Shakesville

Here Is Something Nice

It has been one year since the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. — and, marking that anniversary, DCist's Rachel Sadon interviewed the NMAAHC's Director Lonnie Bunch, who spent more than a decade working to open the museum.

Since Ruth Odom Bonner joined President Barack Obama in ringing the bell to open the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture last year, more than 2.5 million people have visited the site.

"What's been so moving is that it's clear after a year, the museum has already become a pilgrimage site," says Director Lonnie Bunch, who began the "great adventure" of opening the museum in 2005. What followed was more than a decade of building a collection and a building from scratch.

It culminated on September 24, 2016 when the daughter of a slave and the nation's first black president tolled the 500-pound bell that had been lent by the historically black First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Va. and ushered people in.

Visitors to the African American History and Culture Museum tend to stay more than triple the typical amount of time they spend at most museums. Even a year later, a pass system remains in place to prevent overcrowding, and the free tickets remain difficult to come by (they are released monthly, and a limited number of same-day tickets are available online starting at 6:30 a.m.). The cafe serves up over 1,500 meals a day.

Bunch attributes the success in part to a pent up demand—generations worked to get the museum built, and the long-held dream was only fulfilled after more than a century of effort. But he also believes that the way the museum presents its subject matter has a lot to do with it.

"It tells the unvarnished truth," Bunch says. "I think there are people who were stunned that a federal institution could tell the story with complexity, with truth, with tragedy, and sometimes resilience. So I think the kind of honesty of it appeals to people."

Head on over to read the interview. It's terrific.

What a debt this nation owes to Bunch and all the people who worked with him to make this museum happen. And not a moment too soon.

Daily Dose of Cute

image of Zelda the Black and Tan Mutt sitting in the grass, grinning

Zelly Bean. ♥
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

Trump Is a Disgrace. As Usual.

Donald Trump, at a press conference just earlier this afternoon:

Pres. Trump says Puerto Rico response is especially difficult. "It's out in the ocean. You can't just drive your trucks there." pic.twitter.com/xYn81qSGnq
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 26, 2017

So, uh, I will also say that, again, I read you part of his quote, but, the governor of Puerto Rico is so thankful for the great job that we're doing. We did a great job in Texas, a great job in Florida, a great job in Louisiana — we hit little pieces of Georgia and Alabama. And, uh, frankly, we're doing—

And it's the most difficult job, because it's on the island; it's on an island in the middle of the ocean. It's out in the ocean. You can't just drive your trucks there from other states.

And, uh, the governor said we are doing a great job. In fact, he thanked me specifically for FEMA and all of the first responders in Puerto Rico.

Self-aggrandizing stain on humankind. Fucking hell.

* * *

If you are looking for ways to help:

"These organizations are helping with immediate needs—like food—and long-term efforts, including rebuilding." https://t.co/1rE4520DCF
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 22, 2017

As always, in addition to discussing what a loathsome wreck Donald Trump is, please feel welcome and encouraged to use this thread to share other ways to support the residents of Puerto Rico.

We Resist: Day 250

a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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: Lock Them Up, or Whatever and Trump Is a Vile Disgrace As a Humanitarian Crisis Emerges in Puerto Rico and Homeland Security Will Start Surveilling All Immigrants.

[Content Note: Nativism] Josh Gerstein, Jeremy C.F. Lin, and Lily Mihalik at Politico: These Countries Are on Trump's New Travel Ban List. "On Sunday, [Donald] Trump announced the latest revision to his administration's travel ban. The expanded plan places an indefinite ban on new visas for people from eight countries, rather than the previous 90-day restrictions. Officials say the new policy, effective Oct. 18, comes after a review of nearly 200 countries and their ability to comply with U.S. requests for data on potential travelers."

October 18 is the same day the new DHS guideline on surveilling immigrants goes into effect.

Newly added countries: North Korea, Chad, and Venezuela. Iraq and Sudan are off the list, and Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen remain.

Trump is doing the bare minimum, it appears, to undermine the courts' rationale for overruling the "travel ban," by giving his administration just enough space to argue it's not all Muslim countries anymore.

At the Guardian, Oliver Laughland has a good explainer on the newest iteration of the "travel ban."

Kevin Sieff at the Washington Post: Why Did the U.S. Travel Ban Add Counterterrorism Partner Chad? No One Seems Quite Sure.

For years, the United States and its European allies have praised the central African nation of Chad as a helpful partner in the fight against terrorism.

But on Sunday — shocking both Chadians and regional analysts — the Trump administration announced that Chad's citizens would be included in the newest American travel ban. In a statement, the U.S. government cited the presence of terrorist groups in the country and said Chad "does not adequately share public safety and terrorism related information."

