The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
You're Not Alone
Good grief there has been a lot of news today about Donald Trump and Russian collusion. Some of it is reported rumors, rather than news. Some of it is just absolutely impossible to verify. All of it is coming very quickly: An eighth person (?) allegedly in attendance at the meeting with Don Jr.; Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Kremlin-connected lawyer with whom Don Jr. met, says she was in contact with a Kremlin-appointed official about the U.S. sanctions law; Trump was in New York on the day of the meeting; two years of personal emails from "official working in the secretive intelligence arm of the State Department focusing on Russia" reportedly hacked.
Some of these stories have been reported in part or whole at sites that are known or suspected to be Kremlin-affiliated, before they made it into major U.S. news outlets. So not only do we have to contend with "fake news," but also various Russian-linked outlets "scooping" the legitimate news to disseminate information they want to get out to pressure Trump — in the process humiliating and potentially discrediting our press. The scope of it all is unfathomable.
And in addition to just trying to get our heads around the scope and all the players' allegiances and reliability, information is coming so quickly that it's difficult to assess all of it for accuracy, or see if it even begins to pass the smell test, before the next story breaks.
That I feel like my head is swimming trying to process it all is not good news for how the casual news consumer, even one who isn't primed to dismiss all of this out of hand, is processing it all.
The average reader of this space is quite beyond a casual news consumer, but I suspect lots of you are overwhelmed as well.
If you are, know that I am, too. This is not normal. And you are not alone.
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by mint.
Recommended Reading:
Gabby Bess: [Content Note: Rape; war on agency; revictimization] Rape Victims Must Notify Their Rapist Before Getting an Abortion in Arkansas
Andy Towle: [CN: Homophobia] Jeff Sessions Told Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group That New 'Religious Freedom' Guidance Is Coming
Eliza Newlin Carney: The Federal Election Commission's Moment of Truth
Spencer Sunshine: [CN: Islamophobia; eliminationist hatred] Islamophobia Is the Glue That Unites Diverse Factions of the Far Right
Dave Zirin: [CN: Misogynoir; deadly car accident; police misconduct] Venus Williams, a Car Accident, and the Outrageous Police Response
Ragen Chastain: [CN: Fat hatred; body policing] Dress for the Body I Have? Done!
Imran Siddiquee: Making Room for Diverse Voices with the Duplass Brothers
Rae Paoletta: Hagfish Slime Is Wonderful
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Shaker Thumbs
Shaker Thumbs is your opportunity to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to a product or service you have used and that you'd recommend to other Shakers or warn them away from.
Today I'm giving a big thumbs-up to Skechers Empire Inside Look Slip-On Sneaker.
LOVE THESE SHOES SO MUCH. I needed a new pair of sneakers, and I saw these, which are very different from any sneakers I've had previously, but I thought the extra ventilation might help with my strategy to prevent overheating.
Not only do they indeed help keep mah feets cool, but they are soooooo comfortable. I would order these again in a hot second.
They're definitely not a shoe for rainy or snowy weather, but I don't generally take long outdoor walks in that weather. (And I've got comfy walking boots for when I do.) I was looking for something for nice weather outdoor walks and treadmill walking: I've tried these shoes for both, and they were terrific. Because it's a stretch fabric, I didn't even have to worry about heel blisters while breaking them in. Nice.
Anyway! Give us your thumbs-up or thumbs-down in comments!
[Just to be abundantly clear, I am not affiliated in any way with Skechers nor with Shoes.com, nor am I receiving any form of payment from either of them. It's just a product I've personally found super useful and am happy to recommend.]
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 176
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: More Lies and the Liars Who Told Them.
REMINDER: KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS TO TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON TRUMPCARE.
Jessie Hellmann at the Hill: Health Groups: Revised GOP Health Bill Not an Improvement.
"The revised bill does not address the key concerns of physicians and patients regarding proposed Medicaid cuts and inadequate subsidies that will result in millions of Americans losing health insurance coverage," American Medical Association President David O. Barbe said in a statement Friday.The bill is so fucking awful that the GOP is having to bribe dubious members of their own caucus to support it. [Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Anna Edney, Hannah Recht, and Laura Litvan at Bloomberg: GOP Health Bill Steers Cash to the Home State of a Reluctant Senator. "Changes made to the Republican legislation to repeal large parts of Obamacare would send hundreds of millions of extra federal dollars to Alaska, whose Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has been holding off from giving her much-needed vote to the bill. Under formulas in the revised legislation, only Alaska appears to qualify for the extra money."
He noted that while more money to address the opioid epidemic is a "positive step," those suffering from substance abuse disorders "have other healthcare needs that are not likely to be addressed if they lose coverage through a rollback of the Medicaid expansion."
American Hospital Association President Rick Pollack said the bill would mean "real consequences for real people."
"Among them people with chronic conditions such as cancer, individuals with disabilities who need long-term services and support, and the elderly."
...Darrel Kirch, president of the Association of American Medical Colleges, said the bill falls "woefully short" in providing comprehensive, affordable coverage to Americans.
Kirch also warned that the Cruz amendment would hurt people with preexisting conditions.
