement following the ruling."

[CN: Gun violence] Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Tougher Gun Laws Mean Fewer U.S. Kids Die, Study Shows. "A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics shows that children who live in states with strict firearms laws are less likely to die from gun violence than those in states with more lax restrictions. The researchers found that the stricter the state's gun laws, the lower the risk of children dying." Unfortunately, the federal government and most state governments are currently in the stranglehold of the death cult known as the Republican Party.

Nicole Lee at Engadget: The Amazon Prime Day Strike Could Be a Turning Point for Workers' Rights. "Today, Amazon will start its fifth annual Prime Day, which has been expanded to 48 hours this year. Designed to enlist (and keep) Prime members, it is the company's biggest shopping event of the year — on the same level as Black Friday — with extensive discounts and deals across the entire site. At a time when Amazon would likely prefer that all its employees hunker down to meet increased demand, a group of warehouse workers in Shakopee, Minnesota are going on strike. It isn't the first time the workers in Shakopee have raised their concerns. But it will be the first major work stoppage event for Amazon in the U.S. and could be a harbinger of things to come."


[CN: Climate change; flooding; displacement] Kyla Mandel at ThinkProgress: Water on Water on Water: Why Tropical Storm Barry Is Already Devastating Louisiana. "With half-a-foot of rain already unleashed on New Orleans, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, warning, 'No one should take this storm lightly.' As Barry moves inland, it's expected to impact other areas in Louisiana such as Baton Rouge and Shreveport, as well as cities in Alabama and Mississippi. But with the storm only expected to become a hurricane on Saturday, why is it already so destructive? It has a lot to do with climate change, and specifically, with just how wet the past year has been for the United States." That item is a couple of days old now, but water/flooding still remains the greatest threat.

[CN: Climate change; flooding; displacement; death] Staff at the BBC: Monsoon Floods Displace Millions in India. "More than three million people have been displaced across north and north-eastern India amid monsoon rain that has cost lives and destroyed homes. Storms and floods have ripped through areas of Nepal, Bangladesh, and India, killing more than 130 people. At least 67 people lost their lives in Nepal in torrential rains, police there said on Monday. Thirty people were reported missing while 38 were injured, Nepalese police added. Heavy rains also caused deaths in Bangladesh, including in overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps. More bad weather is expected in the coming days."

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

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We Resist: Day 889

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, June 27, 2019
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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: Primarily Speaking + Debate Recap and Today in Rampaging Authoritarianism and Supreme Court Rules on Census, Gerrymandering, and Consent Cases.

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

[Content Note: Misogynoir; gun violence; war on agency] Carol Robinson at AL.com: Alabama Woman Loses Pregnancy After Being Shot, Gets Arrested; Shooter Goes Free.
A woman whose unborn baby was killed in a 2018 Pleasant Grove shooting has now been indicted in the death.

Marshae Jones, a 27-year-old Birmingham woman, was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on a manslaughter charge. She was taken into custody on Wednesday.

Though Jones didn't fire the shots that killed her unborn baby girl, authorities say she initiated the dispute that led to the gunfire. Police initially charged 23-year-old Ebony Jemison with manslaughter, but the charge against Jemison was dismissed after the grand jury failed to indict her.

...[Jones] was five months pregnant and was shot in the stomach. The unborn baby did not survive the shooting.

"The investigation showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby," Pleasant Grove police Lt. Danny Reid said at the time of the shooting.

...The 5-month fetus was "dependent on its mother to try to keep it from harm, and she shouldn't seek out unnecessary physical altercations," Reid added.
I don't even know where to begin. If we're criminalizing women's emotional behavior while they're pregnant, we are in deep shit.

Amanda Reyes, Executive Director of the Yellowhammer Fund, a member of the National Network of Abortion Funds which helps women access abortion services, said in the statement: "The state of Alabama has proven yet again that the moment a person becomes pregnant their sole responsibility is to produce a live, healthy baby and that it considers any action a pregnant person takes that might impede in that live birth to be a criminal act."

She further notes that this opens the door to women being charged for not getting adequate prenatal care — and, of course, many women don't because of our garbage policy of treating healthcare as a privilege rather than a right.

Women are more than incubators. Goddammit.

[CN: War on agency; class warfare] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire.News: What's Next in the Continuing Mess of the Domestic 'Gag Rule' Fight.
Reproductive rights and health advocates on Monday filed an emergency petition to the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking it to reverse a ruling last week setting aside preliminary injunctions blocking the Trump administration's domestic "gag rule" from taking effect.

The request is advocates' latest attempt to prevent the administration from enforcing the rule, which bans federal family planning dollars from going to healthcare providers who perform abortions or refer patients for abortion services and was originally set to take effect on May 3. Last week, a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Trump administration could begin enforcing the policy while the case makes its way through the courts.

