This blogaround brought to you by Juneteenth.
Recommended Reading:
Veronica Arreola: International Women's Media Foundation Creates Award to Honor Gwen Ifill
Charles P. Pierce: Some Thoughts on Donald J. Trump, War President
Diana Zuckerman and Megan Polanin: [Content Note: Discussion of breast cancer treatments] Why Are So Many American Women Having Mastectomies?
Shay Stewart-Bouley: [CN: White supremacy; racist slur] Either We Destroy White Supremacy or We Stop Lying to Ourselves
Michael Fitzgerald: [CN: Homophobia] Mormon Official Shuts Down 12-Year-Old Girl as She Comes Out as Gay During Church
Charline Jao: [CN: White supremacy] Southern Gothic, Slavery, and the White Femininity of Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled
Andrew Liszewski: A Neural Network Turned a Book of Flowers into Shockingly Lovely Dinosaur Art
Kenrya Rankin: Our Feelings About Mahershala Ali's GQ Cover Summed Up in One Tweet
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
The Monday Blogaround
Your Best Photograph
If you're a photographer, even if a very amateur one (like myself), and you've got a photo or photos you'd like to share, here's your thread for that!
It doesn't really have to be your best photograph—just one you like!
Please be sure if your photo contains people other than yourself, that you have the explicit consent of the people in the photos before posting them.
* * *
As I mentioned, I spent Friday with a friend, on a quest of sorts, which took us into some beautiful Pennsylvania countryside. I snapped a few photos of the lovely landscape and farms during the journey.
For the Record
I don't care how Carrie Fisher died. I care how she lived—which was boldly helping millions of us with mental illness feel much less alone.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 19, 2017
I have loved Carrie Fisher since I was a tiny child, and I believe I always will. For so many reasons. The above chief among them.
The Cost Kids Pay for Lax Gun Laws
[Content Note: Guns; injury; death; self-harm.]
Mary Brophy Marcus at CBS News: Study Reveals "Staggering" Toll of Guns on U.S. Kids. (Emphasis mine.)
The tragic headlines are all too common: A toddler got his hands on his mother's gun and fatally shot his 2-year-old brother in Colorado earlier this month. Two girls caught in the crossfire were wounded in a shooting during a picnic at a Chicago elementary school on Friday. And out of the glare of the headlines, more teens took their own lives.The third leading cause of death for children. That seems an awfully high price to pay to keep guns as widely available and unregulated as possible for adults.
Now a new report gives the most complete picture yet of the grim toll gunfire takes on American children every year.
Overall, nearly 1,300 children in the U.S. die in shootings each year and another 5,790 survive gunshot wounds — from handguns, rifles, and shotguns — according to the study published today in the journal Pediatrics.
The tally makes gunshot wounds the third leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 17 years.
...Dr. Ruth Abaya, assistant professor of pediatrics in the division of Emergency Medicine at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told CBS News, "The findings were staggering."
But, she added, "Unfortunately, not surprising. Their numbers verified a lot of observations we've seen in regards to gun violence, gun death, and unintentional injury to children over the years. It was very telling."
But what do I know. I'm not a parent. I have lots of weird ideas about raising kids, like thinking children are entitled to food and healthcare.
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 151
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.
* * *
Here are some things in the news today:
Earlier today by me: Seven Stories.
REMINDER: KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS TO TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON REPEALING AND REPLACING THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT.
I'll just preface this first item with the note that it's hardly the most important story in the news, but it's so emblematic of Donald Trump's personality, and his incessant gross and humiliating pronouncements disgorged from his soapbox positioned at the intersection of ignorance and arrogance, that I loathe this forgettable brief as much as just about any other item today...
Madeline Conway at Politico: Trump: 'Panama Canal Is Doing Quite Well'. "Donald Trump asserted Monday that the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914, is 'doing quite well' and that the U.S. 'did a good job building it.' Trump made the comment in the Oval Office, where he was sitting for a brief media availability alongside Juan Carlos Varela, the president of Panama who is in Washington for a visit. 'It's our great honor to have President and Mrs. Varela from Panama,' Trump told reporters. 'We have many things to discuss. We're going to spend quite a bit of time today. The Panama Canal is doing quite well, I think we did a good job building it. Right?' Trump said, turning to Varela. 'Very good job.'"
Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire: Trump Administration Won't Protect Undocumented Parents Whose Children Are U.S. Citizens.
The Trump administration on Thursday walked away from an Obama-era policy designed to protect undocumented immigrants with children in the United States who are either permanent residents or U.S. citizens.[CN: Nativism] Esther Yu Hsi Lee at ThinkProgress: Trump Administration Prepares to Deport Immigrant Who Helped Clear Hazardous Rubble After 9/11.
Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, or DAPA, set forth a policy that de-prioritized detention and removal proceedings of those undocumented immigrant parents. Conservatives have long criticized the policy, with 26 states suing, arguing President Obama overstepped his authority in enacting it. A federal court agreed and blocked the administration from enforcing the policy. In June 2016, a deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court kept that order in place, and the program has since been on hold as the legal challenges continue.
Thursday's announcement that the Trump administration was rescinding the policy means the administration will no longer defend the policy in court, stating in a press release that "there is no credible path forward to litigate the currently enjoined policy."
This reflects the administration's shift to harsher immigration raids that have separated parents from their children, prompting some city officials to declare themselves "sanctuary cities" for undocumented people in opposition to [Donald] Trump's draconian immigration policies.
Carlos Humberto Cardona, an immigrant from Colombia who lives in New York City, helped to clear the hazardous rubble in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. According to the New York Daily News, he is now facing deportation proceedings for a 30-year-old criminal conviction.Rage seethe boil.
