Shaker Gardens is usually Aphra_Behn's beat, and there's a darn good reason for that—because, unlike Aphra, I have the ungreenest thumb that has ever thumbed! But here are a few things going on in my garden at the moment.
As always, you are welcome and encouraged to share stories and pix of what's happening in your garden!
"Jared's actually become much more famous than me. I'm a little bit upset about that."—Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump: Jared Kushner has "actually become much more famous than me" https://t.co/01pFlnwCEc
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 6, 2017
TRUMP (sitting at a conference table surrounded by members of his administration and the media): I'd like to thank the leadership for being with us. Mike Pence, you've been great. I appreciate you being here. Steve—great. I appreciate every— Jared. Jared's actually become much more famous than me. [everyone in the room laughs] I'm a little bit upset about that. [more chuckles] So, I want to thank everybody very much for being here. And let's get to work. We're gonna get to work and get it done. Thank you all very much.If anyone else said this, you would presume they were joking. I'm sure Trump would like us to believe he was joking, too, but.
Imagine being President of the United States of America and still having a hole inside you so vast that you worry about who's "more famous." https://t.co/ecxkmThB5H
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 6, 2017
And probably not much more than that (which is why I've warned about approaching his testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee with tempered expectations).
Anyway [Content Note: Video may autoplay at link]:
There will be much in former FBI Director James Comey's upcoming congressional testimony that will make the White House uncomfortable, but he will stop short of saying the president interfered with the agency's probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a source familiar with Comey's thinking told ABC News.In my estimation, it would be fairly unreasonable to expect Comey to straightforwardly assert that Donald Trump had attempted to obstruct justice, as opposed to offering testimony that investigators can subsequently conclude does (or does not) meet the definition of obstruction. So it makes sense Comey would flatly contradict Trump, but not flatly accuse him of obstruction. The former is stating a fact; the latter is drawing a legal conclusion.
Although Comey has told associates he will not accuse the President of obstructing justice, he will dispute the president's contention that Comey told him three times he is not under investigation.
Comey "put politics over protecting America," a narrator says in the 30-second spot, titled "Showboat," which was shared with The Associated Press. It accuses him of being "consumed with election meddling" even as "terror attacks were on the rise."Irrespective of the veracity of that claim, the fact is that the ad borrows the precise language that Trump used in his interview with Lester Holt two days after he fired Comey.
Great America Alliance has paid for the ad, which is slated to run digitally Wednesday and appear the next day on CNN and Fox News. The group, formed after [Donald] Trump's election to advocate for his administration, is not required to disclose its donors.
The message of the ad reflects a strategy by Trump and his advocates to erode Comey's credibility. ..."James Comey: just another DC insider only in it for himself," the ad concludes.
Eric Beach, head of Great America Alliance, said no one from the White House asked his group to do the ad.
TRUMP: Look, he's a showboat. He's a grandstander. The FBI has been in turmoil—you know that; I know that; everybody knows that.Thought I'd include that little reminder of Trump admitting he'd decided to fire Comey on his own, regardless of what was contained in Rosenstein's report. A fun little reminder before Comey testifies. Ahem.
You take a look at the FBI a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil. Less than a year ago. It hasn't recovered from that.
HOLT: Monday, you met with the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
TRUMP: Right.
HOLT: Did you ask for a recommendation?
TRUMP: What I did is—I was going to fire Comey. My decision. It was not—
HOLT: You had made the decision before they came in the room?
TRUMP: I—I was going to fire Comey. I— There's no good time to do it, by the way.
Remember [Donald] Trump's big, triumphant arms deal in Saudi Arabia? It turns out it didn't really happen. ...The story comes from Bruce Riedel, a longtime CIA and national security official, now at Brookings. The Potemkin deal turns out to be remarkably similar to the Trump jobs announcements we've grown accustomed to. Trump takes a bunch of jobs or investments which either already exist or have already been announced and rebrands them as new economic growth driven by Trump Power. In this he usually has a compliant and complicit CEO, happy to go along with the charade to curry favor with the US President.JFC. The lies from this administration are relentless. They lie about everything. Which puts the American people in a terrible predicament: We have no ability at this point, none, to assess whether they are giving us reliable and truthful information. Our best bet is to assume they are lying, and surely even the most partisan fools must understand how dangerous that will be in an emergency situation.