Indeed, Chad does face a number of terrorist threats, most notably from Boko Haram along its western border with Nigeria. But many other countries in the region are not included in the U.S. travel restrictions, including Nigeria, Mali, and Niger are considered far more vulnerable to terrorism.

"The reaction has been astonishment and then indignation," said Nour Ibedou, director of the Chadian Human Rights Association. "We do not understand how our country achieved this lack of trust from the United States."

This administration is a fucking shitshow!

* * *

Catherine Rampell at the Washington Post: 'Reasonable' Republicans Are Betraying Us, Too.

Trump's unseriousness has become so grotesque, so all-consuming, that it has distracted us from dozens of other dilettantes and demagogues in Washington — far too many of them other members of Trump's own political party.

Trump may be a toddler, we keep telling ourselves, but at least some (comparative) grown-ups on Capitol Hill are thinking things through. Maybe we don't agree with them all the time; maybe they have a different vision for the role of government than many of us do. Still, at least a few thoughtful, moderate, principled, solutions-oriented people in the legislature are working to offset the White House's abdication of policy leadership.

The flaming turd that is Cassidy-Graham should disabuse us all of that notion.

What's been threatening the health-care coverage of tens of millions of Americans isn't Trump. It's the entire Republican Party.

Correct.

* * *

BBC News: North Korea Accuses US of Declaring War. "North Korea's foreign minister has accused [Donald] Trump of declaring war on his country and said Pyongyang had the right to shoot down US bombers. Ri Yong-ho said this could apply even if the warplanes were not in North Korea's airspace. The White House dismissed the statement as 'absurd.' The Pentagon warned Pyongyang to stop provocations. A UN spokesman said fiery talk could lead to fatal misunderstandings."

Anna Fifield at the Washington Post: North Korea Seeks Help from Republican Analysts: 'What's up with Trump?' "North Korean government officials have been quietly trying to arrange talks with Republican-linked analysts in Washington, in an apparent attempt to make sense of [Donald] Trump and his confusing messages to Kim Jong Un's regime. The outreach began before the current eruption of threats between the two leaders, but will likely become only more urgent as Trump and Kim have descended into name-calling that, many analysts worry, sharply increases the chances of potentially catastrophic misunderstandings. 'Their No. 1 concern is Trump. They can't figure him out,' said one person with direct knowledge of North Korea's approach to Asia experts with Republican connections."

* * *

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Pam Wright at the Weather Channel: Iceberg Four Times the Size of Manhattan Just Broke From an Antarctic Glacier, Fueling Concerns of Runaway Ice Retreat. "A massive chunk of ice has broken off from a key Antarctic glacier, creating an iceberg four and a half times the size of Manhattan. The iceberg that broke from the Pine Island Glacier in western Antarctica on Saturday measures some 100 square miles. It is the second time in two years the glacier has lost such a large piece and scientists are concerned that the latest break signifies a considerable change in the behavior of the glacier."

Matthew Daly at the AP: Zinke: One-Third of Interior Employees Not Loyal to Trump. "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Monday that nearly one-third of employees at his department are not loyal to him and [Donald] Trump, adding that he is working to change the department's regulatory culture to be more business friendly. Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, said he knew when he took over the 70,000-employee department in March that, 'I got 30 percent of the crew that's not loyal to the flag.' In a speech to an oil industry group, Zinke compared Interior to a pirate ship that captures 'a prized ship at sea and only the captain and the first mate row over' to finish the mission."

[CN: White supremacy; disablist language] Alex Isenstadt at Politico: Bannon to Alabama: 'They Think You're a Pack of Morons'.

Steve Bannon barreled onstage at a raucous rally inside a barn [in Fairhope, Alabama] to deliver a warning to the national Republican establishment ahead of Tuesday's special Senate election: I'm just getting started.

In a thundering 20-minute speech Monday night that was partly a rally for insurgent Senate candidate Roy Moore but equally a declaration of war on the Republican Party hierarchy, Bannon made clear that this next act of his political career could make the Republican civil war of recent years look tame.

"For Mitch McConnell and Ward Baker and Karl Rove and Steven Law — all the instruments that tried to destroy Judge Moore and his family — your day of reckoning is coming," Bannon said, referring to the Republican Senate leader and a trio of prominent GOP strategists backing incumbent Sen. Luther Strange. "But more important, for the donors who put up the [campaign] money and the corporatists that put up the money, your day of reckoning is coming, too."

The Nazis are coming for the Republican Party, too. This was how it was always going to be. The Republicans didn't care, as long as courting Nazis was getting them elected.

