[Note: I have a doctor's appointment, so I've got to wrap up a little early today.]
Suggested by Shaker Dreadful Invalid: "Which cultural phenomenon do you just not get the appeal of whatsoever?"
Tiny Houses. I mean, I get the appeal of wanting to own your home outright, and I get the appeal of wanting to live smaller, and I get the appeal of wanting to be mobile, but I don't get the appeal of Tiny Houses specifically, especially the very costly ones, when mobile homes are a thing that exist.
(I mean, I do get it. It's a class thing. But I don't get the appeal of that classism.)
Question of the Day
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 405
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.
* * *
Here are some things in the news today:
Earlier today by me: Hope Hicks Testifies Her Job Requires Her to Lie.
I'm short on time today, so please forgive this truncated version of the daily resistance thread...
Cynthia McFadden, William M. Arkin, Kevin Manahan, and Ken Dilanian at NBC News: U.S. Intel: Russia Compromised Seven States Prior to 2016 Election. "The U.S. intelligence community developed substantial evidence that state websites or voter registration systems in seven states were compromised by Russian-backed covert operatives prior to the 2016 election — but never told the states involved, according to multiple U.S. officials. Top-secret intelligence requested by President Barack Obama in his last weeks in office identified seven states where analysts — synthesizing months of work — had reason to believe Russian operatives had compromised state websites or databases. Three senior intelligence officials told NBC News that the intelligence community believed the states as of January 2017 were Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas, and Wisconsin."
Natasha Bertrand at the Atlantic: Roger Stone's Secret Messages with WikiLeaks. "On March 17, 2017, WikiLeaks tweeted that it had never communicated with Roger Stone, a longtime confidante and informal adviser to [Donald] Trump. In his interview with the House Intelligence Committee last September, Stone, who testified under oath, told lawmakers that he had communicated with WikiLeaks via an "intermediary," whom he identified only as a "journalist." He declined to reveal that person's identity to the committee, he told reporters later. Private Twitter messages obtained by The Atlantic show that Stone and WikiLeaks, a radical-transparency group, communicated directly on October 13, 2016 — and that WikiLeaks sought to keep its channel to Stone open after Trump won the election. The existence of the secret correspondence marks yet another strange twist in the White House's rapidly swelling Russia scandal."
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Kara Scannell, Pamela Brown, Gloria Borger, and Jim Sciutto at CNN: Mueller Team Asks About Trump's Russian Business Dealings as He Weighed a Run for President. "Investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller have recently been asking witnesses about Donald Trump's business activities in Russia prior to the 2016 presidential campaign as he considered a run for president, according to three people familiar with the matter. Questions to some witnesses during wide-ranging interviews included the timing of Trump's decision to seek the presidency, potentially compromising information the Russians may have had about him, and why efforts to brand a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through, two sources said. The lines of inquiry indicate Mueller's team is reaching beyond the campaign to explore how the Russians might have sought to influence Trump at a time when he was discussing deals in Moscow and contemplating a presidential run."
Shane Harris, Carol D. Leonnig, Greg Jaffe, and Josh Dawsey at the Washington Post: Kushner's Overseas Contacts Raise Concerns as Foreign Officials Seek Leverage. "Officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties, and lack of foreign policy experience, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter. Among those nations discussing ways to influence Kushner to their advantage were the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel, and Mexico, the current and former officials said."
Buckle up. Paul Manafort’s trial date has been set: Monday, September 17. https://t.co/QVsHkilTuU
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 28, 2018
Nicole Lafond at TPM: Four Commerce Department Political Appointees Ousted over Background Checks. "Four political appointees in the Department of Commerce lost their jobs Tuesday over issues with their background checks, as Chief of Staff John Kelly cracks down on staffers operating under an interim security clearance. According to The Washington Post, the Commerce Department determined that the four appointees — Fred Volcansek, who was a senior adviser to Secretary Wilbur Ross, and aides Chris Garcia, Edgar Mkrtchian, and Justin Arlett — should not have access to classified information."
"The breadth of Hammer’s power in Florida can be seen in the ways that state employees, legislators, and the governor defer to her—she gives orders, and they follow them."https://t.co/WkGYXbPZOL
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 28, 2018
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
* * *
I made this amazing cream of mushroom soup the other day and omggggggg it was so tasty! I was eating it for days. I am, as y'all know, terrible at recipes, because I just cook with my palate, but here's my best attempt at a recipe, haha.
1.5 cups of chopped white button mushrooms
1 diced white onion
2 slices of crumbled cooked bacon
1 tablespoon of thyme
2 tablespoons of parsley
2 cups of unsalted chicken stock
1 cup of heavy cream
2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper
In a big pot or Dutch oven, cook the onions and mushrooms in olive oil and some salt and pepper, just until the onions go translucent and the mushrooms begin to cast off that amazing nutty aroma. Let cool. Add all the remaining ingredients, stir well, bring to a boil. Boil for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let rest for 4 minutes, then serve with crusty buttered bread!
(Honestly I probably put like 4 tablespoons of parsley in there, lol, but I love the stuff!)
Today in Black History
[Content Note: White supremacy.]
Here are two things I read in quick succession this morning:
1. David Smith at the Guardian: Half-Century of U.S. Civil Rights Gains Have Stalled or Reversed, Report Finds. "Civil rights gains of the past half-century have stalled or in some areas gone into reverse, according to a report marking the 50th anniversary of the landmark Kerner Commission. Child poverty has increased, schools have become resegregated, and white supremacists are becoming emboldened and more violent, the study says."
2. Michael Tesler at the Washington Post: Democrats and Republicans Are Increasingly Divided on the Value of Teaching Black History. "Americans remain fundamentally divided on the teaching of black history. That's not new. What is new is the growing polarization of Democrats and Republicans on this issue. In a February YouGov/Economist Poll... Democrats and Republicans were miles apart: 67 percent of Democrats thought our schools should be teaching more black history, compared with just 10 percent of Republicans."
Happy last day of Black History Month, cough.
I honestly don't think I can put it any more plainly than this: #BlackLivesMatter and so Black History matters. Period.
A failure to agree with that incredibly simple concept is to participate in the maintenance of white supremacy. It doesn't matter the intent. That is the impact. And it is intolerable.
Hope Hicks Testifies Her Job Requires Her to Lie
I just said to a friend yesterday: "I have been thinking a lot lately about how thorough the normalization of Trump has become. So much so that no one even talks about the normalization of Trump anymore. It's just NORMAL."
THIS IS NOT NORMAL. Nicholas Fandos at the New York Times: Hope Hicks Acknowledges She Sometimes Tells White Lies for Trump.
Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, told House investigators on Tuesday that her work for [Donald] Trump, who has a reputation for exaggerations and outright falsehoods, had occasionally required her to tell white lies.It is not normal that the White House Communications Director would have to testify before Congress because the president is suspected of colluding with a foreign adversary.
But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to Trump associates, according to three people familiar with her testimony.
The exchange came during more than eight hours of private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Ms. Hicks declined to answer similar questions about other figures from the Trump campaign or the White House.
She also pointedly and repeatedly declined to answer questions about the presidential transition or her time in the White House, lawmakers who sat in on the testimony said, telling investigators that she had been asked by the White House to discuss only her time on the campaign. They added that she did not formally invoke executive privilege.
A lawyer for Ms. Hicks declined to comment.
It is not normal that a Comms Director would testify that lying on behalf of the president is part of her job duties.
It is not normal that the Congressmembers questioning her would accept her improbable account that she lies, but never about the subject they're investigating.
It is not normal that a member of a White House administration would refuse to answer questions and also be allowed to not answer questions despite not formally invoking executive privilege.
NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL. And neither is this:
When Stephen K. Bannon, who served as Mr. Trump's chief strategist until he was forced out in August, similarly refused to testify about his work for the presidential transition team and the White House, Republicans on the committee quickly subpoenaed him. Mr. Bannon continued to refuse to talk about those subjects, and lawmakers are weighing whether to initiate contempt proceedings.Abnormal and unacceptable.
There was no indication that Republicans would subpoena Ms. Hicks.
Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said Republicans were applying a double standard to Mr. Bannon — who has been exiled from Mr. Trump's circles after disparaging the Trump children in a book by the author Michael Wolff — and all other witnesses. He urged Republicans who control the committee to subpoena Ms. Hicks.
"That's an overly broad claim of privilege that I don't think any court of law would sustain. And I think the White House knows that," Mr. Schiff said. "This is not executive privilege, it is executive stonewalling."
...Mr. Schiff said that important questions had been left unaddressed.
A fixture of Mr. Trump's inner circle throughout the campaign and in the White House, Ms. Hicks is viewed as a valuable witness by investigators. She was involved in the firing of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director in May and the drafting of a statement in July in response to questions about a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Russians and top Trump campaign officials. The statement and its drafting have attracted the interest of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.
Ms. Hicks refused to answer questions about both, lawmakers said.
But in 405 days, much of the American public, including and especially most of the people with the power to hold the Trump administration accountable, have become inured to this intolerable demolishment of norms.
To the lasting despair of anyone who doesn't welcome authoritarian rule.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker GoldFishy: "What about your life today is just like how you hoped things would turn out when you were younger?"
I had hoped at one point to be a writer who covered current events, and, at another point, to be a cultural anthropologist who wrote about culture for a broad non-academic audience. At neither of those points did blogs (or even the internet, as we know now it) exist, so I had no conception of how those often competing objectives would converge in such a then-inconceivable way.
But it's pretty cool that they did!
Save Net Neutrality
Senator Chuck Schumer at Wired: Senate Democrats Have a Plan to Save Net Neutrality.
Last Thursday, the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission formally published a rule reversing long-standing and vital protections of the internet known as net neutrality. The FCC's new rule would let big corporations restrict how consumers access their favorite websites by forcing them to buy internet access in packages, paying more for "premium" service, as with cable television.MAKE YOUR CALLS. #RESIST.
This would be a radical departure from the intended nature of the internet, whose inventors last year cited its openness and neutrality as one of the foremost reasons to reject the FCC's "fundamentally flawed" plan.
Not all is lost, however. Whenever an agency publishes a new rule in the Federal Register, it sets in motion a countdown clock of 60 legislative days for Congress to overturn it.
That means that now is the moment to #SavetheInternet.
Senate Democrats are proposing to undo the FCC's wrongheaded rule through a process set up by the Congressional Review Act. Unlike most legislation, which must be put on the floor by the majority party and often requires 60 votes in order to move forward, a CRA can be passed with the support of just 51 senators...
All 49 senators in the Democratic caucus are united in support of our CRA to stop the FCC from destroying the free and open internet. We also have the backing of senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, who has pledged to vote with us.
That leaves just one more vote to ensure the internet remains free and accessible to all.
That vote must come from the ranks of the Republicans, who so far have sided with internet service providers, the only group that is clamoring to remove the important consumer protections enshrined in net neutrality.
...I urge every person who's reading this to contact the Senate Republicans who have not yet pledged to vote for it. (This should be easy since that's practically all of them, minus senator Susan Collins.)
There are 58 legislative days left to #SavetheInternet. The clock is ticking. Make your voice heard.
If you need to find your senator(s)'s contact information, here you go!
Good Grief
I honestly cannot believe, after 404 days of the Trump administration, there are still people who receive with credulity the report that Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded and thus will no longer have access to sensitive materials. https://t.co/GCKRTHLWJj
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 27, 2018
What this means is that now the Trump administration will operate in greater secrecy and that journalists will stop asking questions about who has access to sensitive materials, on the absurd presumption that the Trump administration comports itself in good faith. https://t.co/GZMOS4pOu0
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 27, 2018
We are doomed.
We are doomed because far, far too many people — including many who ought to know better — insist on treating this administration like it's a normal administration that functions as any other.
It is not.
PROCEED ACCORDINGLY.
Insights from Women Over 50
Like everyone, there are times I think to myself, If only I knew then what I know now... There are, of course, some lessons we have to learn on our own; some things for which the only teacher we'll accept, for whatever reason(s), is personal experience.
But some things, and those things are different for each of us, we just wish someone had told us.
Something about aging as a woman, or what to expect from perimenopause, or something about parenting, or useful career advice, or something about self-acceptance, or a thought about relationships, or what worries turn out to be a complete waste of time and energy, or what preventative steps they'd wish they'd taken, like sunscreen or moisturizer or calcium supplements.
So, to that end, here is a thread for the 50+ women among us to give us their best hard-earned insights.
(Please note the distinction between insight and advice. This isn't about telling younger people how to live their lives, but sharing some of things it took you a long time to learn. Make liberal use of "I" language, and avoid advocacy around potentially triggering subjects like weight loss.)
Tell us the things you wish someone had told you!
For anyone who's curious, I chose the age I did because 50, though still 6 years away, will be my next milestone birthday, and I wanted to learn from this thread, rather than be an advice-giver.
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 404
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.
* * *
Here are some things in the news today:
Earlier today by me: Sanders Dodges Questions on Russia and Supreme Court Rules Immigrants Can Be Indefinitely Detained.
