"I think we're in the best place we've ever been as a party."—Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel. (In case you're wondering if there's any relation, yes, she's Mitt Romney's niece.)
Now, obviously, this cheerful bullshit is what party chairs are paid to slop out for the press' consumption on the regular. So, on the one hand, it's entirely expected and not especially notable that Romney McDaniel would say this.
On the other hand, Donald Trump is destroying the country and imperiling the entire planet. When you read leaks and hear murmurs about how gosh darn tootin' angry the Republican Party is at their loathed president, remember that they aren't doing anything about it, and that the chair of the RNC says her party is "in the best place we've ever been."
Quote of the Day
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 267
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 Axes Crucial Healthcare Subsidies and Northern California Wildfires Thread.
[Content Note: Bigotry; Christian supremacy; authoritarianism] Today, Donald Trump was the first ever sitting president to speak at the Values Voter Summit, sponsored by the Family Research Council, which is designated by the SPLC as a hate group. During his address, he said, "The times are changing back again," and ominously promised, "We are stopping, cold, the attacks on Judeo-Christian values." To an extended ovation, he declared: "It's families and the church, not the government, who know how to create loving communities. We don't worship government; we worship god."
Utterly chilling. He might as well have just come out and literally said: "The time to crush marginalized people with impunity has arrived."
* * *
Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin at the Washington Post: Facebook Takes Down Data and Thousands of Posts, Obscuring Reach of Russian Disinformation.
Social media analyst Jonathan Albright got a call from Facebook the day after he published research last week showing that the reach of the Russian disinformation campaign was almost certainly larger than the company had disclosed. While the company had said 10 million people read Russian-bought ads, Albright had data suggesting that the audience was at least double that — and maybe much more — if ordinary free Facebook posts were measured as well.Josh Meyer at Politico: Twitter Deleted Data Potentially Crucial to Russia Probes.
Albright welcomed the chat with three company officials. But he was not pleased to discover that they had done more than talk about their concerns regarding his research. They also had scrubbed from the Internet nearly everything — thousands of Facebook posts and the related data — that had made the work possible.
Never again would he or any other researcher be able to run the kind of analysis he had done just days earlier.
Twitter has deleted tweets and other user data of potentially irreplaceable value to investigators probing Russia's suspected manipulation of the social media platform during the 2016 election, according to current and former government cybersecurity officials.Welp. That's quite a coincidence.
Federal investigators now believe Twitter was one of Russia's most potent weapons in its efforts to promote Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, the officials say, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
...Many U.S. investigators believe that their best hope for identifying who was behind these operations, how they collaborated with each other and their suspected links to the Kremlin lies buried within the mountains of data accumulated in recent years by Twitter.
By analyzing Twitter data over time, investigators could establish what one U.S. government cybersecurity consultant described as "pattern of life behavior," determining when Russian influence operations began, and how they "were trying to nudge the narrative in a certain direction."
"So if you have access to all this, you can basically see when botnets appeared and disappeared, and how they shaped narrative around certain events," said the analyst, who could not speak for attribution given company policy.
But a substantial amount of valuable information held by Twitter is lost for good, according to the cybersecurity analysts and other current and former U.S. officials.
In case I'm not laying the sarcasm on thick enough, I don't believe that's a coincidence.
What I believe is what I've been saying ever since all of this shit began trickling out 18 months ago: This is the end of a coup that's been in the works for a very long time. None of this is a coincidence. It's not as straightforward as "Russia just figured out how to exploit this shit." I'm afraid it's much more sinister than that.
If we had a functional government, I'd suggest they look into Facebook's and Twitter's investors. But we don't.
Which, you know, was the whole point.
Oh well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
* * *
Stephanie Kirchgaessner at the Guardian: Flynn Ally Sought Help from 'Dark Web' in Covert Clinton Email Investigation.
A close associate of Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn arranged a covert investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, and through intermediaries turned to a person with knowledge of the "dark web" for help.I don't even have fucking words. Besides these: Bob Mueller had better be drawing up subpoenas for Newt Gingrich right fucking now, if he hasn't already.
...Flynn is personally and ideologically linked to Barbara Ledeen, a longtime conservative activist who works for the Republican senator Chuck Grassley on the Senate judiciary committee – which is now investigating alleged links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Ledeen's husband, Michael Ledeen, is also a confidant of Flynn, and co-authored a book with him last year.
...According to interview notes released by the FBI last year, Ledeen decided in 2015 to launch her own investigation into Clinton's use of the server. At the time, she was a staffer on the Senate judiciary committee.
...She sought out the help of an unnamed defense contractor and also turned to Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House, for help. According to the FBI notes, Gingrich "wanted to speak to others about the project" and asked Judicial Watch, the conservative activist group, for financial assistance.
Judicial Watch allegedly turned to another, unnamed, contractor who was familiar with the "deep web and dark web," according to the FBI files. The parties were concerned about what they would do if they came across any emails that contained classified information. According to the FBI investigation, the project was later halted.
The incident and web of relationships is important for two reasons.
First, because Ledeen is the second person with ties to Flynn who allegedly sought to investigate Clinton's use of a private server in an unofficial capacity.