...His lawyer has since filed a legal action for a federal judge to request the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to expedite a decision on his 2014 marriage petition with his wife Liliana, a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Cardona has been held at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey since his arrest.
"I can't believe that this is happening to him after all of the sacrifices he has made. He says he feels like he's being treated like a criminal," Liliana told the Daily News. "He's suffering from depression being locked up in there."
"He's very much an American," Cardona's attorney Rajesh Barua told the publication. "He's scared of going back to Colombia. He doesn't know how he'll maintain a living and what kind of treatment he'll have for respiratory problems, which are very real."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Scott A. Schoettes at Newsweek: Trump Doesn't Care About HIV; We're Outta Here. "Five of my colleagues and I resigned this week from the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). As advocates for people living with HIV, we have dedicated our lives to combating this disease and no longer feel we can do so effectively within the confines of an advisory body to a president who simply does not care. The Trump Administration has no strategy to address the on-going HIV/AIDS epidemic, seeks zero input from experts to formulate HIV policy, and—most concerning—pushes legislation that will harm people living with HIV and halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease."
Natasha Geiling at ThinkProgress: Trump's Reported Pick for the Number Two Spot at EPA Is a Fossil Fuel Lobbyist. "Jeff Holmstead, a former EPA official under President George W. Bush and current lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry, is the Trump administration's top candidate for Deputy EPA Administrator, the number two position within the agency, Axios reported. Holmstead, who has spent the last few years lobbying on behalf of some of the largest utilities and fossil fuel companies in the country, has met with Administrator Scott Pruitt, according to Axios, and has full support of the White House. Axios notes 'there is no other serious contender for the job at this moment.'"
[CN: Misogyny; racism] Josh Rogin at the Washington Post: The State Department Just Broke a Promise to Minority and Female Recruits.
Dozens of young minority and female State Department recruits received startling and unwelcome news last week: They would not be able to soon join the Foreign Service despite having been promised that opportunity. Their saga is just the latest sign that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's rush to slash the size of the State Department without a plan is harming diplomacy and having negative unintended effects.
The recruits, who are part of the State Department's Rangel and Pickering fellowship programs, have already completed two years of graduate-level education at U.S. taxpayers' expense plus an internship, often in a foreign country. The deal they struck with the federal government was that after completing their educations they would be given an inside track to become full-fledged U.S. diplomats abroad if they also satisfied medical and security requirements. In turn, they promised to commit at least five years to the Foreign Service.
These minority and female candidates already went through a competitive application process, meaning they are some of the best and brightest young graduates around. It also means they have other options. Young stars don't join the State Department for the money or the glory; they want to serve and represent their country and are willing to make sacrifices to do it.
Many were shocked when they received a letter telling them they had one week to decide if they wanted to take a much less appealing job — stamping passports in a foreign embassy for two years — with the prospect but no guarantee of becoming a Foreign Service officer even after that.
"This is no way to treat our next generation," one Foreign Service officer serving overseas told me.
This is a truly incredible story that is emblematic of the catastrophic breakdown in governance after only 151 days. https://t.co/9gUA3EvtVk
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 19, 2017
Meanwhile, even Trump reportedly knows what a fucking disaster of a president he is, but he doesn't want to quit because that would mean admitting what a big league loser he is. Buried at the very end of a piece at Politico by Annie Karni comes this shit:
But Trump, too, is cognizant of the comparison to Nixon, according to one adviser. The president, who friends said does not enjoy living in Washington and is strained by the demanding hours of the job, is motivated to carry on because he "doesn't want to go down in history as a guy who tried and failed," said the adviser. "He doesn't want to be the second president in history to resign."So he'd rather keep failing than admit he is failing and step aside in favor of someone who wants the job and has a modicum of ability to do it. What an egotistical shitlord Trump is. A dangerous, pathetic, cruel man.
Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, and Rachel Weiner at the Washington Post: At Height of Russia Tensions, Trump Campaign Chairman Manafort Met with Business Associates from Ukraine. "In August, as tension mounted over Russia's role in the U.S. presidential race, Donald Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, sat down to dinner with a business associate from Ukraine who once served in the Russian army. Konstantin Kilimnik, who learned English at a military school that some experts consider a training ground for Russian spies, had helped run the Ukraine office for Manafort's international political consulting practice for 10 years. ...Kilimnik, who provided a written statement to The Washington Post through Manafort's attorney, said the previously unreported dinner was one of two meetings he had with Manafort on visits to the United States during Manafort's five months working for Trump."
Louis Nelson at Politico: Conway Repeats Lawyer's Claim: Trump Didn't Admit to Being Under Investigation. "When [Donald] Trump wrote online last week that 'I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director,' it was not an admission that he is indeed being investigated, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Monday morning, but instead a Twitter-shortened reaction to media coverage of ongoing probes into his 2016 campaign. Conway's insistence Monday morning that Trump's tweet last Friday was not what it seemed followed in the footsteps of the president's personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, who said Sunday in an array of political talk show appearances that regardless of what he has written online, Trump is not under investigation." Good grief.
Dell Cameron and Kate Conger at Gizmodo: GOP Data Firm Accidentally Leaks Personal Details of Nearly 200 Million American Voters. "Political data gathered on more than 198 million US citizens was exposed this month after a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee stored internal documents on a publicly accessible Amazon server. The data leak contains a wealth of personal information on roughly 61 percent of the US population. Along with home addresses, birthdates, and phone numbers, the records include advanced sentiment analyses used by political groups to predict where individual voters fall on hot-button issues such as gun ownership, stem cell research, and the right to abortion, as well as suspected religious affiliation and ethnicity. ...Deep Root Analytics, a conservative data firm that identifies audiences for political ads, confirmed ownership of the data to Gizmodo on Friday. UpGuard cyber risk analyst Chris Vickery discovered Deep Root's data online last week. More than a terabyte was stored on the cloud server without the protection of a password and could be accessed by anyone who found the URL." Fucking hell.