Here's what Riedel discovered:
I've spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the Hill, and all of them say the same thing: There is no $110 billion deal. Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many are offers that the defense industry thinks the Saudis will be interested in someday. So far nothing has been notified to the Senate for review. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the arms sales wing of the Pentagon, calls them "intended sales." None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration.As I said, this turns out to be remarkably similar. The $110 price tag advertised by the Trump White House includes no actual contracts, no actual sales. Instead it is made up of a bundle of letters of intent, statements of interest, and agreements to think about it. In other words, rather than a contract, it's more like a wishlist: an itemized list of things the Saudis might be interested in if the price of oil ever recovers, if they start more wars and things the US would like to sell the Saudis.
...Let's note for the record that the underlying reality here isn't necessarily bad news. It's quite debatable whether we should be selling massive amounts of new arms to Saudi Arabia. But we should know whether or not it happened.
OMG, Bob Costa reports that in lieu of "war room," Trump intends to be "his own messenger" and will tweet WHILE Comey testifies. /1
— Sybill Trelawney (@SybilT2) June 6, 2017
Eric Trump to @TomLlamasABC: Probe into possible Trump-Russia collusion is "the greatest hoax of all time." https://t.co/2Ue8rlxtbf pic.twitter.com/CMrD3sNQnW
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 6, 2017
Greater than the hoax of claiming you and your father were keeping a firewall between business and government? https://t.co/mGqFcG8F25
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 6, 2017
I see you. The things you are feeling right now are valid, no matter how much Donald Trump, his administration of vandals, and large swaths of the corporate media try to gaslight you.
Whether you feel angry, scared, confused, hopeless, resolved to fight, or any combination thereof, those feelings are legitimate.
And you are not alone.
Once upon a time, I worked in a building on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. By virtue of its proximity to the beautiful views of the Chicago River and glorious architecture of the Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower, it was a popular location for film sets. It wasn't unusual to see actors from television shows or movies set in Chicago filming exterior scenes, with two characters having a stroll and a chat along the riverwalk, or a character having a dramatic moment on the DuSable Bridge.
One day, I was heading out at lunchtime to pick up some antibiotics. I had a devilish and persistent case of bronchitis, and my doctor had called in a prescription for me. In the lobby, I was met and stopped by a muscled security guard in a black t-shirt. A film set had materialized just outside the windows and rotating doors of the building's entrance, and he told me it would be five minutes while they shot the scene.
Five minutes passed. People began to gather. The building has 36 floors, serving as workspace for thousands of employees, so people were always coming and going. As each new person arrived, the security guard told them it would be about five minutes, as ten minutes passed since I'd arrived on the scene, and then fifteen, and then twenty.
"You told me it was going to be five minutes twenty minutes ago," I said. "This is unreasonable."
It was an important movie, we were told, starring an important dude. We could all see the A-list actor through the glass. If anyone was impressed, the luster of adjacency to stardom was quickly tarnished by the annoyance of inconvenience.
This was before the ubiquity of mobile phones. People had important meetings to get to. Just five more minutes.
A crowd had amassed in the lobby. Everyone was sighing and shifting their weight from foot to foot with impatience, but no one was saying anything.
Everyone was angry, but simultaneously seemed to accept that this was just our new collective reality—waiting endlessly for Mr. Bigshot to film his scene, no matter what it cost any of us.
I began to wonder if we were all just going to live in this lobby forever.
* * *
This is how life in the United States feels to me now—like we're all trapped in a lobby, waiting for someone to let us go on with our lives.
Every day, I wake up and wonder why the hell we are collectively (if not individually) just agreeing to uphold the results of this election. I wonder, angrily, why powerbrokers have decided to allow Donald Trump to do so much damage, when it's clear his win was completely illegitimate.
I know there is no precedent or guide for vacating election results, but extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
It's not like Trump was fairly elected and is now just doing terrible things. He wasn't. That is clear. It becomes clearer every day, with each piece of breaking news, including the latest: The arrest of a contractor who leaked an NSA document detailing "Russian efforts to hack voting systems in the U.S a week prior to the 2016 presidential election."
It is just mindblowing to me, every minute of every day, that we're indulging this grand farce, especially when the president who assumed his office with zero legitimacy or credibility, is endangering this nation and its people.
I understand the reasons, intellectually. I have both the capacity and willingness to comprehend why this is happening, why there are so many people, including and especially the people with the power to alter this course, who are intransigently committed to trying to force this deeply abnormal square peg into a round hole of normalcy.
But I resent it. And I resist it.
