Elections Matter. Oh How They Matter.

You might have noticed that I've been frantically and repeatedly raising the alarm about the fact that Donald Trump has inherited more than 100 federal court vacancies, because the Republican Senate majority spent the last two years refusing to confirm President Obama's judicial nominees, just like they blocked Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court.

They did so to significantly less fanfare, but the consequences are enormous: Federal circuit and district court judgeships are also lifetime appointments, and, with dozens of vacancies waiting to be filled, Trump has, as the Washington Post's Philip Rucker and Robert Barnes put it last December, "a monumental opportunity to reshape the judiciary."

And now it begins.

Adam Liptak at the New York Times: Trump to Announce Slate of Conservative Federal Court Nominees.

Having filled a Supreme Court vacancy, President Trump is turning his attention to the more than 120 openings on the lower federal courts. On Monday, he will announce a slate of 10 nominees to those courts, a senior White House official said, the first in what could be near monthly waves of nominations.

The White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, said the nominations were a vindication of a commitment Mr. Trump made during the campaign "to appoint strong and principled jurists to the federal bench who will enforce the Constitution's limits on federal power and protect the liberty of all Americans."

The administration continues to draw on lists of 21 potential Supreme Court nominees, put together with the help of the conservative Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation, that Mr. Trump issued during the campaign. But it is looking at other sources, too, the White House official said. Mr. McGahn, who has supervised the selection of the nominees, is looking for scholarly credentials and "intellectual boldness," among other qualities, the official added.

Emphases mine.

While I'm sure McGahn has indeed been involved in "the selection of the nominees," the real "supervisor" of this catastrophe is almost certainly Mike Pence.

So brace yourselves for a judiciary shaped for a generation or more by a man who is virulently anti-choice; who believes women should be jailed for miscarriages; who holds vile anti-LGBTQ views; who is a nativist scoundrel; who is a social Darwinist; who is a shameless liar; who is deeply authoritarian; who is a warmonger; who doesn't believe men and women should be alone together; who is just the worst. An utter nightmare for progressives.

Suffice it to say, this is yet another example that blatantly contradicts the dangerous lie that there was no difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

That thing I said after House Republicans passed their disgusting "healthcare" bill...?

Fuck every single person who said or implied there was no difference between Trump & Clinton. We'd never have worried she'd sign this bill.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 4, 2017

Double it for the difference we would have seen in the judiciary between Trump's Pence's nominees and Clinton's.

I hope the Democrats are ready to fight.

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Sally Yates to Testify Today

Today, former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, along with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, will testify at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. It will stream live on C-SPAN3, starting at 2:30pm ET.

By way of reminder, Yates was fired after she ordered Justice Department lawyers not to defend Donald Trump's (first) Muslim ban. The reason she has been called to testify, however, is because, as acting AG, until she was fired, she was playing a key role in the investigation of erstwhile National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

She was scheduled to testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee, as part of their investigation into Russia, but her testimony was canceled by the Republican committee chair Devin Nunes.

The Trump administration has sought to prevent Yates from testifying, with the Justice Department insisting "a great deal of her possible testimony to be barred from discussion in a congressional hearing because the topics are covered by the presidential communication privilege."

The Senate subcommittee has called her, anyway. And Trump is not happy about it, tweeting this morning:

[Donald Trump appears to have deleted his tweet. (!) It read: "Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Council.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017."]

This is an interesting tact to take the day that Sally Yates testifies before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.

It's also *Counsel. https://t.co/x6fKjsTPHK

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 8, 2017

Meanwhile, the White House strategy is to throw Michael Flynn under the bus, and to "smear" Yates as a Democratic operative:

Per @axios, WH plans to smear Sally Yates tomorrow as a "Democratic operative."
She was a nonpolitical, career DOJ attorney for two decades pic.twitter.com/5FEUL9PXte

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) May 7, 2017

I'm still very concerned that Donna Brazile is right that "The Russia Investigations Are a Joke," for all the reasons she details in that piece. We need an independent, bipartisan investigation over which the Republican Congressional majority does not hold exclusive control.

