[Content Note: Fat hatred.]
"After I lost weight, I discovered that people found me valuable. Worthy of conversation. A person one could look at. A person one could compliment. A person one could admire. You heard me. I discovered that NOW people saw me as a PERSON. What the hell did they see me as before? How invisible was I to them then? How hard did they work to avoid me? What words did they use to describe me? What value did they put on my presence at a party, a lunch, a discussion? When I was fat, I wasn;t a PERSON to these people. Like I had been an Invisible Woman who suddenly materialized in front of them. Poof! There I am. Thin and ready for a chat."—Shonda Rhimes, writing very frankly about the difference in how she was treated (that is, way better) after she lost around 150 pounds.
This is definitely something I've heard from friends who have lost a lot of weight.
It's also akin to something I experienced when I used to work in a corporate job: When people (especially men) talked to me over the phone, they (generally) spoke to me exactly as the competent, prepared, smart, and talented person I am. Then they met me in person, and suddenly they spoke to me like I was a child, and not a very bright child at that.
I was the same person with the same brain and the same abilities, but their stereotypes invoked by my fat body overwhelmed their actual experience of me as a human being.
Fat hatred is really something.
Quote of the Day
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 161
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: Today in Trump's Contemptible Anti-Immigrant Agenda and Donald Trump's Disgusting Attack on Mika Brzezinski.
REMINDER: KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS TO TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON TRUMPCARE.
This is a very good piece on the healthcare debacle by Abigail Tracy at Vanity Fair: Donald Trump's Ignorance Is Becoming a National Crisis.
Health-care policy, Donald Trump has admitted, is more complex than he once assumed. "Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated," he said in February as he struggled to cobble together a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. Still, he was optimistic about his chances. "Costs will come down, and I think the health care will go up very, very substantially," he told insurance company executives, explaining that the current system was a "disaster" that would only get worse. "I think people are gonna like it a lot. We've taken the best of everything we can take." In an interview in May, shortly after the House passed a bill that would cause an estimated 23 million people to drop or lose their insurance coverage, Trump boasted that he had become an expert on the subject. "It was just something that wasn't high on my list," he told Time magazine. "But in a short period of time I understood everything there was to know about health care."The country's fate on healthcare, as everything else, hangs in the balance between Trump's ignorance and his cruelty. His ignorance stands to make things worse in one way, but, if he were knowledgeable and competent enough to get shit done, his cruelty would make things worse in a different way. Either way, we're fucked.
Nearly everything Trump has said, however, suggests that his understanding of the $3 trillion U.S. health-care sector remains dangerously limited.
...[A]s The New York Times reports, the president may not understand how the [Senate] bill works.
A senator who supports the bill left the meeting at the White House with a sense that the president did not have a grasp of some basic elements of the Senate plan—and seemed especially confused when a moderate Republican complained that opponents of the bill would cast it as a massive tax break for the wealthy, according to an aide who received a detailed readout of the exchange....Trump, for his part, rejected the implication that he doesn't understand health care, tweeting Wednesday morning, in the wake of the Times report, that he knows perfectly well what he is doing. "Some of the Fake News Media likes to say that I am not totally engaged in healthcare. Wrong, I know the subject well & want victory for U.S."
Mr. Trump said he planned to tackle tax reform later, ignoring the repeal's tax implications, the staff member added.
All available evidence suggests that the opposite is true, and that the consequences of the president's ignorance could be dire.
Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng at the Daily Beast: Does Trump Know the First Thing About Health Care? Aide: 'He Understands Winning'. "On Wednesday morning, the president woke up and then began angrily tweetstorming about his allegedly deep knowledge of the American health care system. ...The president's close aides and political advisers, six of whom spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, would beg to differ. Some of them simply laughed at the very suggestion that the president knows much, or even cares, about health care policy in this country. ...'The president understands winning,' another official noted, adding a stuck-out-tongue emoji to the correspondence." Good lord.
Olivia Beavers at the Hill: Gingrich: Trump's Sales Pitch Needs Healthcare 'Translator'. "[Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich] said the president would be an effective voice in spreading [the Republican healthcare bill message], but said he may need some help properly formulating how to present the measure with the help of policy experts. 'Trump will be able to repeat it with enormous effectiveness once somebody translates it,' Gingrich told the AP." Wow.
So, the president who wants one of his signature accomplishments to be healthcare doesn't know a fucking thing about healthcare, what's in his party's healthcare bill, or how to talk about it. Basically, all he knows is that he wants to destroy the landmark legislation bearing the name of his predecessor, the nation's first Black president, whom the current president jealously hates with fiery passion.
