As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
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 277
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: Myeshia Johnson Has Nothing to Say to Donald Trump and Mueller's Investigation Takes a Worrying Turn and Today in War.
In case you have a seen what its purveyors claim is a screencap of Myeshia Johnson's Facebook page going around, in which she appears to support Trump and criticize Rep. Wilson, it's a fake. Because conservatives' depravity knows no boundaries.
Shameless. Right wingers are circulating a fake Facebook post of Myeshia Johnson supposedly exonerating Trump. https://t.co/CyzvPUThqK
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) October 22, 2017
* * *
In other tendril of the emergent strategy to redirect accusations of Russian collusion onto those who call it out (what I'll henceforth call The Russia Reversal), anti-Putin whistleblower Bill Browder — whom Putin has accused of murdering Sergei Magnitsky (for whom the Magnitsky Act, which Putin hates, is named) — says his U.S. visa has been revoked.
And no less on the very same day that Putin successfully had Browder placed on Interpol's watchlist (again).
Yes it happened on the same day as the Russians issued their 5th Interpol arrest warrant for me https://t.co/5dvgyfvxum
— Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) October 22, 2017
This is outrageous. @realDonaldTrump , @StateDept et al, fix this now. Now. Do not join Putin's campaign against @Billbrowder. https://t.co/mKfUgQwmRH
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) October 22, 2017
Not good. Not good at all.
* * *
The New York Times Editorial Board: America's Forever Wars. "The United States has been at war continuously since the attacks of 9/11 and now has just over 240,000 active-duty and reserve troops in at least 172 countries and territories. While the number of men and women deployed overseas has shrunk considerably over the past 60 years, the military's reach has not. American forces are actively engaged not only in the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen that have dominated the news, but also in Niger and Somalia, both recently the scene of deadly attacks, as well as Jordan, Thailand, and elsewhere. An additional 37,813 troops serve on presumably secret assignment in places listed simply as 'unknown.' The Pentagon provided no further explanation."
Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: Senators Stunned to Discover We Have 1,000 Troops in Niger. "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the chamber's most hawkish members, told host Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that he didn't know until recently that a thousand U.S. troops are stationed in Niger. Graham is on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, tasked with overseeing the Pentagon. ...Graham added that as long as American military activity involves countering 'radical Islamist fundamentalism and the spread of it,' Congress doesn't need to give the Pentagon any special permission since, in his view, the AUMFs that passed in 2001 was sufficient. ...Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the chamber's most powerful Democrat, admitted later on the same show that he was just as ignorant as Graham about the number of U.S. troops in Niger. When Todd asked him if he knew previously about the thousand troops there, he said he didn't. 'And what it means, Chuck, for the war authorization, is I agree with Senator [Rand] Paul (R-KY) that we ought to look at this carefully,' Schumer continued."
Everything is fine. *crawls into cannon; fires self directly into sun*
* * *
Philip Rucker, Sean Sullivan, and Paul Kane at the Washington Post: The Great Dealmaker? Lawmakers Find Trump to Be an Untrustworthy Negotiator. Oh wow no shit. Is that because he's a compulsive fucking liar? "Trump campaigned as one of the world's greatest dealmakers, but after nine months of struggling to broker agreements, lawmakers in both parties increasingly consider him an untrustworthy, chronically inconsistent, and easily distracted negotiator. As Trump prepares to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to unify his party ahead of a high-stakes season of votes on tax cuts and budget measures, some Republicans are openly questioning his negotiating abilities and devising strategies to keep him from changing his mind."
I love (cough) how people continue to give Trump the benefit of the doubt and insist on Occam's Big Paisley Tie-ing every reason under the sun why Trump does the terrible things he does. "Oh, he's easily distracted." NO HE'S A FUCKING LIAR.
And it happens regarding everything.
Some shrink should examine: Why does Donald Trump take such perverse pleasure in attacking African-Americans?
— Bill Press (@bpshow) October 21, 2017
I'm no shrink but I'm pretty sure it's because he's a white supremacist who needs to wreak malice like the rest of us need to breathe. https://t.co/xzWjvLZaAo
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 21, 2017
Jesus fucking Jones. Stop extending this guy good faith and describe what is patently obvious. Goddammit.
* * *
Auditi Guha at Rewire: Flint Faces Critical Deadline to Choose a Water Source. "Three years into the Flint water crisis, the clock is ticking and a federal judge has ordered the city council to clean up its act. City officials must choose a long-term source of drinking water by Monday, U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson ordered in a summary judgment. Judge Lawson noted 'the Council has had abundant opportunities to exercise its prerogatives in choosing a long-term water source, and has failed at every turn through its inaction.' ...Flint activist Melissa Mays told Rewire that she would like to see the city council and the mayor agree on a plan to remain on the Detroit source until all of Flint's tainted infrastructure is replaced and a new water treatment plant is built. 'This way we wouldn't be handing 30 years of payments and control over to Detroit nor would we be making yet another untested water source switch that could poison us all over again by going to the Karegnondi Water Authority,' she said."
Greg Sargent at the Washington Post: Trump Is at Risk of Blowing It on Opioids, a Member of His Own Commission Warns.
[Trump] recently told reporters that he would soon have a "major announcement" on the "massive opioid problem," and people inside the White House are now leaking word that this announcement will herald an all-hands-on-deck push to combat the epidemic.Well, fuck. This is hardly surprising, but it's still depressing at hell to have confirmation of what we all could have guessed.
