The Virtual Pub Is Open (+ Programming Note)
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
I've got a friend coming to visit, who will be here through the week after next, so I am (mostly) taking the next two weeks off.
To be frank, it's not only to visit with my dear friend, whom I am SO EXCITED to see, but also because I am burned out like whoa. I'm actually getting to the point where I have a physical reaction when I see a new piece of breaking news about Trump, like my body just literally can't take anymore, so it's definitely time for a serious pause.
Giving myself some extended time will re-energize me to continue the fight!
I will post fresh Open Threads every three days, so you'll still have a place to chat, share news, solicit advice, commiserate, exchange recipes, post cute animal photos, and all that good stuff.
I'll keep a reduced schedule on Twitter, which you can always follow in the sidebar, if you aren't on Twitter — and if I post anything critical, I'll try to remember to drop it into comments of the Open Thread.
Thanks to everyone who has sensed my fraying nerves and sent me encouraging words and supported my taking some time away. ♥
See you soon!
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by stars.
Recommended Reading:
Michele Leavitt: [Content Note: Discussion of abuse and bigotry] The Parallels Between Social Media and PTSD in the Age of Trump
Susie Madrak: Should We Care About the Difference Between Primaries Versus Caucuses? Yes.
Andy Towle: Trump Tweets Praise for John Kelly But Resents Being Handled; Calls Steve Bannon When Kelly Isn't Around.
Mustang Bobby: Cheap Trick
Sameer Rao: Solange Announces Benefit Show to Support Hurricane Harvey Relief
Alaa Basatneh: [CN: Discussion of displacement; sexual violence] "There's a Hero in Everyone" Says Dr. Alison Thompson, Head of Volunteer Disaster-Response Team
Andrew Liszewski: The New Game by the Rock Band Creators Made Me Feel Like a DJ God
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Hello
One of the things about living in a time and space where one of the most powerful men on the planet endeavors to hold as many people possible hostage to his cruel and capricious whims, whose erratic temperament but predictable malice create an abusive cycle that always ends with greater terror, is that it can make you feel small, weak, vulnerable.
It can make you feel like you might not be enough.
There are so many things to resist, and so few ways to resist meaningfully.
Remember that harm reduction is something valuable you can do, creating safe space for others — and that is no small thing in a time of relentless harm.
Remember that validation is something valuable we can provide to each other, supporting one another in remembering what has happened and refusing to minimize, obfuscate, or deny what is happening now — and that, too, is no small thing in a moment of ubiquitous gaslighting.
And when anything else is too much, remember that surviving itself is an act of resistance in an environment of institutional abuse, demoralization, and division.
I see you. You are enough. And you are not alone.
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.
Hurricane Harvey
Here again is a thread for info-sharing, updates, checking in, and sharing additional resources on how we can support those affected by the hurricane and flooding. As always, let's keep the thread image-free. Thanks.
A couple items:
[Content Note: Loss of life] Rory Carroll, Tom Dart, and David Smith at the Guardian: Receding Waters Reveal Harvey's Devastation as Death Toll Reaches 44.
Rescuers continued plucking people from floodwaters across Texas on Thursday even as waters receded from Houston, revealing swathes of devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey.On that note, my friend Leah McElrath put together some flood clean-up and recovery tips.
...Emergency crews and volunteers in boats, trucks, and aircraft scoured inundated suburbs around Houston and cities to the east for people still in need of evacuation.
Police rescued 18 people from floodwaters overnight, said Houston's mayor, Sylvester Turner. "Crisis ebbing but far from over."
In dryer areas recovery crews started to assess damage and remove debris. They braced for the discovery of bodies.
...The Texas department of public safety said 48,700 homes sustained flood damage, including 17,000 with major damage and 1,000 that were destroyed. ...32,000 people [were displaced] into shelters.
...The heat aggravated the stench from stagnant waters and flood-damaged properties. "Man, oh-ooh, that is foul," said a shirtless man on Discovery Green, a park beside a convention centre which is sheltering 8,000 people.