Everything is fine. The country is definitely being run by the best person. *buys one-way ticket to giant cannon which will fire me directly into the sun*
Hey, speaking of Trump's all-encompassing rage-envy of President Obama... Charles M. Blow at the New York Times: Trump's Obama Obsession. "Donald Trump has a thing about Barack Obama. Trump is obsessed with Obama. Obama haunts Trump's dreams. One of Trump's primary motivators is the absolute erasure of Obama — were it possible — not only from the political landscape but also from the history books. ...Trump wants to be Obama — held in high esteem. But, alas, Trump is Trump, and that is now and has always been trashy. Trump accrued financial wealth, but he never accrued cultural capital, at least not among the people from whom he most wanted it. ...Obama was a phenomenon. He was elegant and cerebral. He was devoid of personal scandal and drenched in personal erudition. ...For Trump, the mark of being a successful president is the degree to which he can expunge Obama's presidency."
And the thing is, Trump doesn't even know how to not be the polar opposite of the respected Obama. He is compulsively Trump — a braggart, a blowhard, a grifter, a scoundrel who keeps the company of scoundrels.
To wit: He held a garish $35,000-per-plate reelection fundraiser, which was possibly illegal and over which he is likely to be sued; his personal attorney Jay Sekulow will soon be investigated over his shady nonprofit; and [CN: video may autoplay at link] Congressional investigators want to interview Keith Schiller, Trump's "longtime bodyguard-turned-White House aide, as part of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign."
And that's just the stuff I've read this morning. The point is: Trump wants to be something he is constitutionally incapable of being. And he hates himself for it, which makes him act out in resentful, abusive, and reckless ways.
Few people are more dangerous than a powerful man who cannot reconcile within himself who he actually is. Power and chronic discontent do not exist comfortably side by side.
We are in real trouble. And that isn't going to change anytime soon. Not as long as Trump is president.
* * *
In other news...
Josh Dawsey, Eliana Johnson, and Alex Isenstadt at Politico: Tillerson Blows Up at Top White House Aide. "The normally laconic Texan unloaded on Johnny DeStefano, the head of the presidential personnel office, for torpedoing proposed nominees to senior State Department posts and for questioning his judgment. Tillerson also complained that the White House was leaking damaging information about him to the news media, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Above all, he made clear that he did not want DeStefano's office to 'have any role in staffing' and 'expressed frustration that anybody would know better' than he about who should work in his department — particularly after the president had promised him autonomy to make his own decisions and hires, according to a senior White House aide familiar with the conversation." Sounds like everything's going splendidly at the State Department!
Lauren C. Williams at ThinkProgress: Trump Set to Fill Out FCC with Another Republican Commissioner. "Donald Trump has nominated the FCC's general counsel Brendan Carr to be the agency's third Republican commissioner — a move that could ensure the end of net neutrality regulations. ...If confirmed, Carr would join two other Republicans, FCC Chair Pai and Commissioner Michael O'Reilly. Mignon Clyburn is the only Democrat on the commission and her term is almost up." Fuck fuck fuck.
[CN: Guns; violence; incitement]
Watch this NRA recruitment video: calls on real Americans to arm themselves to fight liberals. Violence is coming. https://t.co/qA9rz1qeUO
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) June 29, 2017
Chilling. And a reminder that Facebook's content decisions really and truly are "fundamentally not rights-oriented." How the fuck is that video allowed to stand, but Black Lives Matter content is removed? Appalling. (Aaron Rupar has a transcript of the video at ThinkProgress.)
[CN: Christian supremacy] Corky Siemaszko: Kentucky Gives Blessing to Bible Classes in Public Schools. "Now that Gov. Matt Bevin has signed the so-called "Bible Literacy Bill" into law, the ACLU and other watchdog groups say they are going to make sure the classes don't cross the constitutional line from teaching to preaching. ...While the state teachers union, the Kentucky Education Association, has not yet weighed in on the new law, groups that want to keep church and state separate like the Kentucky Secular Society, have opposed it. 'This is an opportunity for teachers to preach religion in the classroom,' the group said. 'If this course is really for literary purposes, it should include other mythologies and literatures that have impacted our culture as well.'" Yup.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
One Party Overwhelmingly Believes in Democracy. The Other, Not So Much.
Can you guess which is which? I bet you can!
Pew Research Center has found that 84 percent of Democrats agree with the statement "Everything possible should be done to make it easy for every citizen to vote."
Among people who identify as independents, 57 percent agree.
And only 35 percent of Republicans agree.
That is appalling. Especially in light of this finding: "The right to vote is deeply valued by the public: An overwhelming 91% say that they consider the right to vote as essential to their own personal sense of freedom."
And yet they would deny that right to other people.
Because the Republican Party doesn't just fail to do everything possible to make it easy for every citizen to vote; they actively work to prevent people from voting.
Voting is dignity. And one of the two major parties believes overwhelmingly that not every citizen is owed that dignity.
Despicable.
Donald Trump's Disgusting Attack on Mika Brzezinski
[Content Note: Misogyny; disablism; hostility to consent.]
This morning, Donald Trump's ego got bruised because his old Morning Joe pals, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, aren't kissing his ass like they used to do during the good old days of the campaign.
So he lashed out at Mika with a pair of tweets reading: "I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"
It's likely that Trump went in on Mika specifically because she made fun of the size of his hands on his fake Time magazine cover.