I refuse to participate in the normalization of a presidency that simply should not be. And I reject the notion that there's some worthy objective to abet a national gaslighting, as a majority of us try to convince ourselves and each other that all of this makes sense.
It does not make sense. We have a colossally dangerous president doing reckless and hateful things, from a position he attained by nefarious means. And the only thing that makes sense is to stop that. To stop him.
Someone, from either party, who has the power to change the national conversation, to break this sickening spell, must step forward and say the thing that no one of prominence wants to say. Someone has to have the courage and the patriotism to be extraordinary in this extraordinary moment.
Someone has to get us all the fuck out of this lobby.
* * *
It had been a half hour, and still we were trapped. Still we were hearing it would just be five minutes: Be patient.
Maybe it was because I was sick, or maybe it's just who I am at my indelible core, but I refused to stand like a corralled sheep any longer. I pushed past the security guard and walked out the front door, straight onto the set, to the immediate sound of someone yelling, "Cut!"
The actor's face contorted into a scowl. "We're trying to shoot a film here!" he yelled at me.
I turned on my heel to face him. "I'm trying to live my life here!" I yelled back. I pivoted quickly and walked down the sidewalk toward my long-delayed destination.
My heart was pumping so hard I could hear my pulse in my ears. I expected someone to grab my shoulder from behind. But the only footsteps that came after me were those of the people pouring out of the lobby, leaving on their way to get on with the business of living their own lives.
Sometimes, all it takes to break a spell is one person refusing to be enchanted by it.
We need a patriot. Who is it going to be?
[Content Note: Homophobia, transbigotry, torture, terrorism.]
It's Pride Month, y'all. Was it only 150 days ago when we had a President who officially recognized Pride Month, and could speak coherently about this and other issues? Feels like a decade ago!
1) This is a periodic reminder that exit polls showed that 77% of LGBT people voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
2) Five years ago during Pride Month, prominent opponent of marriage equality David Blankenhorn publicly changed his opinion on same-sex marriage. In his New York Times reversal, he acknowledged that his side had failed to win public opinion on the issue and that much of the opposition to marriage equality stemmed from anti-gay animus, a fact that marriage equality advocates had been observing for years. Meanwhile, same-sex marriage advocates, at both the individual and organizational level, continued to battle onward and resist this animus.
Three years later in 2015, also during Pride Month, the US Supreme Court issued a decision effectively legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide (PDF). Two years have passed since that decision and many social conservative believe they have lost the so-called culture war on same-sex marriage, a loss they widely seem to experience as widespread acknowledgement that opposing marriage equality is bigotry. Most heterosexual Americans likely also understand that same-sex marriage has little tangible impact on their lives. The world is not ending! (Well.... maybe it is, but for other reasons).
However, I note two potential synergies that could swing the pendulum back in their favor. One, some anti-LGBT groups remain convinced that if they can get the right Supreme Court composition, SCOTUS will overturn the marriage equality precedent. For instance, this June, the anti-LGBT National Organization for Marriage (NOM) will hold a "March for Marriage" (which I'm intentionally not linking to) and the organization has vowed to not rest until same-sex marriage is repealed.
Secondly, Team Trump/Pence have shown a willingness to appoint radical conservatives to SCOTUS, and I believe that's largely Pence's doing. The Republican-controlled legislature has shown that they will rubber-stamp these picks no matter how out touch they might be with the mainstream.
Meanwhile, 64% of those in the US believe same-sex marriage should be legal, the highest percentage since Gallup began this tracking in 1998. Donald Trump's popularity has been hovering at under 40% since his inauguration. These numbers are a reminder that a deeply-unpopular President who lost the popular vote is in a position to play a key role in overturning a precedent that most people in the US support. With Republicans willing to use the "nuclear option" to confirm Trump Supreme Court picks with only a simply majority vote, Democrats must take back the Senate in 2018 - because of this issue and so many more.
3) Speaking of NOM, earlier this year, the organization launched a tour of its so-called Free Speech Bus. This bus was decorated with anti-trans, gender-essentialist messaging which seems to have been inspired by Kindergarten Cop-approved boys-have-a-penis, girls-have-a-vagina logic.
The messaging was provocative and, accordingly, NOM tracked every real and perceived act of counter-protest, which they spun into their usual narrative of how LGBT advocates are the real bullies. For instance, during the course of its tour, the bus was allegedly vandalized. On Twitter, NOM then asked "prominent LGBT leaders" to "condemn" the vandalism.
