[Content Note: Descriptions of sexual assault, gaslighting, and rape apologia.]
This is just a heartbreaking, enraging, brave, and important piece by Dylan Farrow: "Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?"
I'm not even going to excerpt it. Just go read the entire thing. Every word.
I have always believed Dylan Farrow. I do still. And I take up space in solidarity with her. Today and forever.
"My allegation is apparently still just too complicated."
Discussion Thread: How Are You?
The news continues to be a lot. I remain a human being with a tenuous grasp on my intactness, who is just over here deep-breathing, trying to get through it and not collapse into a pile of dust.
I feel very sad about the number of progressives people I encounter who are responding to the erosion of democratic tenets and the normalization of authoritarian indecencies by ceding principle; by imagining, inexplicably, that countering tyranny with tyranny could ever, would ever, work.
Some of it is self-preservation, I realize — a dark instinct born of the realization, consciously or emerging only as an unrecognizable bubble rising from the depths of one's guts, that we're losing ground at a precipitous pace.
Some of it is frustration: If you can't beat 'em fair, beat 'em ugly.
Some of it is straight-up that the majority of people, on either side of the aisle, are far less concerned with harm mitigation than winning, at any cost.
All of it makes me despair. All of it makes me glad for this community.
How are you doing?
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 322
One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.
So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.
Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.
* * *
Here are some things in the news today:
Earlier today by me: Trump's Jerusalem Pronouncement Was a Disaster; On Due Process; and Al Franken Resigns.
[Content Note: Sexual harassment/assault. Covers entire section.]
On Franken's resignation, this piece by Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress is very good: Al Franken's Crushing Betrayal of the Progressive Cause. "Franken offered himself as the antidote to an age of Trumpian excess. Compassionate and wonky. Intelligent and hard working. Franken spent his brief political career working on obscure, technical reforms that served the most vulnerable Americans. Franken prevented women from being evicted from federally funded housing because they were victims of domestic violence. He protected LGBTQ children subject to bullying and harassment. And now, he's given all of that up because he didn't have the decency to seek women's consent before touching them."
Sarah Huckabee Sanders continues to be a huge asshole:
Sanders: "As a woman myself I’ve never been treated with anything but the highest level of respect [by the president]...That’s a pretty good start on that front.” pic.twitter.com/NcX3Sm9VFr
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) December 7, 2017
rhetoric like this is an insidious part of rape culture. it makes no sense as an argument unless your premise is that sexual harassment/assault happens because some men lack self-control. https://t.co/8DZZLBbCGH
— Scott Madin (@ScottMadin) December 7, 2017
It also makes no sense unless you believe that a man who abuses women (or men) abuses literally every woman (or man) he encounters. I'm quite sure the guy who raped me hasn't raped every single woman he's ever met. Doesn't mean he didn't rape me. https://t.co/9wOjmIDNzf
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 7, 2017
As an aside: All the progressives who keep sending me that "all these women worked with Al Franken and they say he was a perfect gentleman!" article, or this tweet, should take note that doesn't matter any more than what Sarah Huckabee Sanders is saying. In fact, I seem to recall that when Kellyanne Conway once said the same about Trump, progressives quite rightly laughed mirthlessly at her, because it doesn't prove at all that he didn't assault other women.
Yashar Ali at the Huffington Post: Former Congressman Harold Ford Jr. Fired for Misconduct by Morgan Stanley. "Former Democratic Congressman Harold Ford Jr. has been fired for misconduct by Morgan Stanley after facing a human resources investigation into allegations of misconduct, a company spokeswoman confirmed. ...In two interviews with HuffPost, [a woman who is not a Morgan Stanley employee but interacted with Ford in a professional capacity] alleged that Ford engaged in harassment, intimidation, and forcibly grabbed her one evening in Manhattan, leading her to seek aid from a building security guard. The incident took place several years ago when Ford and the woman were supposed to be meeting for professional reasons. Ford continued to contact her after the encounter until she wrote an email asking him to cease contact."
Alana Abramson at Time: Congressman Says Democratic Leaders Knew About His Sexual Misconduct Allegations a Year Ago. "Nevada Congressman Ruben Kihuen told ABC News that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its Chairman Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, knew about the allegations against him, but did not find anything of substance and continued to support him. ...Representatives for both the DCCC and Pelosi told ABC Kihuen's account was false, and that they learned of the allegations last week, when Buzzfeed first reported them. ...Both Lujan and Pelosi called on Kihuen to resign after the publication of the article. But Kihuen told ABC he was not resigning. 'I plan on continuing the job that I was elected to do by the people of the 4th congressional district,' he said."
Olivia Messer at the Daily Beast: 'You Want to Fuck With Me Tonight?': Horror Stories from the Texas Capitol. "Sarah*, who worked with Lauren in Chris' office, told The Daily Beast that she was informed about the incident the following morning. 'I remember thinking at the time: Why would you say something like that to a young woman who is literally doing nothing to you?' Sarah said. 'I was surprised that it was so open, like he did it in a public place. That kind of blew my mind, especially because he's a lawmaker. It's not a sexual innuendo or just a guy seeing if you're up for something
— it's far beyond that. In my opinion, he's going out of his way to intimidate and victimize young women at the Capitol.'"
