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!
Shaker Gourmet
Bernie Sanders, What Are You Even Doing Now?
Last night, Bernie Sanders apparently sent out an email, the complete text of which has been published by Jan Erickson, and screencapped by Analogbear in two parts, that included a very curious passage indeed, highlighted on Twitter by Analogbear, who underlined the key phrases:
Bernie Sanders just sent me an email; please take note of one of the groups of people he wants Democrats to "take on." This is UNACCEPTABLE. pic.twitter.com/zfQkrs2HR1
— Analogbear (@Analogbear) August 1, 2017
In order to pass a Medicare-for-all, single payer system we will be taking on the most powerful special interests in the country: Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the corporate media, the Republican Party and the establishment wing of the Democratic Party. In opposition to our efforts there will be a never-ending barrage of TV ads, editorials, political attacks and lies.Just so we're all clear on what we're seeing, Sanders says that part of his strategy to pass single-payer healthcare will be to take on "the most powerful special interests in the country," a list on which he includes, alongside Wall Street and the GOP, "the establishment wing of the Democratic Party."
That, of course, is not a defined thing. As far as I can tell, "the establishment wing of the Democratic Party" is comprised of anyone who: 1) Doesn't agree that Bernie Sanders is a flawless leftist who is above petty criticisms (like his lack of intersectional analysis or the fact that he doesn't seem to know a lot of important basic facts about the economy despite positioning himself as an economic leader); and 2) Is thus a worthless neoliberal shill who might as well be a Republican.
So, not unity then, eh? I mean, if I'm part of "the establishment wing of the Democratic Party," I've just been declared the enemy. I don't guess we're likely to find "unity" after that.
Not that we ever were.
Here Is Another Report That Trump Lied About Russia
It is constantly infuriating to me that so many people are already completely inured to news of Donald Trump's possible collusion with Russia and the subsequent cover-up — but I also understand it, because every day, every damn day, is a fresh new hell; a reminder that we are being governed by truly terrible people, who vigorously endeavor to destroy everything we value.
It is exhausting to maintain attention, no less outrage, but now is a moment to again muster our gumption, as much as we are able, because fuck no this is not okay.
Ashley Parker, Carol D. Leonnig, Philip Rucker, and Tom Hamburger at the Washington Post: Trump Dictated Son's Misleading Statement on Meeting with Russian Lawyer.
On the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany last month, [Donald] Trump's advisers discussed how to respond to a new revelation that Trump's oldest son had met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign — a disclosure the advisers knew carried political and potentially legal peril.That's a very polite way of saying they were a fucking lie. And here is a polite way of saying that the president is a corrupt nightmare at the circle of a collection of ethics-free reprobates: "The extent of the president's personal intervention in his son's response, the details of which have not previously been reported, adds to a series of actions that Trump has taken that some advisers fear could place him and some members of his inner circle in legal jeopardy."
The strategy, the advisers agreed, should be for Donald Trump Jr. to release a statement to get ahead of the story. They wanted to be truthful, so their account couldn't be repudiated later if the full details emerged.
But within hours, at the president's direction, the plan changed.
Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had "primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children" when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations. The statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was "not a campaign issue at the time."
The claims were later shown to be misleading.
If nothing else, this incident should put to bed any lingering notion that Trump is somehow "out of the loop" on any of this shit. He is not.
It's long past time that anyone should believe Trump "isn't aware" of anything. The micromanager knows everything. https://t.co/zEPilMPAZN
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 1, 2017
Trump tests the limits of the unearned good faith that the media is willing to extend to white men. At this point, if the political press continues to suggest, incredibly, that Trump hasn't been consciously leading the corruption and its subsequent (attempted) concealment, we have to believe that there simply are no limits to how much good faith they will afford him.
It beggars belief that anyone would continue to buy this line of bullshit, but surely they are, because Jared Kushner is still busy selling it.
Jenna McLaughlin at Foreign Policy: Kushner to Interns: Trump Team Too Disorganized to Collude with Russia.
Donald Trump's election team could not have colluded with Russia because they were barely talking to each other, according to Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and top White House advisor.What a convenient "leak" — another suggestion that Team Trump is just mired in chaos and incompetence, so they couldn't possibly have orchestrated a coup with the assistance of a foreign adversary, followed by the shockingly quick (so far) process of transforming the U.S. presidency into an authoritarian dictatorship. Haha of course not! They're just a bunch of bumbling nincompoops, and anyone who would suggest they're actually savvy agents of destruction is just a hysterical alarmist who should definitely be ignored.