But members of Trump's own handpicked commission to combat the epidemic aren't nearly as confident, I'm told. They are increasingly worried that the Trump administration will not actually follow through with a robust response, even if he does go before the cameras and declare the crisis a national emergency, and they are increasingly annoyed by the efforts of people inside the administration who are resistant to such a response, one member of the commission says.
In a surprisingly blunt interview with me, Patrick Kennedy, the former congressman from Rhode Island who is a member of the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, candidly described the mood on the commission as one racked by pessimism about the president's willingness and ability to follow through with a response that matches the scale of the human disaster that has unfolded.
* * *
[Content Note: Violence; image of injury at link] CBS/AP: Prominent Journalist Stabbed in Her Throat at Moscow Radio Station. "A well-known journalist for Russia's leading news radio station was stabbed in the throat Monday by an unknown attacker who burst into her studio - the latest in a string of attacks on journalists or opposition activists in Moscow. The assailant broke into Ekho Moskvy, which has often been described as Russia's only independent news radio station, and stabbed deputy editor-in-chief Tatyana Felgenhauer, editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov said. Felgenhauer, best known for co-hosting a popular morning radio show, was taken to hospital but her life is not in danger, the station said."
[CN: Torture; death; homophobia] Missing Pop Singer Reportedly Tortured to Death in Chechnya's Anti-Gay Purge. "Reports have emerged claiming that pop singer Zelimkhan Bakaev has become the latest victim of Chechnya's anti-gay purge. The singer reportedly went missing in August, and hasn't been heard from since by his family and friends. After fears began to grow for his safety, LGBT+ human rights groups previously thought that Bakaev had been detained. However, sources now believe the Russian singer, 26, was brutally tortured to death by authorities shortly after his arrival into the country, all because of his sexuality."
Let us not mince words about this: If Hillary Clinton were president, she and/or her Secretary of State would be denouncing these attacks on the press in Russia and the torture and murder of LGBTQ people in Chechnya.
Instead, Donald Trump is president, and he is waging his own war on the press and making "jokes" about how Mike Pence wants to hang all gay people.
Fuck every single person who said or implied there was no difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 15, 2017
* * *
[CN: Rape culture; description of assault] Guardian/AP: Director James Toback Accused of Sexual Harassment by 38 Women. "The Oscar-nominated writer and director James Toback has been accused of sexual harassment by 38 women in a report published by the Los Angeles Times. Many of the women allege Toback approached them on the streets of New York City and promised stardom. Subsequent meetings would often end with sexual questions and Toback masturbating in front of the women or dry-humping them, according to the accounts. The 72-year-old denied the allegations to LA Times, saying he never met any of the women, or if he had it 'was for five minutes and [I] have no recollection.'" Fuck this guy.
"But Toback amassed a solid body of work over four decades [incl] a sympathetic documentary about boxer Mike Tyson." https://t.co/0DCtmvoeAs
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 22, 2017
[CN: Rape culture] Anemona Hartocollis and Christina Capecchi at the New York Times: 'Willing to Do Everything,' Mothers Defend Sons Accused of Sexual Assault. This is absolutely disgusting. "She described herself as a lifelong Democrat and feminist who went to college in the 1970s at the height of the sexual revolution and women's liberation movements. Her husband and their two sons were 'super respectful' of women, she said. 'We don't really need to teach our sons not to rape,' she said." The fuck you don't.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Today in War
Here are three notable stories you may have missed the past few days but definitely want to know about:
1. Marcus Weisgerber at Defense One: U.S. Preparing to Put Nuclear Bombers Back on 24-Hour Alert.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to put nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert, a status not seen since the Cold War ended in 1991.2. Jeff Daniels at CNBC: Trump Executive Order Lets Air Force Recall up to 1,000 Retired Pilots for Active Duty.
That means the long-dormant concrete pads at the ends of this base’s 11,000-foot runway — dubbed the "Christmas tree" for their angular markings — could once again find several B-52s parked on them, laden with nuclear weapons, and set to take off at a moment's notice.
"This is yet one more step in ensuring that we're prepared," Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview during his six-day tour of Barksdale and other U.S. Air Force bases that support the nuclear mission. "I look at it more as not planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure we're prepared going forward."
Goldfein and other senior defense officials stressed that the alert order had not been given, but that preparations were under way in anticipation that it might come.
Invoking the National Emergencies Act, [Donald] Trump on Friday signed an executive order that allows the Air Force to voluntarily recall up to 1,000 retired aviators for active duty.3. A massive hacking campaign is underway — and has been for quite some time.
...Trump's executive order signed Friday amends emergency powers signed by President George W. Bush after the terrorist attacks on September 11. Last month, Trump extended the post-9/11 emergency powers.
According to the Pentagon, the Air Force is currently short by about 1,500 pilots.
...Friday's executive order gives Defense Secretary James Mattis "additional authorities to recall retired aviation officers regardless of certain limitations on status, period of service, and numbers to mitigate the Air Force's acute shortage of pilots," [Pentagon spokesman Navy Cmdr. Gary Ross] said.
FBI & DHS: massive hacking campaign underway attacking American energy, nuclear, water, aviation, construction & manufacturing sectors.
— Jose Pagliery (@Jose_Pagliery) October 21, 2017
A US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) Alert was issued on October 20: "Advanced Persistent Threat Activity Targeting Energy and Other Critical Infrastructure Sectors."