And he determined, with his typical sagacity, that an appropriate and proportional response would be using his platform as President of the United States to publicly call her stupid, crazy, vain, and desperate, with all the emotional maturity of a popular high-schooler shit-talking a kid whose only fault was wanting to be liked.
He also either invented Brzezinski having had a facelift to demean her, or disclosed that she had one, which would be both cruel and deeply unethical.
This is also (at least) the second time that Trump has talked about a female journalist "bleeding." I find that incredibly disturbing.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 29, 2017
If it's true, that is an appalling betrayal. It's also profoundly unethical to disclose another person's surgical procedure without consent.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 29, 2017
Not because of what it says about her; because of what it says about Donald Trump.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 29, 2017
Which isn't surprising, but is still awful to behold.
This incident exemplifies everything about which political writers like me tried to warn during the campaign: Trump's brittle ego, his misogyny, his impulsiveness, his vengefulness, his vile cruelty, his categorical unfitness for the presidency.
He is exactly the rageful, petty tyrant that we said he would be.
But at least we escaped the dreadful fate of being governed by a feminist woman. Phew. What a horror that would have been.
Today in Trump's Contemptible Anti-Immigrant Agenda
[Content Note: Nativism; video may autoplay at link.]
Tal Kopan at CNN reports:
The House Thursday is expected to pass bills that would hand [Donald] Trump key pieces of his immigration agenda, especially efforts targeting sanctuary cities.It's unclear whether either bill has enough votes to pass the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could not find enough votes to pass Kate's Law last year, and one hopes he will struggle again after the House inevitably passes this garbage today.
The bills, "Kate's Law" and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, would install harsher penalties for repeat illegal entry to the U.S., and expand US law on sanctuary cities to pressure localities to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
...Immigration and civil liberties advocates have also come out swinging against the bills, saying they bolster a "deportation force" and anti-immigrant agenda from the Trump administration.
Both bills come from the Judiciary Committee led by Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a longtime proponent of strict immigration policies like Trump's and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Another lead sponsor is Iowa Rep. Steve King, one of the most aggressive Republicans on immigration enforcement who has a history of controversial statements about immigrants.
The bills are both predicated on fearmongering against undocumented immigrants, and the erroneous suggestion that undocumented immigrants are more dangerous and more prone to violent crime than U.S. citizens. That is flatly false.
In fact, as Philip Bump reports at the Washington Post, Thomas Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) refused to endorse that sinister lie promulgated by Donald Trump.
[At a press conference on Wednesday, Homan] was asked whether immigrants in the country illegally were more likely to commit crimes.The president, however, has. He has plainly stated that demonizing lie, and he brought victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants to his speech to Congress, where he announced the creation of Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE), an office within the Department of Homeland Security to, according to Trump, "serve American victims" of undocumented immigrants and provide "a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests."
He suggested that they weren't.
Homan was describing a number of crimes that had been committed by immigrants in the United States and advocated for building a wall on the border with Mexico.
"Aren't you concerned, though, about exacerbating fears about undocumented immigrants?" CNN's Jim Acosta asked. "You're making it sound as if undocumented immigrants commit more crimes than people who are just native-born Americans."
"What is your sense of the numbers on this? Are undocumented people more likely or less likely to commit crimes?" Acosta asked.
"Did I say aliens commit more crimes than U.S. citizens? I didn't say that," Homan replied.
Most reasonable people would not assume the creation of a dedicated office is warranted to address criminality in an immigrant population that actually commits fewer violent crimes than U.S. citizens. The implication of the very creation of the office is that an outsized problem of criminality necessitates it.
And that's certainly the implication that Trump hopes we will take, as the Republican majority in the House passes two bills with the same intent today.
I'm infinitely less concerned about being harmed by an undocumented immigrant than I am about losing my healthcare because of Republicans.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 29, 2017
The biggest threat to our collective safety is not undocumented immigrants. The biggest threat to our collective safety is the Republican Party.
Donald Trump hopes you haven't noticed that.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker KitSileya: "Have you ever made something yourself, as a child or an adult, that you are very proud of? What is it? (A dinner you cooked, or a piece of crafts you did at school, or a letter you wrote, for example.)"
I'm very proud of some of the things I've written here. That's a lazy and obvious answer, but it's also true!
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by toast.
Recommended Reading:
Marrion Johnson, Transgender Law Center: Meet the People Behind Our 2017 Plan of Resistance
Keith Reid-Cleveland: [Content Note: Police harassment; racism] Black Man Devonte Shipman Threatened with Jail Time for Jaywalking
Ciara O'Rourke: In Quest for Cuts, National Park Service Eyes Private Sector Takeovers
Kaila Hale-Stern: [CN: Play violence; demeaning euphemisms for sex workers] This Comic About How Girls Actually Play with Dolls Is So Spot-On
Rae Paoletta: New Evidence of an Ancient Neolithic Skull Cult Proves Humans Have Always Been Metal
And Happy Blogiversary to Fannie!!! ♥
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Trump Teases a "Great Surprise" on Healthcare
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link.]