...Ledeen's involvement is also important because she works on the Senate judiciary committee, which is conducting an investigation into the Trump campaign. Her family's relationship with Flynn raises questions about whether Ledeen could be wielding influence over the investigation.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Kara Scannell at CNN: Background Check Chief Has 'Never Seen' Mistakes and Omissions at Level of Jared Kushner Forms. "Charles Phalen, the director of the National Background Investigations Bureau, a newly created division within the Office of Personnel Management, made the comment in response to a question during a House subcommittee oversight hearing. ...Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois asked Phalen, 'can you recall if there has ever been an applicant having to submit four addenda detailing over 100 errors and omissions being able to maintain their security clearance once those errors and omission have been identified?' Phalen said he has not seen 'the breadth' of all applications 'but I have never seen that level of mistakes.'" Revoke their security clearances now, for crying out loud.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Tony Cook at the IndyStar: As Trump Slams Media, an Indiana Lawmaker Has Drafted a Bill to License Journalists. "An Indiana lawmaker has drafted a bill that would require professional journalists to be licensed by state police. [Rep. Jim Lucas'] proposal would require professional journalists to submit an application to the Indiana State Police. Journalists would be fingerprinted as part of the process and would have to pay a $75 fee for a lifetime license. Those with felony or domestic battery convictions would be prohibited from getting a license. The proposal is almost an exact copy of Indiana's law requiring a license to carry a handgun, which Lucas has tried to repeal unsuccessfully for several years." This fucking guy.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Cristina Marcos at the Hill: 69 Republicans Vote Against Aid for Puerto Rico, Other Disaster Sites. "Legislation to provide $36.5 billion in aid for communities affected by recent wildfires and hurricanes, including Puerto Rico, secured widespread support in the House on Thursday save for 69 Republicans. The votes in opposition included many members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who believe government spending should not add to the deficit." Fuck each and every one of them.
[CN: Trans hatred] Christine Grimaldi at Rewire: Democrats Call Trump's Bluff on Transgender Military Ban.
Congressional Democrats are pressuring U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis to admit what, if anything, he knew about [Donald] Trump's transgender military ban prior to the commander-in-chief's bombshell announcements via Twitter.A+ idea. Not that it will matter, because Trump is a nightmare monster overseeing an administration of sociopaths. But it's good to know the Democrats are still making an effort to do the right thing, anyway. To give them fuel for their continued resistance, it might be nice to contact Rep. McEachin and say thank you for continuing to spend time being creative and clever and passionate on behalf of the people who elected them.
Trump claimed he consulted with his "Generals and military experts" before his July 26 Twitter proclamation. But military officials contradicted Trump, saying that the move came as a surprise to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to Mattis, who was on vacation and reportedly given just a day's notice. Now, 115 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are calling Trump's bluff, requesting "access to any letters, emails, telephone transcripts, meeting logs and minutes, or other materials that document such requests."
"We seek information to discover the proof of where and when the Pentagon advised the President that this was the best idea for our country," Rep. A. Donald McEachin (D-VA), the leader of the effort, said in a statement accompanying the group's letter to Mattis. "If there is proof then we can evaluate that, if there is no proof then the President lied to the American people once again."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
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!
Northern California Wildfires Thread
[Content Note: Fire; displacement; death.]
Yesterday afternoon, I reported that there had been 26 confirmed deaths from the wildfires in California. By this morning, that number had climbed to 31.
The number of people confirmed dead in wildfires sweeping northern California has climbed to 31, as officials warned that conditions would worsen.At the LA Times, Robin Abcarian has a harrowing account of a couple who survived by getting in their neighbor's pool. There they stayed for six hours while a wildfire burned down their neighborhood, worried their only choice might be to freeze to death in the water or burn in the flames. They were very lucky.
...Strong winds that have fanned the flames eased in recent days, but forecasters warned they were set to pick up again on Friday night.
...[T]he wildfires are the deadliest in California since 1933, when 29 people died in fires at Griffith Park in Los Angeles.
These are the choices people are having to make, the danger they're facing. Others might be able to evacuate easily and safely, but only to lose their homes.
Meanwhile, as Rachel Becker reports at the Verge, the abundant smoke is its own highly damaging concern: "Smoke and ash blanket the Bay Area in a layer of haze responsible for the worst air quality on record. The smoke has prompted local schools to close, and reduced visibility at Bay Area airports so much that flights were delayed, or canceled. For people who have asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or heart conditions, just breathing this noxious air can be dangerous."
And naturally the lives of the more than 8,000 firefighters battling the blazes are constantly in danger. It's also a good time to recall Jamie Lowe's New York Times expose from August, about the incarcerated women who fight California's wildfires for "a maximum of $2.56 a day in [conservation labor] camp and $1 an hour when they're fighting fires."
(They "choose" this work, within the range of "choice" that exists for inmate laborers, often because "California's inmates typically earn between 8 cents and 95 cents an hour," so fighting fires can mean more pay, even despite its measly compensation.)
I don't know how many scandalously underpaid (and undertrained) incarcerated women are currently fighting these wildfires, but, in the NYT article, Lt. Keith Radey, a commander in charge of a camp where the women train, is quoted saying: "Any fire you go on statewide, whether it be small or large, the inmate hand crews make up anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of the total fire personnel." So it's probably quite a few.