This joint Technical Alert (TA) is the result of analytic efforts between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This alert provides information on advanced persistent threat (APT) actions targeting government entities and organizations in the energy, nuclear, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors.Oh.
...DHS assesses this activity as a multi-stage intrusion campaign by threat actors targeting low security and small networks to gain access and move laterally to networks of major, high value asset owners within the energy sector. Based on malware analysis and observed IOCs, DHS has confidence that this campaign is still ongoing, and threat actors are actively pursuing their ultimate objectives over a long-term campaign.
Everything is fine. (Everything is not fine.)
Mueller's Investigation Takes a Worrying Turn
On October 18, I noted in comments of that day's We Resist thread that there appeared to be "an emergent strategy to concede that Russia was indeed involved in influencing the election but that it was the Clinton campaign who colluded with them."
In addition to a story that day at the Hill, which asserted there had been an Obama-era quid pro quo between the Russians and the Clinton Foundation before the Uranium One deal, I observed there had been a dozen different tendrils building that (ridiculous) case: Grassley grilling Sessions that day about the Clinton Foundation and payment Bill Clinton received from Russia for a speech; the Senate Judiciary launching a probe into the so-called Russian nuclear bribery case; a Guardian piece which was clearly a plant (the Russian news oulet RBC "broke" the story) to lay the groundwork for the narrative to become that its actually leftists who colluded with Russia; circulating rumors that Assange was going to prove Hillary Clinton had colluded with Russia.
"This," I wrote, "is their next big play. To hang Russia around Hillary's neck."
Today, there is a third story at the Hill, which has been hitting this angle hard: "FBI watched, then acted as Russian spy moved closer to Hillary Clinton." The entire report amounts to nothing more than Russia tried to ingratiate itself with Clinton. But the objective is to cast doubt. On Clinton and Obama.
Essentially, the narrative being constructed is that some nefarious dealings with the Russians started while Hillary Clinton was at State, and President Obama knew. That they've accused Trump of collusion, but they are the real traitors, and they need to be put on trial and jailed. ("Lock her up!")
I know that sounds fucking crazy, believe me I know, but this is how repressive authoritarian has taken hold in other places: Show trials of political adversaries. It's not just that it could happen here; it's fucking happening. The groundwork is being laid.
Which brings me to today's extremely troubling leak from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's heretofore tight operation: Mueller Now Investigating Democratic Lobbyist Tony Podesta.
The probe of Podesta and his Democratic-leaning lobbying firm grew out of Mueller's inquiry into the finances of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to the sources. As special counsel, Mueller has been tasked with investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.But John Podesta having been Hillary Clinton's campaign chair is the only reason this is of great enough interest to be leaked.
...Tony Podesta is the chairman of the Podesta Group and the brother of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman. John Podesta is not currently affiliated with the Podesta Group and is not part of Mueller's investigation.
I'm now no longer merely worried that Mueller will settle for Manafort to protect Donald Trump. I'm worried that this investigation may have been compromised to a much more significant extent.
And Senate Republicans have already indicated their complicity in furthering this agenda.
I can't overstate this: If this is headed where I think it's headed, this is the most dangerous thing that Trump has done so far. What I'm seeing looks like the nascent stages of a plan to silence and punish dissidents.
We are all in real fucking trouble.
Myeshia Johnson Has Nothing to Say to Donald Trump
Myeshia Johnson, the widow of soldier Sgt. La David Johnson, spoke to ABC News' chief anchor, George Stephanopoulos, on Good Morning America this morning, and the interview was absolutely gutting and rage-making to watch. Below is the complete interview, followed by a transcript.
Here's the full interview with Myeshia Johnson, widow of fallen soldier Sgt. La David Johnson pic.twitter.com/1pbqEonlH0
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 23, 2017
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We're joined now by the widow of Sgt. Johnson, Myeshia Johnson. Myeshia thank you for coming in this morning. I hope you're feeling the prayers and thoughts of all of us.Naturally, Trump responded by calling Myeshia a liar — without even using her name.
MYESHIA JOHNSON: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, it was so clear watching the funeral how loved and respected La David was by his family, his friends, his community, his fellow soldiers. What do you want people to know about him?
JOHNSON: Well, I want the world to know how great of a soldier my husband was, and a loving and caring father and husband he was to our family.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You knew him since you were six, huh?
JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And I also know you have a lot of questions about what happened.
JOHNSON: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: In Niger.
JOHNSON: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What's at the top of your mind?
JOHNSON: The questions that I have, that I need answered, is: I want to know why it took them 48 hours to find my husband. Why couldn't I see my husband? Every time I asked to see my husband they wouldn't let me.
GS: What did they tell you?
JOHNSON: They told me that he's in a severe, a severe wrap, like I won't be able to see him. I need to see him, so I will know that that is my husband. I don't know nothing; they won't show me a finger, a hand. I know my husband's body from head to toe. And they won't let me see anything. I don't know what's in that box. It could be empty for all I know. But I need — I need to see my husband. I haven't seen him since he came home.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And what have they told you about what happened in Africa?
