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!
Shaker Gourmet
Whut.
[Content Note: Sexism.]
What in the shit is this? "Hillary Clinton is walking into Donald Trump's trap."
There is so much wrong with this garbage that I hardly know where to begin. But this is definitely my favorite, ahem, part:
Consider her slogan, "Fighting for us." For many men, this slogan would have to be experienced as emasculating. A woman fighting for them? Rightly or wrongly, the slogan rubs the wrong way in relation to traditional notions of masculinity.I'm pretty sure any dude who can't deal with a women fighting for him is already voting for Trump, and Clinton doesn't need to waste her time giving them a moment's thought.
What Are You Even Doing, Sanders? Part Whatever.
I don't even know, y'all.
During an interview with NPR, Bernie Sanders was asked whether he prioritized a Sanders presidency or a Democratic presidency. This should have been a gimme. But naturally, Sanders blew it.
Well, I think that if you look at the issues facing this country, and the differences between Secretary Clinton and myself, I think, a) my policies and my agenda will be better for the working families of this country, and second of all, if you look at virtually every poll that’s out there—including one from CNN today—Bernie Sanders does better against Donald Trump than does Hillary Clinton. So if we want to make sure that we do not have a Donald Trump in the White House, I think that at this point Bernie Sanders is the strongest candidate.I've got a piece about it at BNR:
It's remarkable because Bernie's mantra about polls showing he would more resoundingly defeat Trump is based on nonsense. He has not been thoroughly vetted during this primary season and once he was, those numbers would certainly change.Click through to read the whole thing.
That doesn't necessarily mean that he wouldn't be able to win, but he has to know, if he understands the most basic things about presidential politics, that the polls he's citing are meaningless. Either he doesn't understand that they are meaningless, or he is citing them knowing that they're meaningless. Either way, it's not a good look.
It's also remarkable because he is simply refusing to say that of course he would rather see Hillary win, if that's what it takes to defeat Trump.
This is the long and the short of it: Bernie Sanders says that he'll do everything he can to defeat Donald Trump, but it's not true. What he means is that he'll do everything he can to win—and that he's confident he can beat Donald Trump.
Those really aren't the same things.
Question of the Day
If you could learn the answer to one question about your future, what would the question be?
I actually wouldn't want to know anything. I like to be surprised.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There are some flickery lights in this video.]
Bon Jovi: "Livin' on a Prayer"
Throwback Thursdays
Oversized glasses. Braces. Basically a mullet. Velour track suit. Being made to pose for family photos (we had matching track suits). Terrific socks. It was all going great for me in '87!
My sister and I HATED those track suits and getting our pictures taken in them, and we put up such a fuss about them and swore we'd never ever never ever never wear them again that, after the photos, my mom packaged 'em up and returned them to JC Penny, lol.
[Please share your own throwback pix in comments. Just make sure the pix are just of you and/or you have consent to post from other living people in the pic. And please note that they don't have to be pictures from childhood, especially since childhood pix might be difficult for people who come from abusive backgrounds or have transitioned or lots of other reasons. It can be a picture from last week, if that's what works for you. And of course no one should feel obliged to share a picture at all! Only if it's fun!]
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: War on agency.]
"We all agree that protecting our children is a top priority. But this law isn't about protecting Alabama's children. It's about making a sure a woman who has decided to have an abortion can't get one."—Susan Watson, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama, quoted in a piece at Think Progress by Alex Zielinski on a bill passed by the Alabama state legislature yesterday which prohibits "abortion clinics from being within 2,000 feet from any K-8 public school—the same rule a sex offender must follow in the state."
Heaving Sigh
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
"We don't hate Hillary because she's a woman! We hate her because of these demonstrably false narratives that are rooted in misogyny!"
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 5, 2016
Not that I need to tell y'all this, but of course I don't mean that policy differences with or legitimate criticisms of Hillary Clinton are misogynist. If she shoe doesn't fit, don't wear it etc.
But naturally that it how it is being (mis)interpreted in order to scream at me that I'm an embarrassment to feminism and a man-hater and other things that definitely convince me that there's no misogyny at play. Ahem.
Also have you heard I'm fat? IT'S TRUE!
Anyway.