My thoughts remain with everyone in the area: Residents, responders, healthcare workers. I am wishing you safety, even as I know that some will not find it.
As ever, please feel welcome and encouraged to share information, ideas, and resources in comments, and let's keep this an image-free thread. Thanks.
Trump Axes Crucial Healthcare Subsidies
I have said over and over that malice is the driving force of Donald Trump's presidency, and here is yet more abominable evidence: Late last night, he made another unilateral decision to destroy the Affordable Care Act, which stands to harm millions of people.
Ed Pilkington and Sabrina Siddiqui at the Guardian report:
Donald Trump has planted a timebomb under Obamacare, issuing a notice late on Thursday night that scraps vital federal subsidies underpinning the current healthcare system.By way of reminder, not that anyone who's paying a modicum of attention could possibly forget, the Democrats have been trying to improve Obamacare, but the Republican Congress refuses to work with them, instead spending all their time and energy trying to blow it up. And if Trump was genuinely interested in a "fix," then he wouldn't have spent the entire day undermining it.
The late-night move caught critics off guard and brought immediate accusations that Trump was unilaterally destroying his predecessor's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, after the Republican-controlled Congress failed to secure changes. The announcement stops federal support of up to $7bn (£5.27bn) to insurance companies to help them cover the medical needs of low-income Americans.
The Trump administration sought to lay the blame for the current crisis in healthcare on former president Barack Obama, claiming the federal subsidies, known as "cost-sharing reduction payments," were unlawful and "yet another example of how the previous administration abused taxpayer dollars and skirted the law to prop up a broken system."
On Friday morning Trump claimed in a tweet that "the Democrats [sic] ObamaCare is imploding" and appeared to call on the Democrats to negotiate with him over healthcare legislation.
"Massive subsidy payments to their pet insurance companies has stopped," he wrote. "Dems should call me to fix! ... ObamaCare is a broken mess. Piece by piece we will now begin the process of giving America the great HealthCare it deserves!"
The attack on the federal subsidies came as a double blow to Obamacare, just hours after Trump had already lashed out at his predecessor's healthcare reforms by issuing an executive order unilaterally weakening the system. In that order, the president opened the door to cheaper and less comprehensive insurance, which experts predict will result in health plans for the sick becoming more expensive.None of this is about providing better healthcare. It's about trying to dismantle President Obama's legacy. Everything anyone needs to know about Donald Trump is summed up by this: He hates the signature accomplishment of a Black man more than he cares about the lives of millions of citizens of the country he is meant to lead.
Thursday night's second blow could prove the more deadly of the two as it is targeted at the very foundations of the insurance structures created under Obamacare. A study by the Congressional Budget Office two months ago suggested that terminating the cost-sharing subsidies would lead to a dramatic 20% rise in the average cost of the most popular plans offered by the Affordable Care Act, as well as worsening the federal deficit by almost $200m.
#WomenBoycottTwitter
Today, many women are "boycotting" (not using) Twitter for a day, in support of Rose McGowan, after she was suspended from Twitter. I will not be tweeting today, in solidarity with McGowan and other survivors of sexual abuse who feel they have been silenced.
I want to acknowledge that there have been criticisms of #WomenBoycottTwitter: Not all women can be off Twitter because their jobs oblige them to use the social media platform; some women quite understandably don't like the idea of women effectively silencing themselves for any reason; and Ava DuVernay called white women in: "Calling white women allies to recognize conflict of #WomenBoycottTwitter for women of color who haven't received support on similar issues."
These are are valid and important criticisms, and, in trying to respect and respond to them while also taking up space in solidarity with McGowan and other survivors who feel supported by the boycott, I've struck what I acknowledge is an imperfect compromise.
I will not be on Twitter today, but I will be here, in the space I created with the explicit purpose of centering and amplifying women's voices.
Elevating a diversity of progressive women's voices is critically important to me. Believing women is critically important to me. Speaking out myself about being a survivor of sexual abuse — and countless other issues — is critically important to me.
So I will do that here today, as I do, consciously and thoughtfully, every day. And I will be quiet on Twitter, with the hope that my silence there will resonate as much as my voice here.
Question of the Day
What's for dinner? Or whatever the next meal of the day is in your part of the world.
I've got some tilapia I think I'm going to make tonight, with herbed potatoes.
Northern California Wildfires Thread
[Content Note: Fire; displacement; death.]
Twenty-one wildfires continue to burn across northern California, leaving hundreds of thousands of people at risk as the fires are, according to a spokesperson for Sonoma County, "a long way from being contained."
More than 400 people remain missing. Twenty-six people have been confirmed dead. Over 3,000 buildings and 190,000 acres have been destroyed. Countless people remain displaced from their homes, or the places where their homes used to be.
The winds and drought, both exacerbated by climate change, conspired to make these wildfires extremely devastating. And even as they continue to wreak destruction, efforts are underway to find, recover, and identify bodies of those lost.
Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Kristine Phillips, Joel Achenbach, and Herman Wong at the Washington Post report:
As the destruction entered its fifth day, officials focused their efforts on finding the missing and the dead: While authorities go from house to house, looking for hundreds of people who remain unaccounted for, cadaver dogs are also sniffing through the scorched rubble.I am so desperately sad for the people tasked with this work, and the survivors on whose behalf they're doing it.