Kate Winslet continuing to be the absolute grossest about Woody Allen: "I think on some level Woody is a woman. I just think he's very in touch with that side of himself. He understands the female characters he creates exceptionally well." https://t.co/N0aFoxT9wu
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 7, 2017
* * *
Natasha Bertrand at Business Insider: Devin Nunes Spoke to Erik Prince About House Intel Testimony Despite Recusal from the Russia Probe. "Devin Nunes met with Blackwater founder Erik Prince earlier this year and discussed Nunes' investigation into the unmasking of Americans' identities in US intelligence reports, Prince told the House Intelligence Committee in an interview last week. The meeting, which took place over 'the summer or early fall,' has raised eyebrows given Nunes' recusal from the Russia investigation and Prince's status as a witness in that probe." Devin fucking Nunes. This guy needs to be run out of town on rollerskates. STAT.
Aaron Rupar at ThinkProgress: Trump Jr. Invents Fake 'Privilege' to Justify Stonewalling Congress on Key Discussion with His Dad. "During voluntary closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr. cited 'attorney-client privilege' to avoid answering questions about a critical discussion he had with his father this past summer following explosive New York Times reporting about the Trump campaign's efforts to collude with Russia. According to the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Trump Jr.'s rationale for invoking attorney-client privilege is that a lawyer was in the room when he communicated with his father about [a meeting with Russians]... Schiff told reporters he didn't think Trump Jr.'s invocation of attorney-client privilege was appropriate. 'I don't believe you can shield communications between individuals merely by having an attorney present,' he said. 'That's not the purpose of attorney-client privilege.' Lawyers who spoke to ThinkProgress agreed."
Congressional investigators are scrutinizing trips to Europe taken last year by several Trump associates, amid concern they may have met with Kremlin-linked operatives. https://t.co/sFrWVBod5e
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 6, 2017
Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: Paul Ryan Admits the GOP Will Gut Medicare and Medicaid to Pay for Tax Cuts. "Republicans in Congress are openly admitting they plan to use their tax reform bill to justify slashing funding for essential social programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps. ...Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) laid out the plan in an interview Wednesday on Ross Kaminsky's radio show. 'We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,' Ryan said, adding that health care entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid are 'the big drivers of our debt.'"
[CN: Displacement; racism; class warfare] This thread on Puerto Ricans displaced by the failure to adequately address hurricane destruction on the island is a must-read:
THREAD: Was at PATH intake center yesterday talking to folks from Puerto Rico waiting for placement in homeless shelters. They slowly trickle in with their red cross "comfort bags" and suitcases still bearing SJU airport tags. They're being sent here instead of FEMA hotels.. 1/n pic.twitter.com/GMXgXuA87e
— Yarimar Bonilla (@yarimarbonilla) December 7, 2017
[CN: White supremacy; voter suppression] Vann R. Newkirk II at the Atlantic: What's Missing from Reports on Alabama's Black Turnout. "Much of the reporting on Jones's attempts has focused on the same old touchstones of black turnout. Is he doing enough appearances at black churches? Is his friendship tour with Congresswoman Terri Sewell enough to gain the ear of the black belt? Perhaps the groups that traditionally mobilize black voters have been defanged by Alabama's new campaign-finance laws. Maybe black voters just aren't energized by Jones, who — despite being a civil-rights hero for prosecuting the Klansmen who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham — has seemingly tried to run without making major overtures to black voters, for fear of alienating rural whites. Or possibly, as The New York Times reports, a survey of 10 black voters in a strip mall indicates the black electorate just isn't interested in the race or aware of Doug Jones. But these theories that mostly puzzle over a narrative of black disengagement obscure the fact that voting has always been burdensome for black people in Alabama, and that the state has made suppression the norm since Shelby County."
[CN: White supremacy; anti-Black slur]
"When arguing with somebody you have to be careful not to mischaracterize their viewpoint, so I won't mischaracterize your view either, Kathy Rae. I get it. On Dec. 5, 2017, you think it's okay to call this journalist a 'n‑‑‑‑‑.' I don't." https://t.co/a6LkDzO0FQ
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 7, 2017
Gerry Mullany at the New York Times: Nikki Haley Calls U.S. Presence at South Korea Olympics an 'Open Question'. "The American envoy to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, said on Wednesday that it was an 'open question' whether American athletes would be able to attend the Olympics in South Korea in February given the tensions on the Korean Peninsula." Yeah, also given that the International Olympic Committee just announced Russia is banned for doping. Trump's gotta show support for his pal Putin.
On the State Department's latest travel advisory, the Ukraine is listed as a site of possible unrest, but Russia, which has caused unrest in Ukraine (and which is profoundly unsafe for LGBTQ travelers), is not. https://t.co/284fq0kXEW
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 7, 2017
[CN: Wildfire] Haroon Siddique at the Guardian: California Wildfires: Winds Pose 'Extreme Danger' for Los Angeles. "Wildfires blazing through California have entered the heart of Los Angeles as authorities warned of an 'extreme fire danger' across the city. Firefighters in the affluent Bel-Air neighbourhood battled to save multimillion-dollar estates in the path of the flames, which have destroyed homes near the Getty museum in America's second-largest city. Video and photographs posted on social media showed hillsides above busy roads covered in flames, rows of houses reduced to ash, and firefighters spraying water on walls of fire. The largest blaze, the Thomas fire, has covered more than 95,000 acres, destroying more than 150 homes and threatening thousands more in Ventura, about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of Los Angeles. With winds forecast to reach 80mph, officials have warned the worst could be yet to come." Goddamm.