"Allowing insurers to sell plans without meaningful coverage will hurt those with preexisting conditions and further destabilize insurance markets," he said.
Donna Cassata and Erica Werner at the AP: Analysis: Trump Will Take Health Care Credit or Cast Blame. "If congressional Republicans succeed in repealing and replacing the Obama-era health law, expect a big Rose Garden celebration with [Donald] Trump taking credit. If they fail? Trump has already indicated he will hold Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responsible... Trump has made it clear that the onus for delivering a major Republican achievement and fulfilling seven years of those promises is on the six-term Kentucky senator, who is battle-hardened by legislative negotiating — and not on the president and author of The Art of the Deal." Trump will take credit for a win and deflect blame for a loss? NO SHIT.
In related news, over in the House... Christine Grimaldi at Rewire: House GOP: Eliminate Family Planning Services for Low-Income Families. "Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are again proposing to zero out federal Title X family planning funding to health-care providers that serve people with low incomes. A House appropriations subcommittee Thursday afternoon will begin marking up the fiscal year 2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS) funding bill purporting to cut 'low-priority programs' while investing in 'essential health.' The bill axes all funding, about $300 million, for what Republicans on the committee called the 'controversial' Title X program." Goddammit this caucus is loathsome.
* * *
David Smith at the Guardian: Ex-Soviet Counterintelligence Officer Says He Attended Trump Jr. Meeting. "Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed to the Associated Press his participation in the meeting, which Trump Jr had failed to disclose until it became public this week."
What we still don't know for sure is exactly how many people attended that meeting. In my piece this morning, in which I reported that Akhmetshin was the likely counterintelligence officer who attended the meeting, I noted we knew of six people in attendance: Akhmetshin, his associate and Kremlin-connected attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, the broker of the meeting Rob Goldstone, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort. At the Guardian, Smith notes a report that "a translator, who has not been identified, was also present at the June 2016 meeting."
We also don't know whether any of the attendees recorded the meeting, and, if so, who has heard those recordings and who possess copies of them.
What we do know is that Putin is getting antsy that Trump is failing to deliver on Putin's wishlist after Putin delivered the presidency to Trump. Tuesday:
What was I just saying about Russia being unhappy about not getting what it wants on demand from Trump? https://t.co/mvtHDvlh0f
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 11, 2017
And today at the AP: Russia Threatens Retaliation in U.S. Diplomatic Row. "Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it would have to expel U.S. diplomats and shut down some U.S. compounds in Russia if the United States does not reopen two Russian recreational estates in the U.S. that were shut down last year."
Expelling diplomats is how they will retaliate publicly. Releasing (via surrogates) more damaging information on Trump, his family, and/or his associates is how they will retaliate covertly.
Which is why I keep saying: Removing Trump Is the Only Way to Reclaim U.S. Ownership of the White House. It's absolute absurdity to have allowed Putin to have influenced who is now the U.S. president, and it is exponential absurdity to allow him to dictate the terms — and duration — of that presidency.
Anyway. Back to Akhmetshin... Kevin Poulsen, Nico Hines, and Katie Zavadski at the Daily Beast: Trump Team Met Russian Accused of International Hacking Conspiracy. "The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. was told in July 2015 that Akhmetshin had arranged the hacking of a mining company's private records — stealing internal documents and then disseminating them. The corporate-espionage case was brought by IMR, which alleged that Akhmetshin was hired by Russian oligarch Andrey Melinchenko, an industrialist with a fortune estimated at around $12 billion. ...IMR went so far as to hire a private investigator to follow Akhmetshin on a trip to London. That private eye, Akis Phanartzis, wrote in a sworn declaration to the court that he eavesdropped on Akhmetshin in a London coffee shop and heard Akhmetshin boast that 'he organized the hacking of IMR’s computer systems' on behalf of Melinchenko's fertilizer producer Eurochem. ...Akhmetshin denied the accusation, but admitted passing around a 'hard drive' filled with data on IMR's owners." Welp.
* * *
Oliver Holmes at the Guardian: Trump Conflict of Interest Concerns over Links with Law Firm Run by Philippine Government Official. "Donald and Ivanka Trump's companies employ a law firm managed by a Philippine government official, the Guardian has found, the latest in a string of potential conflicts of interests stemming from the first family's global business empire. By hiring a firm run by a high-ranking member of the Philippine government, Trump opens himself to accusations of wittingly or unwittingly paying a foreign official to secure the interests of his private business." Fucking grifters.
Matt Shuham at TPM: Tillerson Vents About 'Fragmented' Government: 'Not a Highly Disciplined Organization'.
"Well, it is a lot different than being CEO of Exxon because I was the ultimate decision-maker," Tillerson told the reporters, adding: "We had very long-standing, disciplined processes and decision-making — I mean, highly structured — that allows you to accomplish a lot, to accomplish a lot in a very efficient way."The ego on this fucking guy. It's hard to imagine how he and Trump can even be in the same room together without creating a black hole of galaxy-gobbling arrogance.
The Times noted that Tillerson said he didn't meant to criticize the government, but that "it's largely not a highly disciplined organization."
"Decision-making is fragmented, and sometimes people don't want to take decisions. Coordination is difficult through the interagency [process]."