Twenty-six people have died, more than half of them in Sonoma County alone. Collectively, the infernos that have erupted across the region since Sunday are the state's deadliest wildfires since World War II, surpassing the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire that left 25 dead.
"We've found bodies that were almost completely intact; we've found bodies that are nothing more than ashes and bones," Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano said at a news conference Thursday.
..."I'm sorry to have to tell you that, but that is what we're faced here, as far as identifying people and recovering people," Giordano said. "We will do everything in our power to locate all the missing people. I promise you we will handle the remains with care and get them to their loved ones."
I am angry that, while this is happening, the president can't be bothered to even tweet about it, no less consider that maybe he shouldn't be trying to sign away people's access to healthcare.
I still wish I had something better to say to people in the affected areas beyond offering my profound sympathies. This is going to be absolutely devastating for a lot of people — and animals — and I am so very sorry.
As ever, please feel welcome and encouraged to share information, ideas, and resources in comments, and let's keep this an image-free thread. Thanks.
Shaker Thumbs
Shaker Thumbs is your opportunity to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to a product or service you have used and that you'd recommend to other Shakers or warn them away from.
Today I'm giving a big thumbs-up to the OXO Stainless Steel Sink Organizer.
Note: I got the other stuff in the organizer separately, though each of those items are also sold at the Container Store. The brush was previously featured in this series!
I start virtually every day of my life scrubbing out three kitty bowls and two dog bowls, so having a nice, organized set of cleaning tools is a little way of making that chore more pleasant.
Anyway! Give us your thumbs-up or thumbs-down in comments!
[Just to be abundantly clear, I am not affiliated in any way with Oxo nor with the Container Store, nor am I receiving any form of payment from either of them. It's just a product I've personally found super useful and am happy to recommend.]
This Is a Victory We Needed Today
[Content Note: Rape culture.]
Yesterday, I wrote about the Hollywood and Highland Casting Couch, a literal monument to the rape culture in Hollywood. I ended that post by saying: "Get rid of it. Now."
This morning, John Ennis tweeted at me with some good news (which I'm sharing here with his permission):
Well guess what? The casting couch at Hollywood & Highland has been removed. pic.twitter.com/jmmFAZPgQp
— John W. Ennis (@johnennis) October 12, 2017
It’s been covered up and moved aside. Like a Confederate statue. You can see the marks where it was. How do you like them apples? pic.twitter.com/lM3MeNOzPE
— John W. Ennis (@johnennis) October 12, 2017
I LIKE THEM APPLES VERY MUCH!
John told me he'd headed over to the spot with the intention of putting crime scene tape around the hideous spectacle in an act of protest, but discovered instead upon his arrival that the thing had been removed altogether. He writes:
When I saw Shakestweetz's post that there was a literal monument to the casting couch at tHollywood & Highland shopping center in the heart of Hollywood, I was disgusted. It was like a tasteless joke from a movie, and yet, there was a "Road to Hollywood" mosaic with a trail leading to a daybed. Its reputation wasn't bad; instead it was apparently now part of the promise of La La Land.Yesterday, when I called to confirm the thing was still there, my pretext for calling was that I was coming for a visit soon and wanted to make sure I could see it on my trip. There was no indication it wouldn't be there, and the person to whom I was speaking was real excited to confirm its existence. Even this week.
This can't go on, I thought to myself, and knew I would have to do something, because I drive right in front of that place every morning.
I got a couple rolls of crime scene tape to wrap round the area, figuring it would make a powerful statement without doing any permanent damage. I parked across the street so that I would be able to slip away quickly. I arrived at the shopping center, which is designed after a set of Egypt that was built there for a movie in the 1930's, quickly scoping security.
I looked around. Where was it? I finally saw the tile that said "The Road to Hollywood," but there was no big casting couch there. Around the corner, fifty feet away, in an atrium to the side by an elevator, I noticed a huge blue tarp over a large rectangular block. I looked closer. It had a sloping end, like the backing of the day bed seen in the photo. I ran my hand over it; it was a solid piece, not a pile of materials.
I lifted up the tarp and took a picture of the structure. It was beige like the day bed in the photo. I went back to the mosaic ground. I could see marks where the legs of the day bed had been.
Did that happen? Did someone at Hollywood & Highland realize how bad this was, like a Confederate monument? Or better yet, do they follow Shakestweetz?? Let's take this as a promise of a new day in Hollywood.
Today, it's gone.
I called again this morning, asking to confirm that the Casting Couch statue had been removed. I reached the same person who'd been so cheerful yesterday. "No comment," was the terse reply, before she hung up on me.
It's a small victory, but the symbolism is satisfying — and I'll take whatever the fuck I can get this week.
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 266
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 Fannie: Why Hasn't Hillary?
There is so much critically important news today. It's an unusual amount of fuckery, even by Trumpian standards.
Amy Goldstein at the Washington Post: Trump Signs Order to Eliminate ACA Insurance Rules, Undermine Marketplaces.