And finally: This story was incredibly harrowing to read, but also profoundly inspiring. I cried through a lot of it. I also deeply appreciate my friend Leah's framing, which I hope you, too, will bear in mind as you read this extraordinary piece.
What Donald Trump doesn't want you to know:
— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) December 7, 2017
The MOST COURAGEOUS people working to destroy ISIS are Muslims.
This 31 year old Iraqi historian and blogger, Omar @MosulEye Mohamed, is one of them. https://t.co/qPLjsYjkMl
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Al Franken Resigns
Below is video of Al Franken's resignation speech to the Senate. A complete transcript is available at the New York Times.
I did not like this speech. I did not like that he was obliged to give it because of his own behavior, and I did not like its contents.
He did not take responsibility for his actions. He said he didn't do anything wrong, he never admitted doing anything wrong, and he isn't sorry.
He couldn't even be bothered to concede that the photo understandably conveyed to many women that he can't be trusted to take sexual assault seriously.
The entire address was designed to petition himself as a martyr. Many progressives will view him that way. And the cause for which he'll be the martyr is "sexual harassment and/or assault accountability has gone too far."
Like many men accused of sexual offenses before him, Franken's grand statement on the matter is incredibly revealing of who he actually is.
Claiming that he did nothing wrong makes his design to resign seem quite absurd. He tried to explain that absurdity by asserting it's because the ethics investigation he presumes would exonerate him would be a distraction from serving his constituents. Progressives have long sneered at Republicans forced to resign because of various indecencies, trying to walk precisely that same tightrope. I did nothing wrong, but I've become a distraction. We have held it in contempt for good reason. It is a lie.
It is the lie that Franken is using so that we won't pay close attention to what he's really saying in admitting no guilt but resigning anyway: He is resigning because lying bitches ran him out.
Is that unfair? Well, I don't know how else to interpret this:
A couple months ago, I felt that we had entered an important moment in the history of this country. We were finally beginning to listen to women about the ways in which men's actions affect them. The moment was long overdue.That is just the first part of the speech. The rest is primarily about his legacy, and what a cool experience — a "rush" — politics has been for him.
I was excited for that conversation and hopeful that it would result in real change that made life better for women all across the country and in every part of our society.
Then the conversation turned to me. Over the last few weeks, a number of women have come forward to talk about how they felt my actions had affected them.
I was shocked. I was upset. But, in responding to their claims, I also wanted to be respectful of that broader conversation, because all women deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously.
I think that was the right thing to do. I also think it gave some people the false impression that I was admitting to doing things that, in fact, I haven't done.
Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others, I remember very differently.
I said at the outset that the ethics committee was the right venue for these allegations to be heard and investigated and evaluated on their merits; that I was prepared to cooperate fully, and that I was confident in the outcome.
You know, an important part of the conversation we've been having the last few months has been about how men abuse their power and privilege to hurt women. I am proud that, during my time in the Senate, I have used my power to be a champion of women, and that I've earned a reputation as someone who respects the women I work alongside every day. I know there's been a very different picture of me painted over the last few weeks, but I know who I really am.
Serving in the United States Senate has been the great honor of my life. I know in my heart that nothing I have done as a senator — nothing — has brought dishonor on this institution. And I am confident that the ethics committee would agree. Nevertheless, today I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate.
"I know that the work I've been able to do has improved people's lives. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat," he said.
If that sounds like a strange thing to say in a resignation speech over accusations you harmed at least 8 women, it is. It's also the kind of thing one says when one really and truly isn't sorry.
Like I said. Revealing.
I grieve that Al Franken had to resign today. My grief is not because we are losing a valuable progressive ally to women. It's because of the clarity that he was never really one in the first place.
I will never, ever, stop being sad about the number of progressive men who can deliver the correct votes on abortion and equal pay and every other issue affecting women, who can give soaring speeches about women's rights, but who cannot treat us with dignity.
On Due Process
[Content Note: Rape culture; harassment.]
NOTE: As I was writing this, Al Franken made a statement on the floor of the Senate in which he announced that he is resigning from the Senate. I will have more on that later. In the meantime, there will surely be much more conversation today about "due process," so this piece is still, and possibly now even more, relevant.
It is the height of ofcourseness that I spent yesterday, the day on which many progressives were uncritically heaping praise on TIME magazine for making "the Silence Breakers" their Person(s) of the Year, being shouted at to shut the fuck up by progressives who are angry at me that I won't give Al Franken a pass.
Don't get angry at me for holding Democratic abusers accountable even though Republicans won't hold their abusers accountable. I have no interest in being a punching bag for people who are angry at Republicans for their lack of decency.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 6, 2017
My refusal to make exceptions for Democratic abusers because the Republicans are deplorable, rape apologist shitheels is not the problem. Tolerating sexual harassment and assault will NEVER be the path to eradicating sexual harassment and assault. pic.twitter.com/Bm9WnbRDsk
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 6, 2017
The rape culture in a nutshell: People are more angry with me, a survivor who has spent more than a decade doing anti-rape advocacy, for having consistent principles on sex abuse, than they are with the Democratic Senator to whom they want me to give a pass.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 6, 2017
Naturally, I was informed in response to the above tweet, it isn't because I refuse to give Franken a pass, but because I don't care about due process.
Three things about that:
1. If you haven't already read this terrific piece by Ijeoma Oluo, please do: "If there's anything these stories show, it's that these men in their years of open abuse were given more than just due process — but the women, many of whom had tried bringing this abuse to those in authority years before, were given no process at all. ...Due process. Women would love ANY process. They would love to even be heard."