This fucking guy:
[Donald] Trump claimed Wednesday that Senate Republicans have a "big surprise" on their healthcare bill, while also declaring the measure is coming "along very well."Is it that you're throwing the bill in the fucking trash and agreeing to work with Democrats to improve upon Obamacare? Because, unless that's it, it ain't a GREAT SURPRISE.
"Healthcare is working along very well," Trump said after meeting with baseball players from the Chicago Cubs, according to a White House press pool report. "We're gonna have a big surprise. We have a great healthcare package."
When asked for further clarification about his remarks, the president repeated his claim about a big surprise.
"We're going to have a great, great surprise," he said.
Imagine being a human being so bereft of even the most infinitesimal modicum of empathy or basic decency that while people are showing up at their senators' offices to beg those senators not to kill them, you think it's cool to tease a "surprise" on healthcare legislation. What a piece of shit he is.
This isn't your garbage reality show, Donald Trump. Try to be a president for one fucking second. Goddammit.
Inspiring Acts of Resistance
Share things you have seen that moved you, or actions you are taking. Please also feel welcome and encouraged to share links to Twitter users and/or news sites engaged in resistance that you recommend following.
* * *
Today, I'll give a shout-out to the Handmaid's Tale protesters who showed up at the U.S. Capitol yesterday to protest the Republicans' "healthcare" bill.
Currently outside the Capitol pic.twitter.com/fn3KGfaljA
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 27, 2017
Handmaids are now circled around an anti-GOP healthcare plan rally that MoveOn, PP and others are kicking off pic.twitter.com/kEeBBZ3G5n
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 27, 2017
Handmaids/protesters now lined up in the pouring rain waiting for GOP senators to exit the Capitol so they can shout "shame" pic.twitter.com/dNPPvLMk2g
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 27, 2017
SHAME. SHAME. SHAME.
High-five to the Texas ladies, including my friends @meadowgirl and @ohthemaryd, who started this particular act of resistance.
Not all superheroes wear capes. BUT SOME DO.
"It's fundamentally not rights-oriented."
[Content Note: Racism; anti-Semitism; Islamophobia; misogyny; abuse.]
Julia Angwin and Hannes Grassegger have written a terrific piece for ProPublica, bluntly titled: "Facebook's Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men from Hate Speech But Not Black Children." It's a long read, but well worth your time and attention, so settle in.
I will just quickly highlight this passage, whence comes the title for my post (emphasis mine):
By 2008, the company had begun expanding internationally but its censorship rulebook was still just a single page with a list of material to be excised, such as images of nudity and Hitler. "At the bottom of the page it said, 'Take down anything else that makes you feel uncomfortable,'" said Dave Willner, who joined Facebook's content team that year.Well, that's refreshingly frank and ALSO TERRIBLE.
Willner, who reviewed about 15,000 photos a day, soon found the rules were not rigorous enough. He and some colleagues worked to develop a coherent philosophy underpinning the rules, while refining the rules themselves. Soon he was promoted to head the content policy team.
By the time he left Facebook in 2013, Willner had shepherded a 15,000-word rulebook that remains the basis for many of Facebook's content standards today.
"There is no path that makes people happy," Willner said. "All the rules are mildly upsetting." Because of the volume of decisions — many millions per day — the approach is "more utilitarian than we are used to in our justice system," he said. "It's fundamentally not rights-oriented."
The question, of course, is if the approach to moderation is "fundamentally not rights-oriented," to what is it oriented? Profits, is the simple answer — but because Facebook's primary profit-making enterprise is data collection on its users, I think the true answer is slightly more complex and sinister, as they try to balance the appearance of safety for users with the ruthless exploitation and tolerance of abuse of those users for their advertisers.
One additional observation: There's nothing in the article about the flagging of content by users. And I suspect that plays a huge role in how moderating decisions get made.
I know from experience that conservatives (and "far-leftists" who imagine they're not conservatives) spend an inordinate amount of time tracking and policing and reporting people they don't like.
I suspect that progressives generally spend a lot less time focused on the people we don't like, and have a much lower impulse for tracking and reporting.
What does that mean on Facebook? It's very likely that's going to influence how people who receive reports on flagged content respond as moderators.
Similarly, the options that Facebook provides for reporting inappropriate content shape those reports in a very particular way:
Option 1: It's annoying or not interesting
Option 2: I think it shouldn't be on Facebook
Option 3: It's a false news story
Option 4: It's spam
That's it. There's not even an option for reporting something as harmful, abusive, etc.
If I were going to report abusive content — let's say racist content, for this example — I'm not going to choose "annoying or not interesting," because I find racist content rather more problematic than "annoying."
I would choose "I think it shouldn't be on Facebook," which is the only subjective option of the four. My report gets submitted already prefaced with "I think," as opposed to my being able to definitively say it doesn't belong, though I would be able to definitively say it's annoying, even though that is arguably more subjective than whether abusive material "shouldn't be on Facebook."