He also noted that his job itself used many of the same skills he developed leading the enormous oil and gas corporation.
"Engagement with the rest of the world is actually very easy for me," Tillerson said. "None of it is new to me. It is more difficult, it is more difficult, because of just the elements we talked about."
Yessenia Funes at Colorlines: New Harvard Analysis Highlights How Media Failed the People of Flint. "The analysis poses the question: Would the situation have turned out differently if national media intervened sooner? It specifically states: 'Sustained and widespread media attention was not given until late 2015 and early 2016, when the state of Michigan and President [Barack] Obama declared an emergency over high levels of lead in the water and in the blood of thousands of children. Additionally, the nature of some of the coverage was problematic: Complaints of citizens were discounted when compared to the comments of officials, residents were portrayed as hopeless and downtrodden despite months of action, and narratives of 'heroes' excluded African American activists in a city that is 57 percent black.'" Fuck.
* * *
In good news...
Samantha Schmidt at the Washington Post: Judge in Hawaii Rules Grandparents Are Exempt from Trump [Muslim] Ban.
A federal judge in Hawaii has ruled that grandparents and other relatives should be exempt from the enforcement of [Donald] Trump's travel ban, which bars people from six Muslim-majority countries.Brilliant.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson ruled Thursday night that the federal government's list of family relatives eligible to bypass the travel ban should be expanded to include grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts and other relatives. Watson also ordered exemptions for refugees who have been given formal assurance from agencies placing them in the United States.
In Watson's ruling, he said the government's definition of what constitutes close family "represents the antithesis of common sense."
"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," Watson wrote. "Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The Government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."
The order delivered another legal hit to the president's travel ban and a "sweeping victory" for those against it, as Neal Katyal, a lawyer for those challenging the measure, wrote. The ruling from Watson, a judge who has frequently been criticized by Trump and his administration for his unfavorable orders, marked yet another successful attempt by Hawaii to challenge the administration's executive order.
Camila Domonoske at NPR: Judge Throws out Conviction of Woman Who Laughed at Jeff Sessions. "Instead of sentencing a woman to jail time for laughing during Jeff Sessions' confirmation hearing, a D.C. judge threw out the woman's conviction and called for a new trial." So, not totally good news, but better than her conviction standing. Perhaps there will be a better outcome in her retrial, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 1.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
I Just Rolled My Eyes So Hard I May Have Accidentally Created a New Universe
The handshake hijinks of Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron continue apace:
Video Description: In a public square, Donald and Melania Trump walk with Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, saying goodbye as the Trumps prepare to leave France. Donald grabs Emmanuel's hand. Emmanuel grabs Donald's hand with both of his. They continue to walk. Donald pats the top of Emmanuel's hand. They keep shaking and walking, talking to one another as if there isn't an epic handshaking battle going on. Brigitte walks over, and Donald reaches out to her, kisses and hugs her, all while Emmanuel is still clutching Donald's hand. Donald grabs Brigette's hand, so now he is holding Emmanuel's hand with one hand and Brigitte's with the other. After 27 seconds of hand-holding, Donald finally lets go of Brigitte's hand and pulls away from Emmanuel's hand, patting his shoulder.
Jesus fucking Jones.
As I said the last time around, I'm not amused by male power displays on the global stage. Of course I understand why Macron is playing this game. That doesn't mean I have to like it.
Although I'm not amused by dominance displays, I am deeply amused by this:
please some foreign leader or spouse buy a novelty arm for the Trump Handshake so when he yanks it just comes off
— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) July 13, 2017
Genius.
Sweet lord I would pay so much money for this to happen and even more for it to be Merkel.
Beyoncé and What We Allow Mothers to Be
In February, Beyoncé posted a gorgeous pregnancy announcement on Instagram, which was "controversial" because people are assholes. Last night, she posted an amazing debut photo of her twins, which is referential of her birth announcement and subsequent pregnancy photoshoot, and, as of this writing, it already has nearly 7 million likes.
Naturally, this image, too, is "controversial" because people are assholes. I had a few thoughts about that! (I bet you're not surprised to hear that at all!)
One of those many reasons is that Beyoncé's images of motherhood actually center the mother, which is profoundly transgressive.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 14, 2017
And cultural narratives that children should always be centered, even at the cost of their mothers' health and strength.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 14, 2017
Which is why Beyoncé's images of motherhood are so important. And also why I love them (despite the fact I'm not a mother & never will be).
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 14, 2017
If you guessed that the responses in my mentions to this thread immediately proved my point, give yourself a gold star!
It's funny how misogyny works the same way every time. Just like the seething hatred and relentless nitpicking criticsm of Hillary Clinton was "never about her sex" (haha yes it was) but just about "who Hillary Clinton is," the hatred and policing of Beyoncé is "never about" sexism or racism or the ugly stew of both, but only about "who Beyoncé is."
It's not that there's a widespread and demonstrable contempt of mothers who have the unmitigated temerity to continue to audaciously assert their own humanity (and GASP! their own sexuality) after becoming mothers; it's just that Beyoncé "takes it too far." It's not that there's an ancient historical animus toward Black motherhood, even as Black women were patronizingly lionized as nannies; it's just that Beyoncé is "using her children as props." It's not that we are entrained to devalue mothers and simultaneously loathe mothers who want to be defined by more than parenting; it's that Beyoncé is gross and exhibitionist and she's taking away everyone's attention from The Resistance.