2. Due process for criminal consequences and due process for professional consequences don't — and don't have to — look alike.
3. "Due process" doesn't mean what a lot of people seem to think it means, especially in cases like those of the now 8 women who have come forward with allegations against Franken.
In cases of older and/or non-criminal allegations, the investigation looks exactly like what news organizations reporting the allegations have already done: Talk to complainant; interview friends & associates; review social media. The reporting journalists aren't stenographers.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 7, 2017
As Ana Mardoll has observed, Senate ethics investigations are not, in practice, interested in delivering justice, but in shielding Senators from justice. When people are informed of this demonstrable reality, and continue to insist that a Senate ethics investigation is "due process" nonetheless, what I hear is someone who isn't interested in justice, but in seeing Franken exonerated and his accusers publicly dragged.
I understand that many people who haven't spent the last 13 years writing about the rape culture may not understand as keenly as I do that "due process" for people who have been sexually harassed and/or assaulted is vanishingly rare, and that many systems ostensibly designed to aid survivors effectively act instead to protect abusers.
So I am willing to explain to folks how this shit works. But when I do, and when they refuse to acknowledge that there is currently no such thing as meaningful due process through official channels for most survivors of harassment and/or assault, that's an agenda. And it isn't a victim-centered one.
It's also, not incidentally, an agenda that centers marginalized men who are historically most at risk for being railroaded. Many white progressives are masking their rape apologia behind hand-wringing about Black men being falsely accused of sex crimes against white women. But in the modern era, the wrongful prosecution and conviction of Black men virtually always happens in stranger rape cases where women didn't know and couldn't identify their attackers. They are railroaded by police and prosecutors. Not by survivors.
That is a serious fucking concern. And it's actually a bigger risk when cases are investigated by law enforcement. Public accountability movements significantly reduce the possibility of Black men being railroaded for crimes against white women they did not commit.
Those details matter to me. So don't tell me that I am interested in "mob justice" (which is a shitty way to denigrate public accountability movements) and don't care about "due process."
I am a survivor who went to police with a handwritten letter from the guy who raped me talking about how I cried while we "had sex" and a handwritten poem called "Raping [Then Last Name]," and that still wasn't enough to convince the police to even investigate him, no less for him to be arrested and tried.
Trust that I am interested in both meaningful justice and meaningful accountability.
And because I understand how the systems we believe will deliver those actually don't, not to mention because I am a prison abolitionist, I am profoundly supportive of rigorous public accountability.
Then there is this: The "due process" that most people have in mind doesn't exist. And pretending as though it does abets abusers.
I want no part of that.
Congratulations, Australia!
Video Description: Over images of people campaigning for equality, images of the Australian parliament voting and passing the bill, images of people celebrating, and images of couples getting hitched, accompanied by lovely, soaring music, the following text appears onscreen: "Australia's MPs have voted to legalise same-sex marriage. The same-sex marriage bill passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives a week after the Senate passed the bill. The vote comes three weeks after 61.6% of Australia's voters backed the legalisation of same-sex marriage in a $122m survey. The governor general is likely to ratify the law within days, meeting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's promise to get it done by Christmas. Same-sex couples who have married abroad will have their marriages immediately recognised, and the first same-sex weddings under the new law will be held early next year."
Blub. 😭😍🏳️🌈
[Video via the Guardian.]
Trump's Jerusalem Pronouncement Was a Disaster
On Tuesday, Donald Trump spent the day making calls to Muslim leaders, letting them know he was going to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which each of them warned him in turn would have disastrous fallout.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned Trump it would destabilize the peace process and called it "an unacceptable step." King Abdullah of Jordan warned Trump it would a provocative move that would have grave implications for the region. Turkish President Recep Erdogan called it "the red line for Muslims." Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said it would be regarded as a hostile move against Arabs and Muslims.
All of which Trump, who has routinely engaged in rank Islamophobia, evidently considers a feature rather than a bug of the decision.
So yesterday he plowed ahead, despite warnings from foreign leaders, including our allies, and from foreign policy experts in the U.S.
[The New York Times has a complete transcript. Video may autoplay at link.]
Naturally, it has been received precisely as Trump was warned it would be and as anyone with even a cursory understanding of the issue anticipated it would be. That is, badly.
Rick Noack at the Washington Post: U.S. Allies Reject Trump's Jerusalem Pronouncement as 'Very Dangerous' and 'Catastrophic'.
Important U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East such as Britain, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia criticized Trump over his decision and questioned the wisdom of such a move, both prior to and following the announcement. Saudi Arabia's Royal Court issued a statement Thursday, calling the decision "dangerous" and "irresponsible." Similar concerns were voiced by the United Arab Emirates.Trump has managed to bring nations from Britain to the Netherlands to Saudi Arabia to Russia into agreement: They all believe he is a reckless nightmare.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded to the pronouncement on Wednesday evening, saying that the "German government does not support this position, because the status of Jerusalem is to be resolved in the framework of a two-state solution," according to a tweet by her spokesman.
Her words were echoed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who criticized the move as "a regrettable decision that France does not approve of and goes against international law and all the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council."
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson similarly indicated that such a move could further disrupt efforts to reach peace in the region. ...British Prime Minister Theresa May indicated that she would discuss the decision with Trump and emphasized that Britain's position to not recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital remained unchanged.