Robert Barnes at the Washington Post: Supreme Court to Hear Potentially Landmark Case on Partisan Gerrymandering. "The Supreme Court declared Monday that it will consider whether gerrymandered election maps favoring one political party over another violate the Constitution, a potentially fundamental change in the way American elections are conducted. The justices regularly are called to invalidate state electoral maps that have been illegally drawn to reduce the influence of racial minorities by depressing the impact of their votes. But the Supreme Court has never found a plan unconstitutional because of partisan gerrymandering. If it does, it would have a revolutionary impact on the reapportionment that comes after the 2020 election and could come at the expense of Republicans, who control the process in the majority of states." Too bad Merrick Garland isn't on the Court that will make this decision.
Oliver Milman at the Guardian: A Third of the World Now Faces Deadly Heatwaves as a Result of Climate Change. "Nearly a third of the world's population is now exposed to climatic conditions that produce deadly heatwaves, as the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere makes it 'almost inevitable' that vast areas of the planet will face rising fatalities from high temperatures, new research has found. Climate change has escalated the heatwave risk across the globe, the study states, with nearly half of the world's population set to suffer periods of deadly heat by the end of the century even if greenhouse gases are radically cut. 'For heatwaves, our options are now between bad or terrible,' said Camilo Mora, an academic at the University of Hawaii and lead author of the study."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Call! Your! Senators!
Just days after Donald Trump said that House Republicans' heinous healthcare bill was "mean" and urged Senate Republicans to be more "generous" in their version, there emerged reports that the Senate version being crafted in secret is even worse than the House bill.
NEW INFO ON SENATE BILL: Word is bill submitted 2 CBO is actually MORE severe than the House bill.
— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) June 19, 2017
Same House bill Trump described as mean.
This morning, Senate Democrats announced they will "grind Senate business to a halt in a protest against Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare." YES!!!
Beginning Monday night, Democrats will start objecting to all unanimous consent requests in the Senate, according to a Democratic aide. They plan to control the floor of the chamber Monday night and try to force the House-passed health care bill to committee in a bid to further delay it.Think about how bad the bill must be that the Democrats are taking this extraordinary measure.
Without the votes to block Obamacare repeal, Democrats are turning to procedural moves they believe will underscore their most powerful argument: Republicans are hiding their repeal plan from the public and using Senate procedures to keep it a secret.
"Republicans are drafting this bill in secret because they're ashamed of it, plain and simple," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "These are merely the first steps we're prepared to take in order to shine a light on this shameful Trumpcare bill and reveal to the public the GOP's true intentions: to give the uber-wealthy a tax break while making middle class Americans pay more for less health care coverage. If Republicans won't relent and debate their health care bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn't expect business as usual in the Senate."
Holding the floor on Monday evening won't change the timing of a health care vote. And Democrats are unlikely to be able to force the House bill to committee or delay it. But it will force Republicans to answer for what Democrats say is a rushed process and bad policy.
And no less based only on getting whiffs of how bad it really is.
Today, call your Senators with urgency. If they are Republican, ask them to vote no on repealing Obamacare and tell them that you support the Democrats' action to delay Senate business because the public has a right to see and debate such a massive piece of legislation. If they are Democratic, thank them for their resistance.
Find your Senators here.
Seven Stories
There are seven major stories in the news, outside of electoral politics, that I want to provide space to discuss today. That's not to suggest that there aren't other important stories, and the fact that I'm combining them into a single post should not be misinterpreted to mean I don't believe they don't each rise to the importance of warranting their own post. It's just a reflection of my being one person with a finite capacity.
1. Charleena Lyles.
[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism; disablism.] Charleena Lyles, a 30-year-old pregnant Black woman from Seattle, was fatally shot by two white police officers who were called to Lyles' residence by Lyles to report that her home had been burgled. Lyles, who has had mental health issues for the past year, greeted them at the door holding a knife for self-protection. Video shows that Lyles let police into her home only after they promised not to shoot her. A former civil rights attorney from Seattle, Beth Caldwell, has published a Twitter thread providing additional context around the police culture in which two officers shot Lyles.
I just want to say, again: Black people should not have to be perfect in order to live. That is the most unreasonable expectation. That is an impossible standard.
There are millions of viral videos, and countless segments of that disgusting show COPS, showing white people acting like dangerous, disrespectful, antagonistic fools with police officers. We probably all know white people who have done something stupid and reckless and maybe even criminal, yet walked away from an encounter with police. (Some of us in this space probably are some of those white people.) We've all witnessed the white mass murderers who have been taken alive in handcuffs. Think of how very different white people's expectations of police interactions are, and vice versa; how white people are never expected to read police officers' minds and behave in precise accordance with their expectations just to stay alive.
This is just fundamental inequality. Rank racism in action. Over and over.
My sincerest condolences to Charleena Lyles' family, friends, neighbors, and community. I grieve with you, and I take up space in solidarity with you. You have both my sympathy and my anger. I'm so sorry.
2. Finsbury Park Terrorist Attack.
[CN: Terrorism; Islamophobia; death; injury.] A 48-year-old man drove a white van into a crowd outside a mosque in London, which had just emptied following Ramadan prayers. He injured ten people and one person is dead—although Metropolitan Police have said the man who died was receiving first aid at the time of the attack, so the reason for his death is not entirely clear yet. The attacker then targeted the crowd gathered around the man who had collapsed. So he's a vile terrorist shitbag who used people's goodness against them, to harm as many of them as possible.