(As if celebrating Black motherhood isn't central to resistance against a white supremacist death cult.)
Every woman is an exception when it comes to the reasons why we're hating her. It's never misogyny. Of course it isn't. Every woman is just audited and judged and policed and shamed and hated because she is uniquely deserving of our scorn.
Every one of us.
Maybe that's it. Or maybe it's that we still don't allow mothers to be fully human, and react abominably to mothers who challenge us to view them in their full humanity.
More Lies and the Liars Who Told Them
If you thought that we were done hearing about the plethoric lies Donald Trump, his family, and his staff have told about Don Jr.'s meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, I regret to inform you that we are not! How many lies can one group of reprobates tell about a single meeting? SO MANY!
First: It turns out that there was a sixth attendee at the meeting, in addition to Don Jr., Veselnitskaya, Rob Goldstone (who brokered the meeting), Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort: Veselnitskaya "was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned."
Although NBC News declined to name the former GRU officer, multiple sources have identified him as Rinat Akhmetshin, who also showed up with Veselnitskaya at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on "U.S. Policy Towards Putin's Russia."
So, not only did Don Jr. attend a "very fast" meeting with a Kremlin-connected attorney, but also with a Russian counterintelligence officer.
Further, despite Trump saying he only found out about the meeting a few days ago, his "legal team was informed more than three weeks ago."
Trump repeated that assertion in a talk with reporters on Air Force One on his way to Paris Wednesday night. "I only heard about it two or three days ago," he said, according to a transcript of his talk, when asked about the meeting with Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in June 2016 attended by Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, then Trump's campaign chief, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.There is no good explanation here. Either Trump has known for weeks and he's lying (likely), or his own attorneys are keeping the President of the United States out of the loop on an issue of grave national security, and he's so out of touch with one of his closest advisors (and son-in-law) Kushner that he had no knowledge of Kushner updating his SF-86, despite the fact that's such a big deal it triggered questioning by the FBI.
But the sources told Yahoo News that Marc Kasowitz, the president's chief lawyer in the Russia investigation, and Alan Garten, executive vice president and chief legal officer of the Trump Organization, were both informed about the emails in the third week of June, after they were discovered by lawyers for Kushner, who is now a senior White House official.
...The discovery of the emails prompted Kushner to amend his security clearance form to reflect the meeting, which he had failed to report when he originally sought clearance for his White House job. That revision — his second — to the so-called SF-86, was done on June 21. Kushner made the change even though there were questions among his lawyers whether the meeting had to be reported, given that there was no clear evidence that Veselnitskaya was a government official. The change to the security form prompted the FBI to question Kushner on June 23, the second time he was interviewed by agents about his security clearance, the sources said.
But the information that Trump's lawyers were told about the emails in June raises questions about why they would not have immediately informed the president.
...A spokesman for Kasowitz declined to comment, saying the matter involved "privileged information." Garten did not respond to an email request for comment.
Meanwhile, Kushner is lying even about re-filing the SF-86, because of course he is.
"a member of [Kushner's] staff prematurely hit the 'send' button for the [clearance] form before it was completed" https://t.co/Un8TQ7CUAs
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) July 14, 2017
You have to click/enter password TWENTY-EIGHT times in order to e-file. Tough to imagine it could be done in error. https://t.co/7qLfTYWnVT
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) July 14, 2017
Finally, in related news, one of Trump's aforementioned attorneys, Marc Kasowitz, is [Content Note: Harassment; threats; slurs] just as impulsively abusive as his loathsome client.
Everything is fine. (Everything is not fine.)
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Carpe Librarium: "What are interests you have that might seem on the surface to be at odds with each other (e.g. cost-cutting life hacks + drooling over uber-luxurious furnishings)?"
Reading and not reading, lol. Like, on the one hand, I am a voracious reader and want to read everything on which I can get my hands, but, on the other hand, I am constantly desperate for quiet time for my overstimulated brain and love it when I get it.
These are at odds with each other beyond just the surface, ha.
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
The Latest Version of the GOP Healthcare [Sic] Bill Is More Hot Garbage That Will Kill People
Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: The Senate's New Healthcare Bill Is Still a Mess. Amanda has a bunch of excellent analysis at the link; following is just the briefest glimpse of the latest horror.
The new bill does not change the main issues with Senate Republicans' earlier health care bill: the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), one of the most unpopular bill in the three decades.This bill is deadly trash. Still and always. Because the central objective isn't expanding healthcare coverage, but decimating it. And that's precisely what it does.
The new bill still ends Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults and ultimately caps funding to the program. The bill also still restructures tax credits in a way that are less generous and increases premiums and deductibles for moderate-to-low-income adults looking to buy non-group insurance, or insurance not bought through an employer or corporation. And it weakens consumer protections if patients do decide to buy non-group insurance, by granting states leeway to allow insurance companies to opt-out of the Obamacare's essential benefits rule.