Here's the thing: I recognize that there are people who have policy differences and legitimate criticisms of Hillary Clinton. I am one of those people! I work with some resolute Clinton supporters, and I don't know a single one who isn't one of those people! I've literally never heard anyone I know argue that Clinton is perfect or above criticism. Hillary Clinton herself doesn't claim to be perfect or above criticism.
But I also recognize that there are an awful lot of people who just hate the fuck out Clinton and use legitimate criticisms other people have made of her to justify their hatred.
And telling the difference between someone making a valid and thoughtful criticism and someone who has appropriated a valid and thoughtful criticism to engage in sneering hatred is actually not at all difficult.
* * *
Relatedly, I've got a new piece up at BNR: "Bernie Just Got Four More Pinocchios—But Hillary Is Painted as a Liar."
LOL Welp!
Woman Who Built Trump Tower Says She's Backing Clinton over Trump:
The woman who headed up the construction of Trump Tower in New York says she's supporting Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.From your lips to Maude's ears, Barbara Res!
Barbara Res, who worked for Trump from 1978 to 1996 and was put in charge of construction at Trump Tower in the early 1980s, said on the Irish program RT1 on Tuesday that she's all in for Clinton.
"Oh absolutely not, I'm a Hillary gal," Res said when asked if she is supporting Trump.
..."What won't go away is that the people that don't like Trump really don't like him," she said. "He's got a lot of supporters but he's got more, more, more detractors and I don't think — he's never been in politics before. He has no executive experience. I mean, his candidacy is unheard of. It's testimony to his being able to promote himself that he’s gotten as far as he has."
"So I think it's a Clinton victory," Res said.
This bit, in particular, is so insightful: "People [who] don't like Trump really don't like him." Absolutely. And while the same thing could be said about Hillary Clinton, the reasons that people "really don't like" Hillary Clinton are frequently based on easily disprovable bullshit, while the reasons that people "really don't like" Donald Trump are virtually always based on demonstrably true things about him. The very things that he uses as selling points for his candidacy.
I mean, I've got a seething mass of dipshits up in my mentions telling me that Clinton is "under indictment." No, no she is not. And, at a certain point, that sort of garbage will, to a large extent, fall away. Because it really isn't true.
But Trump is always and forever going to be an incompetent bully who trades in bigotry. It's his central pitch. If anything, the things people hate about Trump are precisely the things that he himself will amplify during the general election.
Daily Dose of Cute
I feel ya, Livs.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today..
[CN: Fire; displacement] "The entire population of the Canadian oil city of Fort McMurray was evacuated as firefighters battled an out-of-control wildfire that was likely to worsen Wednesday. There were long lines on highways as 80,000 residents fled the blaze and oil sands work camps were pressed into service as emergency shelters. 'Apocalyptic' and 'harrowing' scenes on social media showed vehicles facing thick smoke and raging roadside flames amid the largest evacuation in the province of Alberta's history. 'The city is under a complete mandatory evacuation order,' Wood Buffalo municipality spokesman Robin Smith told NBC News early Wednesday... In the Beacon Hill neighborhood, 80 percent of homes have been destroyed, he added. Firefighters from across Canada were being mobilized to aid in the fight. ...'The worst of the fire is not over,' warned Bernie Schmitte, wildfire manager at Alberta Agriculture and Forestry." So devastating. If you want to help, and can afford to donate, the Canadian Red Cross has an Alberta Fires Emergency Appeal, donations to which will be earmarked for people affected.
[CN: Racism; misogyny; police brutality] Goddammit: "On March 27 a white male police officer shot and killed a 27-year-old Navajo woman, Loreal Tsingine, in Winslow, Arizona. Over a month later, the community is still demanding an investigation into the killing; they say it is symptomatic of an entrenched pattern of police violence against Native residents in towns that border the 27,000-square mile Navajo Nation, a territory that extends into Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah."
[CN: Racism] "Publicly, John McCain insists Donald Trump will have a negligible effect on his campaign for reelection. But behind closed doors at a fundraiser in Arizona last month, the Republican senator and two-time presidential hopeful offered a far more dire assessment to his supporters. 'If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,' McCain said, according to a recording of the event obtained by POLITICO. 'If you listen or watch Hispanic media in the state and in the country, you will see that it is all anti-Trump. The Hispanic community is roused and angry in a way that I've never seen in 30 years.'" It's pretty cool how, at least from that snippet, McCain doesn't seem as concerned about why Latinx voters are so angry as he does that they might just not vote for him because of it. Cool dude as always.