Trump signed an executive order Thursday morning intended to allow small businesses and potentially individuals to buy a long-disputed type of health insurance that skirts state regulations and Affordable Care Act protections.This is so fucking bad. Goldstein's colleague at the Washington Post, Paige Winfield Cunningham, writes (emphasis original): "Back in 1992, the Government Accountability Office issued a scathing report on these multiple employer welfare arrangements (known as MEWAs; they're pronounced 'mee-wahs') in which small businesses could pool funds to get the lower-cost insurance typically available only to large employers. These MEWAs, said the government, left at least 398,000 participants and their beneficiaries with more than $123 million in unpaid claims between January 1988 and June 1991. Furthermore, states reported massive and widespread problems with MEWAs. More than 600 plans in nearly every U.S. state failed to comply with insurance laws. Thirty-three states said enrollees were sometimes left without health coverage when MEWAs disbanded."
The White House and allies portray the president's move to expand access to "association health plans" as wielding administrative powers to accomplish what congressional Republicans have failed to achieve: tearing down the law's insurance marketplaces and letting some Americans buy skimpier coverage at lower prices. The order is Trump's biggest step to carry out a broad but ill-defined directive he issued his first night in office for agencies to lessen ACA regulations from the Obama administration.
Critics, who include state insurance commissioners, most of the health-insurance industry, and mainstream policy specialists, predict that a proliferation of such health plans will have damaging ripple effects: driving up costs for consumers with serious medical conditions and prompting more insurers to flee the law's marketplaces. Part of Trump's actions, they say, will spark court challenges over their legality.
Nicholas Bagley has a thoughtful thread on what this really means immediately in practical terms: "As a legal matter, nothing changes the moment that Trump signs the E.O. We'll have to see what Labor and HHS do." Topher Spiro observes that, while what Bagley says is true, "the order is timed to depress enrollment during the upcoming open enrollment period. Our job is to counter this confusion."
* * *
Nicole Lafond at TPM: Trump: We Cannot Help Puerto Rico 'Forever!' "Donald Trump continued his relentless criticism of Puerto Rico Thursday morning, suggesting the U.S. couldn't aid in recovery and relief efforts in the U.S. territory 'forever!' Quoting former CBS News reporter Sheryl Attkisson and Puerto Rico's governor in a tweet, Trump said the territory's 'electric and infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes' and passed the buck to Congress to 'decide how much to spend.' He then went on to propose that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the military and first responders — who he said 'have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances)' — cannot stay in the U.S. territory 'forever!' The tweets Thursday morning are just the latest attacks the President has launched on the U.S. territory, which was devastated by two hurricanes last month."
Here is Trump this morning, publicly suggesting not rebuilding Puerto Rico, because it was "a disaster" to begin with. Unfathomable cruelty. pic.twitter.com/uMnzDjkqLe
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 12, 2017
At least 4 people have died from leptosporosis. And that's the tip of an iceberg of worsening problems. https://t.co/1lF2O8LjQY
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 12, 2017
And all of this is fine with Republicans, as long as they get their tax cut. https://t.co/eD06yigCBP
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 12, 2017
Ana Swanson at the New York Times: Trump's Tough Talk on NAFTA Raises Prospects of Pact's Demise. "The North American Free Trade Agreement, long disparaged by [Donald] Trump as bad for the United States, was edging closer toward collapse as negotiators gathered for a fourth round of contentious talks here this week. ...As the trade talks began on Wednesday, Mr. Trump, seated in the Oval Office beside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, said it was 'possible' that the United States would drop out of Nafta. 'It's possible we won't be able to make a deal, and it's possible that we will,' the president said. ...'So we'll see what happens with Nafta, but I've been opposed to Nafta for a long time, in terms of the fairness of Nafta.' Mr. Trudeau, in comments later at the Canadian Embassy, said he remains optimistic about the potential for a Nafta deal but noted that Canadians must be 'ready for anything.'"
Matthew Lee and Thomas Adamson at the AP: U.S. Pulling Out of UNESCO After Long Dispute over Palestinian Membership. "The United States said Thursday it is pulling out of the U.N.'s educational, scientific, and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and need for 'fundamental reform.' While the Trump administration had been preparing for a likely withdrawal from UNESCO for months, the announcement by the State Department on Thursday rocked the agency's Paris headquarters, where a heated election to choose a new chief is underway. The outgoing UNESCO director-general expressed her 'profound regret' at the decision."
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Jon Sharman and Lizzy Buchan at the Independent: Donald Trump Has State Visit to UK Downgraded 'and Will Not Be Guest of the Queen'. "Donald Trump is expected to make a scaled-back trip to the UK early next year, which would see him missing out on meeting the Queen. The US President had been extended the honour of a full state visit after meeting Theresa May earlier this year, however diplomats are reportedly discussing plans for a 'working trip' in 2018 where Mr Trump could be asked to open a new embassy in the UK. More than 1.8 million people signed a petition against the plans... In an effort to avoid controversy, Mr Trump's planned visit will be a more low-key event where he would be a guest of the US ambassador Woody Johnson rather than Buckingham Palace."
Dan Friedman at Mother Jones: Trump Just Blew Off a Deadline for Implementing Russian Sanctions He Approved. "The White House has blown by an October 1 deadline for beginning to implement new sanctions targeting Russia, drawing concern in Congress that [Donald] Trump is planning to ignore parts of a bill he grudgingly signed in August. ...Trump opposed the new legislation, agreeing to sign it only after it became clear Congress could override his veto. But he also issued a presidential signing statement suggesting he might ignore what he said were 'a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions' in the legislation."