Perhaps the most controversial change in the flailing revival bill is a modified version of an idea from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT). The bill adds funds to the existing market stability fund, that helps cover people with high medical costs (for people reading along, this begins on page 161 of the bill and is dubbed "Consumer Protection").
...In a scenario like this, sick people would find themselves on expensive insurance plans because healthy people would look to buy cheaper non-Obamacare plans. The imbalance would quickly lead to a death spiral, a loop where healthy people leaving the market drives up premiums to a point where eventually, the entire market collapses.
Without a strong mandate that penalizes people for not buying insurance, it's also hard to see why patients would want to buy skimpy, expensive care. Under this Republican plan, health experts say the non-group marketplace could collapse and it'll take Medicaid with it.
Yet the Republicans press on, with the most unpopular piece of legislation in memory, which they continue to champion with the arrogance of a party that does not believe it will ever be truly accountable to voters again.
If that hasn't started to profoundly concern you yet, it should.
More Lies from the Lying Liar in the White House
WATCH: Trump's full answer on Don, Jr.: "From a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting." pic.twitter.com/FHa3q11uya
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 13, 2017
Ah, as far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast. Two other people were in the room, they — I guess one of them left almost immediately and the other one was not really focused on the meeting.As far as I can tell, the only truthful thing that Trump said in the entirely of this statement is that "Politics is not the nicest business in the world." It might also be accurate that the meeting was short.
I do think this: I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent. I've had many people — I have only been in politics for two years, but I've had many people call up — "Oh, gee, we have information on this factor or this person or, frankly, Hillary."
That's very standard in politics. Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard where they have information and you take the information.
In the case of Don, he listened — I guess they talked about, as I see it, they talked about adoption and some things. Adoption wasn't even part of the campaign. But nothing happened from the meeting. Zero happened from the meeting. And honestly I think the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people would do.
Now, the lawyer that went to the meeting, I see that she was in the halls of Congress also. Somebody said that her visa or her passport to come into the country was approved by Attorney General Lynch. Now maybe that's wrong; I just heard that a little while ago, but I was a little surprised to hear that. So she was here because of Lynch.
Ah, so, again, I have a son who's a great young man. He's a fine person. He took a meeting with a lawyer from Russia. Ah, it lasted for a very short period, and nothing came of the meeting. And I think it's a meeting that most people in politics probably would have taken.
Otherwise, this is a colossal dump of obfuscation and straight-up lying — right down to his assertion that Don Trump Jr. is a "wonderful young man." HE IS NOT A YOUNG MAN AT ALL. Don Jr. will be 40 years old in December. He is exactly 10 days younger than Emmanuel Macron, the French president who was standing beside Trump on the stage as he referred to his adult son as a "young man."
Actually, yes, Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Kremlin-connected lawyer (even if technically not a "government lawyer). No, most people would not have taken that meeting. No, it is not "standard" in politics to collude with a foreign government to defeat an opponent.
Even Trump's claim that he's "only been in politics for two years" is bullshit.
Trump is lying about being a political neophyte again, claiming he's been in politics for only two years. Wrong. It's been at least thirty.
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) July 13, 2017
Trump repeatedly said he'd only run if he knew he would win. Spent 1990s recovering from bankruptcies w/Russian $. Flirted with run in 2000.
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) July 13, 2017
So by 2015, Trump had already run once, flirted with a run twice, and had dirty GOP and Kremlin connections spanning 30 years. No neophyte.
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) July 13, 2017
There is one important truth to be teased out of Trump's cacophonous mendacity: His son took the meeting with an agent of a foreign government for the express purpose of getting information on Hillary Clinton as part of an effort to defeat her.
That may not be precisely the textbook definition of treason, but, my god, it is breathtakingly close.
Here Is Something Nice
My dear friend Jessica Luther wrote this amazing article, "A Team of Their Own," about Girls Travel Baseball (GTB), and it is heartbreaking in many ways, because misogyny exists in the world, but it also just a lovely story about girls doing something they love — even if it necessitates navigating misogyny.
There are so many beautiful moments of female connection in the piece, and so many moments of female ferocity. I strongly encourage you to read the whole thing, but here is a short excerpt:
Aubrey Evans is sitting in the lobby of GTB's hotel on the morning of the first day of the tournament. Her socks are pulled up to her knees, she's wearing a Dirtbags baseball T-shirt, and on the brim of her GTB baseball hat sits a pair of sunglasses. Behind her, some teammates are playing catch.Perfection.
She knows she's there to be quizzed about baseball. She sounds like she's answered all these questions before; she probably has. Nearly every member of GTB has had a profile published in their local paper and a few have done radio spots or TV hits. Reporters pop up every so often to ask them about being one of a few girls who play the nation's pastime. Maybe that is why Evans is gruff but patient, not quite bored but not far from it.
Her mood changes, though, when she talks about what it's like to be on an all-girls team that plays teams full of boys. A sly smile crawls across her face, a corner of her mouth kicking up, as she says: "Everyone looks at us weird, and they're like, 'Oh, a bunch of girls. We can beat them.' Then once they see us actually beating them, they start to get scared." She loves that feeling, when the boys realize their level of competition. "Feels great," she says. "Because they're all crying when we strike them out or tag them out. [They] throw their helmets and everything."