The city's health department urged residents to take precautions to minimise the risk of contamination and diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
Amy B Wang at the Washington Post: Flooding Trapped Workers at a Mexican Bakery for Two Days; They Spent It Baking for Harvey Victims.
As the storm pummeled Houston with record rainfall Saturday, most of El Bolillo's employees were able to leave work. [Brian Alvarado, the manager of the bakery] said he barely made it home before roads became impassable.Blub.
Four bakers, however, found themselves trapped inside the Wayside store, just south of Interstate 45 and north of Brays Bayou. Hemmed in by rising floodwaters, the bakers had no choice but to hunker down among El Bolillo's ovens and its now-empty display cases.
On social media, the bakery notified people that it would be closed until further notice.
What Alvarado didn't know was that the four bakers trapped inside the bakery would grow restless.
"They were desperate to get to their families and they couldn't," Alvarado said.
So they turned to what they knew best: baking.
...Alvarado said they didn't count how many loaves they baked but said the bakery's display cases can hold about 3,000 pieces of bread. There could have been about 1,000 more pieces of bread on the counters and cooling racks, he added. He estimated that the bakers used 4,400 pounds of flour.
"They just couldn't handle the stress and they needed to do something, so they just made bread," Alvarado said. "They were just thinking of everybody else, and they just started making bread for the community."
Joanna Walters at the Guardian: How to Help People Affected by Storm Harvey. Also good advice here for avoiding "charity" scams.
There is also list of ways to help here. Please feel welcome and encouraged to share additional ways to help in comments.
We Resist: Day 225
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: What Is David Clarke Doing? and Trump Has Also Empowered Police Violence and The Trump Propaganda Machine.
Andrew Osborn and Dmitry Solovyov at Reuters: Putin Warns North Korea Situation on Verge of 'Large-Scale Conflict'. "President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that the standoff between North Korea and the United States was close to spilling into a large-scale conflict and said it was a mistake to try to pressure Pyongyang into halting its nuclear missile program. Putin, due to attend a summit of the BRICS nations in China next week, said the only way to de-escalate tensions was via talks, and Sergei Lavrov, his foreign minister, said Washington not Pyongyang should take the initiative on that." So, not only is Putin warning about a war with North Korea, but he's publicly giving directives to his puppet Donald Trump to: 1. Ease off the pressure regarding nukes; and 2. Take the initiative on direct talks. Cool.
BREAKING Mueller has a copy of a letter Trump wanted to send outlining reasons for firing Comey. Lawyers stopped him https://t.co/m35E4ds46r
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) September 1, 2017
Interesting. Meanwhile...
Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: Mueller Enlists the IRS for His Trump-Russia Investigation.
Special counsel Bob Mueller has teamed up with the IRS. According to sources familiar with his investigation into alleged Russian election interference, his probe has enlisted the help of agents from the IRS' Criminal Investigations unit.I'm still not remotely convinced that this investigation will conclude with even minimal consequences for Donald Trump, but it would be great if it did and even better if he got caught out because of the tax returns he refused to release during the campaign — and probably figured he could breathe a sigh of relief about whatever's in them once he was elected.
This unit—known as CI—is one of the federal government's most tight-knit, specialized, and secretive investigative entities. Its 2,500 agents focus exclusively on financial crime, including tax evasion and money laundering. A former colleague of Mueller's said he always liked working with IRS' special agents, especially when he was a U.S. Attorney.
And it goes without saying that the IRS has access to Trump's tax returns—documents that the president has long resisted releasing to the public.
Potential financial crimes are a central part of Mueller's probe. One of his top deputies, Andy Weissmann, formerly helmed the Justice Department's Enron probe and has extensive experience working with investigative agents from the IRS.
"From the agents, I know everyone has the utmost respect for both Mueller and Weissmann," said Martin Sheil, a retired IRS Criminal Investigations agent.
And he said Mueller and Weissmann are known admirers of those agents' work.
"They view them with the highest regard," Sheil said. "IRS special agents are the very best in the business of conducting financial investigations. They will quickly tell you that it took an accountant to nab Al Capone, and it's true."