Adam Entous, Craig Timberg, and Elizabeth Dwoskin at the Washington Post: Russian Operatives Used Facebook Ads to Exploit America's Racial and Religious Divisions. "The batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in American society, with some ads promoting African American rights groups, including Black Lives Matter, and others suggesting that these same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the covert influence campaign. ...These targeted messages, along with others that have surfaced in recent days, highlight the sophistication of an influence campaign slickly crafted to mimic and infiltrate U.S. political discourse while also seeking to heighten tensions between groups already wary of one another." NO SHIT.

So much of the "news" about the election is not actually news at all to people who have been paying attention. https://t.co/2ccIeJNSHO
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 26, 2017

I see stories like this shared with "BOOM" and I think: "Boom? Is that the sound of a penny dropping after falling for two fucking years?" https://t.co/lXcl0XdBxn
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 26, 2017

Finally:

This is a very good piece at Sports Illustrated by Charlie Pierce: Athletes Are Not Going to 'Stick to Sports' and That's an Admirably American Thing. "In short, if you're going to perform national anthems, you're going to have politics. And if you have politics, you're going to have political statements and, this being the United States of America, those statements are not always going to make everyone comfortable."

This is a very good piece at Texas Monthly by Dan Solomon: How a Texas Green Beret Helped the NFL's National Anthem Protests Evolve. "Dropping to one knee, in most settings, is seen as a respectful gesture. In religions around the world, people kneel during prayer; it's widely considered a symbol of reverence in almost any setting — except when it has happened during the national anthem at a sporting event in the past year. When people, including the president, declare that players who take a knee during the anthem are disrespecting the troops, the flag, or the country, they're speaking out against a gesture that a Green Beret helped popularize."

And this is a very good piece at Slate by Jamelle Bouie: "Us" Versus "Them": Trump's Obsession with the NFL Protests Above All Else Shows Just Whose President He Is. "These events have at least one obvious takeaway: They underscore the vital role of racist grievance in [Donald] Trump's message and rhetoric. His attacks on black athletes are of a piece with the 'birtherism' that jump-started his political career. His belief that the protesting players are ungrateful — that they were given their success ('privilege') and have no place to complain — recalls his demand for Barack Obama's college transcripts and his view that the president was an unqualified product of affirmative action. As Jelani Cobb argued for the New Yorker, this language is euphemism for an old charge against prosperous blacks who dared speak against unfair treatment: uppity."

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

Homeland Security Will Start Surveilling All Immigrants

[Content Note: Nativism.]

In March, I wrote about then-White House strategist Steve Bannon's contention that the United States has "a problem with legal immigration." At the time, I noted:

The administration started by going after undocumented immigrants. Then they turned their attention to Muslim immigrants and refugees, people who were coming to this nation legally.

Bannon, who is now the White House chief strategist, has gone on record saying that there are too many "legal" immigrants, full-stop.

This is very troubling for anyone who is a documented immigrant, or partnered with a documented immigrant, even if they are already citizens, because the law only protects you insofar as any administration respects the rule of law. And this administration doesn't.

And they particularly disregard the rule of law when they are seeking to silence and intimidate.

I'm certainly not ignoring the immense privilege that Iain has as a white European immigrant. I also can't ignore that his being an immigrant, when the White House chief strategist is making blanket statements about legal immigrants, could be used against us (at some point, as the erosion of the rule of law continues), because I'm a public, outspoken critic of the administration.

It's a feature of authoritarian regimes to make statements precisely like this one to keep people in line. The threat of coming after people who thought they were safe.

Naturally, I was accused of alarmism, hyperbole, paranoia, and the usual chorus of insults, but I regret to report that essentially the precise fears I detailed six months ago are now becoming our new reality.

Adolfo Flores at BuzzFeed reports (emphases mine):

Federal officials are planning to collect social media information on all immigrants, including permanent residents and naturalized citizens, a move that has alarmed lawyers and privacy groups worried about how the information will be used.

The Department of Homeland Security published the new rule in the Federal Register last week, saying it wants to include "social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results" as part of people's immigration file. The new requirement takes effect Oct. 18.

DHS and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Adam Schwartz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for privacy and free expression, said the plan was disturbing.

"We see this as part of a larger process of high tech surveillance of immigrants and more and more people being subjected to social media screening," Schwartz told BuzzFeed News. "There's a growing trend at the Department of Homeland Security to be snooping on the social media of immigrants and foreigners and we think it's an invasion of privacy and deters freedom of speech."

This would also affect all US citizens who communicate with immigrants, Schwartz said, who could self censor out of fear that information they exchange with someone overseas could be misconstrued and used against them.

This new set of guidelines is being justified by an unproven premise that social media behavior can predict potential terrorist acts. There is no evidence of efficacy, never mind the ethical concerns, of such a program — but that's almost beside the point. Irrespective of whether it "works" or whether it's decent or legal, surveilling immigrants' social media will function spectacularly as a chilling intimidation to immigrants and their families.