"They're so emotional," Grace DeVinney adds. The girls laugh.
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 175
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: Trump's Reuters Interview Is a Pile of (Telling) Lies and Trump to "Dramatically Scale Back Legal Immigration". And by Fannie: Donald Trump: Christian Culture Warrior.
REMINDER: KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS TO TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON TRUMPCARE.
Burgess Everett, Jennifer Haberkorn, and Sarah Karlin-Smith at Politico: Senate GOP's New Health Care Bill Expected to Include Controversial Cruz Amendment. "The Senate Republicans' draft Obamacare repeal bill due to be released on Thursday will tentatively include a controversial amendment from Ted Cruz, according to sources familiar with the matter. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will unveil the bill on Thursday morning at a closed-door, members-only meeting." Transparency! Seethe.
Sean Sullivan, John Wagner, and Kelsey Snell at the Washington Post: Trump: 'I Will Be Very Angry' If GOP Senators Don't Pass a Health Care Bill. "Trump put the onus squarely on Senate Republicans on Wednesday to pass a health-care bill, declaring that he will be 'very angry' if the chamber falls short on a long-standing promise of his party. ...'I am sitting in the Oval Office with a pen in hand, waiting for our senators to give it to me,' Trump said. 'It has to get passed. They have to do it. They have to get together and get it done.' The president's remarks also came amid concerns from conservative lawmakers and activists that McConnell's revamped measure would not undo the Affordable Care Act aggressively enough." Horrendous.
* * *
Wow:
NEWS:
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 13, 2017
Dems issue a formal request to GOP, asking for united front against Russian sabotage of 2018 elections:https://t.co/4v4nd0o6tu
The DCCC has sent formal letter to NRCC, asking for creation of joint plan of action against Russian undermining of 2018 elections: https://t.co/oJcDf30rVZ
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 13, 2017
This is genuinely great timing, given that conservatives are working hard to create a "both sides!" angle with their bullshit story about Hillary Clinton and Ukraine, and the press is doing their dirty work for them:
"It wasn't so much the Clinton campaign, per se." So what the fuck is this story then, CBS? Wildly irresponsible. https://t.co/AmVRHiM6Uv
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 13, 2017
Also: Note this other Politico story, which shows CBS is participating in deflection strategy conceived by Manafort! https://t.co/hNIZFuOcIS pic.twitter.com/upHmctzcTf
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 13, 2017
The CBS story couldn't be more helpful to Manafort, Trump, et. al., particularly in conflating collusion w/ research on said collusion.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 13, 2017
The Democrats should absolutely force the Republicans to announce what side they're fucking on. Are they on the United States' side, or not?
* * *
Noor Al-Sibai at Raw Story: Kremlin Spokesperson Asked in 2016 About Hacked DNC Emails Deferred the Question to Trump Jr.
On Wednesday, a journalist on Twitter unearthed a year-old article about the Democratic National Committee hacks that features a Kremlin spokesperson referring questions about the hacks to Donald Trump, Jr. — a referral that, in hindsight, appears very telling.Don't mess with Kendzior. She's got all the receipts. All of them.
"Fallout from the hack also reverberated at the Kremlin, where a spokesman declined to comment on the hack except to refer reporters to comments by Trump's son, Don Jr., calling the allegations part of a pattern of 'lie after lie,'" a Washington Post article from July 25, 2016 reads.
"'Mr. Trump Jr. has already strongly responded' to the Clinton campaign's claims, the Russian spokesman said, according to the news agency Tass," it continued.
"I tweeted this on July 26, 2016," journalist Sarah Kendzior wrote of the excerpt above. "Found it odd that Kremlin spokesman referred inquiries about hacks to Donald Trump Jr. Now we know why!"
Kendzior's unearthing came after a bombshell dinnertime article published in the Wall Street Journal that claims Russian officials were overheard discussing Trump's run prior to his official filing in 2015.
Trump says Putin actually liked Hillary Clinton better: "Why would he want me?" https://t.co/JpLzAOKYzu pic.twitter.com/xjCZjtqkiF
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 12, 2017
This is all patent horseshit, but shouldn't someone ask Trump how it is he knows Putin so well he feels confident acting as his spokesman? https://t.co/vMeXay1AH7
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 12, 2017
James Doubek at NPR: Justice Department Defies Court Deadline to Release Sessions' Contacts with Russians. "In defiance of a court order, the Justice Department is refusing to release part of a security form dealing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions' contacts with the Russian government. ...'Jeff Sessions is our nation's top law enforcement officer, and it is shocking one of his first acts after being named Attorney General was to mislead his own agency about a matter of national security,' [Austin Evers, the director of American Oversight, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request in March for sections of the Standard Form 86 relating to Sessions' contact 'with any official of the Russian government'] said in a statement. He continued: 'The court gave DOJ thirty days to produce Attorney General Sessions's security clearance form, DOJ has already confirmed its contents to the press and Sessions has testified about it to Congress, so there is no good reason to withhold this document from the public.'" Indeed.