JOHNSON: I really don't know the answers to that one neither, because when they came to my house they just told me that, um, it was a massive gunfire, and my husband as of October 4th was missing. They didn't know his whereabouts. They didn't know where he was, or where to find him. And a couple of days later is when they told me that he went from missing to killed in action. I don't know how he got killed, where he got killed, or anything. I don't know that part; they never told me, and that's what I've been trying to find out since day one, since October 4th.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you confident you're gonna get the answers you need?
JOHNSON: If I keep pushing for 'em I will.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And they just say they don't know?
JOHNSON: They won't tell me. They won't tell me anything. I don't know anything.
STEPHANOPOULOS: There are also a lot of questions about the phone call you received from President Trump. I know you were in a car to the airport. Tell us what happened next.
JOHNSON: Me and my family was in the limo to receive my husband from, I think it was Denver? Dover? we went to—?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Dover.
JOHNSON: Dover. And we was literally on the airport strip getting ready to get out, and he called Master Sergeant Neil's phone. I asked Master Sergeant Neil to put his phone on speaker, so my aunt and uncle could hear as well. And he goes on to saying his statement as— What he said was—
STEPHANOPOULOS: The president.
JOHNSON: Yes, the president, said that he knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyway. And I was— It made me cry 'cause I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said— He couldn't remember my husband's name. The only way he remembered my husband's name is because he told me he had my husband's report in front of him, and that's when he actually said "La David." I heard him stumbling on trying to remember my husband's name. And that were hurting me the most, because if my husband is out here fighting for our country, and he risked his life for our country, why can't you remember his name? And that's what made me upset and cry even more, because my husband was an awesome soldier. He did what it take other people, other soldiers, like five years to do in three years. So imagine if my husband was here now. It took my husband three years to make E-5; it takes other soldiers five to six years just to make a E-5. So if he was here now, he woulda been on his way to being a E-6 or a E-7. My husband had high hopes in the military career.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What did you say to the president?
JOHNSON: I didn't— I didn't say anything. I just listened.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you were upset when you got off the phone?
JOHNSON: Oh very, very upset and hurt. Very. It made me cry even worse.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Congresswoman Wilson reported that, and you explained she was in the car with you.
JOHNSON: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: She's been close with your family for a long time?
JOHNSON: Yes. Yes. Ms. Wilson— My uncle-in-law was Ms. Wilson's elementary school principal, and my husband was in her 5,000 Role Model program. That's why she's well-connected with us, because she's been in our family since we were little kids.
STEPHANOPOULOS: The president said that the congresswoman was lying about the phone call.
JOHNSON: Whatever Ms. Wilson said was not fabricated. What she said was 100 percent correct. It was Master Sgt. Neil, me, my aunt, my uncle, and the driver, and Ms. Wilson in the car, the phone was on speaker-phone. Why would we fabricate something like that?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is there anything you'd like to say to the president now?
JOHNSON: No. I don't— Nah. I don't have nothing to say to him.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your little girl's going to be born in January.
JOHNSON: Yes, January 29th.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What are you gonna tell her about her dad?
JOHNSON: I'm gonna tell her how awesome her dad was, and how a great father he was, and how he died as a hero.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Words she's gonna love to hear. Myeshia, thank you for sharing your story this morning.
JOHNSON: Yes. Thank you.
I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2017
He is such a contemptible wreck.
I take up space in solidarity with Myeshia Johnson and her family.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by stripes.
Recommended Reading:
Helen Rosner: 20 Things Men Can Do RTFN to Support Women, Beyond Just Literally Ceasing to Sexually Harass Us
Shannon Keating: [Content Note: Sexual harassment; homophobia] Cara Delevingne's Allegations About Harvey Weinstein Feel Awfully Familiar
Shireen Shakouri: [CN: Misogyny; racism; reproductive coercion] Why Do Other People Get to Decide Who Is a Woman and Who Is a Girl?
Kenrya Rankin: [CN: Misogyny; carcerality] New Report Delves into the Mass Incarceration of Women
Rae Paoletta: What All Humans Can Learn From Sloths: A Scientist Explains on International Sloth Day
THV: A Tom Hardy Fan Story
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Sexual assault. Video autoplays at link.]
"It's happening. It's your heroes, people you work with, family members. You have to believe people when they come forward. ...Sports figures, stand-up comedians, political figures — they're everywhere."—Tig Notaro, on the ubiquity of sexual assault and the importance of believing survivors.
If you haven't seen the second season of her show One Mississippi, of which one of the prominent themes is surviving sexual abuse, I highly recommend it. It is exquisite.
About That Louis CK Movie
[Content Note: Rape culture.]
I don't even know where to begin with this trash. Maybe with how the trailer is done in the style of Woody Allen? https://t.co/J3VJjgbMfF
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 20, 2017
I mean it wouldn't be the worst timing if it means we finally talk about the open secret that Louis CK is a predator https://t.co/I9T802L50G
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 20, 2017
Or, you know, we could wait until dozens of women come forward, like with Cosby, Weinstein, etc., and then all act shocked about it.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 20, 2017
Later, we can be appalled at this film like combing through Cosby's old bits or Woody Allen's films & "noticing" the red flags (admissions).
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 20, 2017
Louis C.K. is a very clever person. He is also a predator. This whole film is an obvious provocation — and I don't understand how anyone who's ever heard even a whisper about his reputation for assaulting female colleagues can fail to see that he is testing how far he can go, how much he can confess, without censure.
I am disgusted. Not just at him. At everyone who participated in this fuckery.