[Content Note: Shooting; transmisogynoir violence] Eli Erlick at Into: A Las Vegas Trans Bar Was the Target of a Shooting over the Weekend. "In the early hours of Friday morning, an unknown individual shot into Las Vegas' only transgender club, injuring at least two people. The windows were covered in bright ads along with a trans flag bearing a silhouetted image of a woman below the bar's name, the Las Vegas Lounge. It's worth recounting this image not to set the scene but to make the observation: The shooter could not have seen inside to target any individual. Black trans woman Callie Lou-Bee Haywood was injured in the shooting and was taken to the hospital. She reported on Facebook that 'the bullets shattered my bones and they're broken in my leg!' 'This pain is beyond excruciating,' she wrote in a comment."
Goddammit. I am angry that someone did this horrible thing, and I am angry that I didn't hear anything about it under Shaker Joy emailed it to me. I didn't encounter a thing about it in my regular news rounds. Awful.
My thoughts are with the enture Las Vegas Lounge community and with Haywood. I hope she has the resources she needs to recuperate from her injury and the attendant trauma. I am so relieved no one was killed.
* * *
[CN: Moving GIFs at link] Eli Rosenberg at the Washington Post: Trump Said He Would Charge a Gunman; Here's What He's Actually Done in the Face of Danger. "Trump's assertion that he would have run toward the Parkland, Fla., gunman had he been near the school would have been a bold claim for just about anybody to make. 'I really believe I'd run in, even if I didn't have a weapon,' he said during a meeting at the White House on Monday. Trump has no background in law enforcement or the military, and the boastful nature of the statement — the president was nowhere near the shooting when it occurred — immediately raised questions about his intent. And given Trump's public track record in the face of proximate danger, his words instead ended up underscoring a separate truth: His actions have, at times, read differently than his tough talk." That's so undeservedly polite that one might imagine it was designed to evoke laughter. Which it certainly did from this reader!
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Dana Bash at CNN: Trump Taps Brad Parscale to Run His 2020 Re-Election Campaign. Oh. This Brad Parscale? Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense, since he's basically the only one left who hasn't been indicted. Speaking of which...
Mueller's team has officially proposed dismissing charges against RICK GATES, following last week's guilty plea. pic.twitter.com/AM69yxGtsm
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 27, 2018
Judge in the DC case grants Rick Gates' unopposed request to go to Boston with his family for spring break. pic.twitter.com/xjHCPejKvK
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) February 27, 2018
1. Isn't his life in danger? 2. Isn't he still a serious flight risk? He has money stashed all over the world. And I'm pretty sure even if he turned over his U.S. passport, he's got one or two or a Jason Bourne amount of fake ones. https://t.co/0h2W8MupLd
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 27, 2018
I don't even know. Suffice it to say this doesn't disabuse me of my feeling that there's something off with the Mueller investigation.
Anyway. Back to the 2020 campaign...
Andy Towle at Towleroad: Cyber Command: Trump Has Given No Orders to Stop Russians from Targeting U.S. Elections. "Donald Trump has not authorized the U.S. Cyber Command to take action against Russian meddling in the 2018 elections. Said NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday: 'I haven't been granted any additional authorities… I need a policy decision that indicates that there's specific direction to do that. The secretary would ultimately make a recommendation to the president…and then based on that, we'd be given specific direction and specific authority… The president ultimately would make this decision in accordance with a recommendation from the secretary of Defense.'" Cool.
Tierney Sneed at TPM: Ryan's Move to Replace Election Commissioner Worries State Officials. "Speaker Paul Ryan's apparent decision not to extend Matt Masterson's tenure at the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission has been met with disappointment and outright anxiety from state election officials who worked with Masterson on a regular basis. Masterson's likely departure comes at a time when issues of cyber-security — issues that Masterson has made a focus of his work — are emerging as a top priority for the commission. 'He's too smart a guy, he's too professional a guy, to lose him at a time when our democracy is suffering from serious threats,' said Rhode Island Secretary Nellie Gorbea (D) in a phone interview with TPM Friday." Also cool.
Nothing to see here. Just the president refusing to issue Cyber Command to take action over Russian meddling in our elections and the Speaker of the House refusing to extend the tenure of an Election Commissioner whose expertise is cyber-security.
* * *
Nicole Lafond at TPM: John Kelly Privately Irked by Ivanka Trump Trip to South Korea.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly was reportedly privately frustrated that White House senior adviser and first-daughter Ivanka Trump was sent to South Korea to lead the U.S. delegation at the Winter Olympics closing ceremonies in Pyeongchang, CNN reported Tuesday.Again, the fallacy of "the generals" being any kind of influence over the president is exposed. The Chief of Staff can't even tell Trump the manifestly obvious truth: That his daughter isn't qualified to serve as a diplomat in such a delicate foreign policy situation.
Two people familiar with the situation told CNN that the decision irked Kelly and other senior West Wing officials because of Ivanka Trump's unfamiliarity with diplomatic efforts surrounding the tensions on the Korean Peninsula. One person close with [Donald] Trump told CNN that Kelly thought Ivanka Trump was not experienced enough to handle the delicacies of the trip because "the stakes are far higher and more complex" than a visit to other countries.
Kelly was reportedly advised by people close to him to not air his concerns with the President, who was publicly very supportive of his daughter serving as the delegation's leader.
There is a person who's qualified, but:
Yikes. "The State Dept's point-man on North Korea, Joseph Yun, will leave his post on Friday... Yun, 63, is retiring as special representative for North Korea policy & deputy assistant secretary for Korea & Japan after more than three decades of service." https://t.co/DRm266339r
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 27, 2018
Meanwhile... Michael Schwirtz at the New York Times: U.N. Links North Korea to Syria's Chemical Weapon Program. "North Korea has been shipping supplies to the Syrian government that could be used in the production of chemical weapons, United Nations experts contend. ...The supplies from North Korea include acid-resistant tiles, valves, and thermometers, according to a report by United Nations investigators. North Korean missile technicians have also been spotted working at known chemical weapons and missile facilities inside Syria, according to the report, which was written by a panel of experts who looked at North Korea's compliance with United Nations sanctions. The report highlights the potential danger posed by any such trade between Syria and North Korea, which could allow Syria to maintain its chemical weapons while also providing North Korea with cash for its nuclear and missile programs."