Witnesses said the man who died had been taken ill outside the Muslim Welfare House, a few hundred metres away from Finsbury Park mosque.There they held him for about 20 minutes until police arrived on scene. The next time some bigoted asshole spews some trash about Islam being an inherently violent religion, remind them of the Muslims in London who restrained without harm for 20 minutes a man who'd just driven into a crowd of their friends and family and was screaming about how he wanted to kill Muslims.
A small crowd had gathered round to try and help him when the van was driven into them at around 12.20am.
One witness said he and his friends had stopped to help the "elderly man" who was lying on the ground.
"In seconds this terrible thing happened," he said. "Literally within a minute, a van with speed, turned to where we were and ran over the man who was laying on the floor and the people around him, around eight people or 10 people got injured, some of them seriously. Thank God I'm safe, but my friends got injured."
Witnesses said the driver then got out of the van and shouted "I want to kill Muslims" before onlookers pinned him to the ground.
3. Philando Castile.
[CN: Police brutality; racism; death; injustice.] Jeronimo Yanez, the Minneosota police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile was found not guilty on all charges.
Castile's mother, Valerie Castile, who has been a passionate advocate for her son in seeking justice, had [CN: video may autoplay at link] strong words about this grievous miscarriage of justice: "People have died for us to have these rights and now we're devolving. We're going back down to 1969. Damn. What is it going to take? I'm mad as hell right now, yes I am. ...The system continues to fail black people, and it will continue to fail you all. Like I said, because this happened with Philando, when they get done with us, they coming for you, for you, for you and all your interracial children. Y'all are next, and you will be standing up here fighting for justice just as well as I am."
Thousands marched in protest following the verdict, and, of course, protesters were arrested, and they will face charges, and most of them will have more consequences than the officer who shot and killed Castile ever will.
The NRA continues to cover itself in disgrace by not championing Castile's case, even though he "had a valid permit for his firearm, reportedly told the officer about it to avoid a confrontation, and was fatally shot anyway after being told to hand over his license." The NRA has made it abundantly clear that they believe gun rights are only for white people.
4. Nabra Hassanen.
[CN: Murder; description of violence.] 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen of Reston, Virginia, was killed after leaving her mosque, and a man is in custody, but police are not investigating her death as a hate crime, but have so far declined to say why—even though Hassanen was dressed in Muslim garb (the abaya) and was reportedly killed with a baseball bat.
On Sunday, police found the girl's remains and a 22-year-old man has been charged with murder in connection with the case.My condolences to Nabra Hassanen's family, friends, and community. I hope that they get better, clearer communication from investigators soon. If there's a valid reason for not investigating Hassanen's death as a hate crime, then that should be publicly, carefully explained.
The mosque, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, and relatives identified the girl as 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen of Reston.
Fairfax County police identified the man charged with murder in her death as Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling. On Monday, they did not release any explanation as to why they weren't investigating the murder as a hate crime.
According to accounts from police and a mosque official, a group of four or five teens were walking back from breakfast at IHOP early Sunday when they were confronted by a motorist. All but one of the teens ran to the mosque, where the group reported that the girl had been left behind, according to Deputy Aleksandra Kowalski, a spokeswoman for the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.
...Shoyeb Hassan, the co-chair of ADAMS, said that during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the mosque has extra prayers at midnight and 2 a.m., and members frequently go to McDonald's or the 24-hour IHOP to eat before they start their fast at sunrise, as Nabra and her friends were doing.
5. Bill Cosby.
[CN: Rape culture.] After fifty-two hours of deliberation, and requests for clarification of what proof "beyond a reasonable doubt" means, the jury in the trial of Bill Cosby for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand still could not come to a unanimous verdict, so the judge was obliged to declare a mistrial. I haven't written anything about the trial, because I just simply haven't had the wherewithal to do it, and that frankly hasn't changed (except possibly to make me even more tired) with the verdict. So I will say only this:
I take up space in solidarity with all the survivors who may be feeling the reverberating trauma of being disbelieved in this moment.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 17, 2017
6. Russia, the US, and Syria.
Patrick Wintour at the Guardian: Russia to Target Planes from US-Led Coalition Flying over Parts of Syria.
Russia has said it will target any plane from the US-led coalition flying west of the Euphrates river in Syria after the US military shot down a Syrian air force jet on Sunday.This is so, so not good. It is also a perfect and terrible example of why the "work with Russia to defeat IS" argument, which became curiously popular during the 2016 campaign, was always garbage.
Russia's defence ministry said the US had given it no warning, and that as a consequence it was also suspending coordination over "deconfliction zones" that were created to prevent incidents involving US and Russian jets engaged in operations in Syria.
According to the Pentagon the Syrian jet in question had dropped bombs near US partner forces involved in the fight to wrest Raqqa from Islamic State (Isis) control. It was the first such US attack on a Syrian air force plane since Syria's civil war began six years ago.
...The Russian response increases the risk of an inadvertent air fight breaking out between US and Russian warplanes in the skies above Syria.
7. The USS Fitzgerald.
[CN: Death.] Seven U.S. sailors were killed when the destroyer on which they were stationed, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship off the coast of Japan.
The cause of the collision is not known.My condolences to their families, friends, and colleagues. I'm so sorry.
Multiple U.S. and Japanese investigations are under way on how a ship as large as the container could collide with the smaller warship in clear weather.
...A significant portion of the crew on the U.S. ship was asleep when the collision occurred, tearing a gash under the warship's waterline and flooding two crew compartments, the radio room, and the auxiliary machine room.