With the Republicans in Congress using these committee investigations to bury the whole thing and the administration trying to frame it as a partisan witch hunt, we need to rely on the media to accurately report what's happening. And I don't have a whole lot of confidence that will happen, unfortunately. (Even if it does, there's no guarantee that will lead to an independent investigation, but it's the best hope we've got.)

But there are, as always, some glimmers of hope. The AP reported this weekend that the then-incoming Trump administration copied classified documents and removed them from a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility):

In late November, a member of Donald Trump's transition team approached national security officials in the Obama White House with a curious request: Could the incoming team get a copy of the classified CIA profile on Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States?

Marshall Billingslea, a former Pentagon and NATO official, wanted the information for his boss, Michael Flynn, who had been tapped by Trump to serve as White House national security adviser.

...The outgoing White House also became concerned about the Trump team's handling of classified information. After learning that highly sensitive documents from a secure room at the transition's Washington headquarters were being copied and removed from the facility, Obama's national security team decided to only allow the transition officials to view some information at the White House, including documents on the government's contingency plans for crises.

Is there a reason to steal crisis plans other than passing them along to someone who wants to know how to fuck up the crisis response?

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 6, 2017

Other than, perhaps, giving access to someone who wants to *create* the crisis? https://t.co/cuy1oiKEdm

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 6, 2017

This, as Malcolm Nance noted, constitutes a "MAJOR SECURITY VIOLATION. Clearances shld be pulled now & all involved debriefed! Why NatCrisis response docs? Assume Espionage."

It's good reporting on a major security concern, about which, one hopes, Yates will be asked today. It further underlines the need for robust investigations and meaningful accountability.

If only the Republican Party weren't a bunch of fucking cowards with no loyalty to this nation, we'd already have the independent investigation we so desperately need.

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Félicitations, France!

France's centrist candidate, Emmanuel Macron, has won decisively over the odious white nationalist Marine Le Pen. Huzzah!

Here is a video of Macron walking out to greet cheering supporters at a rally outside of the Louvre after his win, accompanied by "Ode to Joy."

Accompanied by "Ode to Joy" and cheered by overjoyed supporters, Macron arrives at rally after French election win: https://t.co/pw1RN5Zbzz pic.twitter.com/alZ1P8SNDs

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 7, 2017

That about sums it up.

I bet no one wept harder at this video than Angela Merkel.

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Open Thread

Hosted by a purple sofa. Have a seat and chat.

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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.

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The Friday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by sensible shoes.

Recommended Reading:

Chauncey DeVega: Why Do Republicans Hate Sick People and the Poor?

Angry Asian Man: [Content Note: Racism; violence] Man Yells "White Power" in Manhattan Hate Crime Attack

Sameer Rao: Why Crime Survivors Who Refuse to Testify Should Not Be Jailed

Vivian Kane: Let's All Take a Warm Bath in These Terrible Reviews of Ivanka Trump's Awful New Book

P.J. Rickards: Black Women Dive Headfirst into the Future with Virtual Reality Project

Marija Bernatonyte: [CN: Moving GIFs at link] 10+ Pics That Prove Corvids Are the Biggest Baddasses in the Animal Kingdom

Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!

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The Obamas, Y'all

Hey, remember when I first wrote about President Obama and his $400,000 speaking fee (parts two, three, four), and I said: "I guess I'd be more concerned about President Obama...earning a $400,000 speaking fee if I weren't keenly aware that he—like Hillary Clinton, also criticized for drawing big speaking fees—uses his personal wealth to help people."?

Welp: Barack and Michelle Obama to Donate $2 million to Chicago Youth Jobs.

"One of the things that we will be starting this year is Michelle and I, personally, are going to donate $2 million to our summer jobs programs here in the community, so that right away young people can get to work, and we can start providing opportunities to all of them," Obama said [during a recent event at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago].