"They thought we colluded, but we couldn't even collude with our local offices," Kushner told congressional interns during a private talk at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington on Monday afternoon.
What you're not supposed to notice is that, yes, they are indeed incredibly ineffective at running a traditional, democratic, functional executive branch — but that was never the objective.
Remember how I spent the entire campaign warning that Donald Trump was dangerous? That's why. It's because he was never running to be a president.
Of course he's incompetent, but competency is beside the point when the objective is ruination.
Trump doesn't know shit about a lot of shit, but he knows that.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker RachelB: "Do you remember getting over a fear, and if so, what helped?"
When I was in my teens, I had a major fear of being left out, which was also wrapped up in a fear of having nothing to do, mostly because I couldn't sit quietly and comfortably with myself.
What helped the most, to be honest, was probably just the self-assurance that tends to come with age, although also working on myself so that I was a person I enjoyed spending time with was very helpful, too.
I never would have imagined then how much I'd enjoy lots of alone time later in my life.
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by petunias.
Recommended Reading:
Lance Mannion: [Content Note: Authoritarianism; bullying] Modern Day Presidential
Sarah Kendzior: How Trump Fulfilled a 30-Year Fantasy of Becoming President, with a Little Help from the Kremlin
Jodi Savage: [CN: Misogynoir; violence] For Black Women, the Wage Gap Can Be a Matter of Life and Death
Jessica Mason Pieklo: [CN: War on agency] Court Blocks Four Arkansas Abortion Restrictions
Kath: [CN: Fat hatred; disablism] Fat Liberation Is for Fat People with Disabilities, Too
Andy Towle: [CN: Trans hatred] Ivanka Trump 'Blindsided' by Trump's Transgender Military Ban, Learned of It on Twitter
Sameer Rao: [CN: Anti-black violence; appropriation] How #NoConfederate Became a Trending Clarion Call
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Trump's "Joke" Is Missing Any Discernible Humor
[Content Note: Police brutality.]
On Friday, I highlighted a section of Donald Trump's speech to an audience of Suffolk County police officers in which he advised police to be "rough" with suspects:
And when you see these towns, and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon — you just see 'em thrown in, rough! — I said, "Please don't be too nice." Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you're protecting their head, you know? The way you put the hand over... [mimics an officer putting a hand over a suspect's head as they're loaded into a police car] Like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody? Don't hit their head! I said, "You could take the hand away, okay?"At today's White House press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about Trump's loathsome comments, and of course she said that he was joking.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump was joking when he told cops to rough up suspects. Police brutality is not a joke. https://t.co/6UsY10aF5m
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 31, 2017
Male Reporter (offscreen): What I wanted to ask was, when the president made his speech to police officers on Friday, almost within minutes, statements came from police chiefs across the country criticizing his remarks that seemed to endorse the use of force by police in certain arrests. Was the president joking when he said this, or did he check his remarks out with the International Association of Police Chiefs, or maybe the Attorney General?1. The framing of that question was garbage, since the only options were: Was he joking, or was he giving out good information? Not an option: Was the president sincerely endorsing breathtaking cruelty?
Sarah Huckabee Sanders: I believe he was making a joke at the time. [Next question.]
2. Again with the construction that it's either a "joke" or it's cruel, as though words can't be both.
This clearly was not a joke, but, even if it were, it would be a profoundly insensitive and disgusting joke to make, so. https://t.co/ILbsjZGDCQ
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017
Police brutality isn't a laughing matter. Not to decent people.
Trump set himself outside that demographic long ago, but his office demands silence if he can't muster decency.
Discussion Thread: Self-Care
What are you doing to do to take care of yourself today, or in the near future, as soon as you can?
If you are someone who has a hard time engaging in self-care, or figuring out easy, fast, and/or inexpensive ways to treat yourself, and you would like to solicit suggestions, please feel welcome. And, as always, no one should offer advice unless it is solicited.
* * *
One of the most important acts of self-care I've been doing lately is swimming as often as I can, which has been about 3 or 4 times a week. I was talking about this on Twitter a couple of weeks ago.