Anne Gearan at the Washington Post: 'He Threw a Fit': Trump's Anger over Iran Deal Forced Aides to Scramble for a Compromise. "White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster and other senior advisers came up with a plan — one aimed at accommodating Trump's loathing of the Iran deal as 'an embarrassment' without killing it outright. ...[That effort] led to a revamping of the U.S. approach to Iran and the nuclear pact Trump is set to announce this week and which congressional leaders were briefed about Wednesday. Under the expected announcement, Trump will declare the deal is not in the U.S. national interest while stopping short of recommending renewed nuclear sanctions."
Darren Samuelsohn at Politico: President's Lawyers May Offer Mueller a Meeting with Trump. "Donald Trump's lawyers are open to having the president sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller, according to a senior White House official, as part of a wider posture of cooperation with the special counsel's Russia probe. ...Trump told reporters this spring that he was '100 percent' willing to testify under oath about alleged Russian ties to his campaign. But even if he has nothing to hide, Trump's unpredictable nature and willingness to bend the facts pose headaches for his legal team as it strategizes for a possible sit-down with Mueller. One angry or untrue statement could have devastating political and legal consequences for the president."
Which is why it is unlikely that Trump will ever actually sit down with Mueller, and thus why it's incredibly useful for Trump to have news items published about how he's totally gonna do it for sure yep yep, creating a narrative of willingness though none exists.
[CN: Death] Rebecca Fishbein at Gothamist: Puerto Rico Death Count May Be Much Higher Than Current Official Tally. "Though officials say 45 people have died in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, anecdotal reports suggest that number is much higher. A recent Vox investigation tallied over 500 deaths that could be linked to the hurricane, in addition to another 69 people who are still missing following the storm. ...Puerto Rican online newspaper El Vocero reports that as of last week there were 350 bodies awaiting autopsy at the Institute of Forensic Science in San Juan." Fucking hell.
[CN: Reproductive coercion] Esther Yu Hsi Lee at ThinkProgress: Detained Immigrant Teen Wanted an Abortion; Instead, She Was Taken to a Crisis Pregnancy Center. "A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the government can't deny abortion to an immigrant teenager detained after crossing the southern U.S. border in Texas. But the judge also declined to prevent federal officials from obstructing her abortion access. ...Doe got a judicial waiver through a Texas law that requires minors wanting abortions to get consent from a parent, the Associated Press reported. But staff at the facility wouldn't take her to appointments and won't let her attorney Marie Christina Cortez take the girl to an abortion clinic... Instead, staff took Doe to a crisis pregnancy center, where she was counseled against having an abortion. 'I feel like they are trying to coerce me to carry my pregnancy to term,' the girl said in a court declaration filed last week." Rage seethe boil.
We are so excited to have @SenSanders join us at the #WomensConvention October 27-29th in Detroit! https://t.co/UssiTSe2IN
— Women's March (@womensmarch) October 12, 2017
"Bernie gave a headline speech at the Women's Convention" is going to become the new "Bernie marched with MLK." https://t.co/uwmehj7HHD
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 12, 2017
Just me being 100% uncharitable as fuck. Per usual.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
The What Happened Book Club
This is the second installment of the What Happened Book Club, where we are doing a chapter a week.
That pace will hopefully allow people who need time to procure the book a better chance to catch up, and let us deal with the book in manageable pieces: I figured we will have a lot to talk about, and one thread for the entire book would quickly get overwhelming.
So! Let us continue our discussion with Chapter Two: Grit and Gratitude.
* * *
So, this chapter is a strong argument for why we're taking this one chapter at a time, because I was absolutely overwhelmed by it. I started crying as I read Hillary describing her choice to wear purple to her post-election speech, and how she had hoped to wear Suffragette white in triumph.
And I didn't stop crying throughout the entire chapter.
I haven't thoroughly mourned the 2016 election: I had to keep working, frantically working, here and at Shareblue in the days after the election. I just wanted to lie on the floor and cry; I have never felt so spent, or so reverberatingly gutted. But I didn't have that opportunity — and reading Hillary's recollections of the aftermath of that time, all the emotions I haven't fully processed asserted themselves forcefully.
Still, I laughed too: "It wasn't all yoga and breathing: I also drank my share of chardonnay." Oh the great burst of laughter mixed with a heaving sob!
Hillary titled this chapter "Grit and Gratitude," but a more accurate title would have been: "Woman Experiences Devastating Loss; Takes Care of Everyone Around Her; Writes Chapter with Suggestions on How to Feel Better Because She Never Stops Doing Emotional Labor, Even Though She's Totally History's Greatest Monster."
Sure, that's wordy, but it's accurate.
Part of the reason I cried through this chapter is because Hillary is still offering to lead us. Through our grief, into the future. She is still leading with compassion, with profound reservoirs of empathy and care for the people of this nation.
Every word — every fucking word — of this chapter stands in stark contrast to the person who won the presidency, a lesser human being than Hillary Clinton in every conceivable way.
We could have had a president who loves people, hard and abundantly. And that will never stop hurting.