* * *
[CN: Anti-Semitism] E.A. Crunden at ThinkProgress: Hate Crimes Targeting Jews Hit Highest Rate in More Than 20 Years. "Hate crimes and incidents of discrimination against U.S. Jews rose a staggering 57 percent last year, producing the second-highest number of such events in 40 years and the highest in 20 years according to an annual report from the Anti-Defamation League released on Tuesday. The civil rights organization, which has monitored anti-Semitic hate crimes since 1979, noted almost 2,000 cases of vandalism, harassment, and threats targeting Jews in 2017 — the worst onslaught since 1994, when 2,066 incidents were reported. The 2017 report notably factors in the more than 160 bomb threats called into Jewish centers, all of which were found not credible and many of which have been linked to an Israeli Jewish teenager as well as a non-Jewish man in Missouri who later pled guilty to cyberstalking and anti-Semitic threats. Even after accounting for that rise, the report paints a bleak picture."
Catherine Rampell at the Washington Post: Trump's Sneaky Backdoor Obamacare Repeal Is Working. "In the months since the last Obamacare vote in the Senate, the Trump administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill have engaged in a sneakier, backdoor repeal. ...A handful of relatively low-profile, boring-sounding actions are to blame for the drop-off in the insured. They include repealing the individual mandate (which encouraged young, healthy people to buy insurance, holding down premium costs for the overall pool), shortening the open enrollment period, reducing outreach and advertising, and killing subsidies designed to help pay for low-income people's out-of-pocket spending. Then last week, with little fanfare, the Trump administration released an even-more-damaging new policy: an expansion of 'short-term' insurance plans."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Miranda Green at the Hill: Major EPA Reorganization Will End Science Research Program. "The National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) will no longer exist following plans to combine three EPA offices, the agency confirmed to The Hill on Monday. The program provides millions of dollars in grants each year. Perhaps best known for its handling of fellowships that study the effects of chemicals on children's health, the NCER will be dissolved and science staff serving there will be reassigned elsewhere within the department, the EPA said."
[CN: Climate change; disablist language] Jonathan Watts at the Guardian: Arctic Warming: Scientists Alarmed by 'Crazy' Temperature Rises. "An alarming heatwave in the sunless winter Arctic is causing blizzards in Europe and forcing scientists to reconsider even their most pessimistic forecasts of climate change. Although it could yet prove to be a freak event, the primary concern is that global warming is eroding the polar vortex, the powerful winds that once insulated the frozen north. ...'This is an anomaly among anomalies. It is far enough outside the historical range that it is worrying — it is a suggestion that there are further surprises in store as we continue to poke the angry beast that is our climate,' said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University."
[CN: War on agency] Nicole Knight at Rewire: Wyoming GOP Pushes 'Death Certificates' for Miscarriages. "A panel of male Republican lawmakers in Wyoming unanimously advanced legislation permitting death certificates for miscarriages, after hearing from nearly a dozen women who'd reportedly had miscarriages and opposed the bill. The new certificates would apply to a nonviable birth, which the bill defines as an 'unintentional, spontaneous demise of an unborn child' between nine and 20 weeks' gestation. Being offered such a certificate, a series of women testified in person and in writing, would make them feel a 'range of emotions from awful to infuriated,' according to Better Wyoming, a progressive blog. But the five GOP committee members reportedly said they believed the death certificates, which are voluntary, would provide 'comfort.'"
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Supreme Court Rules Immigrants Can Be Indefinitely Detained
[Content Note: Nativism.]
I have spent the better part of a year warning that the Trump administration was signalling their intent to come after documented immigrants.
In January, they did the previously unthinkable: Revoked a naturalized citizen's citizenship, reverting him to a lawful permanent resident and potentially making him subject to deportation.
And earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest raised "grave concerns" that ICE was targeting immigrants for their "immigration advocacy — a practice she associated with America's worst enemies."
I have said before and will keep saying: This administration's (mis)treatment of undocumented immigrants is their canary in the coalmine. Their targeting is intolerable on its face, but understand that whatever they are doing to undocumented immigrants, they will target others in the same way eventually. We must resist their nativist strategies not only because they are cruel and indecent and unjust, but also because if we fail to resist them, they will proliferate.
That is the backdrop to a horrific decision made by the Supreme Court today, which ruled "that immigrants, even those with permanent legal status and asylum seekers, do not have the right to periodic bond hearings."
It's a profound loss for those immigrants appealing what are sometimes indefinite detentions by the government. Many are held for long periods of time — on average, 13 months — after being picked up for things as minor as joyriding. Some are held even longer.This is an absolute nightmare, particularly given the increasing criminalization of protest across the United States.
The case has implications for legal permanent residents the government wants to deport, because they committed crimes, and asylum seekers who are awaiting a court date after turning themselves in at the border. Immigrant advocates contend that many of these immigrants have a right to be free on bail until their case is heard.
But the court wrote in its 5-3 opinion Tuesday, "Immigration officials are authorized to detain certain aliens in the course of immigration proceedings while they determine whether those aliens may be lawfully present in the country."
The majority opinion was penned by Justice Alito and joined by the court's conservatives.
...The lead plaintiff in the case is a legal permanent resident, Alejandro Rodriguez, who came to the U.S. as a child and worked as a dental assistant. As a teenager, he was convicted for joyriding, and at 24, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance.
Rodriguez was detained for three years without the right to appear before a judge to ask for bond.
And, given that the Trump administration has argued it can strip away citizenship from naturalized citizens -- and has -- I don't see how it's not also a blatant threat to naturalized citizens and their family members not to protest, too.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 27, 2018
There are a few things to understand here:
1. This is part of the Trump administration's nativist and white supremacist agenda. The people who will primarily be targeted are non-white immigrants — especially because non-white immigrants are more likely to be protesting this administration. That said, I don't believe my husband's whiteness, for instance, will trump (cough) the administration's desire to leverage his immigration to silence me, if it comes to that.
2. The strategy is thus clearly multifaceted: To quell dissent and to "restructure American demography."
3. Further, the administration seeks to inure the general public to various erosions of civil rights by targeting undocumented immigrants. When the public tolerates that, they move on to documented immigrants. When the public tolerates that, they move on to naturalized citizens. Any citizen of this nation who believes it will stop there is a fool.
We must resist this with everything we've got, because we are witnessing the authoritarian plan for widespread social control being legalized whilst directed at immigrants.
If you can't get motivated enough to make noise in defense of immigrants, then get motivated because, if you don't, you'll be next.
Sanders Dodges Questions on Russia
We all know that I would rather be writing about nearly anything else than Bernie Sanders, but Bernie Sanders is still positioning himself as a progressive leader in U.S. politics and has not ruled out another presidential run, so I'm still obliged to write about Bernie Sanders.