"Why was a Russian money-laundering case involving more than $230 million dismissed without explanation?" https://t.co/kMWiRHUlME https://t.co/iBBJafreCg
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 12, 2017
Good question!
Josh Dawsey at Politico: Trump's Lawyers Try to Control Unruly White House. "Trump's legal team is attempting to separate the president from Donald Trump Jr. and the son's legal team on Russia matters, as well from Jared Kushner and his legal team, over concerns that the blurred lines could create unnecessary problems, according to these sources. They have tried to block Trump's warring band of aides from joining meetings with his lawyers, warning that they could become witnesses or be forced to hire lawyers if they attend." This White House's corruption has made it utterly dysfunctional. We are not being governed.
Wow. This is some cynical shit. No pix allowed during meeting w/Russians in Oval, but we got pix of this no problem. https://t.co/o76Zbgwvl9
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 12, 2017
Dahlia Lithwick at Slate: Orchestrated Chaos. "How is it possible that the blue-ribbon supposedly bipartisan commission that Kobach co-chairs with Vice President Mike Pence forgot to do basic homework and paperwork—not to mention forgetting to find servers to store data—before sending out letters to state officials asking for all that private information? It looks and sounds a lot like the rollout of the first travel ban, all thunderclaps and mayhem without a shred of decent lawyering. But this wasn't a Steve Bannon special; this was supposed to be a terrifying effort at mass vote suppression done by experts in mass vote suppression. The rollout speaks to a certain ethos in Trump's Washington: He doesn't bring in experts who seek to effectuate change within legal parameters. He brings in kooks and nihilists who don't care about how things get done—or even if they get done. The end game is just to break stuff." Yup.
Speaking of election tampering, Ari Berman's Twitter thread which begins here is a must-read.
And more on Trump's nativist immigration "reform"... Maria Sacchetti at the Washington Post: DHS's Kelly: Program Shielding 800,000 [Undocumented] Immigrants May Be in Jeopardy.
Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that an initiative that grants work permits to more than 800,000 undocumented immigrants may not survive a looming legal challenge.Fucking hell.
Kelly declined to take questions after the meeting, but his spokesman said the secretary told the members that the Obama-era program, which shields immigrants brought to the United States as children, is at risk.
...Members of the Hispanic caucus said they urged Kelly to support bipartisan legislation known as the Bridge Act that would effectively preserve the DACA program. But they expressed skepticism that the Republican-controlled Congress would pass any law to spare undocumented immigrants from deportation — or that the Trump administration would defend DACA in court.
"Jeff Sessions is going to say, 'Deport them,'" a visibly shaken Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) said in English and Spanish, noting that the attorney general had been a fierce opponent of illegal immigration as a senator from Alabama. "If you're going to count on Jeff Sessions to save DACA, then DACA is ended."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Donald Trump: Christian Culture Warrior
Hey everyone, there's sure a lot going on! Don't forget that 81% of white Evangelical Christian voters chose Trump in the 2016 election.
Now, to imagine Donald as a religious being is to conceive of an absurdity. Not because bad people can't be religious, in fact they often are, but rather because by many accounts he simply is not a contemplative person and doesn't read. Well, I guess there's one topic he reads about:
"Trump’s desk is piled high with magazines, nearly all of them with himself on their covers, and each morning, he reviews a pile of printouts of news articles about himself that his secretary delivers to his desk."Yet, during presidential campaign rallies, he began claiming that the Bible was his favorite book. In an interview, when pressed, he had the following to say in response to a question about his favorite verse:
"'I wouldn't want to get into it. Because to me, that's very personal,' Trump said in the Wednesday sit-down.I'll bet.
'The Bible means a lot to me, but I don't want to get into specifics,' he said.
When asked whether he prefers the Old Testament or the New Testament, Trump said, 'probably equal.'
'I think it's just … incredible, the whole Bible…' he said."
So, what do we make of Evangelical Christian support for this man? As CNN recently reported, white Evangelical support for Trump continues to hold steady, with eight in ten who attend church at least once per month approving of the job he's doing. Do they truly think he's read "the whole Bible," let alone thinks it's "incredible"?
In October 2016, Huffington Post ran an article about a popular Evangelical leader who was baffled by his cohorts' support of Trump. The reasons for the bafflement seem obvious enough. Isn't Christianity a supposed moral compass for those who adhere to the religion? To that point, before the election, Huffington Post was still running this note on articles about Trump:
Huh."Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S."
Perhaps Evangelical support for Trump is a bargain of sorts. They will support him to the extent he delivers for them. In 2016, many Evangelical Christians believed they had lost, or are badly losing, the culture wars, particularly with respect to feminism, gender issues, LGBT rights, religious "freedom," and abortion. Under the Obama Administration, historic strides were made with respect to same-sex marriage, federal hate crimes legislation, hospital visitation for LGBT patients, the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, non-discrimination guidance for trans students, equal pay for women, the appointment of liberal/progressive Supreme Court justices and more.