I'm not prominent, but I tweeted why I passed on issuing a condemnation. (Spoiler alert: I believe NOM's messaging contributes to an overall climate of hostility, which leads to violence toward and murder of trans people).
4) Multiple news outlets have reported that gay men are being detained, tortured, and killed in Chechnya. Via The New York Times:
"A spokesman for Chechnya's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, denied the report in a statement to Interfax on Saturday, calling the article 'absolute lies and disinformation."It's not exactly reassuring when a spokesman can't hide his eliminationist homobigotry during the course of denying that eliminationist homobigotry is occurring in his country.
'You cannot arrest or repress people who don't exist in the republic," the spokesman, Alvi Karimov, told the news agency.
'If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them, as their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return,' Mr. Karimov said."
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) May 30, 2017
"We are calling on everyone to peacefully march with us on June 11th from Hollywood and Highland to West Hollywood. Instead of a Pride Parade meant to celebrate our past progress, we are going to march to ensure all our futures. Just as we did in 1970's first LGBTQ+ Pride, we are going to march in unity with those who believe that America's strength is its diversity. Not just LGBTQ+ people but all Americans and dreamers will be wrapped in the Rainbow Flag and our unique, diverse, intersectional voices will come together in one harmonized proclamation."In conclusion, Donald Trump and Shadow President Mike Pence are scary fucking dudes. If you're attending or marching in a Pride Parade this year, we have a lot to protest and resist!
What was your last home improvement project, and what is next on your list?
Over the weekend, we got a few prints hung, and we put together a shoe rack for the front entryway, to organize the tumble of shoes that resides there. Next on the list is organizing the garage. UGH.
This blogaround brought to you by ice cream cones.
Recommended Reading:
Marilee Talkington: "Let. Her. Speak. Please!"
Emily Q. Hazzard: [Content Note: Racism; racist slur; Islamophobia; transphobia; misogyny] Bill Maher Has Been a Public Racist for a Long Time. Here Are the Receipts.
Vivian Kane: [CN: Sexual violence] As Bill Cosby's Trial Begins, Let's Remember That Rape Should Not Have a Statute of Limitations
Ciaran Thapar: [CN: Racism; discussion of racial slur] "What's the Word P*ki Between Friends?"
Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: [CN: Misogyny; white and cis centrism; erasure] Curiosity and the End of Discrimination
Monica Roberts: Pittsburgh (and Philadelphia) Voted For Hillary, Not 45
Kaitlyn Tiffany: Wonder Woman Is a Box Office Giant
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link.]
Elise Labott, Zachary Cohen, and Michelle Kosinski at CNN: Acting US Ambassador to China Quit Over Trump Climate Decision.
Acting US ambassador to China David Rank resigned from his post in Beijing over [Donald] Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, several sources familiar with the decision told CNN.Whether he's actively warring with members of his own administration, or alienating career bureaucrats who will not be associated with his extremist policies, the long and the short of it is that Trump is toxic, and it's a big problem for all of us that principled people want nothing to do with his presidency.
A career foreign service officer since 1990, Rank assumed the position of deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Beijing in January 2016 and had been serving until the arrival of Trump's pick for the job, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who was confirmed by Congress late last month.
Rank has served in several senior positions within the US State Department including time as the director of the office of Afghanistan affairs and as a senior adviser to the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Mr. Rank made a personal decision," a senior State Department official told CNN, stopping short of citing the climate deal developments as the reason. "We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department."
But sources familiar with the decision indicated that Rank's departure is directly tied to Trump's controversial move to pull out of the accord.
[Content Note: Fat hatred; body shaming; invasion of privacy; threats.]
As you may recall, last year, a woman named Dani Mathers, who had a large social media following by virtue of having been a Playboy model, took a photo of a naked 70-year-old woman in the locker room of a gym, then posted it on Snapchat next to a photo of herself giggling with the caption, "If I can't unsee this then neither can you."
After massive blowback, Mathers claimed she had only meant to send it privately to a friend and shared it publicly by mistake. Oh.
This public fat-shaming was not only profoundly unethical and cruel, but it was also illegal—and Mathers recently pleaded no contest to invasion of privacy charges, for which she'll have to complete 30 days of community service. She also received three years probation.
Now Mathers is doing a round of media, because of course she is, to talk about how she's been victimized (she has gotten death threats, which I condemn without qualification) and also to whine about how she never intended to hurt the woman that she victimized.