And, unfortunately, the Senator still isn't giving me anything good to say about him. Especially when he pulls shit like this:
Bernie Sanders and an aide brush back questions about Mueller indictments of the Russians - and how they allegedly helped his campaign. One of his aides stepped in front of me to shield the senator and prevent me from asking questions. Aide bumped into me, saying “Not right now.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 26, 2018
I tried to tell the aide it’s not OK to physically bump a reporter asking questions in the Capitol halls, and all he said repeatedly was “goodbye” as he departed on an elevator
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 26, 2018
Dude.
Sanders needs to be accountable regarding his own campaign boost from Russians in the 2016 election, even if he isn't planning to run for president again but especially if he is.
He would certainly like us all to believe that he didn't solicit any support from Russia; that whatever support he got didn't have any meaningful effect on the campaign; that there was nothing he could do about it at the time; and that there's nothing he needs to do about it now.
But, with the possible exception that his campaign did not actively seek intervention from Russian operatives, all of that is wrong.
And we need definitive answers about collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia, as well as collusion between his campaign and the Trump campaign, because:
1. His chief campaign strategist, Tad Devine, worked in collaboration with Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort for Putin-aligned former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych for many years.
2. It was Devine, with whom Sanders has worked since the '90s, who convinced Sanders to run as a Democrat — and the Russian campaign to create division among Democrats only worked so well because Sanders ran as a Democrat. It would have been much less successful if Sanders had run as a third-party candidate. (See: Jill Stein.)
3. Devine reached out to his old associate Manafort at least once that we know of during the 2016 U.S. presidential election: To try to arrange the ill-fated debate proposed between Trump and Sanders.
Devine knows campaign chairman Paul Manafort from, among other things, their collaboration on the campaign of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. According to campaign aides, the morning after Trump was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Weaver asked Devine to give Manafort a call to see if they could actually make the debate happen. They were already fielding offers from most of the networks—including a producer for Stephen Colbert, who wanted to host the debate on his own late night show.To be clear, as I noted at the time, the entire charade was an exercise in trying to make Hillary Clinton look bad, because she refused to agree to a debate with Sanders in California. So, the one time we know that Devine and Manafort communicated, it was to orchestrate something that was explicitly to harm Clinton.
Manafort laughed, said it was a joke, but then again, Trump was on his plane, and he had no idea what the candidate would do. The answer turned out to be a statement killing the speculation. Manafort left a voicemail for Devine saying he'd won over Trump. Devine never called him back.
4. Sanders' campaign, like every other campaign of Hillary Clinton's chief rivals, advocated a policy of working with Russia in Syria that did not make sense then and does not make sense still.
Before the 2016 election, joining forces with Russia to defeat ISIS was not a mainstream position, on either side of the aisle. [Content Note: Video may autoplay at following link.] That's because, as Hillary Clinton noted during the second presidential debate, Vladimir Putin doesn't give a fuck about ISIS: "Clinton said that Russia 'isn't interested in ISIS' and its assault on Aleppo was aimed at destroying Syrian rebels opposed the regime led by Bashar al-Assad."
But during the 2016 election, the one in which Russian interfered, every single one of Hillary Clinton's leading opponents suggested working with Russia in some manner, using the justification of joining forces to defeat ISIS.
Donald Trump repeatedly insisted throughout the campaign (and still asserts) that we should work with Russia to defeat ISIS, and criticized President Obama for not having done the same, despite the fact that such a plan is "futile and dangerous."
November 2015: Sanders Calls for New NATO That Includes Russia. "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called for a new accord between America, its closest allies, and Russia as well as Arab nations as a major plank on how to destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."
September 2016: Gary Johnson: 'What Is Aleppo?' "With regard to Syria I do think it's a mess. I think that the only way that we deal with Syria is to join hands with Russia to diplomatically bring that at an end."
October 2015: Jill Stein Calls for Ceasefire in Syria, Joint Peace Agenda with Russia. "Stein People's Agenda for Global Peace and Agenda lays out a multi-prong approach to pursue peace based on focusing on promote [sic] justice and prosperity for all countries. Stein last week in NYC briefly outlined the proposal to Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who asked her to follow-up with more details."
So, no serious foreign policy suggestions to join with Russia to fight ISIS before 2016. Then, during the election in which Russia intervened with the express purpose of defeating (or critically weakening) Clinton, every one of her opponents from across the political spectrum — her Democratic primary opponent, and her general election Republican, Libertarian, and Green Party opponents — each offered a policy of aligning with Russia, with the rationale of defeating ISIS.
Clinton was also the only candidate who did not have someone with ties to Putin working on her campaign, or a previous campaign. Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Sanders' chief strategist Tad Devine had previously worked in collaboration for pro-Putin former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych. Roger Stone was an advisor on Johnson's 2012 campaign, and continued to speak enthuiastically about Johnson in 2016. And Stein rather famously had dinner with Putin herself.
Also at that dinner? Michael Flynn — who then used that curiously shared rationale of defeating ISIS to argue for allying with Russia when his candidate won the White House.
A rationale that has never made, and continues to make, no sense based on the most basic understanding of Russia's objectives and alliances in Syria.
I have questions about how every campaign but Clinton's came to advocate this peculiar policy.
* * *
I believe it's entirely possible that Bernie Sanders has reasonable explanations for all of these things. In which case, it should neither be difficult nor inconvenient for him to account for them, publicly and transparently.
Before he mounts another presidential run, he needs to make some assurances to the people he hopes to represent in the White House, because these are the things we know for sure: Sanders' 2016 campaign was aided by Russian interference; and so was the campaign of the current occupant of the White House, and his governance is clearly compromised as a result.
So we need some straightforward answers. And if Sanders is unhappy about that, he can direct his ire at the Russians (which he should be doing as a sitting United States Senator) and not with the American public and journalists who want and quite reasonably expect serious answers from him.
I MEAN
WITCH HUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2018
NOPE! https://t.co/1GzpULaF6F
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 27, 2018
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker AutistOfSpot: "If a magic spell from film/lit/games/etc. could be made real via technology, what would you want it to be?"
Is there a magic spell in any film, lit, or game that's something along the lines of Trumpus interruptus?
Monday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by notebooks.