"We'll be working with the city, we'll be working with the county, we'll be working with businesses because part of what we want to do is reach young people who might be at risk if they don't have something to do during the summers," Obama continued. "But part of what we also want to do is to reach older youth who may be prepared for apprenticeships because one of the things that this project is going to do is generate jobs."

Normally, I'd be a little more eloquent in my commentary toward the people who couldn't shut up about How Terrible it is that Obama was accepting money from Wall Street, but it's been a long week, so all I got is: Fuck you.

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Nope

Sydney Ember at the New York Times: 'Shattered,' Book About Clinton Campaign, May Become TV Series.

A new book about Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald J. Trump in the presidential election could be heading to the small screen.

"Shattered," by the journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, has been optioned by TriStar Television, a division of Sony Pictures Television, and Davis Entertainment for a limited series. The deal was confirmed by Bridget Matzie, a literary agent for the authors. A network is not yet attached to the project.

Among the first post-mortems of the election, "Shattered" has been a mainstay in dinner-party chatter in political circles since its publication. The continued interest in the election has brought talk of other book-to-TV series as well. The political journalists and analysts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann are currently working on a book about the 2016 election that has also been acquired for a mini-series by HBO.

No and no.

Never mind that numerous members of Clinton's staff have strongly disputed the campaign as depicted in Shattered. And never mind this despicable shit:

A special fuck you to the authors of this tome for appropriating "shattered" from glass ceiling to a campaign loss. https://t.co/No2NkcfFfk

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 18, 2017

And never mind that these projects certainly aren't for Hillary Clinton's supporters, that's for damn sure.

There are so many things about this that enrage me, but chief among them is this: Hillary Clinton and her supporters keep getting told to "go away," but it's open season to make a buck for anyone willing to trade on their hatred of her.

If that doesn't illustrate everything that is wrong with the media's disposition toward Clinton, I can't imagine what would.

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Daily Dose of Cute

Sophs is dubious. About what? Everything.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

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We Resist: Day 106

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures 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.

* * *

As the political news today is overwhelmingly about the "healthcare" bill, I want to use today's thread to talk about something else that really needs our attention.

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; violence; death; discussion of self-harm.]

Edward Crawford is dead. Found in his car shot to death. He is #Ferguson's hero. For those of us tear-gassed, he was our local champion. RIP pic.twitter.com/RHtBEB174G

— MariaChappelleNadal (@MariaChappelleN) May 5, 2017

Edward Crawford was the man at the center of this iconic image taken during the protests in Ferguson. Last night, he was found dead in his car.

My condolences to his family, friends, and community. I am so sorry.

This is the police account of what happened:

He was in a car when the gun went off. Two women were in the car with him, police say. The women told police that Crawford had started talking about how depressed he was. They heard him fumbling around for something, and the next thing they knew he shot himself.

Crawford's father, 52, said he believes it was an accidental shooting, not intentional. "I don't believe it was a suicide," he said. He said investigators weren't saying much to him yet. "They're being hush-hush," the father said.

While police say it was self-inflicted, they say that doesn't conclude if the victim shot himself on purpose or if the gun discharged accidentally. The case is being handled by district detectives, not homicide investigators.

His father noted that Crawford had been in good spirits: "He just got a new apartment and was training for a new job."

That does not, of course, necessarily mean that he did not take his own life. People are complicated. Crawford, as Morgan Jael notes in an important thread, "faced several charges while the man who took the photo won a Pulitzer Prize." He would not be the first Black person who took his own life after terrible interactions with the police and/or the carceral state. The story of Kalief Browder, for example, should be one that we all know; he is a man whose death we should all grieve.

And, as I wrote when reporting the alleged suicides while in police custody of Sandra Bland and Kindra Darnell Chapman, even suicide "doesn't mean agents of the state aren't culpable, as so many white people are keen to argue. That means we need to interrogate why it is, exactly, that Black people in police custody view taking their own lives as their best possible option."

Crawford was not in police custody. Nor was Browder. But they had life-changing interactions with police. We cannot overlook that.