"I didn't have an intention of breaking a law. I just wasn't thinking, to be honest," she said, noting that she meant to send the photo privately to a friend. "My intention was to reply to the conversation I was having with my friend. I know the difference between right and wrong and I chose wrong."This is the same sad refrain we've heard from thin people getting caught fat-shaming over and over. That they didn't intend to hurt anyone; that what they were doing didn't have anything to do with judgment or ridicule.
Mathers told ABC that she has never met the woman involved, although she has wanted to apologize in person.
"I never meant to hurt her," she said. "I never ever intended on showing the world this photo … I hope that she could forgive me."
"I just want her to be able to move on and move forward in her life and not feel judged or that she what she was doing was being ridiculed, because it had nothing to do with that and I'm so sorry," Mathers told ABC.
Hey, remember how I mentioned that Georgia House Democratic minority leader Stacey Abrams was exploring a bid to run for governor of Georgia? Well, this weekend she made it official! She's running!
.@STACEYABRAMS - who could become the first woman and black person to be governor of Georgia - announces her run on #AMJoy! pic.twitter.com/Kehi96Xb2T
— AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) June 3, 2017
Abrams, a Yale-trained lawyer and business executive who writes romance novels on the side, has an army of supporters across the country eager to prove Democrats can win if the party puts its energy into expanding its base among the increasingly diverse state population rather than fretting over white swing voters. That is what Abrams has tried to do as founder of an organization that says it has registered 200,000 new voters in Georgia — along with her work in the state's House, often while cooperating with Republicans on key legislation and policies — has made her popular with progressives who say the party should rebuild and strengthen the coalition that elected and reelected President Barack Obama.Emphasis mine.
..."Democrats in the South have to reject the notion that our geography requires that politicians soften our commitment to equality and opportunity and that you have to look a certain way," Abrams said in an interview Friday. "We have to be architects of progressive solutions, and that means leadership that believes we can defy the odds. I believe Democrats have the ability to win, because we have the votes."
Seriously you're gonna love Stacey. Start by following her @staceyabrams and visiting https://t.co/pBgvE3m0w0 https://t.co/lrizbmXp6y
— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) June 5, 2017
One of Zelly's fave games is when I tell her to wait, run across the garden, then shout for her. She runs like she hasn't seen me in years. pic.twitter.com/pjKcZ6bk2b
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 2, 2017
Over and over and over. Like she just loves recreating that amazing moment of reuniting after being apart. It's so freaking cute. Love her.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 2, 2017
Me and Zelly. pic.twitter.com/F70ut6BHLS
— Ani Lingus (@MrDeeky) June 3, 2017
Zelly was intently watching us pull weeds and started trying to pull out long strands of dune grass to "help." She is ridiculously cute. pic.twitter.com/nAuEeP2tA1
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 4, 2017
Five employees were killed in a shooting at Fiamma, a business on North Forsyth Road near Hanging Moss Road near Orlando, the Orange County Sheriff's Office reported this morning.Goddammit. The sheriff's office has not disclosed whether the previous incident, in which the shooter attacked a then-coworker, was related to domestic violence and/or stalking, bigotry, or something else altogether. The sheriff's office has only said that the shooter does not appear to have ties to any hate groups.
The shooter — a former "disgruntled employee" who was fired in April — then killed himself, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said. The shooter had previously been accused of battering a fellow employee.
Four people — three [men] and a [woman] — were dead at the scene, and another male victim died at the hospital, Demings said. The shooting appears to have nothing to do with terrorism.
The shooting happened in multiple locations at the business, Demings said. It is unclear how the shooter, who has not been identified, got into the building. There were about 12 employees inside the building at the time of the shooting.
Stop what you're doing and read this. pic.twitter.com/YsV94O4vQU
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 5, 2017
[Previously: On Hillary Clinton's Beautiful Refusal to "Go Away"; Can't F#@king Win; Let's Talk About These Optics.]
Immediately after the election, Hillary Clinton took some time to process the outcome. She took long walks in the woods near her home, during which people bumped into her. They took selfies with her and posted them, leading to jokes, so many jokes, about how she was "lost in the woods," frequently accompanied by questions, from media and average people, about why she wasn't doing more.
Then she emerged back on the public stage, giving speeches and interviews. She was greeted not with relief by the very people who had previously demanding her return, but with admonishments to "go away." Often quite literally.