...The U.S. Navy on Monday identified the dead sailors as: Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, from Palmyra, Virginia; Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, from San Diego, California; Ngoc T Truong Huynh, 25, from Oakville, Connecticut; Noe Hernandez, 26, from Weslaco, Texas; Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, from Chula Vista, California; Xavier Alec Martin, 24, from Halethorpe, Maryland; and Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, from Elyria, Ohio.
Happy Juneteenth!
Today is Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery and Black independence in the US. If you aren't familiar with the history of Juneteeth, this is an excellent primer.
There are tons of Juneteenth events all over the country—from parades to cookouts to poetry slams. And there are plenty of other ways to mark the day, if you can't attend a Juneteenth event: You could make a donation to the NMAAHC, or request that your library order children's books on Juneteenth (if they don't already have them), or make a donation to the Harlem Arts Festival, or talk to your local Parks Department about organizing a Juneteeth event next year, if they're not holding any this year.
And check out this terrific piece on Juneteenth at Slate by Jamelle Bouie: The Black American Holiday Everyone Should Celebrate But Doesn't.
For now, it's a niche holiday, celebrated by black Americans and a handful of others who know and understand the occasion. But it deserves wider reach. Indeed, I think we should add it to the calendar of official federal holidays.I encourage you to read the whole thing.
Insofar that modern Americans celebrate the past, it's to honor the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation or to celebrate the vision of the Founders. Both periods are worthy of the attention. But I think we owe more to emancipation and the Civil War. If we inaugurated freedom with our nation's founding and defended it with World War II, we actualized it with the Civil War. Indeed, our struggle against slave power marks the real beginning of our commitment to liberty and equality, in word, if not always in deed.
Put another way, Juneteenth isn't just a celebration of emancipation, it's a celebration of that commitment. And, far more than our Independence Day, it belongs to all Americans.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to leave additional suggestions for how to celebrate or further recommending reading in comments.
The Virtual Pub Is Open (+ Programming Note)
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
I have to help out a friend with something tomorrow, so I'm taking the day off and will return on Monday. See you then!
Just a Sea of White Dudes
I am tired of writing about white men.
I am tired of writing about Donald Trump and his vile bigotry and his gross corruption and his rank disloyalty and his incompetence and his belligerence and his brittle ego and his vainglorious tweets.
I am tired of writing about the investigations of Donald Trump because of his aggressive contempt for the rule of law and democratic norms. I am tired of writing about the (mostly) white men who are investigating him and the (mostly) white men who are running interference for him.
I am tired of writing about Donald Trump's sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and I am tired of writing about his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
I am tired of writing about all the other white men with whom Trump surrounds himself — Mike Pence, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, Steve Miller, Don McGahn, Marc Kasowitz, Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson, James Mattis, H.R. McMaster, Mike Pompeo, Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, Tom Price, Ryan Zinke, Scott Pruitt, Rick Perry, and all the fucking rest of them.
I am tired of writing about all the white men who lead the Republican Party: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and all the white men who make up the majority of that party, and who sit around tables making decisions about things about which they have no business making decisions, like women's healthcare.
I am tired of writing about all the white men in the Democratic Party who sneer at requests to center women of color and elaborately roll their eyes at demands for intersectional analysis and accuse us of playing "identity politics" and tell us that we're the reason why Democrats lose.
I am tired of writing about all the white men whose votes are the only ones that seem to matter to either party anymore.
I am tired of writing about the white men in the political media, who take up all the oxygen and make stupid pronouncements about people and places they don't know. I am tired of writing about the white men in the political media who steal the work of women who were right long before they were.
The entirety of politics, with precious few exceptions, feels like just a sea of white dudes. And because I write about politics, I feel like all I do, with precious few exceptions, is write about that sea of white dudes.
This is fundamentally different than the previous eight years, in which our president was not a white dude, and the First Lady was present and a figure of national importance, and his Cabinet and the rest of his administration was meaningfully diverse — and that actually mattered. It felt different.
And it is wildly, distressingly different than what my hope was going to be for covering politics following the 2016 election. I was eagerly anticipating covering the first female president, who promised a cabinet comprised of 50% women, because she wanted "to have a Cabinet that looks like America, and 50 percent of America is women."
I was fervently looking forward to seeing that first female president meeting with her female staff and female advisors and female senators and female representatives and female foreign leaders.
Instead I am writing about a white dude who refuses to shake Angela Merkel's hand.
Writing about Hillary Clinton and her historic candidacy was one of the most meaningful highlights of my professional life — and I was expecting a future in which I would be able to write about her presidency, and the great women with whom she interacted as president.
Instead, there's just a Hillary-shaped hole where Hillary is supposed to be.
And an endless sea of white dudes asserts itself as a vicious throng, like a bunch of Agent Smiths ceaselessly replicating to assault our spirits and rescind our rights.
Forcing me to write and speak their names over and over.
And there are people who want to tell Hillary Clinton to go away. Who want to get rid of Nancy Pelosi. Who think that Donna Brazile should be quiet. Who believe that Kirsten Gillibrand or Maxine Waters or Elizabeth Warren or Gwen Moore or Tammy Duckworth or Kamala Harris or John Lewis or Elijah Cummings or Ted Lieu or Joaquin Castro are insufficiently progressive to warrant our support.
There's always a reason that I'm supposed to just keep writing about white men.
Well. I will, as politics obliges. But I'm not going to pretend I'm happy about it, nor that it doesn't matter.
I am tired of writing about white men. I've never been more tired of it, and that is because I had a chance to glimpse the possibility of more. And now I am resentful as fuck that we're back to this. This damnable pretense that there is something inherently better about white men.
If that were true, they wouldn't need to make such a cruel and comprehensive effort to keep the rest of us down.