* * *
You may recall how I've repeatedly outlined my concerns about what is effectively dueling coups between the Trump administration and the national security bureaucrats, warning that the intelligence community is not necessarily on We the People's side, even if our interests are aligned against Trump.
To that point: Josh Meyer at Politico: FBI, Homeland Security Warn of More 'Antifa' Attacks. "Federal authorities have been warning state and local officials since early 2016 that leftist extremists known as 'antifa' had become increasingly confrontational and dangerous, so much so that the Department of Homeland Security formally classified their activities as 'domestic terrorist violence,' according to interviews and confidential law enforcement documents."
Perhaps the reason that antifa, whose name literally derives from "anti-fascist," has become increasingly confrontational is because of the rise of fascism in the country, care of Donald Trump.
There is legitimate debate to be had about antifa's tactics, as well as the replication of systems they claim to oppose within some of their own chapters, but these concerns don't change the fact that antifa is a group resisting domestic terrorist violence, not perpetrating it.
Specifically, the domestic terrorist violence of white supremacy and toxic masculinity that the FBI and Homeland Security generally stubbornly refuse to formally classify as domestic terrorist violence, and which Trump removed from the purview of a federal counterterrorism program earlier this year.
Again, I'll just caution against believing that the intelligence community is progressives' ally.
* * *
1. This is pathetic. 2. This is who Lindsey Graham is and always will be. https://t.co/nisXQfcJ1O
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 31, 2017
Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: Trump Cries 'Rigged System!' Amid Claims Comey 'Exonerated' Clinton Early.
Donald Trump was quick to pounce on Republican senators' claim that former FBI Director James Comey started to draft his statement about not pursuing criminal charges against Hillary Clinton before the FBI had completed its investigation into her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
...Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday asking for more information on Comey's decision-making process in clearing Clinton. In the letter, the senators cited redacted transcripts of interviews with FBI officials who said that Comey began drafting a statement 'exonerating' Clinton in May 2016, before the FBI interviewed Clinton and other key aides for its probe.
Wow, looks like James Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over...and so much more. A rigged system!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2017
This is the President of the United States calling the federal government "a rigged system." That is incredibly dangerous. And telling. https://t.co/mTpJcTx8rV
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 1, 2017
* * *
[Content Note: Nativism and white supremacy]
Tina Vasquez at Rewire: What Happens When DACA Goes Away? Immigrant Youth Share Their Stories. "In their own words, ten young adults share their experiences with being protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA): What it has meant and where it has fallen short. 'DACA may end, but our focus to protect our community will not,' 19-year-old Samuel Cervantes told Rewire."
Sam Levin at the Guardian: A Judge Ruled This Veteran Is a US Citizen; Now He Faces Deportation to Mexico. "George Ybarra, who was honorably discharged after serving in the Persian Gulf war and earning numerous badges and medals, is facing deportation due to a criminal history that his family says is tied to mental health struggles and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his service. While there have been growing concerns about the removal of veterans and the harsh policies of deporting people for minor crimes, Ybarra's case is particularly troubling to immigrant rights' advocates given a judge's acknowledgement that he is US citizen."
[CN: Islamophobia; "bro" troll politics] Atossa Araxia Abrahamian at BuzzFeed: This Teen Troll Fled to the US for Political Asylum; Now He's Stuck in a Detention Center. This is not a very likeable kid, but, irrespective of his politics, this is fucked up: "The Chicago immigration judge assigned to his case, Samuel Cole, agreed with their assessment and granted Yee asylum on March 24, calling Yee a 'young political dissident.' The next day, though, ICE informed Grossman and Keeler that Yee would not be released until the judge's order was finalized — a minimum of 30 days. 'Interestingly, they made the decision not to release him after the judge granted asylum without a pending appeal,' said Keeler. ...Then, the [U.S. government's] lawyers argued that letting Yee into the country would set a worrisome precedent." So the kid still sits in detention, almost nine months after he arrived seeking asylum.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
The Trump Propaganda Machine
Kansas SecState, who is running (w/Pence) Trump's "election fraud" commission, is now writing a column for Breitbart https://t.co/orkOGSvRV9
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 1, 2017
Remember when I said Bannon's departure from the WH wasn't a firing but a freeing? Yeah. This is what he can orchestrate "independently."