This is the actual first line of this article: "Hey, Hillary Clinton, shut the f--- up and go away already." https://t.co/6XjGnKsmfl
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 3, 2017
My point. Here it is. https://t.co/4OudJoJzgW pic.twitter.com/Au0GxXTRgj
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 23, 2017
When Donald Trump was running for president, and his lack of knowledge and preparedness owing to never having served a day in public office became glaringly apparent, the message from Republicans was: Don't worry—he'll surround himself with smart and competent people.
That never should have been reassuring, for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it was also glaringly apparent that Trump never listened to anyone who told him something he didn't want to hear.
So here we are, 137 days into his presidency, and all the "moderating influences" that were supposed to magically turn Trump into a person who is something other than an impulsive, egomaniacal despot have failed in their mission.
And anyone who disagrees with his belligerent, reckless, ignorant, and disloyal behavior in a vain attempt to convince him to adhere to even the most basic U.S. norms and values is simply being ignored—and meeting with the blunt end of his ire.
To wit: Trump tweeted this morning, among other dreck, a criticism of the Justice Department.
The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017
[Trump] also disappointed—and surprised—his own top national security officials by failing to include the language reaffirming the so-called Article 5 provision in his speech. National security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all supported Trump doing so and had worked in the weeks leading up to the trip to make sure it was included in the speech, according to five sources familiar with the episode. They thought it was, and a White House aide even told The New York Times the day before the line was definitely included.So, Trump reportedly made a unilateral decision with monumental foreign policy implications against the staunch recommendations of his national security team.
It was not until the next day, Thursday, May 25, when Trump started talking at an opening ceremony for NATO's new Brussels headquarters, that the president's national security team realized their boss had made a decision with major consequences—without consulting or even informing them in advance of the change.
"They had the right speech and it was cleared through McMaster," said a source briefed by National Security Council officials in the immediate aftermath of the NATO meeting. "As late as that same morning, it was the right one."
Added a senior White House official, "There was a fully coordinated other speech everybody else had worked on"—and it wasn't the one Trump gave. "They didn't know it had been removed," said a third source of the Trump national security officials on hand for the ceremony. "It was only upon delivery."
At the same time, he continues to deliver big wins (e.g. eroding alliance with Germany) for Putin, while trying to stymie Russia probes.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 5, 2017
This is an urgent national crisis. And we are going to quickly pass a point of no return if is allowed to fester with no meaningful action.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 5, 2017
[Content Note: Terrorism; injury; death.]
On Saturday night, two terrorist attacks were carried out in close proximity in London: A van being driven by one attacker zig-zagged into pedestrians on the London Bridge, then continued on to the Borough Market, where three attackers emerged and began stabbing people in pubs and restaurants. Seven people were killed, and more than 40 people injured, about half of them seriously, many of whom remain in the hospital.
The three attackers were killed by police. The Islamic State claimed responsibility Sunday night, and the investigation is ongoing.
My condolences to the families, friends, and communities of those who were killed. My sympathies to the injured, and to the survivors who were not physically injured but must process this extraordinary trauma. I am so sorry.
I have walked the streets, many times, on which these heinous acts of violence were committed by despicable people. I have sat in local pubs, having a drink and sharing a laugh—a participant in the very sort of life that these terrorists want to disrupt and destroy.
This interview with Londoner Richard Angell, a survivor of the attacks, made me cry, and made me grin:
Oh dear, how this made me cry and grin. pic.twitter.com/ImNJ5kbh1M
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 4, 2017
They should not, will not win! We can't have a situation where they seem to divide our city. Our brilliant mayor Sadiq Khan, spoke for all of us today when he talked about what unites this city, what brings people together. And we're gonna carry on loving each other, living with each other, being from all different parts of the world in the melting pot that is London. And I'm gonna go back to that restaurant; I hope other people do, too—because if, if us, you know, drinking gin and tonics, and flirting with handsome men, and being friends with brilliant and powerful women, offends these people so much that they do those barbaric, vile, and cowardly acts, I'm gonna go back; I'm gonna do it more, not less. And that's what Londoners are gonna do. And we're gonna pull together. Manchester showed Britain's best in the last two weeks; it's London's turn—and we're up for the fight.
Drink gin and tonics. Flirt. Be friends with brilliant women. An excellent recipe for survival.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 4, 2017
After acts of unspeakable cruelty & cowardice, the people of London & the UK choose resolve over fear. Your friends in the US stand w/ you. https://t.co/ZUkeTG4qoh
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 4, 2017