On Friday, attorneys from the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a separate emergency request with a federal court in Maine to block the gag rule as well. The court has not yet ruled on that request. A separate injunction remains in place for Title X grantees in Maryland.
[CN: Sexual assault] Daniel Victor at the New York Times: Two Women Who Heard E. Jean Carroll's Account of Being Attacked by Trump Go Public. "Two women in whom E. Jean Carroll confided about having allegedly been sexually attacked by Donald Trump in the 1990s spoke publicly about it for the first time in an interview excerpted on the New York Times podcast 'The Daily,' describing the conflicting advice they gave their friend at the time. On Wednesday, Megan Twohey, a Times reporter, interviewed Ms. Carroll and the two women, Carol Martin and Lisa Birnbach, who had not been publicly identified until now. It was the first time since the alleged assault that the women had discussed it together."

So, not only has Carroll gone on the record with her rape allegation against a sitting president, but the two friends in whom she confided at the time are now going on the record. And still, it's barely getting any attention.

[CN: Rape culture] Alex Kaplan at MediaMatters: Here's How a Fringe Smear Targeting E. Jean Carroll Reached Donald Trump Jr. "After author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll reported that [Donald] Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., pushed a conspiracy theory that the claim was 'ripped-off a plot' from a 2012 episode of NBC procedural Law & Order. Before being amplified by Trump Jr., the conspiracy theory was spread by a Twitter account associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory and another account whose content has regularly been shared by 'seemingly-automated accounts.' It has also been pushed by the Daily Mail's political editor."

[CN: Nativism; abuse] Maria Sacchetti at the Washington Post: U.S. Asylum Officers Say Trump's 'Remain in Mexico' Policy Is Threatening Migrants' Lives, Ask Federal Court to End It. "U.S. asylum officers slammed [Donald] Trump's policy of forcing migrants to remain in Mexico while they await immigration hearings in the United States, urging a federal appeals court Wednesday to block the administration from continuing the program. The officers, who are directed to implement the policy, said it is threatening migrants' lives and is 'fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our Nation.' ...The union said in court papers that the policy is compelling sworn officers to participate in the 'widespread violation' of international and federal law — 'something that they did not sign up to do when they decided to become asylum and refugee officers for the United States government.'"

[CN: Nativism] Franco OrdoΓ±ez at NPR: Trump Wants to Withdraw Deportation Protections for Families of Active Troops.
The Trump administration wants to scale back a program that protects undocumented family members of active-duty troops from being deported, according to attorneys familiar with those plans.

The attorneys are racing to submit applications for what is known as parole in place after hearing from the wives and loved ones of deployed soldiers who have been told that option is "being terminated."

The protections will only be available under rare circumstances, the lawyers said they've been told.

"It's going to create chaos in the military," said Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney who represents recruits and veterans in deportation proceedings. "The troops can't concentrate on their military jobs when they're worried about their family members being deported."
I can't imagine anything that makes more abundantly clear that Trump's immigration policy isn't about "protecting citizens" but is just straight-up white supremacist, nativist malice.


As Kyle Griffin notes on Twitter, this is "a move with potentially stark implications for Trump's account." LOL indeed.

* * *

Peter Baker at the New York Times: Heading to G-20, Trump Once Again Assails America's Friends. "In the hours before and after leaving for an international summit meeting, Mr. Trump assailed Japan, Germany, and India. He complained that under existing treaty provisions, if the United States were attacked, Japan would only 'watch it on a Sony television.' He called Germany a security freeloader and chastised India for raising tariffs on American goods."

Seung Min Kim, Damian Paletta, and Simon Denyer at the Washington Post: Trump Arrives at Global Economic Summit with Full Agenda and List of Grievances. "'Well, I think I can say very easily that we've been very good to our allies, we work with our allies, we take care of our allies,' Trump, flanked by senior aides and Cabinet officials, said at the beginning of his dinner with [Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison]. 'We even help our allies militarily. So we do look at ourselves and we look at ourselves, I think, more positively than ever before, but we also look at our allies and I think Australia is a good example.'"


Eliana Johnson Burgess Everett at Politico: Trump's Hawks Ramp Up Campaign to Shred Last Part of Iran Nuclear Deal. "Iran's expected breach on Thursday of the uranium stockpile limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal is reviving a fierce debate within the Trump administration and on Capitol Hill about just how hard Trump should go to undermine the agreement. Even though Trump pulled out from the deal struck by President Barack Obama, an important portion of the agreement was left intact that allows work on Iran's civil nuclear program and facilitates international projects to encourage its advancement. The State Department has issued waivers to allow those projects to continue and doing away with them would almost certainly blow up the deal entirely. That's precisely the goal that Trump administration hawks, led by national security adviser John Bolton, have been pursuing."

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Trump's DC Hotel Charged Secret Service $200,000 in First Year of Presidency. "The Trump International Hotel in Washington, just five blocks from the White House, charged the Secret Service more than $200,000 in taxpayer money during the first year of Trump's presidency. Expense documents obtained by NBC News show that a total of $215,254 was spent by the agency at the property from September 2016 to February 2018. One bill came in at $33,638 for just two days of use. "

[CN: Climate change]


Jon Henley and Sam Jones at the Guardian: Spain Fights Huge Forest Fire as European Heatwave Intensifies. "More than 500 firefighters and soldiers are working to bring a huge forest fire under control in north-eastern Spain as the early summer heatwave intensifies across Europe. The fire, in the Catalan province of Tarragona, has been fanned by strong winds and high temperatures and has so far burned across 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres) of land. ...'We're facing a serious fire on a scale not seen for 20 years,' the region's interior minister, Miquel Buch, said in a tweet."