Covering the new rule at Gizmodo, Matt Novak writes: "Collecting this kind of information would also have a dramatic impact on every single person that interacts with immigrants to the US, since it would seemingly make all of their conversations on social media subject to surveillance. In the interest of full disclosure, yours truly is married to a US green card holder, so not only will my wife be subjected to this new rule, conceivably I will as well."

My spouse is a naturalized citizen. What does my work mean for us? For our future?

I don't know. All I know for sure is that every word I write in resistance of this administration puts us at greater risk with each passing day.

That is not alarmism. That is not hyperbole. That is my reality.

Once upon a time, we could count on the courts to overturn such an egregious overreach by an administration. No longer. Trump is busily filling 100 federal court vacancies, and Neil Gorsuch now sits on the Supreme Court. There are no guarantees anymore, and precious little to protect us.

I spit venom in the direction of any person who said there was no difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Fuck every last one of you. For a million reasons — including this one: Under a Hillary Clinton presidency, I never would have had to send my husband an email this morning, or any morning, saying we need to talk about whether we are still safe in this country, the country of my birth and his country of choice.

Trump Is a Vile Disgrace As a Humanitarian Crisis Emerges in Puerto Rico

Last Thursday, I noted that 70 percent of the people in Puerto Rico lacked reliable access to drinkable water after the devastation caused by back-to-back hurricanes. At the time, the scope of the damage and attendant crisis was only beginning to be understood, as information infrastructure had been compromised and many parts of the island had become inaccessible due to debris.

Those problems persist, making comprehensive assessments yet impossible, but the emergent picture is of an emergent large-scale humanitarian crisis.

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Nicole Chavez at CNN reports: "Authorities flew over the island Saturday, and were stunned by what they saw. No cellphones, water, or power. Roads completely washed away and others blocked by debris, isolating residents. 'It was devastating to see all that kind of debris in all areas, in all towns of the island,' Jenniffer González, the island's non-voting representative in Congress, told CNN." Governor Ricardo Rosselló "met with more than 50 mayors and representatives from across Puerto Rico on Saturday," some of whom "described the conditions in their communities as 'apocalyptic.'"

One of those mayors, Jose Sanchez Gonzalez, from the north coastal town of Manati, told Rosselló that his town needs "basic supplies such as water, ice, and gas immediately. He says hysteria is starting to spread and the hospital is at capacity and people are going to start dying."

In a gut-wrenching report in the New York Times, Puerto Rican farmers survey the vast destruction of crops, and farmer José A. Rivera says, "There will be no food in Puerto Rico. There is no more agriculture in Puerto Rico. And there won't be any for a year or longer." Even in the precious few places where crops survived, unpassable roads, or roads completely washed away altogether, mean even food that can be harvested may never make it to hungry people.

Puerto Rico, which already imported about 85 percent of its food, will now have to rely even more heavily on imports. Rivera noted, however, "that other islands that export food to Puerto Rico, such as the Dominican Republic, Dominica, and St. Martin, were also hit, and that the food supply could be even more precarious if the island's other suppliers were also affected."

People are scrambling to find clean water, and the coastal city of Arecibo' emergency management director David Latorre said: "It was an odyssey to find food. We had to break down doors to get it. The food system collapsed."

Governor Rosselló said yesterday that the island is on the verge of a "humanitarian crisis," and "called on Congress to prevent a deepening disaster."

Stressing that Puerto Rico, a United States commonwealth, deserved the same treatment as hurricane-ravaged states, the governor urged Republican leaders and the federal government to move swiftly to send more money, supplies, and relief workers. It was a plea echoed by Puerto Rico's allies in Congress, who are pushing for quick movement on a new relief bill and a loosening of financial debt obligations for the island, which is still reeling from a corrosive economic crisis.

"Puerto Rico, which is part of the United States, can turn into a humanitarian crisis," Governor Rosselló said. "To avoid that, recognize that we Puerto Ricans are American citizens; when we speak of a catastrophe, everyone must be treated equally."

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello on TV just now saying, "Puerto Rico is part of the United States." In case the US president has forgotten.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 25, 2017

Although FEMA aid has been dispatched to Puerto Rico, much more significant help — and in greater numbers — is required to get water, food, supplies, and rescue to people currently isolated in remote locations left inaccessible by the storm.

Yesterday, it was reported the White House planned to request funding from Congress in October, which is clearly not soon enough. The White House does not seem to understand, or care, about the urgency of the need in Puerto Rico.

American citizens are "begging Trump & U.S. for help." pic.twitter.com/hOw8PvXEXr
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 25, 2017

[Image in tweet shows a CNN chyron reading: "Millions of desperate Americans beg Trump & U.S. for help."]