I love swimming, especially at the end of the day. Swimming laps is the only time my brain just completely shuts off and I feel peaceful.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 22, 2017
I completely lose track of time. It's only when my legs start to ache that I look up, and usually an hour has already passed.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 22, 2017
It feels like we're the only people in the world.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 22, 2017
I share that in case there's anyone who wishes they could do laps, but... Let me leave you with no discouraging illusions, lol!
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 22, 2017
I didn't always feel like I deserved to have the peace I find in swimming. I do. So do you, if you desire it.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 22, 2017
Y'Know the Old Saying: Scaramucci In; Scaramucci Out
The New York Times is reporting: "Trump Removes Anthony Scaramucci from Communications Director Role." Yeah, that seems about right.
Trump has decided to remove Anthony Scaramucci from his position as communications director, three people close to the decision said Monday, relieving him just days after Mr. Scaramucci unloaded a crude verbal tirade against other senior members of the president's senior staff.It's a day ending in Y, so the Donald J. Trump administration continues to be a ridiculous shitshow.
Mr. Scaramucci's abrupt removal came just 10 days after the wealthy New York financier was brought on to the West Wing staff, a move that convulsed an already chaotic White House and led to the departures of Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, and Reince Priebus, the president's first chief of staff.
The decision to remove Mr. Scaramucci, who had boasted about reporting directly to the president not the chief of staff, John F. Kelly, came at Mr. Kelly's request, the people said. Mr. Kelly made clear to members of the White House staff at a meeting Monday morning that he is in charge.
It was not clear whether Mr. Scaramucci will remain employed at the White House in another position or will leave altogether.
At least, that's definitely the popular takeaway.
But.
It was a pretty tidy 10 days though, eh? Spicer gone and Priebus gone. Maybe Scaramucci's work was truly already done here.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017
As I noted last Friday, when Reince Priebus was fired, getting rid of the last remaining senior staff with political experience is a major tipping point: Priebus, no matter your opinion of him, represented a last line. That line has been crossed. That line has been obliterated.
The administration is racing headlong into a dictatorship — now with a general as a chief of staff — and Scaramucci hastened that decline. Quite an accomplishment for 10 days.
Daily Dose of Cute
Happy #NationalMuttDay from Zelda! pic.twitter.com/G1ZG8Fx3SJ
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017
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 193
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: Any Politician Who Says Our Voting Machines Are Secure Is Lying and "Economic Anxiety".
I'll begin today's thread with a special FUCK YOU to the Democrats who are obliging us to divide our energies and resist their anti-choice indecency, too, like we don't already have enough to deal with: Dem Campaign Chief Vows No Litmus Test on Abortion.
Democrats will not withhold financial support for candidates who oppose abortion rights, the chairman of the party's campaign arm in the House said in an interview with The Hill.Did he really just say "we have to be a big family in order to win the House back" to justify compromising on abortion rights? Jesus fucking Jones.
Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said there will be no litmus tests for candidates as Democrats seek to find a winning roster to regain the House majority in 2018.
"There is not a litmus test for Democratic candidates," said Luján, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman. "As we look at candidates across the country, you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America."
...Luján, serving his second term as the DCCC's chairman, has cast a wide net for candidates. A map on his office wall highlights districts held by dozens of Republican that he hopes to oust in the 2018 midterm elections.
"To pick up 24 [seats] and get to 218, that is the job. We'll need a broad coalition to get that done," Luján said. "We are going to need all of that, we have to be a big family in order to win the House back."
Not sure what @TheDemocrats don't understand about the massive amounts of under- or unpaid labor women perform for the party on state level. https://t.co/IfOSEpga3G
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017
Not sure why they imagine that labor will continue if women's basic autonomy is treated like so much trash.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017
If you're not a party who is uncompromisingly supportive of abortion access, then you're not a party who is serious about healthcare.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017
(•_•)
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 18, 2015
<) )╯ABORTION
/ \
\(•_•)
( (> IS
/ \
(•_•)
<) )> HEALTHCARE
/ \
* * *
Robbie Gramer, Dan De Luce, and Colum Lynch at Foreign Policy: How the Trump Administration Broke the State Department. "Veterans of the U.S. diplomatic corps say the expanding front office is part of an unprecedented assault on the State Department: A hostile White House is slashing its budget, the rank and file are cut off from a detached leader, and morale has plunged to historic lows. They say [Donald] Trump and his administration dismiss, undermine, or don't bother to understand the work they perform and that the legacy of decades of American diplomacy is at risk. By failing to fill numerous senior positions across the State Department, promulgating often incoherent policies, and systematically shutting out career foreign service officers from decision-making, the Trump administration is undercutting U.S. diplomacy and jeopardizing America's leadership role in the world, according to more than three dozen current and former diplomats interviewed by FP." Fucking hell.