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

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We Resist: Day 874

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, June 12, 2019
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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: Donald Trump Is Scared of Elizabeth Warren and The Trump Regime's Concentration Camps and Primarily Speaking.

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

Sue Halpern at the New Yorker: Mitch McConnell Is Making the 2020 Election Open Season for Hackers.
On May 21st, four commissioners who compose the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (E.A.C.) were asked to attest, in Congress, that they agreed with the findings of the special counsel Robert Mueller that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. It was a strange and oddly suspenseful moment in what might have been a routine oversight hearing of the House Administration Committee.

The E.A.C. is a small, relatively obscure agency, established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (H.A.V.A.), an election-modernization bill that was passed in response to the disastrous failure of voting equipment during the 2000 Presidential election. H.A.V.A. allocated over three billion dollars to the states to upgrade their election systems and authorized the E.A.C. to distribute it. The E.A.C. was also mandated to advise election officials and oversee the testing and certification of voting and vote-tabulation machines. Seventeen months away from the next Presidential election, it could be leading the charge against future cyberattacks. It is not.

Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who sits on the Intelligence Committee, predicts that the 2020 election will make what happened in 2016 "look like small potatoes." "It's not just the Russians," he told me. "There are hostile foreign actors who are messing with two hundred years' worth of really precious history." Wyden recently reintroduced the PAVE Act, a wish list of election-security provisions that failed to get through the Senate last year. The measure includes the use of hand-marked paper ballots and a prohibition on wireless modems and other kinds of Internet connectivity, all of which have been advocated by computer scientists and other election experts for years.

But with the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, making it clear that he will not advance any election-security legislation, the PAVE Act, and also other election-security bills, many of which have bipartisan support, will languish. McConnell has made 2020 open season for hackers aiming to undermine our election system. The E.A.C. has made this easier, by displaying not only intransigence and institutional weaknesses but also a willful disregard of the threats facing our elections.
Jessica Brandt at Slate: How Not to Handle Security Threats to Our Elections.
In the weeks before the 2016 presidential election, a Florida company known as VR Systems fell victim to a Russian spear-phishing campaign. Most Americans have never heard of VR Systems, but it runs poll books — the registries that election workers use to track who is eligible to vote and who has already voted — for counties in eight states around the country.

The hackers used the information they gathered from VR Systems to breach two of the Florida county election systems the company managed. And three years later, new reporting suggests that VR Systems may also have inadvertently put Russians in a position to alter voter rolls in North Carolina, another swing state, on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.
Meanwhile... Matt Zapotosky and John Wagner at the Washington Post: Trump Asserts Executive Privilege to Shield Documents on Census Citizenship Question. And as Danielle McLean at ThinkProgress noted in a piece I shared in yesterday's We Resist thread, the Trump Regime "has done everything possible to ensure that minority populations are left uncounted, giving Republicans a huge edge during the 2021 congressional and state legislative redistricting process."

I cannot emphasize this strongly enough: Pinning all of our hopes for crawling out of this mess on the 2020 election is aggressively foolish. With Mitch McConnell at the helm, the Republican Party is doing every goddamn thing it can to rig this election. And, if all their efforts fail, Donald Trump will almost certainly assert that there was election fraud and refuse to leave office. We have to do something to prevent tha outcome now.

* * *

Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: White House Will Preview Mueller Evidence Before Nadler Review. "When House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced on Monday that he had reached an agreement with the Justice Department to view some of the underlying evidence behind Special Counsel's Robert Mueller's report, the announcement was hailed as a major breakthrough for the Democratic Party's oversight efforts. But Nadler may get less than expected. That's because the Trump White House will work with the Justice Department to decide what exactly the committee gets to see, two senior administration officials told The Daily Beast. And, so far, the White House has not waived executive privilege regarding any of Mueller's materials, the two officials said."


Reuters Staff at the Guardian: Donald Trump Shows Off 'Secret' Mexico Document but Photos Reveal Contents. "Donald Trump brandished a document on Tuesday confirming details of a regional asylum project agreed with Mexico to stave off threatened tariffs, saying the plan was 'secret' even though Mexican officials had revealed much of it."


* * *

Shelby Hanssen and Ken Dilanian at NBC News: Reps of 22 Foreign Governments Have Spent Money at Trump Properties. "Representatives of at least 22 foreign governments appear to have spent money at Trump Organization properties, an NBC News review has found, hinting at a significant foreign cash flow to the American president that critics say violates the U.S. Constitution."

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Maureen Groppe at USA Today: Rep. Greg Pence Amends Filing That Showed Lodging Charge at Trump Hotel. "Greg Pence, a freshman congressman and brother of Vice President Mike Pence, reported spending more than $7,600 in campaign funds on lodging at the Trump International Hotel in the first few months after his election in November, although lawmakers are supposed to pay for their own housing in Washington. ...Hours after USA Today pressed for more detail on the nature of the lodging expenses, the campaign filed an amended FEC report that changed the designation of the expenses to 'fundraising event costs.'"