Donald Trump has instead been preoccupied with publicly ranting and tweeting about NFL players protesting white supremacy (which many people have wrongly called a "distraction," when in fact his defense of white supremacy is inextricably tied to his indifference toward the residents of Puerto Rico). When Trump finally did tweet something about Puerto Rico yesterday, it was typically reprehensible.

oh you wanted him to tweet about Puerto Rico? Well he did — and blamed Puerto Rico. pic.twitter.com/74BK3Smfhv
— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) September 26, 2017

[Image is screenshot of three tweets, across which Trump has said: "Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble. It's [sic] old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities - and doing well. #FEMA"]

So far this morning, Trump has tweeted about the NFL four times, and has tweeted only once about Puerto Rico, and that was to thank the mayor of San Juan "for your kind words on FEMA etc."

Since @realDonaldTrump loves being discussed in superlatives, I'll give him this: His instinct for malice is unrivaled among US presidents.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 26, 2017

Trump can't even be arsed to pretend that he gives a fuck about the people of Puerto Rico, millions of whom are increasingly desperate and scared. Even people for whom things are okay now are understandably worried about what will happen if the United States president continues to be so cavalier toward their plight, and if the Republican Congressional majority doesn't step up with the necessary urgency.

Contact your Senators and rep today and ask them to prioritize sufficient and comprehensive relief for Puerto Rico. Remind them that Puerto Ricans are United States citizens. Urge them to take immediate action.

Lock Them Up, or Whatever

Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman at the New York Times: At Least 6 White House Advisers Used Private Email Accounts.

At least six of [Donald] Trump's closest advisers occasionally used private email addresses to discuss White House matters, current and former officials said on Monday.

The disclosures came a day after news surfaced that Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, used a private email account to send or receive about 100 work-related emails during the administration's first seven months. But Mr. Kushner was not alone. Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief White House strategist, and Reince Priebus, the former chief of staff, also occasionally used private email addresses. Other advisers, including Gary D. Cohn and Stephen Miller, sent or received at least a few emails on personal accounts, officials said.

Ivanka Trump, the president's elder daughter, who is married to Mr. Kushner, used a private account when she acted as an unpaid adviser in the first months of the administration, Newsweek reported Monday. Administration officials acknowledged that she also occasionally did so when she formally became a White House adviser. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with reporters.

Officials are supposed to use government emails for their official duties so their conversations are available to the public and those conducting oversight. But it is not illegal for White House officials to use private email accounts as long as they forward work-related messages to their work accounts so they can be preserved.

During the 2016 presidential race, Mr. Trump repeatedly harped on Hillary Clinton's use of a private account as secretary of state, making it a centerpiece of his campaign and using it to paint her as untrustworthy. "We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office," Mr. Trump said last year. His campaign rallies often boiled over with chants of "Lock her up!"

I'll just turn this one over to Hillary Clinton: "The hypocrisy of this administration, who knew there was no real scandal, who knew that there was no basis for all their hyperventilating. ...No, we're finding with the latest revelations ― they didn't mean any of it. It's just the height of hypocrisy."

Yeah. Yeah.

Open Thread

Hosted by a turquoise sofa. Have a seat and chat.

The Virtual Pub Is Open (+ Programming Note)

image of a pub Photoshopped to be named 'The Beloved Community Pub'

[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]

Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
I'm going to be otherwise occupied for most of the day Monday, so I will be taking the day off and return on Tuesday. See you then!

The Friday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by lined paper.

Recommended Reading:

Ayana Byrd: How to Help Residents of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Recover After Hurricane Maria

Tina Vasquez: [Content Note: Nativism; death] Deported to Death: Cases That Reveal the Danger of U.S. Immigration Policy

Monica Roberts: My Houston Statue Replacement Suggestions

Shannon Liao: [CN: Rape threat; misogynist slur] Instagram Accidentally Advertises Itself on Facebook with Rape Threat Photo

Michael Fitzgerald: [CN: Transphobia] Students Stage Mass Protest After High School Fails to Punish Transphobic Football Players

Rae Paoletta: Brainless Jellyfish Are Making Us Rethink Our Understanding of Sleep

Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!

Quote of the Day

"Graham-Cassidy, the health bill the Senate may vote on next week, is stunningly cruel. It's also incompetently drafted: The bill's sponsors clearly had no idea what they were doing when they put it together. Furthermore, their efforts to sell the bill involve obvious, blatant lies. ...Graham-Cassidy isn't an aberration; it's more like the distilled essence of everything wrong with modern Republicans."—Paul Krugman, in "Cruelty, Incompetence, and Lies" for the New York Times.

MAKE YOUR CALLS. RESIST.

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!