Recommended Reading:
Kia Morgan-Smith at the Grio: [Content Note: Guns; racism; death] Trayvon Martin Not Forgotten on the Anniversary of His Death
Kylie Cheung at Ms.: [CN: Toxic masculinity; misogyny] Male Supremacy Organizations Are Now on SPLC's List of Hate Groups
Susan Cheng at BuzzFeed: [CN: Rape culture; racism] Asian-American Women in Hollywood Say It's Twice as Hard for Them to Say #MeToo
Monica Lewinsky at Variety: [CN: Discussion of trauma and consent] Emerging from "the House of Gaslight" in the Age of #MeToo
Katelyn Burns at Everyday Feminism: [CN: Transmisogyny; workplace harassment] Here's How Trans Women Are Subtly Pushed out of Their Jobs
Alex Horton at the Washington Post: A CDC Researcher Left Work Sick Two Weeks Ago — Then Vanished
Luke Barnes at ThinkProgress: [CN: Harassment] Death Threats Force Parkland Shooting Survivor to Leave Facebook
Brandy Zadrozny and Asawin Suebsaeng at the Daily Beast: Trump's Longtime Lawyer, Michael Cohen, Knows Way Too Much; So Why Is He Still in Exile?
Julie Mazziotta at People: [CN: Fat bias; video may autoplay at link] Ragen Chastain, a 288-lb. Woman, Becomes Heaviest to Run a Marathon and Aims for Ironman: 'It's About Visibility'
Kenrya Rankin at Colorlines: Alicia Garza Launches New Organization to Harness Black Political Power
Kimberly Yam at the Huffington Post: David Chang: People Should Honor the Cultures from Which Ethnic Food Comes
David Derbyshire at the Guardian: [CN: Climate change; animal death] The Terrifying Phenomenon That Is Pushing Species Towards Extinction
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Discussion Thread: Self-Care
What are you doing to do to take care of yourself today, or in the near future, as soon as you can?
If you are someone who has a hard time engaging in self-care, or figuring out easy, fast, and/or inexpensive ways to treat yourself, and you would like to solicit suggestions, please feel welcome. And, as always, no one should offer advice unless it is solicited.
* * *
I went for a long swim last night, and I will go again as soon as I can, because it is definitely the primary thing I do for myself that is keeping me together.
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 403
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.
* * *
Here are some things in the news today:
Earlier today by me: Three Headlines and What If the Only Crack Through Which Nikolas Cruz Fell Was Legal Gun Access?
In case you missed it over the weekend, Rep. Adam Schiff's memo was published [pdf], and, even with some redactions, it makes pretty clear what manifest bullshit the Nunes memo was. Crucially, it says that that the FBI had reasons independent of the Steele dossier, to suspect Carter Page of "knowingly" assisting Russian intelligence officials, and further that the FBI provided the FISA court with information that corroborated the dossier's assertions.
So, the whole conservative narrative about Hillary Clinton and/or Democrats paying for the dossier, and the FBI subsequently using it exclusively as justification to spy on Page, was of course total crap. (Which didn't stop Trump from lying about it.) Also:
Dem House Intelligence Committee memo does many things:
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 24, 2018
-Destroys false claim by Nunes that FISA process was abused
-Shows @realDonaldTrump is in no way vindicated
-Lays out ample probable cause to surveil Carter Page
-Shows Steele Dossier corroborated
-Shows FBI & DOJ know a lot https://t.co/dWGWCwlOqV
Welp. No wonder Republicans didn't want it released. Maude bless Rep. Schiff. And keep him safe.
* * *
Some good news and bad news at SCOTUS today. First, the good news...
Angela Helm at the Root: U.S. Supreme Court Rules Dreamers Are Safe…for Now. "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to immediately review lower court decisions that keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program from going kaput, in what has to be a huge relief to DACA recipients and yet another blow to the Trump administration. ...The Supreme Court rarely takes up a case that has not been ruled on by the lower courts, and the Washington Post reports that in the past, the court has only done so when the cases were of 'grave national importance,' such as the controversy over President Richard Nixon's White House tapes or the Iranian hostage crisis. In what may have been a rash and ultimately fatal move, the Trump administration asked that the court bypass the lower courts to hear the case because it 'raised such important legal questions about presidential authority.'" Oops.
Unfortunately, we know that the Trump administration is not going to let this go. So it's a reprieve for the moment, but the Republicans aren't about to back down from their war on immigrants anytime soon. We must remain vigilant.
And now the bad news...
Sam Baker at Axios: Public-Sector Unions Prepare to Be Kneecapped at the Supreme Court. "The Supreme Court is very likely on the verge of dealing a devastating blow to public-sector unions — one of the last remaining strongholds of organized labor, and a critical part of the Democratic Party's base. The court will hear oral arguments today in a challenge to the fees public-sector unions collect from non-members. But the writing is already on the wall here. It would take a huge surprise for unions to get a reprieve."
it’s like, what is even the point of having arguments today. 😒 Neil Gorsuch has deciding vote in key labor union funding U.S. Supreme Court case https://t.co/mID4STCVzL via @denverpost
— Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady) February 26, 2018
Yeah. The fate of labor unions are in the hands of an illegitimate justice who doesn't value workers lives, nominated by an illegitimate president who paid a $1.375 million settlement after hiring undocumented laborers and paying them as little as $4 an hour.
The labor demonstrations outside the Supreme Court building today are, however, deeply moving — and if you have time to take a look on Twitter, I highly recommend it.
* * *
Hey, you know how earlier today I wrote a whole thing about how there are laws against just disappearing people into psychiatric institutions or jails? Yeah, well... Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: Trump: 'We're Going to Have to Start Talking About Mental Institutions'.
During a lengthy speech Monday about possible policy changes in the wake of the latest deadly school shooting, [Donald] Trump suggested placing people who show signs of violent behavior into mental institutions.JESUS FUCKING JONES.
"You know, in the old days we had mental institutions. We had a lot of them. And you could nab somebody like this," Trump said at a meeting with governors. "But you used to be able to bring them into a mental institution and hopefully he gets help or whatever. But he's off the streets. You can't arrest him, I guess, because he hasn't done anything, but you know he's like a boiler ready to explode, right?"
Trump did not explicitly call for the government to fund mental institutions for those who appear poised to commit mass atrocities, but he suggested that lawmakers begin discussing mental institutions.
"We're going to have to start talking about mental institutions, because a lot of folks in this room closed their mental institutions also. So we have no halfway. We have nothing between a prison and leaving him at his house, which we can't do anymore. So I think you folks have to start thinking about that," he told governors.
Meanwhile...
This fucking Recliner Rambo right here: "I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon," said Trump. https://t.co/RTAoRA2s5O
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 26, 2018
Josh Rogin at the Washington Post: An Attack on North Korea Would Be Massive — and Massively Stupid.