[Previously: Today in Rape Culture; On Louie. Again.; On Louie. Once More.; Tweet of the Day; Louis CK Never Said He Wasn't Going to Tell Rape Jokes Anymore; Considering the Rape Culture; Rapists Actually Say the Stuff of Louis CK's Joke.]
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 274
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: John Kelly Got It Very, Very Wrong.
Robert Windrem and Courtney Kube at NBC News: Pentagon Sends Team to Niger to Find Out What Happened.
The U.S. military is still searching for answers on what happened in Niger two weeks ago when four U.S. soldiers were killed during an ambush, apparently by a branch of ISIS.[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] There is also some question, as reported by Barbara Starr at CNN, that Sgt. La David Johnson may have been alive when he was left behind: "Is it still accurate that a 'beacon' was emitting from the battlefield, leading to some indication he might have been alive for a period of time?" And whether he was left alive or dead may be attributable to the possibility that a contractor who rescued the soldiers under siege, as they wouldn't have had or done a headcount the way a military rescue presumably would have.
Now the Pentagon's Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent a team to the African nation to conduct a "review of the facts," according to two U.S. defense officials. The officials are careful not to call the inquiry an investigation, but admit they simply don't know what happened on Oct. 4.
"We need to collect some very basic raw facts," one defense official said.
...The official said the level of confusion during and after the mission was "tremendous." The fourth soldier's body wasn't found until nearly two days after the ambush.
...One indication of the level of confusion after the attack is that the U.S. military has provided three different answers for who flew the medevac helicopter – first U.S. military officials said it was French military, then that it was the U.S. military. Now, they're saying it could have been a U.S. contractor.
There are a lot of important questions that need answers here. One would hope Congressional Republicans, following their exhaustive investigations of Benghazi, are interested in getting those answers.
Cough.
* * *
Speaking of Congressional Republicans who take their jobs seriously...
Here's Speaker Paul Ryan making some terrific jokes at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York last night:
Speaker Paul Ryan roasts President Trump at Al Smith dinner. Read more: https://t.co/C6yskrwuzU pic.twitter.com/erfbk1pJLY
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 20, 2017
Enough with the applause, all right? You sound like the Cabinet when Donald Trump walks in the room. [edit] I don't think I've seen this many New York liberals, this many Wall Street CEOs, in one room since my last visit to the White House. [edit] I wanna thank Patricia Heaton. Patricia and I do go way back a long ways, because you know what? Patricia Heaton — she is a Hollywood Republican. A Hollywood Republican. That is an oxymoron. Which clearly was the word Rux — Rex Tillerson was searching for. [edit]
I know last year that Donald Trump offended some people. I know his comments, according to critics, went too far. Some said it was unbecoming of a public figure, and they said that his comments were offensive. Well, thank god he's learned his lesson. [edit] A lot of people, they ask me, you know, guy from Wisconsin, what's it like to work on a daily basis with an abrasive New Yorker with a loud mouth? But, you know, once you get to know him, Chuck Schumer's not all that bad. [edit]
And when you read the papers tomorrow, everyone's gonna report this thing differently: Breitbart's gonna lead with "Ryan Slams the President Amongst Liberal Elites." New York Times is gonna report "Ryan Defends the President in a State Hillary Won." And the president will tweet "300,000 at Al Smith Dinner Cheer Mention of My Name." [edit]
My primary opponent in 2016 was endorsed by Sarah Palin. I'm really not that mad about it, because Sarah and I actually have a lot in common. We both lost for vice president; we both debated Joe Biden; and, given the current investigations, I, too, can see Russia from the House. [edit] When people ask me if I believe everything I see on Facebook, I answer, "Nyet." [edit]
Every morning, I wake up in my office [???!] and I scroll Twitter to see which tweets that I will have to pretend that I did not see later on.
The Speaker making a ha-ha joke about how he is willfully abdicating his responsibility to provide checks and balances on the president. https://t.co/0jP9L4f94m
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 20, 2017
"Thank you! I'll be here all — FOREVER BECAUSE IT'S A COUP HAHAHAHAHAHA."
Just so we're clear: The Speaker of the House of the United States Congress, third in line to the presidency, believes it's hilarious that the president is a gross authoritarian bully; that Russia is meddling in the nation's elections and politics; and that he and his party are disloyal scoundrels who are abetting the demise of our democratic norms and systems.
Rage. Seethe. Boil.
* * *
Andrew Restuccia and Nahal Toosi at Politico: Trump Nominees Show Up for Work Without Waiting for Senate Approval. "The Trump administration is pushing the limits of an obscure federal law that restricts nominees from serving in federal positions before they're approved by the Senate. A Politico review has identified four officials at three different agencies doing substantially similar work to the position for which they have been nominated — despite not yet getting a green-light from the Senate. ...[L]awyers and other experts said the moves — including by the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget — to have unconfirmed nominees show up for work appears to skirt the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which prohibits most people who have been nominated to fill a vacant government position from performing that office’s duties in an acting capacity." Coup-coup-cachoo.
Ally Boguhn at Rewire: Meet Trump's Reported Top Choice for Health and Human Services Secretary. "Alex Azar, whose resume includes stints as a pharmaceutical executive, working in George W. Bush's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and clerking for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is reportedly being considered by the Trump administration to lead HHS. Trump 'is leaning towards' nominating Azar to replace Tom Price after the HHS secretary resigned last month, according to a Tuesday report from Politico. ...Azar has donated to Vice President Mike Pence's campaigns, including a $2,950 donation to his 2012 gubernatorial campaign, $1,000 to his gubernatorial re-election efforts in 2016 prior to becoming the nominee for vice president, and another $500 to Pence's successful 2010 bid for the U.S. House of Representatives." That's really all I need to know about him. Boo.