Meanwhile, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is all in for Trump: "I have committed to supporting the nominee chosen by Republican voters, and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee is now on the verge of clinching that nomination... Republicans are committed to preventing what would be a third term of Barack Obama and restoring economic and national security after eight years of a Democrat in the White House." At any cost. Clearly.
[CN: White supremacy] And former Republican presidential candidate and current shitlord Pat Buchanan was interviewed by NPR, where he disgorged the usual mountainous heap of white supremacy and "went on to suggest that the Republican party, which voted conclusively for Donald Trump, also believes that, essentially, a whiter America is a better America, and suggested that the general election will be a kind of referendum on the issue of whether America prefers a whiter America to a more diverse one."
[CN: Misogyny] I am already hating how Trump is fixing to make this election an epic battle of the sexes with his gross misogyny, and it's only going to get worse as "Democrats will have female Senate candidates on the ballot in nine states in November, a near-record, and these contenders will likely be sharing the ticket with the first major-party female presidential nominee in history in Hillary Clinton." To be abundantly clear: I am not saying it will get worse because (comparatively) lots of women are running. YAY FOR SO MANY WOMEN RUNNING! I am putting the responsibility for the imminent onslaught of misogyny squarely at the feet of misogynists.
So, here's something definitely unrelated to the previous item: Hillary Clinton's campaign released [CN: video may autoplay] a terrific new advert compiling many of the extreme criticisms other Republicans have made of Trump. And NPR immediately used that to write a story asking how "ugly" the general election will be. Eric Boehlert asks: "How is Hillary making an ad featuring quotes from GOPs talking down Trump 'ugly'?" Good question!
President Obama is naming the nation's first LGBT rights monument! "New York's iconic Stonewall Inn, where the modern gay rights movement took root, will become the first national monument honoring the history of gays and lesbians in the U.S. under a proposal President Barack Obama is preparing to approve." I sure hope that there's mention of the important role trans woman played at Stonewall during the commemoration!
Rolling Stones Tell Donald Trump to Stop Using Their Music. This guy has more money than Midas and he continually steals music.
Neat! "Earthlings are in for a treat Monday as Mercury makes a relatively rare transit of the sun. The solar system's smallest, innermost planet will resemble a black round dot as it passes in front of our big, bright star. The last time Mercury crossed directly between the Earth and sun was in 2006, and it won’t happen again until 2019—and then, until 2032. NASA says the event occurs only about 13 times a century."
And finally! All the blubs forever: "School Yearbook Includes Loyal Service Dog Next to Her Boy." LOVE.
OH MY GODDDDDD
[Content Note: Racism.]
This Donald Trump tongue bath care of the New York Times is disgusting. The normalization of Trump has begun.
Get a load of this shit the NYT attempts to present as just a routine and totally acceptable bit of news about a presidential candidate:
Donald J. Trump is now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but he is also keenly aware that many in his own party — and many Americans, frankly — are scared and anxious about the idea of him in the Oval Office. Even he is not sure how a deeply divided nation would adjust to the first 100 days of a Trump presidency.The juxtaposition of those final two paragraphs! He's going to ban Muslims from entering the country and decimate healthcare access, but he's not running to "make things unstable for the country." The country. Who the fuck does "the country" include? Because it clearly doesn't include Muslims or people in need of affordable healthcare access!
What he does know, however, is what he wants to do in those early months. In a series of recent interviews, he sketched out plans that include showdowns with business leaders over jobs and key roles for military generals, executives and possibly even family members in advising him about running the country.
Shortly after the Nov. 8 election, President-elect Trump and his vice president — most likely a governor or member of Congress — would begin interviewing candidates for the open Supreme Court seat and quickly settle on a nominee in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia.
He would start "building a government based on relationships," perhaps inviting the Republican leaders Paul D. Ryan and Mitch McConnell to escape the chilly Washington fall and schmooze at Mar-a-Lago over golf and two-pound lobsters.
On Inauguration Day, he would go to a "beautiful" gala ball or two, but focus mostly on rescinding Obama executive orders on immigration and calling up corporate executives to threaten punitive measures if they shift jobs out of the United States.