Kyla Mandel at ThinkProgress: Trump International Hotel Will Host a Climate Denial Conference. "In late July, climate science deniers will descend upon the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. — located right across the street from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — to attend the Heartland Institute's annual climate conference. The theme this year is 'Best Science, Winning Energy Policies.' ...The hotel — referred to by one Department of Energy staffer as 'Republican Disneyland' — has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from oil, coal, natural gas, and mining interests who come to attend events frequented by administration officials. Last March, the Independent Petroleum Association of America's (IPAA) annual 'Congressional Call-Up' was held at Trump's hotel."

Shahien Nasiripour and Caleb Melby at Bloomberg: Trump's Net Worth Rises to $3 Billion Despite Business Setbacks. "Donald Trump's net worth rose to $3 billion, a 5% gain over the past year... The increase in Trump's wealth reverses two years of declines and brings his net worth back to 2016 levels, according to figures compiled by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index from lenders, property records, securities filings, market data, and a May 16 financial disclosure."

So, Trump is doing just fine. In other news...

Heather Long at the Washington Post: GOP Leader Concedes Tax Cuts May Not Pay for Themselves as 2019 Deficit Grows. "Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), a lead architect of the GOP tax bill, suggested Tuesday the tax cuts may not fully pay for themselves, contradicting a promise Republicans made repeatedly while pushing the law in late 2017." And what will happen when a conservative government wants to cut spending? They won't raise taxes. They'll institute austerity measures to defund social services.

Programs on which, for instance, non-wealthy elderly people depend. Especially those who have been exploited by the corporations handed fat tax cuts and zero oversight by the Republican Party.

Nick Penzenstadler and Jeff Kelly Lowenstein at USA Today: Seniors Were Sold a Risk-Free Retirement with Reverse Mortgages. Now They Face Foreclosure.
n a stealth aftershock of the Great Recession, nearly 100,000 loans that allowed senior citizens to tap into their home equity have failed, blindsiding elderly borrowers and their families and dragging down property values in their neighborhoods.

In many cases, the worst toll has fallen on those ill-equipped to shoulder it: urban African Americans, many of whom worked for most of their lives, then found themselves struggling in retirement.

...These elderly homeowners were wooed into borrowing money through the special program by attractive sales pitches or a dire need for cash – or both. When they missed a paperwork deadline or fell behind on taxes or insurance, lenders moved swiftly to foreclose on the home. Those foreclosures wiped out hard-earned generational wealth built in the decades since the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

...Consumer advocates said the analysis supports what they have complained about for years – that unscrupulous lenders targeted lower-income, black neighborhoods and encouraged elderly homeowners to borrow money while glossing over the risks and requirements.
Goddammit.

* * *

In GOOD reproductive rights news: Chelsia Rose Marcius at the Daily Beast: Ariana Grande Donates Proceeds From Atlanta Concert to Planned Parenthood. "Pop superstar Ariana Grande has donated the proceeds from her sold-out Atlanta concert to Planned Parenthood, TMZ reports. The singer gave $300,000 to the nonprofit from her June 8 show in Georgia, one of the states that recently passed restrictive abortion legislation." Awesome.

[CN: Anti-choicery; anti-choice terrorism; war on agency. Covers rest of section.]

Jason Salzman at Rewire.News: This Ballot Measure Could End Later Abortion Care in Colorado.
"These people have no concern for the health and welfare of the women we are helping. This is anti-abortion madness carried to a logical extreme," Dr. Warren Hern, whose Boulder Abortion Clinic bills itself as "specializing in late abortions for fetal disorders," told Rewire.News. Criminalizing later abortion would have a major impact on people outside Colorado too, as the state has become a reproductive health-care haven for people in other states.

For decades, anti-choice activists have targeted Hern with vigils, protests, and gunshots through his window, but he has continued to be an outspoken proponent of abortion rights in the media and on his clinic's website, which states, "The true meaning of 'family values' is the freedom to choose your own life and values with those you love."
Lenny Bernstein at the Washington Post: Women Seeking Abortions Turn to Volunteer Network for Help. "The work of a nationwide network of volunteers and nonprofit groups that assist women trying to end unwanted pregnancies has reemerged as new state restrictions on abortion threaten to force women to travel farther, pay more and wait longer for the procedure. The groups, which help with the cost and logistics of travel, lodging, food, child care, and the abortion procedure itself, say they're working harder and spending more. They've also seen an increase in donations for aid to the low-income women who have three-quarters of U.S. abortions and who are most of their clients."

Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire.News: The Nuns Are Back Before the Supreme Court, and They're Trying to Kill the Birth Control Benefit for Good. "Conservatives have spent the better part of a decade arguing the Affordable Care Act's birth control benefit, which provides insurance coverage for a host of contraception without additional cost or co-pay, violates religious freedom principles. Those efforts have had mixed results. Despite two turns before the U.S. Supreme Court, dozens of lower court orders, and a handful of executive orders from [Donald] Trump, the benefit remains in place — but employers who object to it can avoid complying with it. This week, the Roberts Court will consider taking up a case that could settle the birth control benefit's fate once and for all."