In the Netherlands, criticism of Trump was unusually strong. "We think it's an unwise step and a counterproductive step. If we want to solve at some moment the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis, we need a two-state solution, and a one-sided step is not going to help," Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra said in an interview Wednesday...
Perhaps the strongest warning came out of Sweden, where Foreign Minister Margot Wallström said the changes are "obviously going to lead to massive effects and unease."
"It's catastrophic," Wallström said.
Belgium's Foreign Minister Didier Reynders criticized Trump's move as "very dangerous," adding that it made a surge in violence in the region more likely.
...Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the younger brother of King Abdullah II, tweeted the strongest statement by any Jordanian figure, writing: "What an exceptionally irresponsible and dangerous step by Mr Trump that will destroy any remaining US credibility as a broker in the Middle East Peace Process and deal a severe blow to any hope for a JUST and lasting peace #Jerusalem."
...In Russia, the Kremlin also joined the list of nations fearing that such a move will exacerbate tensions between Israel and Palestinians, saying that the situation could worsen as a result.
...Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the U.S. plan is "unlawful" and could have "irreversible consequences" in the region.
And they are not wrong.
Trump has once again made an unconscionable and indefensible foreign policy decision that will endanger lives and leave the United States less safe. No nation that becomes completely alienated from allies is safe.
That's a principle which seems to be lost on a president with no understanding of global policy, no sense of history, no talent for diplomacy, and no personal friends.
Again, I am left feeling stuck in grief that he is our president. And that one of our nation's greatest statespeople, Hillary Clinton, is not.
* * *
In addition to the horrendous foreign policy implications of Trump's address, it was also a failure of basic speech-making, as Trump slurred through the latter portion of the speech, again raising questions about his health — although I agree with The Daily Show's Trevor Noah that it was likely a denture malfunction.
Of course Trump would never admit to having fake teeth, despite the fact that there's no shame at all in having dentures, so White House spokesman Raj Shah was sent out to make the ludicrous claim that "His throat was dry."
Maybe that explanation would fly with aliens who have never experienced being a human with a dry throat, but I daresay it's unlikely to convince many Earthlings.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Kathy_A: "Is there any story that you have always wanted to write but have yet to do so?"
Millions of 'em. But I'm too busy writing about Donald fucking Trump instead. Harrumph.
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by toes.
Recommended Reading:
Auditi Guha: [Content Note: Class warfare; bigotry] Advocates: GOP Tax Bill 'Devastating' for Marginalized Groups
TLC: Transgender Law Center Deputy Director Isa Noyola Speaks Out Against Discrimination on Supreme Court Steps
Andy Towle: It's Official: Gay Man Denied Marriage License by Kim Davis Announces He's Running for Her Job
Princess Weekes: [CN: White supremacy] Colin Kaepernick Awarded the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award by Beyoncé
Cory Doctorow: (Virtually) No One Should Ever Own an Echo or Any Other "Voice Assistant" Product (Note: Doctorow's "virtually" caveat is important here because of the utility for some disabled people, but people for whom these products serve a purpose shouldn't have to use them at the cost of their privacy, either.)
Kristen V. Brown: This Temporary Tattoo Is Made From Living Cells
Nick Holmes: Aliem (Deliberate typo for the purposes of humor, lol.)
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Flynn Said Russia Sanctions Would Be "Ripped Up"
At the Washington Post, Tom Hamburger has the latest in what is an increasingly clear case of collusion and quid pro quo:
As [Donald] Trump delivered his inaugural address on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in January, his new national security adviser, Michael Flynn, sent a text to a former business associate telling him that a plan to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East in partnership with Russian interests was "good to go," according to a witness who spoke with congressional investigators.Trey Gowdy is a terrible human being who will almost certainly not give this the attention it deserves, but Elijah Cummings, a national treasure, has my immense respect for tenaciously doing the right thing and expecting more, every damn day he is in office.
Flynn had assured his former associate that U.S. sanctions against Russia would immediately be "ripped up" by the Trump administration, a move that would help facilitate the deal, the associate told the witness.
The witness provided the account to Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who detailed the allegations in a letter Wednesday to the panel's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).
Cummings did not identify the witness, whom he described as a whistleblower. But he asked Gowdy to issue a subpoena to the White House for documents related to Flynn, saying the committee has "credible allegations" that Flynn "sought to manipulate the course of international nuclear policy for the financial gain of his former business partners."
Quote of the Day
"We have to make it not only safe for women, we have to make it possible for us to express a full range of human emotion...without being so negatively judged. Remember when [Trump] called me a nasty woman? All of that stuff didn't end up hurting him that much because men are given a much broader range of emotions to demonstrate their authentic feelings. Be part of the changing culture so it's not viewed as disqualifying if you're standing up for yourself and speaking up for yourself."—Hillary Clinton, at the Teen Vogue Summit in Los Angeles on Dec. 2, during a Q&A with Black-ish star Yara Shahidi.
There are still people who say that having a female president doesn't matter. But when was the last time you heard any male presidential candidate tell girls that they should feel empowered to fight for their complex humanity?
An Observation
It's fascinating how being, say, an athlete who is never satisfied makes you a hero, but being a feminist who is never satisfied makes you a bitch.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 6, 2017
If I had a penny for every time some dude snarled at me "you're never happy" every time I publicly and unabashedly expect more, I would be a very wealthy woman.
And I would be dedicating the entirety of my fortune to being a giant pain in the ass at people who want me to be satisfied with aggressive insufficiencies.