That doesn't seem incidental. And I strongly suspect that who reports content, and how it gets reported, has a major impact on the deeply problematic aspects of Facebook's secret censorship strategy.
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 160
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: Mike Pence Takes Charge on Senate "Healthcare" Bill and Cyberattacks Caused Surgery Delays; Breach at Nuclear Power Plant Being Investigated.
REMINDER: KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS TO TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON TRUMPCARE.
A few really terrific things to read on healthcare — terrific and utterly heart-wrenching:
[Content Note: Racism] Anna Maria Barry-Jester at FiveThirtyEight: The Health Care System Is Leaving the Southern Black Belt Behind.
The Black Belt refers to a stretch of land in the U.S. South whose fertile soil drew white colonists and plantation owners centuries ago. After hundreds of thousands of people were forced there as slaves, the region became the center of rural, black America. Today, the name describes predominantly rural counties where a large share of the population is African-American. The area is one of the most persistently poor in the country, and residents have some of the most limited economic prospects. Life expectancies are among the shortest in the U.S., and poor health outcomes are common...Leah McElrath at Shareblue: My Father Is One of the Vulnerable Seniors Most at Risk from GOP's Cruel Medicaid Cuts. "More than 1.4 million Americans are receiving nursing home or other long-term care paid for by Medicaid. One of them is my father. My father is now 77 years old and has a rare form of dementia. When he became unable to care for himself in his home, I took him into my home and cared for him there. But when I was no longer able financially, physically, and emotionally able to do so, my father moved to a Medicaid-funded facility. To qualify for Medicaid funding for long-term care, you have to meet two types of criteria: financial and medical. To put it bluntly, you have to be both very poor and very infirm."
Yes, measuring who's insured illuminates one way by which people have access to the health care system, but it's only part of the picture. The term "access to health care" has a standardized federal definition that's much broader: "the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes."
And there's a list of metrics to measure it. Researchers consider structural barriers, such as distance to a hospital or how many health professionals work in an area, to be important. As are metrics that gauge whether a patient can find a health care provider that she trusts and can communicate with well enough to get the services she needs.
...In Alabama, Black Belt counties have fewer primary care physicians, dentists, and mental health providers per resident than other counties. They also tend to have the highest rates of uninsured people. Poverty rates, which are associated with limited access to care, are also high.
Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: This Is How Trumpcare Will Be a Death Sentence. "Jon [who has cystic fibrosis] says that Obamacare, which enabled him to remain insured after he lost his employer-provided plan, 'definitely saved me from bankruptcy, and quite possibly saved my life.' Now, however, Senate Republicans are pushing a bill that would deny millions of Americans of the security that Jon enjoyed when his illness left him unable to obtain insurance through an employer. ...Had this legislation been in effect when Jon became too sick to work, he very well may be dead."
Eric Meyer on Twitter: "This is my daughter Rebecca in 2013. She was 5¼ years old when I took this [photo], and less than three days later, she almost died on an ER bed. ...Later, there were weeks on weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. After that was done, we came home for more chemotherapy. ...The treatments didn't work. She died at home less than ten months after her cancer was discovered, June 7th, 2014, her sixth birthday. In those ten months, the total retail cost of her procedures and treatments was $1,691,627.45. Almost one point seven million US dollars. ...Without insurance, even if we'd been able to get the insurer's rate, we'd have gone bankrupt. All investments, home, everything gone. If pre-existing conditions had prevented us from being covered, or if we'd been less fortunate and unable to afford premiums—bankrupted. So Rebecca's brother and sister would have suffered her death, AND the loss of their home and what little remained normal in their lives."
This last piece isn't just about healthcare, but it's extremely relevant. Kayla Chadwick at the Huffington Post: I Don't Know How to Explain to You That You Should Care About Other People.
Like many Americans, I'm having politics fatigue. Or, to be more specific, arguing-about-politics fatigue.SAME.
I haven't run out of salient points or evidence for my political perspective, but there is a particular stumbling block I keep running into when trying to reach across the proverbial aisle and have those "difficult conversations" so smugly suggested by think piece after think piece:
I don't know how to explain to someone why they should care about other people.
...I don't know how to convince someone how to experience the basic human emotion of empathy. I cannot have one more conversation with someone who is content to see millions of people suffer needlessly in exchange for a tax cut that statistically they'll never see (do you make anywhere close to the median American salary? Less? Congrats, this tax break is not for you).
I cannot have political debates with these people. Our disagreement is not merely political, but a fundamental divide on what it means to live in a society, how to be a good person, and why any of that matters.
* * *
[CN: Sexual harassment] Donald Trump is a disgusting disgrace, part whatever in an endless series:
"She has a nice smile on her face. So I bet she treats you well." Trump said this abt a female reporter to Irish PM. https://t.co/sZmekMRjLz
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 27, 2017
I mean, one difference between the candidates is that HILLARY WOULDN'T HAVE SEXUALLY HARASSED A REPORTER JUST TRYING TO DO HER JOB. https://t.co/yArfQVT7lT
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 28, 2017
If you're wondering if there are any people on Twitter brave enough not to let me get away with saying this is sexual harassment when it is clearly just a compliment, of course there are hahahahahaha OF COURSE THERE ARE.