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 1, 2017
Kobach, who is running for governor of Kansas, started writing for Breitbart before Bannon even left. Now that Bannon doesn't even need even the merest pretense of not actively coordinating with Breitbart, expect to see more of this.
Every Republican candidate across the country who's running on a platform of white supremacist nativism (or, as they like to call it, "immigration reform") will have a byline at Breitbart in no time.
Trump Has Also Empowered Police Violence
[Content Note: Police abuses; violence.]
I often say that Donald Trump didn't invent white supremacy, but he has done his damnedest to empower white supremacists.
The same sentiment is operable regarding what the "law and order candidate" has wrought: Trump did not invent police abuses of their badge, but he is doing everything in his unrivaled power to condone, defend, and abet those abuses.
It started during his campaign and was present throughout, from saying police should jail protesters to suggesting the necessity of martial law in Chicago, which has continued into his presidency.
His presidency has been peppered with the empowerment of police abuses, including having the Justice Department "review" police reform agreements; delivering a fascist speech in front of a crowd of uniformed police officers during which he "joked" that police should hurt suspects in their custody; pardoning "constitutional sheriff" Joe Apraio; considering hiring "constitutional sheriff" David Clarke; and authorizing increased militarization of the nation's police forces, despite the fact that police in battle gear "can actually lead to an escalation in violence."
It's not just that Trump has failed to prioritize the much-needed police reforms begun under the Obama administration which Hillary Clinton promised to continue. It's that Trump has deliberately unwound what progress had been made and actively seeks to empower militarized, abusive police forces.
So when we see things like a nurse being roughly detained in a Utah hospital for refusing to break the law on the order of a police officer, we must put it in the context of a presidency which has signaled tolerance of abuses precisely like it.
The background: Detective Jeff Payne wanted nurse Alex Wubbels to draw blood from an unconscious patient in her care who had been injured in a car accident that killed another driver. But, because the patient is unconscious and Payne does not have a warrant, she cannot legally draw blood. Payne doesn't care, threatening to jail Wubbels for interfering with a criminal case if she refuses to get him the sample, and telling her: "I either go away with blood in vials or body in tow."
Video Description: Alex Wubbels, a young, white, female nurse at University Hospital in Salt Lake City, stands in an administrative area of a hospital. She is holding a cell phone and a piece of paper. A white male doctor (I think) stands near her, holding a phone. On the other end of her phone, on speaker, is a man who seems to be a hospital administrator or attorney. At least two male police officers are off-camera.
"Brad," she says into her cell phone, "I'm just putting you on speaker so you can—" Gestures to paper and begins speaking to police officer. "So, I have this— It says: 'Obtaining blood samples for police enforcement from patients suspected of being under the influence.' Okay? This is something that you guys agreed to with this hospital. The three things that allow us to do that are if you have an electronic warrant, if the patient consents, or patient under arrest, and neither of those things— The patient can't consent; he's told me repeatedly he doesn't have a warrant; and the patient is not under arrest."
She pauses, waiting. When no response comes, she continues, "So, I'm just trying to do what I'm supposed to do. That's all, so..."
A male police officer off-camera says, "Okay. So I take it without those in place, I'm not going to get blood? Is that—am I fair to surmise that?"
Through her phone comes a male voice, reassuring her she's doing the right thing. She says she doesn't know why the police officer is blaming her. The voice on the phone asks the officer, "Why are you blaming the messenger, sir?"
"She's the one that has told me no," the officer replies.
"Yeah, but sir, you're making a huge mistake right now," says the voice from the phone. "Like, you're making a huge mistake, because you're threatening a nurse—"
"Okay. No, we're done. We're done. You're under arrest," says the officer, and he grabs for Alex. Everything gets very chaotic onscreen as Alex backs away to try to avoid being manhandled by the officer, who continues to grab at her. There is lots of loud crosstalk.