* * *

[CN: Self-harm; addiction] Erika Edwards at NBC News: U.S. Death Rates from Suicides, Alcohol Abuse, and Drug Overdoses Reach All-Time High. "Rates of deaths from suicides, drug overdoses, and alcohol have reached an all-time high in the United States, but some states have been hit far harder than others by [the so-called deaths of despair], according to a report released Wednesday by the Commonwealth Fund. ...What separates the top ranked states from the lowest? Health care coverage. 'We really think of healthcare access of being the foundation of a high-performing health care system,' [David Radley, a senior scientist for the Commonwealth Fund] said. The states that ranked at the bottom of the list all had the highest rates of residents without health care coverage."

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

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We Resist: Day 873

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, June 11, 2019
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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: Omgggggggggg and Trump: "I Don't Leave" and Primarily Speaking.

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

Donald Trump had an epic tweetshitz disgorgement this morning. At Raw Story, David Badash offers a summary of the nightmare: "Trump's rambling and incoherent tweets made little sense. For example, this one in which he may or may not be quoting Fox News, saying, 'The Greatest Witch Hunt of all time continues. All crimes were by the other side, but the Committee refuses to even take a look. Deleting 33,000 Emails is the real Obstruction — and much more!' ...This one clearly is all Trump: 'PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!' There were more, of course."

Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade testified to the House Judiciary Committee that Trump's "conduct described in the report constitutes multiple crimes of obstruction of justice, supported by evidence of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." The Daily Beast has a transcript of her statement, which is worth your time to read.

This seems like a little nothing of a story, but it's actually worth our attention and scrutiny: Felicia Sonmez and Dan Lamothe at the Washington Post: Former Trump Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Joins the Navy. Note the details of what it took for him to get there.
Reince Priebus, [Donald] Trump's former chief of staff, has officially joined the Navy.

At a commissioning ceremony Monday morning, Vice President Pence swore in Priebus as an ensign, an entry-level officer. Priebus and his family also met with Trump at the White House after the ceremony.

...Priebus's commissioning follows a lengthy process in which former defense secretary Jim Mattis recommended him and a board of officers selected him as a reserve officer, according to defense officials and a memo obtained by The Washington Post late last year.

...A Navy review board reviewed 42 candidates last December and "professionally recommended" Priebus and four others to join the service through a competitive direct-commission program for human resources officers, the memo said.
I noted on Twitter: First, I expect that he will be quickly promoted. Second, I don't think it's a coincidence this happened immediately following the Mueller report. Priebus kept his fucking mouth shut. This is his reward. And note it was Pence who personally swore him in.

Malcolm Nance tweets: "He is now a Navy Public Relations Officer. I shit you not." And, just like that, Trump has his propagandist in the Navy.

Trump-Pence are politicizing the military with loyalists. Trump threatens not to recognize election outcomes if he doesn't win. And the reason for Pence's (and Putin's) fascination with Venezuela comes sharply into focus.

Maduro now looks like a dry run for what will happen here. I sure as fuck hope I'm wrong about that.


Relatedly, Dana Bash at CNN reports that the Trump campaign is considering putting resources in Oregon: "Oregon is so blue that it has not voted for a Republican for president since 1984. But the Trump campaign is flush with cash and is looking for ways to spend its money and time wisely while Democrats duke it out for the chance to run against [Trump]."

In a free and fair election, Trump would have zero chance of winning Oregon. But if the GOP, with or without help from Russia (or other nefarious actors), rigs the elections to, say, turn Oregon red, this is the preemptive explanation for how it happened: They had the wisdom to "put resources" in Oregon.

Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell is doing everything he can to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections to Trump's favor:
There actually are a lot of bills to safeguard the 2020 elections from the next Russian attack. Mitch McConnell is blocking all of them.

The New York Times reported a few days ago that McConnell is refusing to bring to a vote any bill to safeguard the elections from foreign attack. There's a Democratic bill to provide election funding to state and local governments. There's a bipartisan Senate bill to "codify cyberinformation-sharing initiatives between federal intelligence services and state election officials, speed up the granting of security clearances to state officials, and provide federal incentives for states to adopt paper ballots." McConnell won't allow any of them to come to a vote.

The threat from Russian election interference is actually quite severe. Russian intelligence breached at least one Florida county computer system and planted malware in a manufacturer of vote-tabulating machines, according to the Mueller report. While the probability that Russian hackers could actually change the outcome of the next election is low, the consequences would be extraordinarily high — especially if they do so by actual vote-rigging rather than mere information warfare.
Luke Harding and Jason Burke at the Guardian: Leaked Documents Reveal Russian Effort to Exert Influence in Africa. "Russia is seeking to bolster its presence in at least 13 countries across Africa by building relations with existing rulers, striking military deals, and grooming a new generation of 'leaders' and undercover 'agents,' leaked documents reveal. The mission to increase Russian influence on the continent is being led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman based in St. Petersburg who is a close ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. One aim is to 'strong-arm' the U.S. and the former colonial powers the UK and France out of the region. Another is to see off 'pro-western' uprisings, the documents say."