Anyway. While they go about their business of enriching themselves while pretending to drain the swamp, I will continue to mention their names only in resistance, because I have bigger ambitions than draining the swamp: I'm fixing to drain the sea.
[Image credit: Pixabay.]
Daily Dose of Cute
It's hard to believe this dynamo racing around the backyard is the same doofus who lies around with his legs in the air and his tongue lolling out of his head, right? This is why greyhounds are known as "45mph couch potatoes," lol.
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 147
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.
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Here are some things in the news today:
Earlier today by me: Sources: Mueller Is Investigating Trump for Obstruction.
REMINDER: KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS TO TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON REPEALING AND REPLACING THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT.
Lots going on, but pls push back against GOP's secret health repeal bill this week. They're trying to ram it through while nobody's looking
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) June 15, 2017
Topher Spiro and Emily Gee at the Center for American Progress: The Emerging Senate Repeal Bill Eviscerates Protections for Millions in Employer Plans Nationwide.
This week Axios reported that the emerging Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will allow states to waive coverage of essential health benefits for small employer and individually purchased plans. In waiver states, this cut in benefits would be catastrophic for people who are sick or have a pre-existing condition and need prescription drugs, treatment for opioid addiction, or other services that could be excluded.Emphasis mine. KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS.
But the waivers would have a much broader impact, affecting millions of workers with employer coverage in every state—even nonwaiver states. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the waivers of essential health benefits would also eviscerate important financial protections that apply to large employer plans.
The Center for American Progress combined the results of a survey by Willis Towers Watson and census data to estimate the number of people with employer-based coverage who would be affected in each state. Nationally, we estimate that the Senate bill would erode or eliminate financial protections for about 27 million workers and their dependents.
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[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Graham Lanktree at Newsweek: Trump Tried to Convince NSA Chief to Absolve Him of Any Russian Collusion. "A recent National Security Agency memo documents a phone call in which [Donald] Trump pressures agency chief Admiral Mike Rogers to state publicly that there is no evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia, say reports." Of course he did. "The memo said Trump questioned the American intelligence community findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election." Of course he did.
Lachlan Markay, Asawin Suebsaeng, and Spencer Ackerman at the Daily Beast: Even Trump's Aides Blame Him for Obstruction Probe: 'President Did This to Himself'. "It's exactly the circumstance Donald Trump tried to avoid. But Trump's own actions have made an FBI investigation into the president himself a reality. Firing James Comey, the FBI director, was, by Trump's explanation, a way to stop a 'witch hunt' against his team's alleged ties to Russia. It led, within weeks, to the appointment of a special prosecutor, Comey's FBI predecessor, Robert Mueller. And now Mueller is investigating Trump himself for possible obstruction of justice — by firing Comey, who had led the FBI inquiry."
Mike Allen at Axios: Mueller's Revenge: 'Can't Fire Him Now'. "[T]he reality has White House officials and Republicans sweating profusely for several reasons: 1. They know Trump talked to countless people about ending the Flynn probe, so they assume Comey's version of events is true. 2. They assume he did, indeed, ask Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, if they could help derail the Flynn probe, as the WashPost reported. They also assume he said similar things to other officials. 3. Nobody has privately mounted a straight-faced argument to us that Trump didn't say this stuff to Comey or to Coats/Rogers. That's telling in itself. The fact that the Trump public position — that Comey is a perjurer — isn't being argued in private. 4. Any obstruction probe requires context, which means investigators digging into the finances of Flynn, Trump, and Jared Kushner. This is the phase of the probe many Republicans have always feared most."
Josh Marshall at TPM: The WaPo Obstruction Blockbuster and the World of Hurt to Come. "If Mueller is taking a serious prosecutor's lens to Trump's financial world and the financial worlds of Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, and numerous others, there's going to be a world of hurt for a lot of people. And that is if no meaningful level of 2016 election collusion even happened. And I don't think that's true." Yep yep yep.
Austin Wright at Politico: Jeh Johnson to Testify Publicly in House Russia Probe. "Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is set to testify publicly next Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into Russia's election meddling, according to a congressional source. Johnson appeared earlier this week before the Senate Intelligence Committee, but the session was closed. ...Johnson, who served under President Barack Obama as Homeland Security chief from 2013 until earlier this year, is likely to face questions about Russian attempts to hack U.S. election systems."
Reminder: It was Johnson who recommended designating election systems as critical infrastructure last August upon evidence of attempted Russian hacking, and the Republicans said nope until after the election. I hope someone on the House Intelligence Committee asks Johnson about that. Paging Rep. Adam Schiff!
Stephanie Kirchgaessner at the Guardian: Lobbyist for Russian Interests Says He Attended Dinners Hosted by Sessions. "Sessions testified under oath on Tuesday that he did not believe he had any contacts with lobbyists working for Russian interests over the course of Trump's campaign. But Richard Burt, a former ambassador to Germany during the Reagan administration, who has represented Russian interests in Washington, told the Guardian that he could confirm previous media reports that stated he had contacts with Sessions at the time. 'I did attend two dinners with groups of former Republican foreign policy officials and Senator Sessions,' Burt said." GOOD GRIEF.
You guys, I'm beginning to think that maybe Jeff Sessions wasn't a good choice to run the Department of Justice.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 15, 2017
Yvette Cabrera at ThinkProgress: Trump Officials Invent a New Strategy to Dodge Questions — It Won't Stop Unless Congress Gets Tough.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions' refusal to answer key questions during Tuesday's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing is likely part of a carefully crafted legal strategy to avoid accountability. If [Donald] Trump asserted executive privilege over his conversations with his top officials, that move could trigger potential litigation. Citing a more vague reason to not answer questions, on the other hand, likely wouldn't.Fuck these people. And fuck anyone who continues to insist that Trump's just a noob who doesn't know what he's doing. I'm looking at you, Paul Ryan.