This Is Rape Culture
[Content Note: Discussions of rape culture; descriptions of sexual harassment.]
Two things I've seen this morning are perfect, terrible illustrations of how the rape culture works.
First, there was the news that Twitter has suspended Rose McGowan for publicly stating that Ben Affleck had lied about what he knew regarding Harvey Weinstein.
But Ben Affleck's account is still active. It's a real mystery why women don't speak out, eh? https://t.co/cD9JboPsxB
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 12, 2017
Yesterday, Ben Affleck has to apologize for actually sexually assaulting someone, which trended on Twitter all day, but he isn't suspended. Who is suspended is Rose McGowan, who merely contradicted Affleck's claim not to have known about Weinstein's sexual abuse, which she knows because she's the one who told him.
This, as I shouldn't have to point out, couldn't be a clearer case of the way institutions work to protect abusers and their abettors, while silencing survivors.
Secondly, Scott Madin forwarded me Doree Shafrir's piece about "Shitty Media Men," highlighting a particular paragraph as having jumped out at him:
I've never been assaulted or harassed by someone I worked with, and it's only been lately that I've realized how messed up it is that I feel fortunate that's the case. There have been a few uncomfortable incidents for me personally, like the editor who Gchatted me late at night, seemingly drunk, and propositioned me, or the art director who was way too interested in my intern experience and put his hand on my thigh at a party. But people whispered about the guys who were really bad, the ones who coerced young women into sex, the ones who were physically abusive. The ones to stay away from.Shafrir begins by saying she's "never been assaulted or harassed," only to then describe two instances of harassment. To be clear, I'm not auditing the way she feels about or identifies those experiences, but simply noting they meet the definition of workplace harassment.
The instinct to mitigate manifests in different ways: Here, Shafrir straightforwardly discounts her own experiences as harassment. My go-to strategy as a younger woman was always to turn incidents of sexual harassment and/or assault into "humorous" anecdotes, which allowed me to talk about what happened without really talking about what happened.
This instinct is the result of, in part, policing women's lived experiences, a central piece of which is inevitably abuse ranking.
It goes like this: Your harassment wasn't as bad as being hit and your being hit wasn't as bad as being raped and being raped by a boyfriend isn't as bad as being raped by a relative and being raped by a relative isn't as bad as genital cutting...
Until many of us feel as though we aren't allowed to say anything, unless it's in the context of saying "I didn't have it that bad" — to express our "good luck" if our suffering hasn't passed some arbitrary threshold past which survivors will allegedly be allowed to express that we were affected by abuse.
In a piece from September 2013 I wrote:
The auditing and ranking of survivors of sexual violence and/or the auditing and ranking of various acts of sexual violence itself is rape apologia. The intent of the person engaging in it is irrelevant: Auditing and ranking survivors and acts of sexual violence functions to suggest that some acts of sexual violence are tolerable, and, further, that if a survivor of the "not as bad" sort of sexual violence has lasting psychic injury from that trauma, they are "overreacting." Accusing survivors of abuse of being attention-seeking, melodramatic, lying is a centerpiece of silencing victims.Which is precisely why women are entrained to do it.
...Sexual violence does not exist as a series of unrelated abuses that act in competition with one another for attention and concern, but as a spectrum of abuse on which exists both women being creeped on in elevators by strangers and rapes so brutal their victims do not survive.
The implication that there are survivors of sexual violence who have no reason or right to "complain" as long as there are survivors who have experienced something "worse" somewhere in the world not only elides that post-abuse support profoundly affects trauma prognoses, but also creates a justification for ignoring all but only the "worst" manifestations of sexual violence, which necessarily means neglecting survivors in a way that makes them vulnerable to further trauma.
"Rape ranking" is not a neutral position: It is active rape apologia that harms survivors and abets predators.
There are people who insist that the rape culture isn't real; who demand that I provide "proof" of its existence. Frankly, I cannot imagine a more compelling piece of evidence than the fact that women say things like "I feel fortunate that I haven't been sexually harassed or assaulted," as though being sexually harassed or assaulted is the default expectation, which only the very lucky avoid.
Well, maybe there's one piece of evidence even more compelling than that: The fact that many women who say they are fortunate to have avoided sexual abuse actually haven't.
Why Hasn't Hillary?
[Content Note: Rape culture.]
It has been revealed that a famous man is a sexual predator and yet why hasn't Hillary Clinton, a private citizen who has been widely told to retire to Grey Gardens and shut up forever, condemned him on-demand, whilst using the correct tone and words, after the appropriate time interval, and while donating money to charity in an amount and on terms precisely-determined by men, after the revelations were made public?
You might have also heard that the U.S. head of state is a man who has admitted on tape to sexual assault and that his second-in-command is a man who admits he can't be trusted to be left alone in the presence of women, and yet why hasn't Hillary offered to chaperone the two men so they don't accidentally assault any of the, admittedly few, women who find themselves in the presence of these men?
Why hasn't Hillary Clinton stopped re-litigating the 2016 election, when she should instead just be quiet and let pundits and political foes re-litigate every aspect of her personal and professional life dating back decades for their own professional gain?