* * *

Andrew Desiderio, Heather Caygle, and John Bresnahan at Politico: Pelosi-Nadler Clash over Impeachment Intensifies. "Nadler has twice urged Pelosi in private to open a formal impeachment inquiry, but the speaker, backed by the majority of her leadership team and her caucus, has maintained that impeaching the president would backfire on Democrats without meaningful Republican support. And there is no sign that Trump's GOP firewall is cracking."

Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post: The House Begins to Tell the Story of Trump's Criminality. "[T]his is the beginning of a process that will, if committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) is successful, include fact witnesses who can bring to life what the panel explained on Monday. Whether it changes public opinion sufficiently to encourage Democrats to move to impeachment is unknown, but if part of the task here is to make an historical record, Democrats have certainly succeeded."

Former Rep. Steve Israel at the Atlantic: What Nancy Pelosi Wants to Do Before Impeachment.
For Pelosi, public sentiment doesn't mean following public opinion, but strategically shaping it so that it's more receptive to a strategic goal. It's not just laying the groundwork; it's fertilizing it. That takes message discipline, unity, and patience — all of which will be necessary as pressure to impeach [Donald] Trump continues to build.

...Pelosi, remember, believes it's possible to shape public sentiment. That's why she's unleashed her committee chairs to fully exercise their oversight responsibilities by investigating every facet of potentially impeachable offenses: Jerry Nadler of the Judiciary Committee, Adam Schiff on Intel, Maxine Waters on Financial Services, Elijah Cummings on Oversight and Reform.

They may find a smoking gun — incontrovertible evidence that crystallizes public support for impeachment and maximizes pressure on House Republican incumbents in moderate districts. Then Pelosi will have achieved her goal: a broader public consensus for impeachment and stronger, if not necessarily overwhelming, bipartisan support.
Connecting those dots draws a line that points toward impeachment. I just hope we get there sooner rather than later. Because I'm honestly worried that it's already too late.

* * *

[CN: White supremacy] Danielle McLean at ThinkProgress: Under Trump, the 2020 U.S. Census Could Fail to Count 4 million Americans. "Republican efforts to rig the 2020 U.S. Census could leave more than four million people, including a large number of black and Latinx Americans, uncounted and unrepresented, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. The upcoming 2020 Census is facing 'unprecedented challenges and threats,' according to the report, thanks to the Trump Administration, which has done everything possible to ensure that minority populations are left uncounted, giving Republicans a huge edge during the 2021 congressional and state legislative redistricting process."

[CN: LGBTQx hatred] Felicia Sonmez and Carol Morello at the Washington Post: Pence Says Move to Bar Rainbow Flags Outside U.S. Embassies Was 'the Right Decision'. Yes, I'm sure he does, since it was probably at his direction. Also: This isn't news. Let me know when Mike Pence stops hating queer people for two seconds, because that would be news.

[CN: Trans hatred; death; carcerality] Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Trans Woman Who Died at Rikers Island Prison Was in Solitary. "Layleen Polanco was pronounced dead in her cell Friday afternoon, reportedly around an hour after a prison officer noticed she was unconscious. The exact cause of her death hasn't yet been determined. She was in the women's jail on Rikers, in a unit for transgender women, but was placed in solitary as punishment for allegedly taking part in a fight."

* * *

And finally, let's end with some GOOD news...


Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: As Red States Try to Close Clinics, Maine Increases Number of Abortion Providers.
In September, Maine will start allowing health care professionals like nurses to perform abortions, thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills (D) on Monday.

The law allows nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other advanced practice clinicians to administer medication abortion and other in-clinic procedures. The number of clinics where aspiration abortion, the most common type of in-clinic procedure and used up to 16 weeks in pregnancy, is performed would increase from three to up to 18 — including in Aroostook County, among the poorest counties statewide, and where patients have had to travel over 150 miles for an in-clinic procedure.

"Allowing qualified and licensed medical professionals to perform abortions will ensure that Maine women, especially those in rural areas, are able to access critical reproductive health care services when and where they need them from qualified providers they know and trust," Mills said in a press statement. "These health care professionals are trained in family planning, counseling, and abortion procedures, the overwhelming majority of which are completed without complications."
Amazing.

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Republicans Protect Rapists' Parental Rights in Alabama

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, June 10, 2019
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[Content Note: Sexual violence; anti-choicery; rape apologia; hostility to consent.]

As I have regrettably had occasion to observe many, many times in this space over the last 14 years, the Republican Party does not have a solid history of taking sexual assault seriously, to put it mildly.

There was that time House Republicans tried to redefine rape so that it was only "real" rape if it involved force. Then there was the time that Senate Republicans blocked votes on military sexual assault legislation. There was that other time New York state Republicans blocked a proposal to eliminate the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse. And let's not forget that time when Georgia state Republicans didn't want to consider a proposal on rape kits and accused the Democratic sponsor of "politicizing" the issue to get votes.

There was that time former GOP Senator and two-time presidential candidate Rick Santorum said that pregnant rape victims should make the best out of a bad situation. And that time former GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin argued that pregnancy from rape is really rare, because "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." And that time Akin also accused women of lying about rape. And that time GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said that getting pregnant from rape is god's plan. And all the times Republicans have told women how to avoid getting ourselves raped, as if it's our responsibility to stop rapists rather than predators' responsibility to not rape people.