Sessions stonewalled committee members, as did national intelligence officials who testified before the committee last week, using a tactic that Constitutional law expert Stephen I. Vladeck described as the "non-privileged privilege." Officials, using this tactic, avoid the issue of executive privilege altogether but enjoy its benefits by not answering investigatory questions.
"Sessions is now the third official in the last week to use this strategy. I'm not sure this is the very first time we've ever seen it, but it certainly appears to be the first systematic invocation of the idea," said Vladeck, a University of Texas School of Law professor. "This has all the hallmarks of a carefully crafted strategy by the White House and the Justice Department, and by smart lawyers in the executive branch."
Kenneth P. Vogel at Politico: Manafort Still Doing International Work. "Paul Manafort is at the center of an FBI investigation into ties between [Donald] Trump's team and the Russians, but that hasn't stopped him from doing business with international figures and companies, partly by claiming continued access to Trump, according to people familiar with his dealings. ...One of the people, a lawyer involved in the discussions, said Manafort indicated that he could convince the Trump administration to support any resulting deal, because he's remained in contact with Trump's team, and that he played a role in helping to soften Trump's tough campaign rhetoric on China. 'He's going around telling people that he's still talking to the president and — even more than that — that he is helping to shape Trump's foreign policy,' said the lawyer involved in the discussions. The White House press office did not respond to requests for comment." I'll bet they didn't!
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Jonathan Martin at the New York Times: Their Own Targeted, Republicans Want Looser Gun Laws, Not Stricter Ones. "Shaken and angry, Republican members of Congress seized on the brazen daytime shooting of their colleagues on Wednesday to demand that existing restrictions on gun access be loosened so that people facing similar attacks are able to defend themselves."
I just will never understand this. What stopped Hodgkinson's horrific attack was the presense of Capitol police, because the House Majority Whip gets a protective detail. The Capitol police are highly trained officers, and even they were injured, despite their crucial ability to stop Hodgkinson.
Loosening carry laws doesn't mean that there will be more highly trained officers around who are capable of stopping a determined mass shooter. It just means there will be more frightened people shooting who are likely to hurt more people in public shoot-outs.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
The Common Denominator Is Hatred of Women
[Content Note: Violence, harassment, threats, misogyny.]
Since yesterday, when it was discovered that shooter James T. Hodgkinson, who targeted Republican members of Congress, was a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter with a history of violent misogyny, there has been a whole lot of #NotAllSandersSupporters going around.
And yes! Absolutely right. Not all Sanders supporters indeed. Not even most. Just a "small but vocal minority," whose intense harassment of Hillary Clinton supporters was visible and relentless enough that Bernie Sanders himself was obliged to comment on it, offering weakly: "We don't want that crap" and "Anybody who is supporting me that is doing the sexist things — we don't want them."
At the New York Times, under the headline "Attack Tests Movement Sanders Founded," Yamiche Alcindor writes:
But long before the shooting on Wednesday, some of Mr. Sanders's supporters had earned a belligerent reputation for their criticism of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party, and others who they believed disagreed with their ideas. Sanders fans, sometimes referred to derogatorily as "Bernie Bros" or "Bernie Bots," at times harassed reporters covering Mr. Sanders and flooded social media with angry posts directed at the "corporate media," a term often used by the senator.A new spotlight for whom, exactly? Certainly not those of us who have been targets of that rage for many years — for being Hillary supporters, for refusing to compromise on reproductive rights, for criticizing one of The Left's Great White Male Heroes: Bill Maher, Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann, etc.
The suspect in the shooting in Virginia put a new spotlight on the rage buried in some corners of the progressive left.
Nothing, but nothing, brings out threats from leftists like criticizing a white male progressive. At least when you're a woman doing it.
There are few people more viciously hated than women who tell the truth about dangerous men lots of people are determined to admire.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 14, 2017
I have never, in thirteen years, been on the receiving end of such vicious, sustained hatred and harassment as I have been since Bernie Sanders decided to run as a Democrat and has subsequently positioned himself as a Democratic reformer and progressive leader.
That is just a fucking fact. Which lots of Sanders supporters want to deny or ignore.
All because I have criticized some of Sanders' positions and leadership techniques, as I disagree with them. Like I imagine we're in some kind of fucking democracy or something! The nerve.
And that targeted harassment of women in particular is something with which everyone, across the entire political spectrum, needs to reckon. Because giving a home to that misogynistic hatred, by design or by indifference, is empowering public acts of violence.
DV history is a common feature that connects people who commit public acts of mass violence *irrespective of ideology or mental health*.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 14, 2017
Yeah, Hodgkinson happened to be a Sanders supporter. The Portland white supremacist killer, Jeremy Christian, was a Sanders supporter, too — before he became a Trump supporter. Such a radical ideological reversal makes no sense to most of us, but one of the things to which Christian was drawn, which he found in both camps, was the demonization (and attendant seething hatred) of Hillary Clinton, upon whom Christian wished death, along with all her supporters.
The common denominator among virtually every single man who commits an act of public violence, whether under the banner of progressive politics or anti-choice saviorism or white supremacy or jihadism, is a history of domestic violence and/or antifeminst views.
Which means, as I said right upfront, of course this isn't about all Sanders supporters; it's not even about only Sanders supporters!
It's about everyone — and that includes a not insignificant number of Sanders supporters — who provides space for people with violent misogynistic beliefs to feel welcome.
Extending such a welcome within political movements isn't just about policy. It's also about rhetoric, and it's also about decisions made regarding tolerance of expressed misogyny. Anything but a zero tolerance policy, anything but categorical rejection, gives space that is dangerous.