And by the end of his first 100 days as the nation's 45th leader, the wall with Mexico would be designed, the immigration ban on Muslims would be in place, the audit of the Federal Reserve would be underway and plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act would be in motion.
"I know people aren't sure right now what a President Trump will be like," he said. "But things will be fine. I'm not running for president to make things unstable for the country."
Naturally, this most basic analysis of his bullshit does not feature anywhere in the New York Times article. Because the point of journalism is, apparently, to uncritically act as stenographer for a bigoted demagogue. For fuck's sake.
Here Are Some Numbers!
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at links.]
Maybe you will enjoy them! Or maybe you won't! But here they are either way!
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton leads Republican front-runner Donald Trump by double digits in a new CNN-ORC national poll as the 2016 race turns toward the general election.Here are some more numbers!
Clinton earns 54 percent support while Trump garners 41 percent support. The numbers come as Trump's main rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, dropped out of the race, virtually clearing the way for Trump to clinch the nomination.
Clinton's delegate lead over rival Sen. Bernie Sanders is also nearly insurmountable, despite her loss in Indiana Tuesday.
The poll shows several major demographic struggles for Trump. The real estate mogul is tied with Clinton among men but trailing her among women by 26 percentage points.
He leads whites by 9 points, but trails nonwhites by a whopping 67 points. He also trails among independents by 11 points.
Paul Begala, a longtime Clinton adviser involved in the Priorities USA Action super-PAC, believes Clinton would have a shot with Republican foreign policy voters, as well as married women. Mitt Romney won married women by 7 points in 2012, while Trump currently has a 12-point deficit with them.Whooooooooops that is a 19-point difference! I wonder if it has anything to do with the way Trump talks about women?
In other news:
Exclusive @FiveThirtyEight projection on what the Electoral College would look like if women refuse to vote Trump. pic.twitter.com/kmjxmjnY1l
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 24, 2016
Good Luck with All That
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
I've got a new piece up at BNR: "Hillary to Trump (and Salivating Media): Good Luck Reviving '90s Personal Attacks."
Trump now routinely says that he "hasn't started on Hillary yet." He has promised—or maybe a better word is threatened—to go after her in the most personal and unfair way: By treating her marriage as relevant fodder in a presidential campaign.Click through to read the whole thing—and also to watch (or read the transcript of) an amazing exchange that Clinton had with Anderson Cooper. Her contemptuous laughter is quickly becoming one of my favorite sounds in the multiverse.
Trump, who already gets less negative coverage than Hillary, despite his relentless bigotry and abject lack of preparedness for the job he's seeking, cannot defeat her without the assistance of a complicit media.
And even though their scandalized muckraking through the Clintons' personal lives during the '90s remains one of the greatest shames of US political journalism, they seem positively excited about the opportunity to do it all over again.
...Hillary, who is certainly used to the media making the worst possible choices when it comes to covering her life and career, is ready no matter what may come.
Blog Note
I have to wrap up early today, and I'm so sorry I didn't get to In the News today. That's one thing I really like to be able to get done for the community on days I have to wrap up early, but I hope you'll forgive me since my time was spent trying to pushback against some major bullshit on Twitter. (Which I'm going to keep doing as time allows, and I'll hope you'll join me!)
Anyway! I will be back here tomorrow. See you then!
Daily Dose of Cute
This dog. She's the best.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Teaspoons Ahoy!
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
Right now, there's a trending hashtag on Twitter: #DropOutHillary. I am absolutely livid that Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner and presumptive nominee, is being admonished to drop out. No other frontrunner would be subjected to this demeaning shit.
I've started a pushback hashtag: #KeepWinningHillary. Please, if you're on Twitter, compose your own tweets using that hashtag so we can get it trending and push that other garbage off the radar.
Kasich: Out
Welp, somebody finally woke up John Kasich from his nap, and he's dropping out of the Republican race for the presidency. Which is basically just a formality, since he has absolutely zero chance of winning the nomination, and has had all along.
From seventeen down to one. The cheese Donald stands alone.
I've got a piece on this at BNR, focusing on the fact that Trump's now totally undivided attention is one more reason that Bernie Sanders needs to immediately cease his personal attacks on Hillary Clinton.