There's Joe Walsh. And John Koster. And Phil Gingrey. And Thomas Corbin. And Jonathan Stickland. And Roy Moore. And Blake Farenthold. Just the tip of the iceberg of Republican politicians who have said stupid shit about sexual assault and/or been accused of sexual assault themselves.

And then there's the current Republican president, whose opening salvo in his campaign was to call undocumented Mexican immigrants rapists; who compared trade deficits to rape — twice; who is himself a confessed serial sex abuser; and whose Secretary of Education has rewritten campus assault guidlines to favor predators; and whose Supreme Court justice was confirmed despite (or because of) credible allegations of sexual assault.

This is hardly a comprehensive list. The litany of examples of Republicans blocking legislation that would address sexual assault or support survivors, and of Republicans saying inappropriate things about rape and/or its victims, and of Republicans who have themselves engaged in sexual harassment and/or assault is interminable. And intolerable.

Which is all preface to say that it it not surprising, but it is nonetheless absolutely rage-making that the Republican Party of Alabama continues to protect rapists' parental rights while eroding pregnant people's bodily autonomy and rights to access a legal healthcare procedure to terminate their pregnancies.

Emily Wax-Thibodeaux at the Washington Post reports:

Alabama is one of two states with no statute terminating parental rights for a person found to have conceived the child by rape or incest, a fact that has gained fresh relevance since its lawmakers adopted the nation's strictest abortion ban in May. That statute even outlaws the procedure for victims of sexual assault and jails doctors who perform it, except in cases of serious risk to the woman’s health.

...Last month, Alabama lawmakers considered a bill that addressed ending parental rights in cases of rape that result in conception, but the legislature removed that language, limiting the law to cases in which people sexually assault their children. State Sen. Vivian Figures (D)...said she didn't know Alabama lacked a statute preventing rapists from gaining custody of their offspring but told The Washington Post that she now plans to introduce a bill in the next legislative session.

"It's just...unfair and even dangerous to these mothers and children," said Figures, who voted against the state's abortion ban.
There is much more at the link.

Naturally, opponents of a law limiting rapists' access to children conceived via rape are relying on ancient narratives about women being liars who constantly allege rape fraudulently in order to defend not having a law that protects victims from having to maintain contact with men who raped them. Women, they say, will lie about having been raped in order to deny fathers access to their children.

Suffice it to say, these men's rights advocates are not concerned in the slightest about the possibility that rapists will leverage impregnating their victims in order to guarantee a lifetime of access to them, despite the fact that reproductive coercion is a documented endemic phenomenon, while women accusing men of rape to deny them parental rights is not.

Republicans' hostility to consent is legendary and central to their ideology. And we must be blunt about this: They are empowering rapists as part of their war on agency. This isn't just a fortunate byproduct of their contempt for women's agency; abetting rapists' control over women's reproduction is by design.

Republican leadership at any level of government is an urgent health crisis and a pressing safety issue for women. That is not a matter of opinion. It is a fact.

[Related Reading: #StopTheBans.]

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We Resist: Day 869

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, June 07, 2019
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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 Administration to Open Mass Detention Facility for Migrant Children in Texas and Primarily Speaking.

Let's start with a whole bunch of GOOD resistance news today!

Auditi Guha at Rewire.News: There's a New Standard for Paid Family Leave Policy in the United States. "Starting in July 2021, workers in Connecticut can get up to 12 weeks off to care for themselves, their family, or a loved one. ...It has the most generous wage-replacement policy and would cover 95 percent of low-wage workers' pay, up to $900 a week for up to 12 weeks, and includes a broad definition of a loved one covered under the policy, including siblings, grandparents, or anyone 'equivalent of a family member,' even if the person is not of blood relation. This is a boon for single parents and LGBTQ people, who often have non-traditional support networks, advocates say." Yay!

Jessica Glenza at the Guardian: Why the Guardian Is Changing the Language It Uses to Describe Abortion Bans. "The Guardian will no longer use the term 'heartbeat bill' in reference to the restrictive abortion bans that are moving through state legislatures in the U.S. ...'We want to avoid medically inaccurate, misleading language when covering women's reproductive rights,' the Guardian's U.S. editor-in-chief, John Mulholland, said. 'These are arbitrary bans that don't reflect fetal development — and the language around them is often motivated by politics, not science.' The Guardian style guide already encourages editors to use 'anti-abortion' over 'pro-life' for clarity, and 'pro-choice' over 'pro-abortion.'" Terrific!

Kate Riga at TPM: Nadler Pushes Impeachment to Centralize Investigations into Trump. "Nadler crafted his pitch around two central points. One, that impeachment proceedings would centralize the investigations into [Donald] Trump and his administration currently sprawled across multiple committees, keeping it all contained within Judiciary. Second, Nadler argued that, procedurally, it's easy to get information and ask questions during impeachment proceedings than in regular House committee sessions." Excellent arguments. Keep pushing, Jerry!