And it's dangerous because violent hatred of women is a red flag for future acts of public violence, even if women aren't the specific target of those acts.
The men who end up perpetrating such hideous acts often have a history of escalating violence toward women. Words on screens at MRA sites. Harassment of classmates or colleagues. Violent acts against female family members. And when they get away with it, over and over, they graduate to bigger displays of even more catastrophic violence.
It's easy — and enticing — to dismiss these men as lunatics. That's a neat way of avoiding accountability for what role we all might play in empowering violence that uses tolerance of misogyny as the canary in the coalmine.
The truth is, the men who commit these acts use women as their guinea pigs. And they take cues from the culture. And whether we want to admit it or whether we don't, Hodgkinson was part of a political movement in which there was — and remains — an active segment of vile misogyny.
It's not unique to Bernie Sanders' movement and supporters. But it's their responsibility to clean up their own space, and that can't happen if they won't even acknowledge that it exists.
And anyone who doubts its existence will probably need only follow my Twitter mentions after I share this post.
Grenfell Tower Update
[Content Note: Fire; injury; death; displacement. Please note there are images of the building in flames at nearly every news article.]
The Grenfell Tower fire will get a public inquiry, after London Mayor Sadiq Khan called for one and Prime Minister Theresa May ordered one today.
May said she had heard "heartbreaking stories of the people who were caught up in this terribly, terrible tragedy" and that the victims and their families deserved a full investigation. Seventeen people have been confirmed dead but that number is expected to rise.May also promised that the government would work quickly to find homes for the people displaced by the fire.
"Right now people want answers, and it's absolutely right, and that's why I am today ordering a full public inquiry into this disaster. We need to know what happened; we need to have an explanation of this, we owe that to the families. To the people who have lost loved ones, friends, and the homes in which they lived."
...She added that meetings with staff from the emergency services who had tackled the blaze and described how the flames engulfed Grenfell Tower had convinced her of the need for further investigation. "It was rapid, it was ferocious and it was unexpected," she said.
I'm glad that survivors will be getting an investigation to (ostensibly) provide answers on what happened, and that they will have a place to live, but that's the bare fucking minimum they're owed at this point.
People are angry, and understandably so:
There is a growing sense of anger and frustration among the crowds gathered under the Westway flyover where volunteers are sorting and boxing donations.Many of the residents urgently pleaded for help for years, and were ignored by their government and the media. Now parts of their government are behaving as if they're doing them a favor by supporting an inquiry, and most of the media is treating them like a tragedy porn spectacle for clicks. Yeah, it's not hard to see why "anger and tension have overtaken initial shock."
Volunteer Sinead O'Hare said the fire and loss of life had tapped into a deeper sense of resentment and alienation.
"People are angry about years of Tory policy of cutting corners and costs, and refusing to take responsibility. The interests of the Tory party are closely allied to the interests of business and private landlords," she said.
People from other parts of London who are homeless and hungry had started turning up in the area hoping for food and other necessities, she said.
The media is one target for resentment. "You press people didn't come here when people were blogging about the danger, you only come when people are dead," says Calvin Benson, who was carrying a handmade sign saying "I am not a photo opportunity."
"You pick and choose your stories. The blogs have been active for years but no one was interested."
Several photographers and camera operators have been pushed, jabbed, and shouted at as anger and tension have overtaken initial shock at the fire.
I take up space in solidarity with the survivors of this incredible failure and devastating fire.
Sources: Mueller Is Investigating Trump for Obstruction
Devlin Barrett, Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima, and Sari Horwitz at the Washington Post reported last night that Special Counsel Bob Mueller has expanded his probe into include an investigation of whether Donald Trump has attempted to obstruct justice.
Trump had received private assurances from then-FBI Director James B. Comey starting in January that he was not personally under investigation. Officials say that changed shortly after Comey's firing.Whoooooooooops! Shortly after Comey's firing, huh? Like maybe two days later? When Trump gave that interview to Lester Holt during which he openly admitted firing Comey to obstruct him?
Trump doesn't have anyone to blame but himself that he's being investigated for obstruction. But he's definitely trying to blame someone else, every chance he gets. His morning tweetshitz today, following the disclosure he's being investigated:
They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history - led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
When an outsized martyr complex meets delusions of grandeur!
Not true even if we agree to pretend that actual witch hunts in this nation's history weren't political. https://t.co/SuWF4kp9eV
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 15, 2017
Anyway. As I keep saying, there is no guarantee of accountability, even if Mueller's investigation concludes that Trump's actions met the legal definition of obstruction:
Investigating Trump for possible crimes is a complicated affair, even if convincing evidence of a crime were found. The Justice Department has long held that it would not be appropriate to indict a sitting president. Instead, experts say, the onus would be on Congress to review any findings of criminal misconduct and then decide whether to initiate impeachment proceedings.And that, of course, is very unlikely to happen with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, who long ago abandoned patriotism for power at any cost.
Question of the Day
What's for dinner? Or whatever the next meal of the day is in your part of the world.
Clams. I'm thinking a clam po' boy, maybe. We'll see.
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by the smell of freshly cut grass.
Recommended Reading:
Monica Roberts: Danica Roem Wins VA Dem Primary!
Lance Mannion: [Content Note: Class warfare] They're Still Republicans
Zoé Samudzi: [CN: White supremacy; ciscentrism; choice policing; NSFW image at link] White Feminism Doesn't Know What to Do with Amber Rose
Luis Damian Veron: 29th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced
Jenn Fang: [CN: Appropriation; racism] Katy Perry (Sorta) Addresses Cultural Appropriation Critiques
Vivian Kane: Oprah Threw the Wonder Woman Party of Our Dreams
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