In response to worries that it is planning a "bloody nose" strike on North Korea, the Trump administration has been offering an odd reassurance. Any attack on the regime of Kim Jong Un would not be limited, officials and surrogates are saying, but enormous and overwhelming. That, of course, is not reassuring at all: A massive attack on North Korea would be massively stupid.Just consider for a moment the juxtaposition of these two preceding items. One: Trump is completely delusional about his own heroism and also what constitutes sensible responses to violent threats. Two: Trump continually provokes North Korea and clearly doesn't understand the consequences.
The White House calls reports that [Donald] Trump is considering a small-scale North Korea military option exaggerated. The administration understands that there is no guarantee Kim won't respond with his full military might — a nightmare scenario. But embedded in every denial is a consistent pledge that Trump will not accept North Korea achieving the capability to strike the United States with a nuclear-tipped intercontinental missile — a clear red line.
That means the military option Trump is actually considering foremost is one that would be huge, complex, and devastating.
He really is going to kill us all. If he doesn't, it will be a fucking miracle.
* * *
Looks like Xi Jinping has plans to remain China’s president forever with plan to scrap two-term limit. https://t.co/jaA3VvFl23 pic.twitter.com/NzzgkhrNhN
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) February 25, 2018
Oh. That's not worrying at all. (That is very worrying.)
BREAKING: WaPo: Russian military spies hacked several hundred computers used by authorities at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea while trying to make it appear as though the intrusion was conducted by North Korea, per US intelligence https://t.co/qYccRjU3eO @nakashimae
— Evan Rosenfeld (@Evan_Rosenfeld) February 25, 2018
This article about Facebook’s auction system, which Brad Parscale just endorsed, says that Facebook systematically charged the Clinton campaign more for ad space than the Trump campaign because Clinton’s ads were less “provocative.” https://t.co/ddFyHkfgLO pic.twitter.com/rlWDnHA9cF
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) February 24, 2018
So everything else is looking fine, too. (OMFG.)
Alice Ollstein at TPM: White House Attacks the Court System (Again) After Ruling Upholding DACA. Of course it did.
Shane Savitsky at Axios: GOP Committee Heads Don't Want to Investigate Trump's Finances. Of course they don't.
Catherine Lucey at the AP: Ivanka Trump Believes Father's Denials of Sexual Misconduct. Of course she does.
* * *
And finally...
ICYMI Sen. Sanders has a son who is getting into the politics game.
— Shawna Thomas (@Shawna) February 26, 2018
"'The basic difference is that I’m a vegetarian and he’s not,' Levi said of his father, adding that despite their policy similarities he would run his own campaign." https://t.co/rZsncFnMK2
Also ICYMI his stepdaughter is also running for his old office -- Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. https://t.co/Cm4AY6iQe8
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 26, 2018
For the record, I have zero problem with Bernie's son and stepdaughter running for office. But I also didn't spend an enormous amount of time arguing that @HillaryClinton shouldn't be the Democratic nominee BECAUSE DYNASTIES!!!1!
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 26, 2018
Man, it's going to be a long couple of years.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
I Can't Even, Followed by More Cantevening
Boy oh boy what must it be like to be a cishet white man saying NOW, in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and eighteen, that it "turned out" Trump's a liar, and getting cheers for it.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 26, 2018
Naturally, this tweet was met by someone "defying" me to "find an occasion" when Bernie Sanders ever said that Hillary Clinton was unqualified.
Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooops! pic.twitter.com/73ECmEEZ5Q
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 26, 2018
It's like clockwork. I criticize Bernie Sanders for having said something, and someone immediately jumps into my mentions to claim he never said it, and then I pull out four million or so receipts, and then the goalposts change.
In this case, my correspondent then said that he was just responding to Hillary Clinton saying the same of him, which of course I pointed out was false, showing the receipt for that, so they moved on to claiming that "not qualified" and "unqualified" weren't the same thing, which is just so cringingly embarrassing that, at that point, I just blocked them.
I find that arguing with Bernie Sanders superstans is a lot like arguing with conservative Christians: I always seem to know the actual words of their lord and savior better than they do.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 26, 2018
I honestly don't know if I can deal with Bernie running for president and Trump being president at the same time.
What If the Only Crack Through Which Nikolas Cruz Fell Was Legal Gun Access?
[Content Note: Gun violence; disablism.]
A lot of different people and entities have been blamed for failing to stop Nikolas Cruz from killing 17 people in the Parkland shooting. And, as the investigation continues, there is yet more blame to go around.
A new report from Salvador Hernandez at BuzzFeed, for instance, reveals that, despite Broward County Sheriff's officials "publicly insisting they responded to just 23 calls regarding the suspected Florida school shooter and his family over the years," records obtained by the news outlet appear to "show at least 45 responses since 2008. The number of calls made over the years involving Cruz or his family, according to the call records, are nearly twice the number publicly disclosed by the department."
If true, the fact that officials are lying about the number is very troubling, but that's a separate issue from whether they failed to do everything they could to prevent Cruz from committing his act of mass violence.
Maybe they did fail. That's certainly an easy accusation to make. It's just as easy as a bunch of (racist) Recliner Rambos shaming the campus police officer who did not run into Cruz's line of fire to try to stop him.
But what if the police department actually did everything allowable under current laws? I don't know if they did, but I don't know that they didn't, either. People are similarly angry at social services who "failed to stop" Cruz — and that's a reflection not only of the frantic search to find someone to blame (besides the shooter), but also, as I recently noted in comments, of the deep misunderstanding of the role of social services and how mental health interventions work.
It's evident, reading public commentary on the Parkland shooting, that many people believe the role of Family Services to be seizing "crazy people" and tossing them in "asylums" and locking them away forever and throwing away the keys. That is not the role of Family Services!
There are laws against precisely that sort of thing, and every one of us should be glad that there are, lest we be imprisoned on the basis of someone reporting that we're a danger to public safety.
Just like my assessment of law enforcement, I am not certain whether social services did everything allowable under the law (or if, critically underfunded, they even had the resources to do so) to deter Cruz. I do know, however, that it's entirely possible that Cruz simply didn't meet the criteria for additional attention and/or detention, because not all mass shooters are mentally ill.
Just circularly arguing, as many people do, that all mass shooters are "insane" because anyone who does such a thing must be "insane" doesn't make it so.
And, even if he is mentally ill, he still might not meet the criteria for any state intervention, by social services or law enforcement.
There's this pervasive idea that if, someone gets flagged, there will be swift and meaningful action taken "by authorities" to prevent that person from doing harm to others. But unless a detailed plot or actionable threat to harm others is uncovered, or some other illegal activity, detaining a person, no less indefinitely, is not lawful. Nor should it be.