Jamie Grierson at the Guardian: Trump Links UK Crime Rise to 'Spread of Islamic Terror'. "Donald Trump has erroneously linked a rise in recorded crime in England and Wales to the 'spread of radical Islamic terror' in his latest outburst on Twitter. 'Just out report: 'United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.' not good, we must keep America safe!' wrote the US president. The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), in its quarterly update on crime on Thursday, reported a 13% increase in all police-recorded offences across England and Wales." (Which is not the same as "United Kingdom," by the way.) "The report barely mentions terrorism other than to refer on one occasion to the impact recent terrorist attacks in Britain had on the headline murder rate." So wrongity-wrong as usual, in a very specific way as usual.
Greg Miller at the Washington Post: CIA Director Distorts Intelligence Community's Findings on Russian Interference. "'The intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election,' Pompeo said at a security conference in Washington. His comment suggested — falsely — that a report released by U.S. intelligence agencies in January had ruled out any impact that could be attributed to a covert Russian interference campaign that involved leaks of tens of thousands of stolen emails, the flooding of social media sites with false claims, and the purchase of ads on Facebook." Liars. Every last one of them.
Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: White House Staff Was Unprepared for Trump's Surprise Opioid Announcement. "An impromptu remark from [Donald] Trump on Monday that he would make an announcement next week declaring the opioid crisis a national emergency sent staff at the White House scrambling, as they were unprepared for such a move, Politico reported Friday morning, citing White House and agency officials. 'We are going to have a major announcement, probably next week, on the drug crisis and on the opioid massive problem and I want to get that absolutely right,' Trump said on Monday. Staffers were 'blindsided' by the comments, according to Politico."
All the best presidents know that the way to get policy "absolutely right" is to have no real plan at all, put as little thought into it as possible, and scramble at the last minute to throw some shit together.
Well, that's a very foolish idea. https://t.co/g21WN8SBlr
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 20, 2017
[CN: White supremacy] A.C. Thompson, Ali Winston, and Darwin BondGraham at ProPublica: Racist, Violent, Unpunished: A White Hate Group's Campaign of Menace. "ProPublica spent weeks examining one distinctive group at the center of the violence in Charlottesville: An organization called the Rise Above Movement, one of whose members was the white man dispensing beatings near Emancipation Park Aug. 12. The group, based in Southern California, claims more than 50 members and a singular purpose: Physically attacking its ideological foes. RAM's members spend weekends training in boxing and other martial arts, and they have boasted publicly of their violence during protests in Huntington Beach, San Bernardino, and Berkeley. Many of the altercations have been captured on video, and its members are not hard to spot. ...Despite their prior records, and open boasting of current violence, RAM has seemingly drawn little notice from law enforcement. Four episodes of violence documented by ProPublica resulted in only a single arrest — and in that case prosecutors declined to go forward." Huh.
[CN: White supremacy; homophobia; misogyny] Sharona Coutts at Rewire: New Analysis Shows Supporters of Family Research Council Embrace White Supremacy and Neo-Nazism. "The FRC's stated purpose is to advance and defend Christian 'family values,' but its stance on LGBTQ people has earned it a designation as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which cites a long history of vilification... A social media network analysis performed by Rewire, however, shows the FRC's messages are resonating with other factions of the far right that explicitly endorse and advocate extremist views on white supremacy, women's rights, and even espouse neo-Nazi views." Confirming what we already know intuitively: Someone who expresses rank hatred of one marginalized group typically isn't tolerant of any marginalized people at all.
[CN: Homophobia] Damien Sharkov at Towleroad: Russia Eyes Criminalizing 'Gay Propaganda'. "Russia's much criticized law that fines anyone expressing support for LGBT rights in public could get even harsher after a senior official in the Ministry of the Interior suggested making it a criminal offense. ...'Today administrative consequences exist for this but they are not very effective, as the fines are anticipated,' [deputy head of the ministry's anti-sex crime department, Sergei Alabin] complained. 'If we were to raise this, for example, to the rank of criminal offense, then I hope we will protect our offspring, which should not grow up leaning towards pedophilia, non-traditional relations and so forth,' he said, according to state news agency RIA Novosti." This is the administration of the government we're allowing to meddle in our country's future. Which is to say nothing of how our administration is abandoning LGBTQ Russians to horrific oppression and abuse.
[CN: Sexual abuse] Cora Lewis at BuzzFeed: A Top Labor Executive Has Been Suspended After Complaints About His Relationships with Female Staffers. "A top labor movement figure who led the Fight for $15 minimum wage campaign was suspended this week after complaints from staffers about his conduct toward women, BuzzFeed News has learned. The Service Employees International Union suspended Executive Vice President Scott Courtney after 'questions were raised...relating to our union's ethical code and anti-nepotism policy,' Sahar Wali, a spokesperson for the powerful union, said in a statement Tuesday. ...The complaints about Courtney had been an open secret among women in the high-profile Fight for $15 campaign within the union, which is itself led by one of the most visible women in American labor." Goddammit.
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!