And that's not all he's up to:


[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Ryan J. Reilly at the Huffington Post: House Democrats to Make It Easier to Find Trump Aides in Contempt, Bring Them to Court. "House Democrats are set to vote next week on a resolution that would make it easier for the House of Representatives to drag members of the Trump administration to court ― and to find them in contempt ― for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas. The resolution will also declare Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress, and authorize the civil enforcement of subpoenas in federal court. The House Rules Committee is expected to take up the resolution on Monday evening, and the full House could take it up on Tuesday."

Erin Banco and Asawin Suebsaeng at the Daily Beast: House Dems Preparing Investigation of Rudy Giuliani for Ukraine Shenanigans. "Top congressional Democrats are actively discussing opening a probe into Rudy Giuliani for his overseas political and consulting work, including a recent attempt to uncover dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, a source with direct knowledge tells The Daily Beast. The contours of a potential probe are still under consideration. But it would likely look at whether Giuliani's relationships with foreign politicos interfered or intersected with American foreign-policy efforts." (Spoiler Alert: They did!)

We all know that the Trump Regime is going to continue ignoring Democrats' authority, but I am nonetheless very glad that the Democrats continue to try to hold them accountable.

* * *

And now onto the not-good news...

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Lee Moran at the Huffington Post: Donald Trump Uses D-Day Ceremony Interview to Rant About Nancy Pelosi. "With the graves of U.S. troops who sacrificed their lives in World War II behind him, [Donald] Trump gave an interview to Fox News and tore into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). 'I think she's a disgrace,' Trump told Laura Ingraham in a sit-down pre-recorded at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial on the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. 'I actually don't think she's a talented person. I've tried to be nice to her because I would have liked to have gotten some deals done,' Trump added. 'She's incapable of doing deals; she's a nasty, vindictive, horrible person.'" Fucking hell.

On Twitter, someone suggested that those troops died in part so that Trump would have the freedom to say even horrible things near their graves, but, as I noted in reply: Trump is not a private citizen. As president, he is both the head of government and the head of state. The rules and norms about what he can/should say are very different, and free speech laws do not apply.


Diana Ohlbaum and Rachel Stohl at Just Security: An 'Emergency' Arms Deal: Will Congress Acquiesce in Another Blow to Its Authority? "What exactly has changed to warrant an emergency declaration for additional arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE? It is not as if the Trump administration has been unable to make arms deals with the Middle East up until now. Since taking office, the Trump administration has approved more than $20 billion worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and approximately $5 billion worth of sales to the UAE."


Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: Two Cases Show the Astounding Breadth of the Supreme Court's War on Democracy. "These two cases, Kisor v. Wilkie and Gundy v. United States, are early stages of a much broader effort to transfer power from the executive branch — whose leader is elected, at least most of the time — to a judiciary that is unaccountable to voters and that is now controlled by the Republican Party. It is unclear whether the Supreme Court's right flank has the votes it needs to prevail in both cases, but both are bellwethers for an agenda that could leave the next Democratic president powerless to govern."

[CN: War on agency; hostility to consent; sexual assault; covers next two paragraphs] Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast: Missouri Forcing Women to Have Pelvic Exams 72 Hours Before Abortions, Says Doctor. "Missouri state officials are forcing physicians to perform pelvic exams on women ahead of abortions, according to a doctor who works at the last abortion clinic left in the state. David Eisenberg told the Los Angeles Times that, since the state's governor signed a law banning abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy, he's been forced to carry out the exams. ...'What I realized was I effectively have become an instrument of state abuse of power,' said Eisenberg. 'As a licensed physician, I am compelled by the state of Missouri to put my fingers in a woman's vagina when it's not medically necessary.'"

As I have noted previously, regarding state laws mandating medically unnecessary vaginal ultrasound probes, the state is victimizing abortion providers by coercing them into being their tools of sexual violence, and I am glad that Dr. Eisenberg is stating this plainly and also profoundly upset that he is being put in that position, along with abortion providers all over the country obliged to perform similarly invasive procedures with no purpose but to deter women from seeking abortions.

[CN: Queer hatred; white supremacy] Casey Quinlan at ThinkProgress: The Organizers Behind Boston's Straight Pride Parade Should Concern You. "The three men organizing the parade, planned for August 31 [in Boston], are John Hugo, Mark Sahady, and Chris Bartley, who is called the 'gay ambassador' on the event website. Sahady has ties to groups like the Proud Boys, the New Hampshire American Guard, and the Massachusetts Patriot Front. Hugo unsuccessfully ran for the Massachusetts' 5th Congressional District in 2018 with support and endorsement from Resist Marxism, a group that is considered to be 'alt-lite' and holds anti-Semitic, misogynist, and anti-LGBTQ views."

[CN: Terrorism]


Jeff Cox at CNBC: Jobs Creation Slows Dramatically with Payrolls Up Just 75,000 in May, Much Worse Than Expected. "Job creation decelerated strongly in May, with nonfarm payrolls up by just 75,000 even as the unemployment rate remained at a 50-year low, the Labor Department reported Friday. The decline was the second in four months that payrolls increased by less than 100,000 as the labor market continues to show signs of weakening. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a gain of 180,000. In addition to the weak total for May, the previous two months' reports saw substantial downward revisions. March's count fell from 189,000 to 153,000 and the April total was taken down to 224,000 from 263,000, for a total reduction of 75,000 jobs."

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