"This is not okay!" Alex yells. She screams for help and screams at them to stop. The officers chase her out a door and grab her and handcuff her. It is incredibly difficult to watch.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports:
A University of Utah police officer and Department of Public Safety officers, who provide security for the hospital, were present at time of the arrest and did not intervene.None of this is okay. Not the police officer demanding that a nurse break the law; not threatening to arrest her; not detaining her in a most traumatic fashion; not trying to abuse the constitutional rights of the patient; not saying that he will take patients to another hospital (as opposed to the closest one); not talking about "transients" and "good patients" as mutually exclusive groups; none of it.
As he stands in the hospital parking lot after the arrest, Payne says to another officer that he wonders how this event will affect an off-duty job transporting patients for an ambulance company.
"I'll bring them all the transients and take good patients elsewhere," Payne says.
...Wubbels said she has heard anecdotally of other health care workers being bullied and harassed by police, and that these videos prove that there is a problem.
...Wubbels, who was not charged, said she has watched the footage four or five times and said, "It hurts to relive it."
This is a police officer who is totally out of control. And he is certainly not alone.
We have a citizenry who is increasingly fearful of the police, and a president who wants it that way. Nothing good comes from that.
What Is David Clarke Doing?
[Content Note: Police brutality; video may autoplay at link.]
Last night, news broke that David Clarke resigned from his position as Milwaukee County sheriff, saying he wants "to pursue other opportunities."
Clarke, who has long been a Trump booster, is a nightmare. If you're not familiar with his record, his Wikipedia entry reads like a Greatest Hits of conservative talking points, vile policy positions, and deadly abuses of power conferred by the office from which he just resigned.
He is one of the extreme rightwing sheriffs, including the recently pardoned Joe Arpaio, who call themselves "constitutional sheriffs." The SPLC explains that is "not the benign label it appears, but rather signifies his membership in former sheriff Richard Mack's Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, the antigovernment organization that promotes the Posse Comitatus-derived belief, among others, that the county sheriff is the supreme law enforcement entity in the United States."
Upon news of his resignation, I tweeted: "Let's hope he's not resigning for a Cabinet appointment." And noted that the Secretary of Homeland Security position is still vacant, after John Kelly left to become Donald Trump's chief of staff. Shiver.
This morning, I see this headline at Politico: "Outgoing Sheriff Clarke Expected to Take Job in Trump Administration." Welp.
It's unclear what job Clarke will take in the administration, but one of the sources said he's expected to join the White House. Clarke likely won't be offered a Senate-confirmed role because his nomination would face opposition from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.Which would rule out leading the Department of Homeland Security, at least. But his being offered a position that doesn't require Senate confirmation is even more chilling, because that was a line of last defense to stop him having a position of national authority at all.
At least now we know why Trump was hawking Clarke's book on Twitter just days ago, even though the book came out in March.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker airbornemihir: "How does being among friends make you feel?"
Wow. What a big and wonderful question that is.
Among the best of my friends, I feel known and accepted, which is an incomparable gift. I hope I make them feel the same in return.
Deadly Flooding in South Asia
[Content Note: Extreme weather; flooding; death]
While many of us in the United States have been preoccupied with the flooding in Texas and Louisiana, monsoon rains across South Asia have done an extraordinary amount of damage, displacing millions of people from their homes and taking nearly 2,000 lives.
More than 1,200 people are believed to have died across India, Bangladesh, and Nepal as a result of the flooding, which reached Pakistan today, killing at least 14 people in the port city of Karachi.
The flooding is so severe that they have caused buildings to collapse. In Mumbai, a four-story residential building "gave way on Thursday morning in the densely populated area of Bhendi Bazaar, after roads were turned into rivers in India's financial capital. ...Thousands more buildings that are more than 100 years old are at risk of collapse due in part to foundations being weakened by flood waters."