Daily Dose of Cute

image of Zelda the Black and Tan Mutt and Dudley the Greyhound lying on the floor in Iain's office

The doggies chilling in Iain's office.
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 246

a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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: Bernie Sanders, What Are You Even Doing? and Two Terrible Men Escalate Their War of Terrible Words.

Josh Dawsey and Burgess Everett at Politico: Trump Publicly Backs Health Care Effort, Privately Harbors Doubts. In other words, he's just like the rest of the lying liars in his party with zero integrity and the singular principle that winning is everything. "Several White House officials described the president as determined to sign something — anything, really." Cool.

Jessica Glenza and Molly Redden at the Guardian: Republicans' New Health Bill Would Hit Women Hardest, Experts Say. "[E]xperts said funding cuts and weaker insurance regulations would leave more female patients worse off, hitting access to reproductive health hardest. 'The Graham-Cassidy bill is an assault on healthcare, period. But I really think women, particularly poor women, are bearing the brunt of this,' said Jessica Schubel, a senior policy analyst at the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. ...One of the most concerning provisions in the Graham-Cassidy bill, advocates said, was a push to defund the reproductive health provider Planned Parenthood." Fuckers.

Apparently, this tweet is evergreen. Unfortunately.

I am incandescently angry that we are obliged to spend our time & energy calling our reps to beg them not to kill us via avarice & neglect.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 4, 2017

Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post: This Republican Health-Care Bill Is the Most Monstrous Yet. "There is a rational motive for all of this, although it's a nefarious one that the GOP doesn't like to talk about: Slashing Medicaid spending would make room for huge tax cuts that primarily benefit the rich. Yes, senators, we see that, too. It is tempting to let the Republican Party drive itself, Thelma-and-Louise style, off this cliff. But the human impact of the latest repeal-and-replace measure would be too tragic. Call your senator. Make a deafening noise. We must do everything we can to kill this bill." YES.

MAKE YOUR CALLS.

* * *

The Russia hoax continues, now it's ads on Facebook. What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2017

This is what Donald Trump thinks it's important to be tweeting about while 70% of residents of Puerto Rico lack access to drinkable water. https://t.co/nR71jmskx4
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 22, 2017

Y'all. I detest him so profoundly.

[Content Note: Islamophobia; video may autoplay at link] Toluse Olorunnipa and Greg Stohr at Bloomberg: Trump's Travel Ban Decision Could Set Off New Wave of Turmoil. "Donald Trump is on the verge of a fresh clash with business leaders and civil-rights advocates as he faces a critical deadline this weekend for continuing his travel ban on six predominantly Muslim countries. The president hinted he might broaden the initial ban, which is set to expire on Sunday, in his response to a terrorist attack in London last week. Even mere renewal of the prohibition on entry into the U.S. by most citizens of those nations would reopen controversy over an action that provoked sharp criticism from prominent corporate leaders, multiple court challenges, and internal strife within the White House. Trump may announce his decision on the next step as as soon as Friday." Deplorable.

[CN: Nativism; carcerality; exploitation; video may autoplay at link] Aimee Picchi at CBS News: Working for Peanuts: Detained Immigrants Paid $1 a Day.

If there's one aspect in a new battle over the treatment of immigrant detainees that both sides agree on, it's this: They're paid just $1 a day.

But whether that meager pay is legal is now a contested issue, with the Washington state attorney general's office suing private prison operator GEO Group (GEO) over the detainees' work pay. The lawsuit alleges the $1 a day payment violates the state's minimum wage laws; it also claims the detainees sometimes don't even earn cash, but rather are paid in chips and candy.

The legal dispute, which appears to be the first of its kind, poses a host of questions about the treatment of detainees in the U.S. at a time when arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants is on the rise. Many of them are housed in facilities operated by private prison companies such as GEO as they await their immigration court hearings. The detention centers aren't jails or prisons, nor have the detainees been convicted.

"They are breaking Washington state law and exploiting detainees for their profits," Bob Ferguson, the Washington attorney general, told CBS MoneyWatch. "It's not OK."

...Yet detainees haven't been convicted of breaking the law, and they aren't facing criminal charges, Ferguson pointed out. Some are asylum-seekers, while others may be found to be legally residing within the U.S. and released.

Meanwhile...

ICE stalked and tried to arrest a Latino US citizen they thought was undocumented. https://t.co/Bi3v4GgcX7
— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) September 21, 2017

Plain clothes ICE agents. Unmarked cars. In courthouses. Detaining Latino US citizens TAKE NOTE PPL. TAKE NOTE. https://t.co/W5MtPYRV0w
— Maria Hinojosa (@Maria_Hinojosa) September 21, 2017

I hate the way this administration treats people. I hate it so much. It feels like getting a million paper cuts every single day.