There is literally nothing this administration does that I don't compare (inevitably unfavorably) to what Hillary Clinton's presidency would have looked like, and all of it is painful, but I am left particularly grief-stricken by the damage being done to the State Department and U.S. diplomacy, given Clinton's experience, knowledge, and talents in this area.
Louis Nelson at Politico: Pence: We Will 'Hold Russia Accountable for Its Actions'. Okay, player! "Pence's remarks came before members of the U.S., French, British, and Estonian militaries and followed a meeting between the vice president and the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Pence offered optimism that the U.S.-Russia relationship might improve but said that any warming would come with a shift in Moscow's behavior. ...'Under [Donald] Trump, the United States will continue to hold Russia accountable for its actions — and we call on our European allies and friends to do the same,' Pence said Monday in Estonia."
Trump's totes gonna continue (???) to hold Russia accountable, y'all! Great news! And we know we can believe it because Mike Pence always tells the truth! *jumps into Christmas tree*
Hey, speaking of Mike Pence, why is the Washington Post not speaking about Mike Pence?
How do the @washingtonpost editors write "The man who may disenfranchise millions" and not talk about Pence's role? https://t.co/JpyKbSTVed
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017
"Mr. Kobach now leads a presidential commission on election integrity." No he doesn't. Mike Pence leads it. https://t.co/ihAezuzTMA
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017
Mike Pence's history of hostility to voting rights in Indiana is crucial info. He's also next in line for the presidency, so, you know.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Fredreka Schouten at USA Today: Secret Donations Are Helping to Boost Trump's Agenda, Fights with Investigators.
Groups spending millions in anonymous donations are leading the outside efforts to either defend [Donald] Trump or sell his agenda with voters and Congress, despite the president's repeated calls to "drain the swamp" in Washington of special-interest money.That all seems fine.
The political empire affiliated with billionaire Charles Koch has spent $2 million to date to advance Trump's tax-cut blueprint and will hold events this week in Washington to kick off the next phase of its multimillion-dollar campaign to drive congressional support for a comprehensive tax plan to slice corporate tax rates and enact broader tax cuts.
Americans for Prosperity, the Koch network's grass-roots arm, already has 50 events scheduled in August and September to help promote the tax plan.
The pro-Trump Great America Alliance is spending $450,000 on a TV and digital ad that casts special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible collusion between Russia and Trump's campaign as a "rigged game."
The group already has pumped more than $3 million in advertising to advance Trump's policies and has committed to spending $5 million more, said Eric Beach, a Republican strategist who helps run the group.
The Judicial Crisis Network, which spent $7 million to push Trump's top judicial nominee, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, is "prepared to spend whatever we need to spend to help [Donald] Trump fulfill his promise of restoring balance to our federal courts," policy director Carrie Severino said in a statement.
Trump has more than 100 judicial vacancies to fill.
Another pro-Trump group, America First Policies, has spent $5 million push his agenda and to help a Trump-supported congressional candidate in Georgia.
All operate as nonprofits, can accept unlimited funds from virtually any source but are not required to disclose their donors publicly.
Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: Trump's Latest Attempt to Gut Obamacare Could Backfire Spectacularly. "As soon as this week, according to Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, Trump intends to decide whether to cut off payments intended to stabilize insurance markets and make health care affordable for many Americans with modest incomes. Trump apparently believes that cutting off these payments will help 'implode' Obamacare. Yet, if Trump should stop the payments, that could have the unintended effect of expanding access to health insurance, even potentially making some health plans free for many families of modest means. The reason why involves a fairly complicated formula governing how most Obamacare exchange customers pay for their health plans, and Trump's apparent unfamiliarity with how that formula operates." It would be nice if one of his spectacular fuck-ups accidentally ended up helping people.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Don't Look Away
[Content Note: Fat hatred.]
Your Fat Friend has written a terrific piece about thin people who find comments sections on fat advocacy pieces too harrowing to read: "Your Fat Friend Wants You to Read the Comments."
I shared a few comments with you in the hope of finding a witness to the cacophony in response to my handful of tweets — someone who could confirm the absurdity and harshness of strangers' responses. I should've anticipated what you would say.There is much, much more at the link, and I strongly encourage you to read the whole thing.