* * *
Esme Cribb at TPM: GOP Rep Laments Budget Inaction: 'We Just Simply Don't Know How to Govern'. "Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) on Tuesday bemoaned House Republicans' apparent inability to bring a budget resolution to a vote on the chamber floor amid internal differences and higher-profile policy goals. 'We just simply don't know how to govern,' Womack, a member of the House Budget Committee, told the Washington Post. 'It's almost like we're serving in the minority right now.' He said a budget resolution for 2018 'should have been put to bed a long time ago.'" Indeed. But Republicans really don't have any idea how to govern, and their ideas are all garbage, so.
Oliver Milman at the Guardian: EPA Seeks to Scrap Rule Protecting Drinking Water for Third of Americans. "The Environmental Protection Agency is poised to dismantle the federal clean water rule, which protects waterways that provide drinking water for about a third of the US population. The EPA, with the US army, has proposed scrapping the rule in order to conduct a 'substantive re-evaluation' of which rivers, streams, wetlands, and other bodies of water should be protected by the federal government. 'We are taking significant action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our nation's farmers and businesses,' said Scott Pruitt, administrator of the EPA. Pruitt said the EPA would swiftly redefine clean water regulations in a 'thoughtful, transparent, and collaborative' way with other agencies and the public."
LOL! They'll "thoughtfully" figure out how to poison us. Terrific.
Republicans don't believe people are entitled to food...or drinkable water. https://t.co/WBZJpyYPMm
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 27, 2017
Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Trump Uses Twitter Feed to Sell Book for Fox News Personality, Blurring Ethical Lines. Tuesday morning [Donald] Trump retweeted a tweet by Fox News commentator Eric Bolling promoting his upcoming book titled, 'The Swamp.' The book, subtitled 'Washington's Murky Pool of Corruption and Cronyism and How Trump Can Drain It,' co-opts Trump's popular campaign slogan of his promise to 'drain the swamp in Washington.' This promotion of commercial products could potentially violate a ban that prohibits federal employees from endorsing any 'product, service, or enterprise.' ...This incident is an example of Trump's inability to let go of his businessman persona." And an example of Trump's inability to control his impulses.
Todd Bishop at GeekWire: Trump Targets Amazon over 'Internet Taxes' in New Tweet Criticizing Bezos-Owned Washington Post. "Donald Trump resurfaced his complaints against Amazon this morning in a tweet targeting the Washington Post’s coverage of his administration: 'The #AmazonWashingtonPost, sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should) is FAKE NEWS!' The tweet follows a report by the Washington Post last night about a fake, framed Time magazine cover that hangs in Trump's golf clubs. It's not clear what Trump meant by 'internet taxes' in this context, but Amazon collects sales tax on purchases in every state where it's required, and the company supports national legislation that would require remote sellers to collect sales tax regardless of location. The Washington Post is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, not by Amazon."
There are a lot of concerning things about Donald Trump, to say the very least. Among them is the toxic combination of his vengefulness and his ignorance. He doesn't understand that Amazon doesn't own the Washington Post, so he might do something like propose a tax on internet purchases to punish Amazon for something the Washington Post did. It's incredible. And that's one of the least damaging acts of misplaced revenge he's likely to take. Terrifying.
* * *
David Corn at Mother Jones: We Already Know Trump Betrayed America.
The Trump-Russia scandal is the subject of multiple investigations that may or may not unearth new revelations, but this much is already certain: Donald Trump is guilty.Yep. It's one of the great frustrations of this outrage that the brazenness of Trump's and his associates' behavior is routinely used to excuse it.
...Explicit collusion may yet be proved by the FBI investigation overseen by special counsel Robert Mueller or by other ongoing probes. But even if it is not, a harsh verdict can be pronounced: Trump actively and enthusiastically aided and abetted Russian President Vladimir Putin's plot against America. This is the scandal. It already exists—in plain sight.
...This country needs a thorough and public investigation to sort out how the Russian operation worked, how US intelligence and the Obama administration responded, and how Trump and his associates interacted with Russia and WikiLeaks. But whatever happened out of public view, the existing record is already conclusively shameful. Trump and his crew were active enablers of Putin's operation to subvert an American election. That is fire, not smoke. That is scandal enough.
Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman at the Washington Post: Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort Files as Foreign Agent for Ukraine Work. "A consulting firm led by Paul Manafort, who chaired Donald Trump's presidential campaign for several months last year, retroactively filed forms Tuesday showing that his firm received $17.1 million over two years from a political party that dominated Ukraine before its leader fled to Russia in 2014. Manafort disclosed the total payments his firm received between 2012 and 2014 in a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing late Tuesday that was submitted to the U.S. Justice Department. The report makes Manafort the second former senior Trump adviser to acknowledge the need to disclose work for foreign interests."