For that matter, on exactly two occasions in my life, random men have exposed their genitals to me in public, and yet why hasn't Hillary Clinton publicly condemned these men in my precise and unspecified terms and conditions? Doesn't she have psychic knowledge, and at least adjacent responsibility for, all acts of male sexual misbehavior? Doesn't the fact that she hasn't yet returned every donation made by every single predatory man who has contributed to her campaigns, the Clinton Foundation, or the Democratic Party since she has been a Democrat only further prove that she is, indeed, History's Greatest Monster?
While I'm at it, why hasn't Hillary Clinton, private citizen, taken on more of the wrongs of the Liberal Hollywood Establishment to my exact and circumscribed liking?
Mel Gibson, obviously. But also, in that one movie, Meg Ryan had absolutely no business riding her bike like that, eyes closed and arms outstretched. What did she even expect to happen and where was Hillary on that? And seriously, fuck those bees in My Girl. Yet did we ever hear a peep from Hillary? And don't even get me started on Dottie Hinson "dropping the ball." Hillary quoted that particular movie in her book, What Happened, so all I'm saying is, connect the dots, sheeple. Why hasn't Hillary Clinton offered definitive proof that she's not a shill for the Racine Belles?
The bigger question is, what did Hillary know, and when?
Okay. I'm being deliberately absurd, because these are absurd times. Pundits and politicians demanding that a woman who lost the electoral vote to a sexual predator under questionable circumstances answer for the actions of a famous, predatory man seems like the arrival of something quite close to Peak 2017. As I said to a friend recently, the Trump years are turning out to be even worse than I imagined, and I imagined them to be like diarrhea sauce on a shit sandwich. See also:
2017 has meant living each day with existential dread of nuclear war and the reminder that people hate women more than they like being alive— Fannie Wolfe (@fanniesroom) October 12, 2017
The dynamics of rape culture aren't often logical. For one, rape culture goes hand in hand in with the hatred of women. And, the hatred of women has largely been both incredibly stupid and nihilistic. Many Trump voters' lives already are, or are going to be, materially worse — and possibly completely destroyed — because they voted for the "lock her up" carnival barker rather than the highly-qualified lady with the binders full of practical policy proposals who was ready to hit the ground running as president.
Secondly, rape culture is grounded in a self-perpetuating demand that abusers be coddled and victims silenced. The mawkish, and largely male, reactions to Hillary Clinton's Response to Harvey Weinstein's Predation are evidence of a seemingly-widespread notion that living in a world in which Hillary Clinton exists somehow means that shitty, abusive men, and their "whudabout Hillary" hot-take media enablers, never have to task themselves with being part of the solution. This notion is closely related to the bizarre obsession some have with getting Hillary Clinton to admit that she, and she alone, is responsible for her electoral college loss to Donald Trump.
It's a good rule to keep in mind, I suppose. If you make any mistake in life, whether it's running repeated stories in your newspaper about emails or spreading ridiculous moral equivalencies, you can deflect all accountability with three magic words: Hillary Clinton though!
Make no mistake, though, when it comes to rape culture, if it weren't Hillary Clinton, it would be someone or something else detracting from the abuser's responsibility: the histories and credibility of the victims, concern for the man's solid reputation and future, the deflection that women elsewhere in the world might have things worse and so forth. And, while many men ignore and/or the harass women who speak publicly about rape culture, we also know that the prime time — indeed the only time — many men will actually listen to a woman talk about rape culture is if she's reassuring, rather than confronting, these ingrained, deep-seated rape myths.
Otherwise, men are talking. So much talking.
Many men barge into conversations about rape culture and, even if some have good intentions, nonetheless act as though the conversations don't predate their interjections, demands, musings, and analyses:
But Hillary! I regularly read exactly zero feminist writings, but let me play devil's advocate here! Now that I have a daughter, I suddenly care! I never write about rape culture, but watch me use women as political footballs! I don't know anything about this, but here are my random thoughts (i.e., Give me kudos for performing "being a good guy" on social media!), say the guys with hundreds of thousands of followers, as though there aren't knowledgeable women whose voices they could instead be amplifying.
So, all around, let's forget about locking her up. Isn't it high time we just cast Hillary Clinton into the desert and be done with it so that men can feel absolved of their complicity once and for all? They've made it abundantly clear that a solution along these lines would be far preferable to the alternative of collectively expecting men to do any real emotional, educational, or moral labor on this front.
Question of the Day
It's that time again: What would you like to see asked as a future Question of the Day? Either something that's never been asked, or something that I haven't asked for awhile and you really enjoyed the first time around.
BRING ALL YOUR QUESTIONS! ALL OF THEM! :)
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by an autumn breeze.
Recommended Reading:
Helena Minchew: International Day of the Girl: Five Years of Wins for Girls Worldwide
Miri: [Content Note: Mass violence; guns; disablism; institutional neglect] Social Workers Cannot Prevent Mass Shootings for You
Fannie Wolfe: [CN: Misogyny] Quiet
Ayesha Chatterjee: [CN: Discussion of exploitative surrogacy] Bollywood Birds and Bees
Marykate Jasper: Carrie Fisher Insisted That Leia's Last Jedi Arc Honor All The "Girls Who Grew up Watching Star Wars"
George Dvorsky: [CN: Moving GIF at link] Close Encounter with Asteroid Will Test Earth's Early Warning System
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