All of which should not be taken to mean that I believe Crawford took his own life, because I don't. (It is merely to observe that, even if he did, that did not happen in a vacuum.)

And I don't believe it for this reason: Crawford is at least the third Black activist/protestor in Ferguson to be found dead in his car.

In November 2014, Deandre Joshua was found dead in his car with "a bullet in his head and accelerant poured on his body in an apparent attempt to light him on fire."

In September 2016, Darren Seals was found dead in his car, having "suffered a gunshot wound before the car was set on fire."

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this isn't a pattern, but a series of coincidences. Maybe Crawford did take his own life accidentally, or deliberately.

Either way, we need to resist the urge to ignore even the possibility that Black activists have been targeted, and/or that their interactions with police are underwriting self-harm. Black lives matter, and the reasons that Black lives end matter, too.

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

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Hillary Shows Up. Again.

One of the many things that has made it incredibly difficult to process the results of the election is how vastly different Donald Trump's presidency looks from what Hillary Clinton's presidency would have been. That is, in no small part, because of what vastly different people they are.

One of their most basic, and simultaneously most significant, differences is that Trump doesn't demonstrate any loyalty nor any love of this country.

By contrast, Hillary Clinton is a patriot of unfathomable measure. She has dedicated, and continues to dedicate, herself to a country large parts of which have been deeply unkind to her.

On the same day Trump "wanted a win" so badly he would consign millions of Americans to pain and despair, it was reported that Clinton is laying the groundwork for a new political group that will "focus on sending money to other organizations at a time that Democratic donors are largely unsure about how they should be spending their cash." The group, which is "expected to be called Onward Together—a nod to her campaign slogan, Stronger Together," will focus on funding organizations working on resisting Trump's agenda.

[Photo: Barbara Kinney for Hillary for America]
Hillary Clinton doesn't owe us a goddamn thing, but she loves her country. So here she is, showing up again.

There are an awful lot of people who bitterly complain that Clinton "won't go away." Indeed she won't. Another way of saying that is Hillary Clinton keeps showing up.

For her country. For us.

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Tell Us What You're Really Thinking, Rep. Waters!

Rep. Maxine Waters has been out front in leveling unyielding criticism of Donald Trump and the brigade of reprobates he calls an administration. And, in the wake of the House passage of the "healthcare" bill, she did not hold back:

"We must take our anger, our pain, our collective strength to right this wrong, to resist this tyranny and to save our democracy from a man whose immoral character and distorted thinking are an imminent threat to our nation," she said.

Waters called Trump a "disgusting, poor excuse of a man" and slammed his Cabinet as "ill-prepared, right-wing billionaires."

Waters also called for Trump's impeachment, after saying she didn't like using the term.

"I am not a fan of the word impeach, but I want him impeached. That's what he deserves," she said, reiterating a call she's made often since Trump's inauguration.

Yes, yes, and more yes.

This, by the way, will forever remain my favorite screencap I've ever grabbed of anyone talking about Donald Trump: Rep. Maxine Waters in January, three days before Trump's inauguration.

The disgust on her face is perfection. It is exactly how I feel. And, in dark moments, I hold onto the fact that Rep. Maxine Waters is out there, just as disgusted as I am, passionately representing all of us, even those of us not in her district, in seeking accountability of the Russian nesting doll of character defects that is the sitting president.

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Trump Wanted a Win, at Any Cost

At Politico, Rachael Bade and Josh Dawsey have a piece detailing the "inside story of how Trump and the Republicans got Obamacare repeal through the House. (Hint: It wasn't pretty.)." It begins thus:

Donald Trump had had it.

The Obamacare repeal bill that the president had just boasted was on the cusp of passage was suddenly in trouble again, and the president demanded to talk to the influential congressman who dropped a bombshell hours earlier with an announcement he'd be voting "no": Michigan Rep. Fred Upton.

Sitting in the Oval Office Tuesday evening, Trump dialed Upton in his congressional office. The president raised his voice and swore at Upton several times during a 10-minute conversation, sources familiar with the call said. But Upton stood his ground. He explained that he, like Trump, wanted to ensure people with preexisting conditions were protected, even quoting the president verbatim talking about the need to do so.