Don't read the comments. I never do.
You, like so many other thin friends, were shaken, and found the comments too harrowing to continue reading.
I was surprised. These comments weren't anything I didn't hear regularly. These are words that strangers will readily say to me, face to face. Passersby shout epithets on the street. When turned down for a date, men snap "fat bitch" back at me with startling ease. Family members offer an unwelcome and unsolicited onslaught of diet advice and surgeon recommendations. Coworkers complain loudly about sitting next to passengers smaller than me. These comments are as ubiquitous as the air that I breathe. And like the air, they are invisible to you.
[...] I don't read the comments. I never do.
But, my darling friend, the comments are the one passage from your world to mine. The comments are what I breathe every day — the heavy smog that thickens in my lungs. The cloudy mess I exhale when I tell you what has happened. The thick skin that has brought me this far, and allowed me to take so much in stride.
I need you to peer into the world I walk through every day. I need you to read the comments.
It's a very good companion piece to one I wrote in October 2013: "I Wouldn't Even If I Could." That's about the advice that I should "just ignore" fat hatred, while Your Fat Friend's is about thin people confessing that they just ignore it (because they can).
Both of those dynamics are part and parcel of entrenching thin privilege by pretending that marginalization and abuse of fat people doesn't exist, even as such insistence is rooted in evidence of fat hatred's harm.
To posit that ignoring fat hatred is a viable option for fat people is absurd and cruel.
And any thin person who wants to do effective ally work in solidarity with fat people will never ask us to salve their discomfort at evidence of our abuse by ignoring it. Read the comments. Don't just ignore what our lived experiences really look like.
"Economic Anxiety"
[Content Note: White supremacy.]
At the Guardian, Jason Wilson writes about American Renaissance's annual conference in Tennessee. American Renaissance is a white supremacist outlet founded by Jared Taylor, who advocates for "an all-white 'ethnostate,' carved out of US territory."
The audience was not just crusty old dinosaurs, as the white supremacist movement is often described by people who believe no effort is required to challenge white supremacy but instead we just have to wait for its ancient adherents to die.
To the contrary, the movement — empowered by the election of Donald Trump — is full of eager, and angry, young men:
When Taylor spoke, his audience was generationally diverse. Some, well into middle age or beyond, had heard it all before. But when he asked who was attending for the first time, the great majority raised their hands.Suffice it to say, people who show up to a conference to listen to a man speak about an all-white "ethnostate" aren't just economically anxious. I don't know how many times and in how many ways that dreadful narrative needs to be debunked, but here I am, debunking it once again.
Many were millennials. Though all attendees wore conference dress code – jacket and tie – more than a few younger men sported the "fashy haircut," short back and sides with a severe parting, which has become a signature of the so-called alt-right.
Relatedly, although he's writing on the dirtbag left, I recommend this piece by Noah Berlatsky, "Maybe Taking the Arguments of Nazis At Face Value Is Bad," in which he observes: "The result [of unskeptically adopting the alt right's view of itself and of its enemies] is a left which centers Nazis, sneers at marginalized people, and generally abandons its moral bearings in order to chase an elusive and supposedly triumphant whiteness which it cannot distinguish from the working class."
The inability to distinguish whiteness from the working class is a problem across the political spectrum and persistent in political media.
And it's a very dangerous problem. We've seen precisely this mendacious conflation used to devastating effect before, and we must firmly resist replicating the obscene violence that so easily emerges from this messaging, over and over.
Any Politician Who Says Our Voting Machines Are Secure Is Lying
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link.]
Joe Uchill at the Hill: Hackers Breach Dozens of Voting Machines Brought to Conference.
One of the nation's largest cybersecurity conferences is inviting attendees to get hands-on experience hacking a slew of voting machines, demonstrating to researchers how easy the process can be.Well, that is terrifying.
"It took me only a few minutes to see how to hack it," said security consultant Thomas Richards, glancing at a Premier Election Solutions machine currently in use in Georgia.
The DEF CON cybersecurity conference is held annually in Las Vegas. This year, for the first time, the conference is hosting a "Voting Machine Village" where attendees can try to hack a number of systems and help catch vulnerabilities.
The conference acquired 30 machines for hackers to toy with. Every voting machine in the village was hacked.
At Alternet, Lulu Friesdat has video from the conference, in which hackers demonstrate how easily voting machines are hacked.