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 321
One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) 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: This Is So Strange and Trump's "Voter Fraud Commission" Is a Nightmare.
[Content Note: Sexual harassment and assault; threats. Covers entire section.]
Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng at the Daily Beast: Trump Has Privately Decided the Sexual-Assault Allegations Against Roy Moore Are Bunk. "Donald Trump has privately told confidants over the past week that he firmly believes Roy Moore's innocence and feels no hesitation at all about endorsing the embattled Alabama Senate candidate, three sources close to the president tell The Daily Beast. ...'This is not something he's struggling with,' one senior White House official told The Daily Beast of Trump." I loathe him.
Heather Caygle at Politico: Another Woman Says Franken Tried to Forcibly Kiss Her. "A former Democratic congressional aide said Al Franken tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006, three years before he became a U.S. senator. ...The former staffer ducked to avoid Franken's lips. As she hastily left the room, she said, Franken told her: 'It's my right as an entertainer.' ...'This allegation is categorically not true and the idea that I would claim this as my right as an entertainer is preposterous. I look forward to fully cooperating with the ongoing ethics committee investigation,' Franken said in a statement to POLITICO. ...'When it really started impacting me in more of a 'I'm really angry about about this' way was last fall when the Trump tape came out,' the former aide said. 'Hearing Donald Trump say essentially the same thing that Al Franken said to me, which was 'It's my right as an entertainer,' that was a real trigger,' she continued."
Democratic Senators have now begun publicly calling for Franken's resignation: Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Mazie Hirono, Claire McCaskill, Maggie Hassan, and Tammy Baldwin, as well as my Senator Bob Casey, who says: "We can't just believe women when it's convenient." Indeed.
Statement from Sen. @amyklobuchar's office: "Sen. Klobuchar personally spoke with Sen. Franken this morning. As has been reported, he will be making an announcement tomorrow morning."
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) December 6, 2017
Kimberly Kindy at the Washington Post: Conyers Faced Mounting Sexual Misconduct Allegations as He Weighed His Future. "Courtney Morse, 36, said she was a 20-year-old college student when Conyers propositioned her. She said Tuesday that she believes he resigned to escape further scrutiny. ...Morse told The Post she quit her internship after Conyers drove her home from work one night, wrapped his hand around hers as it rested in her lap, and told her he was interested in a sexual relationship. When she rejected his advances, Morse said he brought up the then-developing investigation into the disappearance of former federal intern Chandra Levy. 'He said he had insider information on the case. I don't know if he meant it to be threatening, but I took it that way,' Morse said in an interview. 'I got out of the car and ran.'"
Jake Pearson and Jeff Horwitz at the AP: Top Gossip Editor Accused of Sexual Misconduct. "The top editor for the National Enquirer, Us Weekly, and other major gossip publications openly described his sexual partners in the newsroom, discussed female employees' sex lives, and forced women to watch or listen to pornographic material, former employees told The Associated Press. The behavior by Dylan Howard, currently the chief content officer of American Media Inc., occurred while he was running the company's Los Angeles office, according to men and women who worked there. ...Howard quit soon after the report was completed, but the company rehired him one year later with a promotion that landed him in the company's main office in New York. It was not clear whether Howard faced any discipline over the accusations."
David Ferguson at Raw Story: California Sheriffs Have Found Corey Feldman's 1993 Recorded Testimony Naming Hollywood Pedophiles. "[Feldman said] in a recent interview that he testified in the evidence gathering process of the Michael Jackson trial. The actor said he went to the police and 'sat down and I gave them names. They're on record. They have all this information.' The sheriff's department denied having audio of Feldman from the Jackson trial, but has now reversed course." Let's be real clear here: They publicly called Corey Feldman a liar, and have now said they discovered the recordings whoooooooops without so much as an apology to Feldman.
Megan Twohey, Jodi Kantor, Susan Dominus, Jim Rutenberg, and Steve Eder at the New York Times: Weinstein's Complicity Machine. "Harvey Weinstein built his complicity machine out of the witting, the unwitting, and those in between. He commanded enablers, silencers, and spies, warning others who discovered his secrets to say nothing. He courted those who could provide the money or prestige to enhance his reputation as well as his power to intimidate. In the weeks and months before allegations of his methodical abuse of women were exposed in October, Mr. Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, pulled on all the levers of his carefully constructed apparatus. ...Mr. Weinstein's final, failed round of manipulations shows how he operated for more than three decades: by trying to turn others into instruments or shields for his behavior... Almost everyone had incentives to look the other way or reasons to stay silent."
(Note: I'm recommending the above piece despite its inclusion of a section in which Lena Dunham claims to have warned Hillary Clinton's campaign about Weinstein, which I don't think should have been included in the piece — not because of Clinton, but because of Dunham, for various reasons, not least of which is that she just recently publicly defended one of her Girls' writers, a dude who was accused of sexual assault. Not only does Dunham have no credibility on this subject, but she has a vested interest in portraying herself as someone who cares about victims after being widely criticized for disbelieving someone who accused her friend of sexual assault.)
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Brian Faler at Politico: 'Holy Crap': Experts Find Tax Plan Riddled with Glitches. "Republicans' tax-rewrite plans are riddled with bugs, loopholes, and other potential problems that could plague lawmakers long after their legislation is signed into law. ...In many cases, Republicans are giving taxpayers little time to adjust to sometimes major changes in policy. An entirely new international tax regime, one experts are still trying to parse, would go into effect Jan. 1, only days after lawmakers hope to push the plan through Congress. 'The more you read, the more you go, 'Holy crap, what's this?'' said Greg Jenner, a former top tax official in George W. Bush's Treasury Department. 'We will be dealing with unintended consequences for months to come because the bill is moving too fast.'" Months? Try decades.
Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post: The Richest 1 Percent Now Owns More of the Country's Wealth Than at Any Time in the Past 50 Years. "The wealthiest 1 percent of American households own 40 percent of the country's wealth, according to a new paper by economist Edward N. Woolf. That share is higher than it has been at any point since at least 1962, according to Woolf's data, which comes from the federal Survey of Consumer Finances. From 2013, the share of wealth owned by the 1 percent shot up by nearly three percentage points. Wealth owned by the bottom 90 percent, meanwhile, fell over the same period. Today, the top 1 percent of households own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined. That gap, between the ultrawealthy and everyone else, has only become wider in the past several decades." That's what class warfare looks like.
Alastair Gee at the Guardian: America's Homeless Population Rises for the First Time Since the Great Recession. "The study has found that 553,742 people were homeless on a single night this year, a 0.7% increase over last year. It suggests that despite a fizzy stock market and a burgeoning gross domestic product, the poorest Americans are still struggling to meet their most basic needs. 'The improved economy is a good thing, but it does put pressure on the rental market, which does put pressure on the poorest Angelenos,' said Peter Lynn, head of the Los Angeles homelessness agency. The most dramatic spike in the nation was in his region, where a record 55,000 people were counted. 'Clearly we have an outsize effect on the national homelessness picture.' Ben Carson, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which produced the report, said in a statement: 'This is not a federal problem — it's everybody's problem.'" Someone explain to Ben Carson what the federal government represents in a democracy.
[CN: Wildfire; video may autoplay at link] Ruben Vives, Laura J. Nelson, Sarah Parvini, Matt Hamilton, and Sonali Kohli at the LA Times: Ventura County Wildfire Destroys More Homes, Reaches Pacific Ocean. "The fire that has ravaged Ventura County continued to burn out of control Wednesday, reaching the Pacific Ocean unchecked as officials warned many more homes have been lost. The fast-moving, wind-driven wildfire continued to rage through the city of Ventura on Tuesday evening, jumping Highway 33 and burning through oil fields before crossing the 101 Freeway into Solimar Beach, authorities said. ...Thousands of homes were still threatened by flames, 27,000 people were forced to flee, a firefighter was injured, and Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, as some 1,100 personnel continued to battle the blaze. At least 150 structures — including one large apartment complex and the Vista Del Mar Hospital, a psychiatric facility — were consumed by flames. But Cal Fire suspects the true number is hundreds more; firefighters just haven't been able to get into areas to know for sure."
[CN: Self-harm] Debbie Weingarten at the Guardian: Why Are America's Farmers Killing Themselves in Record Numbers? "Last year, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that people working in agriculture — including farmers, farm laborers, ranchers, fishers, and lumber harvesters — take their lives at a rate higher than any other occupation. The data suggested that the suicide rate for agricultural workers in 17 states was nearly five times higher compared with that in the general population. ...Rosmann and other experts add that the farmer suicide rate might be higher, because an unknown number of farmers disguise their suicides as farm accidents. The US farmer suicide crisis echoes a much larger farmer suicide crisis happening globally: an Australian farmer dies by suicide every four days; in the UK, one farmer a week takes his or her own life; in France, one farmer dies by suicide every two days; in India, more than 270,000 farmers have died by suicide since 1995."
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Bernie Sanders, what the fuck are you even doing?
.@BernieSanders: "I think that the vast majority of Trump supporters are people who are in pain, who are struggling economically… and they turned to Trump because Trump said things that made sense.” https://t.co/eoevCTIuf6
— VICE (@VICE) December 6, 2017
The vast majority of Trump supporters are not people who are struggling economically. That is just a damnable lie.
Talking about this with the other contributors and mods, Shaker Scott Madin sent along this NYT link, showing that Hillary Clinton won voters earning less than $50k, and said (which I'm sharing with his permission), "It took me seven seconds to pull up these handy charts which make that very clear." LOL!
It's too bad that neither Bernie Sanders nor anyone on his staff has seven seconds to fact-check a claim he keeps making. It can't possibly be that Bernie knows what he's saying is complete bullshit, but keeps saying it anyway, because it bolsters his simultaneous contentions that: 1. Trump won because of the class issues he champions; and 2. Identity politics don't matter.
If Bernie kept saying this knowing it was false, that would make him a terrible person. So it must be that he is just so busy, he doesn't have time to Google. Maybe he should hire an intern.
Maybe that intern could read this article by Adam Serwer in the Atlantic about how Trump's coalition wasn't built around economic anxiety, but white supremacy:
During the final few weeks of the campaign, I asked dozens of Trump supporters about their candidate's remarks regarding Muslims and people of color. I wanted to understand how these average Republicans—those who would never read the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer or go to a Klan rally at a Confederate statue—had nevertheless embraced someone who demonized religious and ethnic minorities. What I found was that Trump embodied his supporters' most profound beliefs—combining an insistence that discriminatory policies were necessary with vehement denials that his policies would discriminate and absolute outrage that the question would even be asked.The problem with Bernie Sanders when he was a candidate in the Democratic primary is the problem with Bernie Sanders now and it will always be the problem with Bernie Sanders because he flatly refuses to engage with an intersectional analysis of the policy needs of marginalized people.