"I am not supporting this bill without a legislative fix," Upton said, according to a source familiar with the conversation.

Trump did not want to talk about the merits of the legislation — he didn't care much about those specifics, senior officials said. What mattered to him was how a failed vote would hobble his presidency and the ability to get other legislation through Congress.

He wanted a win.

And so he got one. A win for him.

It was certainly not a win for the American people, at least those of us who are not elected members of Congress who won't feel the pain of the legislation the Republican majority passed. But it likely won't be a win for them, especially if their bill becomes law, because it may cost them their jobs as angry constituents vote them the hell out.

There are a number of people, myself among them, who are determined to hold them accountable for their votes for this monstrously immoral piece of legislation, even if it does not become law.

But it was a win for Trump. And that is, quite literally, all he cares about. He doesn't care about the people whose health will suffer mightily, nor the people who will die. He doesn't even care about what it will cost members of his own despicable party.

He will sacrifice anything and anyone to get a win. Because the only person that has ever mattered to Donald Trump, and the only person who ever will, is Donald Trump.

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Open Thread

Hosted by a pink sofa. Have a seat and chat.

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Question of the Day

What's for dinner? Or whatever the next meal of the day is in your part of the world.

I haven't decided yet. I'm leaning toward turkey meatballs with spinach.

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We Will Keep Resisting Because When You Love Something, You Fight for It

Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) stands onstage during a debate in an episode of Parks & Recreation. At the podium beside her is her competitor for City Council, Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd), a dipshit whose unpreparedness for office is outmatched only by his inherited wealth. She gives her closing statement.

I am very angry. I'm angry that Bobby Newport would hold this town hostage and threaten to leave if you don't give him what he wants. It's despicable.

Corporations are not allowed to dictate what a city needs. That power belongs to the people. Bobby Newport and his daddy would like you to think it belongs to them.

I love this town. And then you love something, you don't threaten it. You don't punish it. You fight for it. You take care of it. You put it first.

As your City Councilor, I will make sure that no one takes advantage of Pawnee.

If I seem too passionate, it's because I care. If I come on strong, it's because I feel strongly. And if I push too hard, it's because things aren't moving fast enough.

This is my home. You are my family. And I promise you, I'm not going anywhere.

Bobby Newport can't help but exclaim that was "awesome," and the crowd erupts into cheers and applause.

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F#@k This Guy. F#@k His Disgusting Party.

Chaffetz is all smiles as he scoots back from a fully-insured surgery to repeal health coverage for millions. pic.twitter.com/XrM8DSQXO2

— Ben Marter (@BenMarter) May 4, 2017

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Welp

[Content Note: Misogynist slur.]

Here's a real thing that just happened:

If your instinct on a day in which the Republican Party passed a bill that will kill people is to all-caps scream at me that I'm a genocidal cunt, for stating the basic fact that Hillary Clinton would have not have signed said bill, then all I've really got to say in response is: Thanks muchly for making my point.

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Daily Dose of Cute

An old dog takes a nap in the sunshine.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

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Breaking: It Passed

The GOP just got 216 votes, and their caucus cheered.

They cheered passing a bill that will kill people.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 4, 2017

UPDATE: This is the most vile display I have ever seen in politics. Republicans started singing "Nah nah nah nah / hey hey hey / goodbye" as the vote count reached 216.

Once GOP vote hit 216, Dems started singing to them. Hey, hey, good bye pic.twitter.com/gNaAOFE8WH

— Joe Sudbay (@JoeSudbay) May 4, 2017

Some people say it was the Dems singing; some say GOP. I thought it was the GOP. In any case, the GOP passed an obscene bill. I am gutted.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 4, 2017

I am also the proud owner of several preexisting conditions, one of which is life-threatening without expensive medication. So as the GOP cheers and cracks out their beer to celebrate, I'll be over here wondering if I will survive the Trump administration.

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