That refers, of course, to Manafort's work for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Putin then-prime minister of Ukraine, for whom Bernie Sanders' chief strategist Tad Devine also worked. [Relatedly.]
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Kevin Johnson at USA Today: Donald Trump and His Team Hired an Army of Lawyers for Russia Investigation. Who Made the List? "In what has become a near-full employment opportunity for the defense bar, even some of Trump's lawyers have lawyers. Michael Cohen, another longtime Trump business attorney who is not part of the Russia team, recently hired former federal prosecutor Stephen Ryan after congressional investigators sought information from him last month about possible contacts with Russia. The Trump team has expanded its constellation of legal expertise to keep pace not only with Mueller's inquiry but with parallel investigations at least three congressional committees are pursuing, including the Senate and House intelligence panels and the Senate Judiciary Committee."
* * *
Was just removed from the Justice Department during my coverage of the ongoing DOJ Pride event. They told me it was a closed-press event.
— Chris Johnson (@chrisjohnson82) June 28, 2017
I was able to attend DOJ Pride events multiple times as a member of the press during the Obama administration, but not under Trump.
— Chris Johnson (@chrisjohnson82) June 28, 2017
That lock-out may be because the Trump administration didn't want the world seeing the Justice Department actually engaging in justice work by honoring Gavin Grimm.
[CN: Disablism] Robyn Powell at Rewire: How Media Coverage of Health-Care Protests by People With Disabilities Missed the Point. "As a woman with a disability, I was so happy to see the extensive local, national, and international coverage of the protests by the media. But while I am thrilled that the protest received so much attention, I am worried that some overlooked its purpose: to draw attention to the very real and devastating consequences people with disabilities will experience if the new health-care bill passes. ...This questioning of the protesters' competence is offensive. As leaders of ADAPT explained to ABC News, this action was planned well in advance. The protesters were at the Capitol because of their fears and outrage concerning the proposed draconian cuts to Medicaid: The House health-care bill included such drastic changes, and ADAPT correctly guessed the Senate bill would be similar."
[CN: Water contamination; racism; class warfare] Yessenia Funes at Colorlines: In East Chicago, Residents Can't Drink Their Water or Play Outside. "People are most familiar with what's happening to the water in Flint, Michigan, but the mostly Black and Hispanic residents of the West Calumet Public Housing Complex in the Indiana neighborhood aren't faring much better. Their soil and water contain lead levels hundreds of times above what the EPA deems safe. Residents were supposed to evacuate from the public housing complex by March 31, 2017... The city has provided the housing complex residents with section 8 housing vouchers, but [some residents have] had trouble finding an apartment that accepts the voucher."
And finally, in good news...
Daniel Boffey at the Guardian: Mayors of 7,400 Cities Vow to Meet Obama's Climate Commitments. "Mayors of more than 7,400 cities across the world have vowed that Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris accord will spur greater local efforts to combat climate change. At the first meeting of a 'global covenant of mayors,' city leaders from across the US, Europe and elsewhere pledged to work together to keep to the commitments made by Barack Obama two years ago. ...Kassim Reed, the mayor of Atlanta, told reporters he had travelled to Europe to 'send a signal' that US states and cities would execute the policies Obama committed to, whether the current White House occupants agreed or not."
Thank you, Mayors.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Head in the Clouds
Just the most beautiful sky all evening. pic.twitter.com/F3u2aJ6xBc
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 28, 2017
You may have noticed that I love the sky.
I love the clouds, I love sunsets, I love storms, I love the moon and the stars.
When I was a little kid, I could spend long hours lying in the grass, looking up at the sky. In movies, this is frequently a device for conveying a child dreaming of being a pilot or an astronaut — and I imagine in real life there are a few pilots and astronauts, and flight attendants and skydivers and hot air balloon operators, who spent long hours looking up at the sky.
I never dreamed of a career in or beyond the clouds. I just looked at the sky because I love it.
To this day, I still spend as much time as I can looking at the sky, contemplating its contours and colors. It calms me.
Even in the midst of a window-rattling thunderstorm, when the sky sparkles with lightning and the air feel electric, the sky somehow soothes.
It encourages me to breathe. It makes me feel small, in a way that gives me perspective on what stresses me. It gives me a sense of place, when I am starting to feel unmoored.
"You and the clouds," Iain says. Because I am always looking up. Because I am always stopping in my tracks to admire the heavens. Because I am always exclaiming with breathless wonder, "Look at this sky!"
Look at this sky.
I look at the sky, different today than it was yesterday and different from what it will be tomorrow. There is something profoundly comforting to me in that.
Tomorrow will bring a new sky.
Cyberattacks Caused Surgery Delays; Breach at Nuclear Power Plant Being Investigated
Yesterday, during a conversation with the other Shakesville contributors and mods about the cyberattacks, I said: "I think this is, by far, the most important story of the day, even including healthcare, because, as I've said before (#brokenrecord), healthcare is impossible to provide irrespective of whether one has insurance if there's no electricity or internet."