"It is very, very accessible," one man says about a machine he hacked. "You get can get right in. ...If you can get access to that card, you can make it say whatever you want."
Welp.
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.
Reince Priebus Is Out
Reince Priebus has been fired as White House Chief of Staff. General John Kelly, who was heading the Department of Homeland Security, will be Donald Trump's new Chief of Staff.
A general serving as White House Chief of Staff. Yikes.
Anyway. Here are some of my thoughts on this latest development.
Priebus is a party man for a truly despicable party and a colossal putz, but he was one of the last Trumpers left w/ political experience.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
We are now being governed by an executive branch that is staffed by people w/no experience, no understanding of the law & no respect for it.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
Plus Mike Pence. Who knows how the federal government works and will use that knowledge to destroy it.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
And let me perfectly blunt: We should be very worried indeed about a WH staffed w/ virtually no one w/ government experience.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
Because it's a blaring signal that the Trump WH doesn't even have the merest intention of governing effectively or decently.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
They don't NEED anyone with any competency or experience. All they need are sycophants to the authoritarian leader.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
You might think incompetence will result in failure, and it will, but only of traditional democratic governance. They'll succeed at fascism.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
They already are succeeding.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
Priebus, no matter your opinion of him, represented a last line. That line has been crossed. That line has been obliterated.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
Also: Priebus was, besides Pence, the last one with strong ties to the Republican Party. That could signal a significant break, too.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
Another reason to keep your eyes on Pence. Is he going to keep up his role as liaison to Congressional GOP, or go all in with Trump WH?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
The failure of the healthcare bill last night was an embarrassment for Pence. It could be that he is now willing to cut loose from caucus.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
How much we still see Pence whipping up votes on the Hill (or not) will be an indication of whether WH is going truly rogue.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by scarves.
Recommended Reading:
Flavia Dzodan: [Content Note: White supremacy] Sentimentality and the Building Blocks of Bigotry
Ayana Byrd: Study: There May Be Less Time to Fight Global Warming Than We Think
Brittney McNamara: Senator Mazie Hirono Celebrated for Health Care Vote While Having Stage 4 Cancer
Monica Roberts: How About Using Pics of Real Trans Service Members to Support Trans Troops?
Amy Littlefield: Thanks to Pence, Indiana Now Has One Less Abortion Clinic
Sikivu Hutchinson: The Misogynoir of Rock: Shredding While Black and Female
Rae Paoletta: These Deep-Sea Goths Live in Pure Darkness
Dan Van Winkle: IMAX Is Phasing Out 3D Movies Because People Just Don't Want Them
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Trump Delivers Fascist Speech in Suffolk County
This afternoon, Donald Trump traveled to Long Island to give a speech at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, before an audience of Suffolk County police officers.
It was a belligerently white supremacist and nakedly fascist speech, during which Trump claimed "that the 'Second Amendment would be gone' if it weren't for him" and promised (or, more accurately, threatened): "We're going to secure our border against illegal entry and we will build the wall, that I can tell you."
But perhaps the most alarming part of his remarks was this:
Trump on handling suspected criminals: "Don't be too nice" to "thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon" https://t.co/rZyICcW4Yr
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 28, 2017
[Trump stands at a podium in front of an audience of uniformed police officers] And when you see these towns, and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon — you just see 'em thrown in, rough! — I said, "Please don't be too nice." [laughter] Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you're protecting their head, you know? The way you put the hand over... [mimics an officer putting a hand over a suspect's head as they're loaded into a police car, as the audience laughs] Like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody? Don't hit their head! I said, "You could take the hand away, okay?" [cheers and applause; Trump turns to face the officers and lifts his arms to bask in their approbation]Rough, he says. That is a dog whistle.
It sounds like the President of the United States just advocated the sort of "rough ride" that killed Freddie Gray. Absolutely sickening. https://t.co/S7H5EwapZ8
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017
And it is a dog whistle heard by a police force whose former chief "is serving a federal prison sentence for beating a prisoner and orchestrating a cover-up."
A dog whistle in a community that is majority non-white:
Roughly 70% of the population of Brentwood, NY is Hispanic. Trump's speech was intended as a threat to non-white populace.
— eastsidekate (@eastsidekate) July 28, 2017
This is happening. The United States president is talking about building walls and empowering police violence, with a wall of police behind him in a Hispanic community. This is real. And we must resist it, and its attendant bigotry and dangerous othering, with everything we've got.
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