John Kelly Got It Very, Very Wrong
Yesterday, during his attempt to redirect the conversation away from Donald Trump's appalling behavior toward Myeshia Johnson, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly launched an unbelievable, dehumanizing attack on Rep. Frederica Wilson, who reported what Trump said to Johnson on a condolence call.
Kelly got the facts wrong. He got who Rep. Wilson is wrong. He got, as deliberatively detailed by Lawrence O'Donnell in an absolutely devastating segment last night, everything wrong.
[The transcript will be here, when available.]
Searing.
John Kelly was no hero yesterday. He was Trump's attack dog. And the attack was on a Black woman, once again.
A City of Two Tales
[Content Note: Rape culture; sexual abuse.]
It's impossible (for me) to ignore the poignant juxtaposition between these two things published in the New York Times last night.
1. Lupita Nyong'o: Speaking Out About Harvey Weinstein.
I have been following the news and reading the accounts of women coming forward to talk about being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein and others. I had shelved my experience with Harvey far in the recesses of my mind, joining in the conspiracy of silence that has allowed this predator to prowl for so many years. I had felt very much alone when these things happened, and I had blamed myself for a lot of it, quite like many of the other women who have shared their stories.2. Tarantino on Weinstein: 'I Knew Enough to Do More Than I Did.'
But now that this is being discussed openly, I have not been able to avoid the memories resurfacing. I have felt sick in the pit of my stomach. I have felt such a flare of rage that the experience I recount below was not a unique incident with me, but rather part of a sinister pattern of behavior.
...Fortunately for me, I have not dealt with any such incidents in the business since. And I think it is because all the projects I have been a part of have had women in positions of power, along with men who are feminists in their own right who have not abused their power. What I am most interested in now is combating the shame we go through that keeps us isolated and allows for harm to continue to be done. I wish I had known that there were women in the business I could have talked to. I wish I had known that there were ears to hear me. That justice could be served. There is clearly power in numbers. I thank the women who have spoken up and given me the strength to revisit this unfortunate moment in my past.
Our business is complicated because intimacy is part and parcel of our profession; as actors we are paid to do very intimate things in public. That's why someone can have the audacity to invite you to their home or hotel and you show up. Precisely because of this we must stay vigilant and ensure that the professional intimacy is not abused. I hope we are in a pivotal moment where a sisterhood — and brotherhood of allies — is being formed in our industry. I hope we can form a community where a woman can speak up about abuse and not suffer another abuse by not being believed and instead being ridiculed. That's why we don’t speak up — for fear of suffering twice, and for fear of being labeled and characterized by our moment of powerlessness. Though we may have endured powerlessness at the hands of Harvey Weinstein, by speaking up, speaking out and speaking together, we regain that power. And we hopefully ensure that this kind of rampant predatory behavior as an accepted feature of our industry dies here and now.
Now that we are speaking, let us never shut up about this kind of thing.
Quentin Tarantino, the Hollywood director most closely tied to Harvey Weinstein, has known for decades about the producer's alleged misconduct toward women and now feels ashamed he did not take a stronger stand and stop working with him, he said in an interview.Tarantino knew that three women, including his then-girlfriend Mira Sorvino, had been harassed and/or assaulted by Weinstein. The only "work" he had to do was listen to and believe them. But he didn't, very deliberately, because, if he had, he "would have had to not work with him."
"I knew enough to do more than I did," he said, citing several episodes involving prominent actresses. "There was more to it than just the normal rumors, the normal gossip. It wasn't secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things."
"I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard," he added. "If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him."
Instead, he maintained an illusion even with himself that he didn't know, in order that he could keep working with an abuser.
Who he knew would never abuse him. Only women.
Two stories from two people who work in the same industry, the same town. One a woman who was abused by Weinstein and felt obliged to keep it a secret. The other a man who knew about Weinstein's abuse and helped him keep it a secret.
My heart breaks for Lupita Nyong'o that she had to carry that privately all these years.
I've nothing but seething contempt for Quentin Tarantino.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker FloraFlora: "I'm thinking about how lately there are a lot of remakes, long-later sequels, and, IDK, reimaginings on TV and at the movies. Not that this is entirely new; see also: Shakespeare. But anyway, so also a lot of them are using the same actors (in the same or different roles), or nodding to the original in a variety of ways. So: What is your favorite instance of a return to a fictional universe calling back to its predecessor?"
Men's "Cluelessness" and the Rape Culture
[Content Note: Rape culture.]
Rebecca Traister has written a very good piece for The Cut about the conversation we should be having in this moment of awareness-raising around the ubiquity of sexual violence: "The conversation we should be having, alongside the one about individual trespasses, is about mechanisms far larger than any one perpetrator. It's about the kind of power structures that enable powerful individuals and then shield them from resistance or retribution."
Men, she argues, need to have conversations about their participation in and maintenance of systems that abet sexual abuse.
They do. But most of them won't.
Because it's much easier to continue to ignore the problem. But not before a perfunctory expression of shock at how pervasive the problem is, often coupled with a confessed cluelessness about the rape culture.
The bad guys aggressively challenge the existence of the rape culture. The "good guys" publicly furrow their brows over their own ignorance.
(And if you're a dude who falls into neither of those categories, but actively works to educate himself and other men on the rape culture, congratulations for doing the bare minimum to be a decent human being. Don't make this thread about you.)