One third of Bangladesh was believed to be underwater and the UN described the situation in Nepal, where 150 people have died, as the worst flooding in a decade.People who have made a run for it are saying they've weathered these monsoon rains every year of their lives, but this is unlike anything they're used to navigating. Climate change has intensified monsoon season.
The floods have also destroyed or damaged 18,000 schools in the south Asia region, meaning that about 1.8 million children cannot go to classes, Save the Children said on Thursday.
The charity said hundreds of thousands of children could fall permanently out of the school system if education was not prioritised in relief efforts.
...Floods have caused devastation in many parts of India. Unprecedented rainfall in Assam in the north-east has killed more than 150 people. About 600 villages are still underwater even though the torrential rain began earlier this month.
...[In Mumbai], children swam or paddled down the streets lying on planks of wood. ...Others living in the low-lying areas most affected by the flooding were swept away into the sea or died when walls collapsed.
It's just devastating, in every way.
If you would like to help, Will Worley has some ideas at the Independent. Please share additional ways to help in comments, and, as always, let's keep this thread image-free. Thanks.
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!
* * *
My cousin-in-law made stained glass potatoes, of which I'd never heard, and shared a post about them on social media, and now I am obsessed with them and cannot wait to try to make them!
If you, like me, have never heard of stained glass potatoes, they are thinly sliced potatoes cooked with an herb pressed between two slices.
I love love love parsley with potatoes, so I am keen to try it with fresh parsley. There are two ways of cooking them. I'm not a skilled fryer, so I'd probably go for the baked method, but I've included both below, so you can choose according to your preference, should you also want to give them a try!
Ingredients:
* 2 TBL unsalted butter, melted (alternative: olive oil)
* 3 large potatoes, cut lengthwise into 1/16 inch slices using a mandolin or handheld slicer
* 1/2 cup flat parsley leaves, washed and dried (or basil leaves, or fresh rosemary, or...)
* Salt
Preparation:
Lightly butter half of the potato slices on one side using a pastry brush (or a mister if you use oil) and place them buttered side down on parchment paper. Top each slice with chosen herbs in the center. Sandwich with another potato slice, lightly buttering the outside. Press gently to bind and smooth out any air pockets. Sprinkle tops with salt to taste.
Baking Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place parchment with potatoes on sheet pans. Bake for about 15 minutes, flipping them over every 5 minutes to avoid burning.
Frying Instructions:
Melt a bit of extra butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add slices to pan. (Flipping may not be necessary, but if you want to flip, it's probably better to use tongs to gently cinch them together as you turn them over.) Saute until golden brown.
Trump May End DACA Tomorrow
[Content Note: Nativism.]
Noor Al-Sibai at Raw Story: Trump to End Obama-Era Dreamers Program as Early as Tomorrow. "Donald Trump could announce his plans to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program 'as early as tomorrow,' Fox News reports. As The Hill notes, DACA granted work permits and deferred deportation for nearly 800,000 undocumented people who arrived in the United States as children."
DACA is an effective and compassionate program. There is literally no sensible or decent reason to end it. The only purpose of ending it is to pander to white supremacist nativists.
This is truly malice just for its own sake.
Even crueller given that Trump said in January that DREAMers "shouldn't be very worried" about being deported, because "I do have a big heart."
I loathe him.
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 224
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 "Tax Reform" Speech Is Another Dumpster Fire.
Julia Manchester at the Hill: Top Russian Official Tells Tillerson New North Korea Sanctions Would Be 'Dangerous'. "Russia's top diplomat warned Secretary of State Rex Tillerson against new sanctions on North Korea, saying additional penalties against Pyongyang would be 'dangerous.' Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the warning during a phone call with his U.S. counterpart on Wednesday evening, according to The Associated Press, which cited a readout of the call from Russia's foreign ministry." Sure. This is normal. Everything is fine. There's nothing weird at all about having a president who's a wholly owned subsidiary of the fucking Kremlin.
Speaking of which...