* * *

It's already hard to remember, but this would have been a major scandal in previous administrations. https://t.co/1iDZUl65jp
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 22, 2017

Damian Paletta and Mike DeBonis at the Washington Post: White House Plan for Tax Cuts Moves Forward. "The White House plan for a massive package of tax cuts is gaining new momentum as Republicans attempt to set aside months of intraparty squabbling and unify behind a key part of [Donald] Trump's agenda. Two developments are accelerating the effort: Key Senate Republicans reached a tentative deal this week to allow for as much as $1.5 trillion in tax reductions over 10 years; and there is a growing willingness within the GOP to embrace controversial, optimistic estimates of how much economic growth their tax plan would create." Fucking hell.

Nancy Cook at Politico: Trump Aides Begin Looking for the Exits. "Many who joined the administration in January did so with the explicit idea that they'd stay for at least a year, enough to credibly say they'd served. But in the aftermath of a wave of abrupt, high-profile departures over the summer that culminated with former strategist Steve Bannon's ouster in August, aides up and down the chain are reaching out to headhunters, lobbyists, and GOP operatives for help finding their next job. ...'There will be an exodus from this administration in January,' said one Republican lobbyist, who alone has heard from five officials looking for new gigs. 'Everyone says, 'I just need to stay for one year.' If you leave before a year, it looks like you are acknowledging that you made a mistake.'" OH YOU MADE A FUCKING MISTAKE. YOU WORKED FOR DONALD TRUMP. ONE DAY WOULD HAVE BEEN A HUGE MISTAKE. FUCK YOU AND WHOEVER HIRES YOU NEXT.

Teresa Walsh at McClatchy: Push to Unseal the Draft Whitewater Indictment Against Hillary Clinton Gets Court Date. "A federal appeals court will hear a case brought by Judicial Watch on Friday to make public draft indictments of Hillary Clinton from the Whitewater scandal in the 1990s." PERFECT. *jumps into Christmas tree*

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

Hello

There is a lot going on in the world right now. A lot of people are hurting. And the governing party of the United States is busily trying to hurt even more people.

It is overwhelming. It is enough to make a person feel scared, unmoored, lost.

Sometimes all of the feelings one has — while helplessly watching suffering from afar, or up close, and/or suffering oneself at the whims of nature or the cruelty of powerful villains thinly veiling their malice behind a veneer of civility — swirl together in a morass of emotion that congeal into an urgent need to be known by your community, the place where you feel safe.

I see you. And you are not alone.

Two Terrible Men Escalate Their War of Terrible Words

[Content Note: Disablism.]

Choe Sang-Hun at the New York Times: Kim's Rejoinder to Trump's Rocket Man: 'Mentally Deranged U.S. Dotard'.

Responding directly for the first time to [Donald] Trump's threat at the United Nations to destroy nuclear-armed North Korea, its leader called Mr. Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" on Friday and vowed the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history."

The rejoinder by the leader, Kim Jong-un, who is about half as old as Mr. Trump, 71, added to the lexicon of Mr. Kim's choice of insults in the escalating bombast between the two.

"A frightened dog barks louder," Mr. Kim said in a statement, referring to Mr. Trump's speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday in which he vowed to annihilate North Korea if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies against it.

"He is surely a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire, rather than a politician," Mr. Kim said.

It's really neat (it is terrible) how these two dudes lob really specific insults at each other without a trace of fucking self-awareness. Or any detectable sense of irony.

Meanwhile...

David Nakamura and Anne Gearan at the Washington Post: Amid New Sanctions, Trump Calls North Korea's Leader 'Madman' Whose Regime Will Face New Tests.

Trump lashed back Friday at North Korea's leader, calling Kim Jong Un a "madman" whose regime will be "tested like never before" amid new U. S-imposed financial sanctions.

...Kim on Thursday reacted angrily to Trump's remarks and actions this week, calling the president a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and Trump's earlier speech at the U.N. "unprecedented rude nonsense." Kim said that he was now thinking hard about how to respond.

..."I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue. Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation," Kim said, saying that he would "tame" Trump "with fire."

On Friday, Trump added the latest barb with a tweet calling Kim a "madman" who brings famine and death on North Koreans.

"Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!" Trump wrote.

So everything is fine, as usual. (Everything is not fine.)

If only someone had mentioned before Election Day that Trump is an erratic, reckless, provocative bully with a poisonous temperament who is catastrophically unfit to be president. OH WELL.

Bernie Sanders, What Are You Even Doing?

Daniella Diaz at CNN: CNN to Host Town Hall Debate Monday with Graham, Cassidy, Sanders, and Klobuchar.

CNN will host a town hall with Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, who will be debating health care with Sens. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar on Monday, September 25 at 9 p.m. ET.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper and chief political correspondent Dana Bash will moderate the 90-minute live event from Washington.