Yet, for each step of progress we made, conservative Christian and rightwing commentators, pastors, media outlets, and organizations were telling Evangelical Christians that these gains were losses for them, usually with the framing that they were "losing" their "religious freedom." We saw a baker refuse to bake a cake for a gay couple and, in turn, face a fine if he continued to discriminate. We saw a clerk in Kentucky, purportedly acting "under God's authority," refuse to do her job and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. We saw religious conservatives propose anti-trans "bathroom bills," under the specious reasoning that women would be imminently under attack.
And so white Evangelicals support Donald Trump, who has admitted on tape to grabbing women's genitals without consent. With both his sales pitch to rid the world of the scourge of political correctness and his selection of Mike Pence, a "born-again" Evangelical, as his running mate, he has promised to strike back against these losses and threats to Evangelical Christian's "religious freedom," (or what I like to call their special right to discriminate).
Hillary Clinton,too, very specifically fit into Republican and Evangelical Christian narratives.
As some on the left castigated Clinton in 2016 for supposedly not being feminist or progressive enough, the religious right has been branding her as too much of both since the early 1990s. In The Washington Post, Sarah Pulliam Bailey noted this historical context in October 2016, saying that despite the fact that Clinton is a churchgoing United Methodist:
"She symbolizes much that runs against their [Evangelical Christian] beliefs: abortion rights advocacy, feminism and, conversely, a rejection of biblical ideas of femininity and womanhood. Perhaps even more significantly, Hillary Clinton, as an outspoken and activist first lady, is inextricably tied in the minds of conservative Christians to their loss of the culture war battles beginning with Bill Clinton’s first term in 1993."Their anger toward her, continues Bailey, was at "a fever pitch" during the campaign, with 75% citing their dislike of her as a reason for their support for Trump.
While many (so so many) election 2016 post-mortems have focused on the purported "economic anxiety" of the white working class, less has been made of the culture war aggrievement of Evangelical Christians. But, maybe it's old hat to talk about. The left at times does get into an odd habit of rendering critique as though Democrats exist in a context-less void wherein Republicans and conservative Chrsitians, do not also exist in large numbers. Democrats are castigated for moving too slowly, not doing enough, and being too incremental as if conservative obstruction isn't a real thing in the real world.
Yet, the religious right remains a force in this country. They are largely responsible for putting Trump in office. And, going forward, it would be foolish to overlook the entitlement many Evangelical Christians have about the special place they believe their religion is owed with respect to law and policy in the US.
Mike Pence, for instance, recently attended the 40th anniversary event for Focus on the Family, giving a 30-minute speech reported to have been largely about abortion, re-assuring the audience that he and his "good friend" Trump have their backs. Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions, meanwhile, just gave a secret speech to the anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom.
Meaningful, and yes imperfect, progress was made during the Obama era with respect to many progressive causes. The progress was not enough, but it was work we could have now been building upon, under a different administration.
Instead, we are now in a position to defend, tooth and nail, everything we had previously won, and more. Some progress, like President Obama's guidance on trans students, has already been lost. Many of these issues, too, are the very "identity politics" that even some liberal and leftist men want us to stop talking about, at a time when our rights are most at risk.
I suggest not. Instead, as Melissa has repeated, we need to keep our eyes on Mike Pence. Donald Trump may not be a legitimate Christian, but under the guidance of Pence, Donald and Evangelical Christians seem to have made a bargain to use each other for their own mutually-beneficial ends.
Trump to "Dramatically Scale Back Legal Immigration"
Back in March, I noted that the Trump administration was signalling they would soon come after documented immigrants. The first step in that plan is, of course, to start restricting legal immigration to the United States. Three months later, here we are:
Donald Trump and his aides are quietly working with two conservative senators to dramatically scale back legal immigration — a move that would mark a fulfillment of one of the president's biggest campaign promises.As you may recall, it was a quote from Bannon that raised the hairs on the back of my neck in the first place: "Don't we have a problem with legal immigration? Twenty percent of this country is immigrants. Is that not the beating heart of this problem?"
Trump plans to get behind a bill being introduced later this summer by GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia that, if signed into law, would, by 2027, slash in half the number of legal immigrants entering the country each year, according to four people familiar with the conversations. Currently, about 1 million legal immigrants enter the country annually; that number would fall to 500,000 over the next decade.
The senators have been working closely with Stephen Miller, a senior White House official known for his hawkish stance on immigration. The issue is also a central priority for Steve Bannon, the president's chief strategist, who has several promises to limit immigration scribbled on the walls of his office.
Naturally, the reasons they are giving for what a senior White House official describes as "part of a broader reorganization of the immigration system" are mendacious garbage:
The official said the White House particularly wanted to target welfare programs and limit citizenship and migration to those who pay taxes and earn higher wages.That is already the case. Not only do documented immigrants (like my husband) have to demonstrate self-sufficiency; they also have to have a sponsor who will agree to support them if they cannot be self-sufficient and they have to sign a waiver stating they cannot collect welfare for a number of years.
"In order to be eligible for citizenship, you'll have to demonstrate you are self-sufficient and you don't receive welfare," the senior administration official said.
The Trump administration is simply betting on the fact that most people won't know how the immigration system currently works, and thus will be able to use solving a problem that doesn't exist as justification for a crackdown on legal immigration.
That they don't have a legitimate reason to defend this legislation should make us all very concerned indeed about what the real reason is.