Chad Day and Eric Tucker at the AP: Source: Grand jury Hears from Lobbyist in Trump Tower Chat. "A grand jury used by Special Counsel Robert Mueller has heard secret testimony from a Russian-American lobbyist who attended a June 2016 meeting with [Donald] Trump's eldest son, The Associated Press has learned. A person familiar with the matter confirmed to the AP that Rinat Akhmetshin had appeared before Mueller's grand jury in recent weeks. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret proceedings. The revelation is the clearest indication yet that Mueller and his team of investigators view the meeting, which came weeks after Trump had secured the Republican presidential nomination, as a relevant inquiry point in their broader probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election."
Josh Dawsey at Politico: Mueller Teams Pp with New York Attorney General in Manafort Probe. "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on its investigation into Paul Manafort and his financial transactions, according to several people familiar with the matter. The cooperation is the latest indication that the federal probe into [Donald] Trump's former campaign chairman is intensifying. It also could potentially provide Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump's campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes." Emphasis mine. Important bit of info there.
David Kocieniewski and Caleb Melby at Bloomberg: [Content Note: Moving GIF at link] Kushners' China Deal Flop Was Part of Much Bigger Hunt for Cash. "Federal investigators are examining Kushner's finances and business dealings, along with those of other Trump associates, as they probe possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. Kushner has already testified twice before closed congressional committees and denies mixing family business with his official role. This article, which describes new details of the company's troubled finances and its overseas fundraising efforts, is based on a review of thousands of pages of financial documents and interviews with more than two dozen executives, business partners, real estate agents, deal participants, and analysts. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deals. Some feared legal reprisals or other retaliation from one of the country's most powerful families."
* * *
Because we now live inside a cuckoo clock, Snopes had to debunk the ubiquitous claim that President Barack Obama was president during Hurricane Katrina. FAKE HISTORY!
Aaron Rupar at ThinkProgress: White House Acknowledges Trump Lied about 'Witnessing Firsthand' the Devastation of Harvey. "On Thursday morning, [Donald] Trump tweeted that '[a]fter witnessing first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, my heart goes out even more so to the great people of Texas!' [But] Trump didn't visit any of the hardest-hit areas, and he didn't he meet with any Harvey victims." He reflexively lies about everything. Things that don't matter and things that do.
Yeganeh Torbati at Reuters: Russia Must Close Consulate, Annex Buildings in U.S., State Department Says. "The United States is requiring Russia to close [by September 2] its consulate in San Francisco and two annex buildings in Washington, D.C. and New York City, the State Department said on Thursday, in response to the Kremlin's decision to shrink the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia. Last month Moscow ordered the United States to cut its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia by more than half, to 455 people, after Congress overwhelmingly approved new sanctions against Russia." Although this order is ostensibly just about Russia's retaliation for sanctions, the timing of the announcement serves as pushback for lecturing Tillerson on North Korea sanctions (mentioned above).
1. This is what class warfare looks like. 2. This is only shocking b/c policing has been divorced from its roots. https://t.co/vlxJRbKEWq
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 31, 2017
Police forces often began as formalized local militias. Now militarized police forces are replacing regular police to defend extreme wealth.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 31, 2017
Charlie Piece at Esquire: Put Them in Prison: The Ugly Wells Fargo Saga Takes an Uglier Turn. "I'm no lawyer, although I occasionally act as legal counsel in the shebeen here, but it seems to me that what we're dealing with here are 3.5 million individual acts of fraud by Wells Fargo. They opened fake accounts with the real names of their customers, and then charged those customers for the privilege of being defrauded. This seems neither difficult nor complicated. It seems to me that you'd have to transport the RICO indictment on this criminal enterprise by barge. Instead, Wells Fargo paid a $185 million fine to the regulators, and it settled a class-action suit brought by its universe of marks to the tune of $142 million."