Graham and Cassidy are the namesake sponsors of a last-ditch effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act ahead of an end-of-the-month deadline, while Sanders introduced a new "Medicare for all" health care bill with a third of the Senate Democratic caucus by his side.

This is such a bad idea. It's a bad idea for a lot of reasons — not least of which is that Bernie Sanders is not actually a good debater (see: the 2016 primary) — but mostly because it's playing directly into the hands of Republicans who have been trying to frame the issue as "Republican garbage legislation vs. single-payer," pretending that improving on the Affordable Care Act isn't even an option, and now Sanders, with his shitty timing in introducing his bill and agreeing to do this fucking debate, has handed them precisely the optics they need to make that frame work.

It's a false frame, but it's one that Republicans want and need to make their heinous legislation appealing to people who are reflexively afraid of "socialist" healthcare.

Dems already worrying this will allow Rs to frame bill as alt to single-payer.

Quiet griping that Sanders jumped gun likely to grow louder. https://t.co/vhPolFkGZx
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) September 21, 2017

A Democrat weighs in: "The only way Graham and Cassidy can pass their bill is a distraction. Bernie is serving one up on a silver platter." https://t.co/uYsAzyY1Y1
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) September 21, 2017

Further, this debate shouldn't be happening on television; it should be happening in Congress.

Which I am hardly the first or only person to observe.

why is this happening on tv & not in congress https://t.co/OD1cIaHfwV
— Sarah Lerner (@SarahLerner) September 21, 2017

Wait, but why ARE we having a debate about about Graham-Cassidy on CNN instead of just forcing its supporters to explain it on CNN?+
— Bran's Not Hot, B. (@ItsTheBrandi) September 21, 2017

CNN will give Graham and Cassidy the freedom to lie their asses off without any pushback from the moderators, which will give the illusion of parity between their "facts" and Sanders' and Klobuchar's arguments. Just two sides to every issue!

Having the debate on TV means that it's incumbent on just two Senators to make sure the public understands that Graham and Cassidy are lying and that their bill is dangerous rubbish. If the debate were held in Congress, the pushback wouldn't have to come from just two Senators; every Democratic Senator would have a chance to make the case. The chances of failure would be significantly lower.

We don't need to be lowering our chances to defeat this horrible bill, for fuck's sake.

There's about 50 million ways this debate can go wrong and only one way it can go right. I really genuinely hope he doesn't fuck up
— Molly (@isteintraum) September 21, 2017

So do I.

Although, to be perfectly blunt, having agreed to this debate is already a pretty big fuck-up. Of course, that's only from my perspective, with an objective of protecting and expanding healthcare access for as many people as possible. That's not necessarily Sanders' objective.

Dem source: "This is exactly the debate Graham & Cassidy want to have. Sanders is looking out for himself rather than being a team player" https://t.co/o8wQ7sZqFN
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 21, 2017

And, just as a reminder: Sanders' plan still doesn't deal with the Hyde problem, so this debate is quite literally about two healthcare coverage options neither of which guarantee comprehensive care for more than half the population. Cool.

Open Thread

image of a pink couch

Hosted by a pink sofa. Have a seat and chat.

Question of the Day

Suggested by Shaker jeanology: "What factor in your upbringing (like a choice your parent or guardian made, or the general philosophy with which you were raised) has had the most impact, positive or negative, on who you are as an adult?"

Two things immediately come to mind, and they were things that both of my parents and all three of my grandparents (my paternal grandfather died before I was born) did:

1. Encouraged reading in every possible way, from modeling being readers themselves to buying me books to reading to me every day and letting me read to them once I knew how.

2. Never using slurs or making bigoted statements of any kind, against people of color, women, members of the LGBTQ community, disabled people, minority religions, atheists, addicts, immigrants, etc. Every slur and stereotype I learned outside my house.

(The one exception to that was fat hatred. Which was mostly in the form of self-criticism from my parents. And that had an impact, too.)

This is not to suggest that there was never any uninterrogated prejudice or unexamined privilege modeled for me at home. There was. But I was told that all people were equal and deserving of respect, and, for the most part, that's what I saw practiced by the adults closest to me.

Throwback Thursdays

black and white image of me as a baby, trying to use a vacuum

Me, circa 1975, trying and failing to vacuum some gorgeous '70s carpet.
[Please share your own throwback pix in comments. Just make sure the pix are just of you and/or you have consent to post from other living people in the pic. And please note that they don't have to be pictures from childhood, especially since childhood pix might be difficult for people who come from abusive backgrounds or have transitioned or lots of other reasons. It can be a picture from last week, if that's what works for you. And of course no one should feel obliged to share a picture at all! Only if it's fun!]