And just as "harmless" serves a particular function in upholding the rape culture, so, too, does "clueless."
Being "clueless," you see, is a nifty way for a man to explain why it is that he's not having the sort of difficult — and meaningful — conversations like the one Traister suggests. How can anything be expected of him? Why, he only just learned about the existence of the rape culture five minutes ago!
This is an affected cluelessness, invoked to justify inaction. And I'm calling bullshit on it.
If these "clueless" men have heretofore remained unaware of the rape culture, then how is it that virtually all of them know its tropes and narratives?
How is it that virtually every male person is, by the time he hits puberty, capable of sophisticated victim-blaming, armed with a full arsenal of rape culture memes and stereotypes?
How are they all so perfectly versed in the language of rape culture that tasks women with "crying" rape and "claiming" to have been raped, rather than reporting it?
How is it that I have heard male children talking about how women lie about rape?
And why it is that so many of these "clueless" men have complained about being "profiled" or "made to feel like rapists" by women doing the quickening step in front of them, or giving them an anxious side-eye in an otherwise abandoned space?
For people who never consider the rape culture, they sure have an amazing working knowledge of it.
Iain has noted that no cis straight man is really as disconnected from rape culture as so many of them assert themselves to be, that most men have experienced a lone woman hastening her pace on a sidewalk ahead. Some men use that as an opportunity to empathize with the woman. And some of them use that as an opportunity to get angry with her for "treating me like a rapist."
All of us live in the rape culture. All of us are presented with opportunities to consider it.
That we are exhorted to identify with its various purveyors of contempt for consent, rather than with its primary targets and survivors, is another self-perpetuating trick of the rape culture. But a failure of empathy is not a failure of consideration.
It's not that the "clueless" men have "never thought about" rape culture. It's that they have never thought about it from the perspective of a victim.
And I'm really goddamn tired of being obliged to pretend that's the same thing.
Especially when that pretense is used to avoid having the kind of conversations that will move us beyond women disclosing being survivors, again and again, in the hope that something will change.
Ugh, All of These Dudes
Donald Trump sent out his Chief of Staff John Kelly to say some shit and try to change the conversation from Trump being a dirtbag to another Gold Star Family.
And so Kelly said a bunch of stuff, and the media ate it up, because that's what they do.
Kelly speaking out, in raw terms, about how America has changed, says country used to value women and religion as sacred, but no more.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) October 19, 2017
Uhhhhhhh.
Has anyone told John Kelly that he works for Donald Trump? https://t.co/jYGUYVXNTP
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 19, 2017
And has anyone told the press that John Kelly is Donald Trump's lapdog?
Now? Do you all get it NOW?
— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) October 19, 2017
John Kelly and Mad Dog Mattis ARE NOT GOING TO STOP TRUMP
They are accomplices, not victims.
Exactly.
But I'm sure it's all fine that the political world has spent the day gushing over a speech by George W. Bush — during which he didn't even say Trump's name and failed to atone for the way-paving he did for Trump's presidency — and then pretending that there was some other purpose to one of the three generals helping run the White House standing at a podium and explaining what happens after soldiers are killed, other than shutting down criticism, especially when he subsequently refused to call on reporters who don't personally know any Gold Star Families.
Being overly enamoured with white dudes is definitely the wisest thing we could all be doing with our energies in this moment and every other.
The Swimming Thread
Because of the great feedback and conversations I've had since I started talking more about swimming, I'm going to keep talking about it and opening up space for other people to talk about it, too — whether it's sharing their own feelings about swimming, grousing about lack of accessibility, asking questions about how to dive in (literally), or anything else. So, here's another swimming thread!
[Content Note: Body shaming.]
So, one of the most difficult parts of being a swimmer for me is fat haters.
Let me be abundantly clear: The difficulty is not my being fat. To the absolute contrary, my fat is not an impediment neither to my doing nor my enjoying swimming. (In fact, my fat makes me incredibly buoyant!) The difficulty is other people having a problem with my being fat.
And even more specifically: Their failure to keep that to themselves.
It has, so far, in the months I've taken up regular swimming, just been nasty looks. But oh Maude how many nasty looks! How many long, lingering, nasty looks.
The kind of looks that even I notice, and I am infamously oblivious to people looking at me, in either a positive or a negative way. Something I suppose I just learned to tune out long ago, because even attention meant to be flattering makes me uncomfortable.
But I notice these looks. Thin women at the gym doing the most to make me feel like I'm ruining their lives with my very existence!
I would be lying if I said I didn't care. It sucks. But, the fact is, I love swimming too much to let it stop me. I love swimming way the fuck more than I hate the withering stares of thin folks who CANNOT with my jiggly thighs.
It will never, ever, cease being weird to be a fat person at a gym getting shitty looks. I go from strangers shouting at me to "put down the doughnuts and go to the gym" to strangers staring at me with disgust because I'm at the gym.
Nothing makes more plain that fat hatred is categorically not about "health." It's about just wanting us to disappear from the sight of thin people forever.
Which is why it's pointless to give a shit about any fat hater's opinion.
You can't fucking win, so just jump in the pool with a smile.
* * *
As before, please use this thread for all swimming-related discussion, and I am happy to answer any and all questions around being a fat woman who swims: How I navigate the locker room, what strokes I do, how I deal with shitty looks and comments, what's the best suit cut for what body shape to cover all the bits, anything.
Have at it in comments!