That was before we knew the extent of the cyberattacks in the U.S.
ABC News reports that federal authorities are "investigating a breach into computer systems of at least one U.S. nuclear power plant." It's a low-level breach, and it is "unclear if the case is related in any way to other known cyberattacks."
I still find that fairly concerning all the same.
I am also incredibly alarmed by the fact, reported in an ABC News segment on yesterday's cyberattacks, that a hospital in Pennsylvania had to delay surgeries because their computers were taken down.
ANCHOR: A massive cyberattack hitting American companies, including hospitals, part of a global assault on governments and businesses around the globe: Hackers locking up computers and demanding ransom to free them back up, the scheme similar to one just last month that spread across one hundred and fifty countries. ABC's chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross on this new cyberattack.There is more to the video, talking about the law firm that got hit, which I mentioned in yesterday's We Resist thread, and the nature of the attack and ransom demand, which was described in yesterday's dedicated thread on the cyberattacks.
[cut to video package]
BRIAN ROSS [in voiceover]: The fast-moving cyberattack continues tonight, after freezing computers at hospitals in Pennsylvania, where surgeries had to be canceled.
BONNIE MILLS [onscreen, identified as a woman whose family member's surgery had been canceled]: She called me and said the surgery was canceled, because the computers were down.
Cyberattackers are probing. They're searching for vulnerabilities, and they're also testing what our response is to these relatively small-scale attacks.
Although I don't know what federal responses are taking place behind the scenes, I don't feel good about the fact that the current U.S. president doesn't seem to give a fuck about cyberattacks, nor do I feel good about how little concentrated media attention they're getting.
Doesn't seem to me like indifference is what we want to project in this moment.
But what do I know. I believe healthcare is a right, and the position that healthcare should be defended against hackers is probably just as silly.
[H/T to Leah McElrath.]
Mike Pence Takes Charge on Senate "Healthcare" Bill
The Senate "healthcare" bill is in trouble. Mitch McConnell has delayed the vote, a number of Republican Senators are equivocating, and only 17 percent of Americans approve of the bill.
But just because it's in trouble doesn't mean it's dead. Or anywhere close.
The Republicans have no intention of giving up on passing this extraordinarily cruel piece of legislation — including Donald Trump, who doesn't actually care how "mean" it is, as long as it gives him a much-needed win.
So he's dispatching Vice-President Mike Pence to close the deal.
When you hear someone asserting the Senate healthcare bill is dead, inform them that Mike Pence is now in charge of getting it passed.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 28, 2017
Glenn Thrush and Jonathan Martin at the New York Times report:
Mr. Trump and his staff played a critical role in persuading House Republicans to pass health care legislation in May, with the president personally calling dozens of wavering House members. But the Trump team's heavy-handed tactics have been ineffective in the Senate, and White House officials determined that deploying Vice President Mike Pence, a former congressman with deep ties to many in the Senate, was a better bet than unleashing Mr. Trump on the half-dozen Republicans who will determine the fate of the Senate bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.It isn't clear if it's the writers taking license there, or if it's the Republican leadership who seemingly view "the White House" and "Mike Pence" as mutually exclusive, but clearly Republican leaders prefer working with Pence, which is something worth noting not only for how effective his outreach will be during this "healthcare" showdown, but also for how much more willing Congress will be to support his agenda, should he ever assume the #1 position in the executive branch.
...[O]ver the past few weeks, the Senate Republican leadership has made it known that it would much rather negotiate with Mr. Pence than a president whose candidacy many did not even take seriously during the 2016 primaries. And some of the White House's efforts have clearly been counterproductive.
Pence, in fact, has apparently already been working behind the scenes trying to get this legislation through the Senate: "Pence has been far more active in seeking out Republican senators" for persuasion. And he's dispatched Seema Verma, a former adviser in Indiana who is "now a top administration health care official," to "reassure senators that their states will have flexibility on Medicaid under the bill." Meanwhile, Marc Short, his former chief of staff, who is "now the White House legislative affairs director, has been quarterbacking the effort from his hideaway in the Capitol."
And, unlike his wreck of a boss, Pence knows the details of this bill. He knows what it will take to get McConnell the votes he needs. He doesn't care, even a little, that only 17 percent of Americans want this legislation passed. Representing the people's interests wasn't exactly his thing in Indiana, and it isn't his thing now, either.
Make your calls. This isn't even close to being over. Mike Pence will make certain of that.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Sue Kerr: "Are you a breakfast eater? If so, what's on your menu?"
I never have much of an appetite in the morning, but I try to eat something. This morning I had a banana and some nuts.
The Second Sentence on Page 116
Whatever book you're reading right now, turn to page 116 and share the second sentence. No titles. Just the sentence. Let's see what story we end up telling together, in these series of isolated sentences!
"If I didn't have logic, history, and economics to counsel me otherwise, I might throw everything away and go prospecting."
[Previously.]