Flagging can (and should) trigger an investigation, and it can (and should) trigger social interventions to provide access to any and all means of care. That's what "doing something" means.
And it seems quite possible that the police and social services "did something." Maybe everything they could.
So what we're left with is this: Perhaps the only crack through which Nikolas Cruz fell was legal gun access.
Yes, let us make sure that law enforcement is doing everything they can, starting with treating more seriously domestic violence as a potential indicator of future mass violence. And yes, let us make sure that social services are fully funded so that they may be fully empowered and offer comprehensive services to all people in need, not just people threatening mass violence.
But let us also take seriously the reality that, even in the best of circumstances, law enforcement and social services — and family and friends and schools and community — might do everything they are able to do and still it won't be enough to prevent a mass shooting.
And that the only thing that would be enough is significantly reducing, if not eradicating, access to guns.
Three Headlines
There are fully ten quattuordecillion stories about Donald Trump every single day, and they are all full-tilt terrible. But sometimes I read a collection of stories back-to-back that just overwhelms me with rage, grief, and all the mirthless laughter in the entire multiverse because of its capacity to perfectly encapsulate the ongoing shitshow that is this nightmare timeline in which Trump is president.
This morning I had one of those experiences, reading these three headlines (and the attached stories) right in a row:
1. Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: Trump's Personal Pilot Under Consideration to Lead the FAA. Of course! Of course Trump wants his personal pilot to lead the FAA. Because he stubbornly believes that everyone who does any job within three yards of him is obviously the best person at that job anywhere on the entire planet, no matter how much evidence to the contrary may exist, because none of that evidence will ever penetrate the thick cloud of arrogance and ignorance in which he's permanently ensconced.
2. Jonathan Swan at Axios: Trump Privately Talks up Executing All Big Drug Dealers. Obviously. Because he is a sadistic monster whose central governing strategy is malice. And because he is a goddamn authoritarian who, like any megalomaniacal strongman, loves the idea of killing people to show his "strength."
3. Devan Cole at CNN: [Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Trump Campaign Emails Photo of Parkland Survivor, Asks for Donations. Whatever expression you're picturing on my face after I read that shit is probably correct. Anger? Sure. Sadness? Yep. Nausea? Absolutely. Urge to destroy everything? Definitely. Desire to crawl into a giant cannon and fire myself directly into the sun? You bet.
Maude help me. Maude help us all.
I'll Take the Phone — And the Killer Robot Reality
In one of the better tech nostalgia moves, Nokia has announced it's reloading (see what I did there?) the 8110 "banana phone" made famous in The Matrix.
Tom Warren at the Verge reports:
HMD, makers of Nokia-branded phones, is bringing the Nokia 8110 back to life as a retro classic. Just like the Nokia 3310 that was a surprise hit at Mobile World Congress last year, the 8110 plays on the same level of nostalgia. The slightly curved handset has a slider that lets you answer and end calls, and HMD is creating traditional black and banana yellow versions.Ignoring that there is absolutely no indication that this phone will be available in the United States, I will take one, please. And I would also like to be landline-escorted to the alternate reality with the killer robots (but also the killer orgies in Zion) inmediatamente, por favor.
The Nokia 8110 runs on the Smart Feature OS, so this is a basic featurephone and you're not going to get access to the Android apps found on other Nokia Android smartphones. However, HMD is creating an app store for the device, which will include Facebook so there's a chance other third parties might create their own apps for this.
Unlike the 3310, the 8110 will ship with LTE support across Europe, with dual-SIM versions available too. Inside there's a Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. While the banana phone looks big in pictures, it's relatively small with just a 2.4-inch QVGA display and a 2-megapixel camera at the rear. You'll even get access to a revamped Snake game, and an impressive 25 days of battery standby.
The Nokia 8110 will be available in May for just 79 euros ($97).
My only question is: Will they be bringing back that ringtone, too?
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
Another Indictment for Manafort
BREAKING: A federal Grand Jury has returned a new superseding indictment in the Manafort case.
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) February 23, 2018
The indictment says that Manafort, “secretly retained a group of former senior European politicians to take positions favorable to Ukraine, including by lobbying in the United States”
Here is the indictment. The long and the short of it is that Paul Manafort was deeply involved in political consulting for and lobbying on behalf of the government of Ukraine and the Party of Regions, a pro-Putin Ukrainian political party whose members included ousted PM and Putin puppet Viktor Yanukovych.
He and his associate Rick Gates did not disclose this work to the U.S. government, as required by law, even as they orchestrated lobbying of U.S. politicians and candidates on behalf of their foreign clients.
Manafort also did not disclose the significant income he made doing this work, and indeed conspired to conceal it. Because he knew what he was doing was fucking illegal.
None of this is surprising. It is nonetheless very contemptible.
Friday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by misting rain.
Recommended Reading:
Charline Jao at the Mary Sue: "Give a Child the Universe" Initiative Will Bring Underprivileged Children to A Wrinkle in Time
Rebecca Bengal at the Guardian: 'You Don't Own or Control Me': Janelle Monáe on Her Music, Politics, and Undefinable Sexuality
Lydia Wang at Bust: In "Notes from the Field," Anna Deavere Smith Holds a Mirror up to a Fractured America
Dustin Rowles at Pajiba: The Parkland Students Are Making a Fool of Trump, and He Hates It
Laura Li at 18 Million Rising: [Content Note: Nativism] Perpetual Foreigners in ICE's Virtual Dragnet
Alice Ollstein at TPM: [CN: Nativism] Data Clashes with Emotion as CPAC Immigration Panel Goes off the Rails
Yr Fat Friend at Medium: [CN: Fat hatred; body policing] "I'm Body Positive as Long as You're not Obese."
Yessenia Funes at Earther: [CN: Environmental racism; class warfare] Yet Another Study Shows Black People Suffer Most from Pollution
Miriam Zoila Pérez at Colorlines: [CN: Homophobia; Christian Supremacy] Lesbian Couple Sues Government After Being Denied Right to Foster Refugee Children
Samantha Allen at the Daily Beast: [CN: Erasure of privilege] The New 'Heathers' Is a Trumpian, LGBT-Bashing Nightmare
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Trump Will Kill Us All
.@POTUS on North Korea: "If the sanctions don't work we'll have to go phase two and phase two may be a very rough thing. It may be very very unfortunate for the world." pic.twitter.com/PQf0ysED5O
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 23, 2018
In this moment, I'm once again feeling super thrilled about all the times I was called a cunt for saying that there were easily discernible and critically important differences between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