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Breanna Edwards at the Root: [CN: Police misconduct; eliminationist rhetoric; racism] Georgia Cop Caught on Camera Reassuring Terrified White Female Driver Pulled Over During DUI Traffic Stop: 'Remember, We Only Kill Black People'. "Y'all, these cops ain't even trying to pretend anymore. Released dash-cam footage provided to a local Georgia news station shows an officer's interaction with a white female driver who claimed she was afraid to move her hands during a traffic stop, due to all the recent videos of cops shooting and/or attacking folks. That's when the Cobb County, Ga. police officer could be heard reassuring the woman that she won't get hurt, because she's not black. 'But you're not black. Remember, we only kill black people. We only kill black people, right?' the officer, identified as Lt. Greg Abbott by WSBTV could be heard saying."
The defenses for this are, of course, amazing. He was just joking; he was being sarcastic; and, per his attorney: "He was attempting to de-escalate a situation involving an uncooperative passenger. In context, his comments were clearly aimed at attempting to gain compliance by using the passenger's own statements and reasoning to avoid making an arrest."
It's the passenger's fault! Never mind that the passenger never said anything about police killing Black people. She referred to the police killing people at traffic stops. It was the officer himself who injected the "context" of police murders of Black people. So it's pretty rich to try to justify this vile garbage by attributing it to a noncompliant subject's "own statements and reasoning." JFC.
Btw, if you watch the video at the link, Police Chief Mike Register tells the press ways in which the department has responded: "He says the brass has responded by instituting a faith forum, precinct discussion groups, training changes, and more."
A faith forum?! Well, gosh. I can see the department is taking this very seriously.
Seethe.
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Mnuchin: Won't commit to keeping Harriet Tubman in the $20.
— Ylan Q. Mui (@ylanmui) August 31, 2017
I knew this was coming (presumably, we all did), but I'm still having LOTS OF FEELINGS ABOUT IT all the same. https://t.co/iEA0kYJTKU
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 31, 2017
Trump should commit to it just so he can claim not to be a racist. It would be a damnable lie, but at least we'd get our Tubmans.
In good news...
Tom Dart at the Guardian: Federal Judge Blocks Texas Ban on Sanctuary Cities in Blow for Trump. "A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction that blocks key parts of Texas’s ban on so-called sanctuary cities two days before the law was scheduled to go into effect. The decision from judge Orlando Garcia on Wednesday is a victory for immigration rights advocates and a potential blow for other Republican-led states that may be keen to follow Texas – as well as for the Trump administration, which has vowed to crack down on sanctuary cities." YES.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Remembering Princess Diana
Remembering the People's Princess today on her death anniversary. Here posing with the People's President. #PrincessDiana pic.twitter.com/UVW3HImjp4
— Bros4America (@Bros4America) August 31, 2017
The People's Princess with the People's President. I love that.
I love it because Princess Diana, who died 20 years ago today, was a profoundly misunderstood women in many ways during her life — particularly because of a media, which dogged her literally to her death, determined to misrepresent who she was.
It seems to me that's true of many of the women I admire.
I admired Princess Diana for a lot of reasons, chief among them her perseverance. There has always been something powerful to me about tenacious women who persist under unfathomable scrutiny. Living a relatable, if not precisely universal, experience of womanhood on an impossibly visible scale.
Having not been a little girl who dreamed of my wedding day, nor a little girl who picked a princess costume for dress-up, I never shared the (quite understandable) moments of enamorment with Diana's and Charles' extraordinary wedding, nor the opulent trappings of her extraordinary life. I liked to watch her interact with people, with children especially, and I loved to listen to her speak.
I remember seeing an interview with her, when I was still quite young, and hearing her voice for the first time. She was quiet; shy. This was revolutionary, to a child whose face would flush bright red if she were obliged to speak out loud in class.
That I could be shy and strong had maybe never occurred to me before. Not without such certainty, at least.
Diana was the People's Princess because of her charitable work, because of her fearlessness, because of her (literal) touch, and most of all because — despite her own shyness and the immense, relentless scrutiny of becoming a royal, and then infamously un-becoming one; despite her personal struggles and the enormous pressures and the softpedaling of her successes and magnification of her mistakes — she managed to balance a determined strength with a vulnerability that made her accessible; that made her human.
I remember Princess Diana with fondness. My condolences on this sad anniversary to all who knew and loved her, especially her sons.