It was not just Trump's supporters who were in denial about what they were voting for, but Americans across the political spectrum, who, as had been the case with those who had backed Duke, searched desperately for any alternative explanation—outsourcing, anti-Washington anger, economic anxiety—to the one staring them in the face. The frequent post-election media expeditions to Trump country to see whether the fever has broken, or whether Trump's most ardent supporters have changed their minds, are a direct outgrowth of this mistake. These supporters will not change their minds, because this is what they always wanted: a president who embodies the rage they feel toward those they hate and fear, while reassuring them that that rage is nothing to be ashamed of.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Trump's "Voter Fraud Commission" Is a Nightmare
"On May 11, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order establishing the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Vice President Mike Pence chairs the Commission, and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach serves as the vice chair."
Trump established his Orwellian-named Election Integrity commission on the ridiculous and thoroughly debunked premise that he would have won the popular vote if only there hadn't been widespread voter fraud. Specifically, he has contended that millions of undocumented immigrants voted illegally, and all of them cast their votes for Hillary Clinton.
It's horseshit. It's a variation on the same horseshit that Republicans have been peddling for years to justify their various encroachments on voting rights. They continually make unsubstantiable claims about rampant voter fraud, despite the fact that multiple nonpartisan studies have found that voter fraud is virtually nonexistent.
But the fact that these assertions are demonstrable horseshit doesn't matter to Republicans nor to their base, who aren't the voters likely to be disenfranchised from voting.
They might, however, be concerned about the fact that Trump's Election Integrity Commission — which has been a shitshow from its inception — plans to create a massive national voter database, which national security experts are warning is at serious risk of being hacked.
Hamza Shaban at the Washington Post reports:
More than a half-dozen technology experts and former national security officials filed an amicus brief Tuesday urging a federal court to halt the collection of voter information for a planned government database.Since June, we have known that there was hacking of state and local election databases during the 2016 election, including "the theft of thousands of voter records that contain private information like partial Social Security numbers." It is a serious concern that 2016 was just a dry run, and the meddling with and theft of voting records could be significantly more extensive in future. Why on earth would the Trump administration want to create a lumbering, central database which would make hackers' job even easier?
Former national intelligence director James R. Clapper Jr., one of the co-signatories of the brief, warned that a White House plan to create a centralized database containing sensitive information on millions of American voters will become an attractive target for nation states and criminal hackers. This summer, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity issued a sweeping request to state officials to submit voter data to "analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting." The commission, which is chaired by Vice President Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), was established after [Donald] Trump claimed that he would have won the popular vote if not for as many as 5 million illegally cast ballots. State officials haven't found any indication that there was widespread voter fraud.
State officials and civil rights advocates have questioned the commission's stated mission and broad data collection, arguing that it could restrict voting.
But the brief focuses on the security implications of aggregating and housing sensitive information, such as names, addresses, party affiliation, and partial social security numbers, in one central location, without adequate security and privacy safeguards. "A large database aggregating [personally identifiable information] of millions of American voters in one place, as the Commission has compiled and continues to compile, would constitute a treasure trove for malicious actors," the signatories wrote.
The brief states that the commission does not appear to have established rules or procedures defining who gets access to the database or how it should be actively protected.
Well, as I've previously noted, Crosscheck, the data collection and aggregation program run by Election Integrity Commission vice-chair Kris Kobach's state of Kansas, which is positioned as a "voter fraud prevention" tool, is totally ineffective at preventing voter fraud, but very successful at disenfranchising voters.
The Republican Party can't win elections without the assistance of gerrymandering and voter suppression. (And the undemocratic Electoral College.) So Trump has tasked Mike Pence and Kris Koback with destroying our democracy as quickly and thoroughly as possible, under the auspices of preserving it.
And if the cost is exposing every voter in the United States to identity theft and sundry other schemes devised by foreign adversaries, that is a cost they are willing to let us pay.
This Is So Strange
Back in September, I first noted a very odd report that a number of U.S. diplomats in Cuba had reportedly been injured by what was thought to be some sort of sonic attack. (See follow-ups here, here, and here.)
Today, Josh Lederman at the AP has troubling new information on this bizarre situation: Doctors Identify Brain Abnormalities in Cuba Attack Patients.
Doctors treating the U.S. Embassy victims of mysterious, invisible attacks in Cuba have discovered brain abnormalities as they search for clues to explain the hearing, vision, balance, and memory damage, The Associated Press has learned.Utterly baffling — and really scary that no one seems to be able to figure out the cause. Or the reason. Or the perpetrator.
It's the most specific finding to date about physical damage, showing that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led to perceptible changes in their brains. The finding is also one of several factors fueling growing skepticism that some kind of sonic weapon was involved.
Medical testing has revealed the embassy workers developed changes to the white matter tracts that let different parts of the brain communicate, several U.S. officials said, describing a growing consensus held by university and government physicians researching the attacks. White matter acts like information highways between brain cells.
Loud, mysterious sounds followed by hearing loss and ear-ringing had led investigators to suspect "sonic attacks." But officials are now carefully avoiding that term. The sounds may have been the byproduct of something else that caused damage, said three U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. They weren't authorized to discuss it publicly and demanded anonymity.
Physicians, FBI investigators, and U.S. intelligence agencies have spent months trying to piece together the puzzle in Havana, where the U.S. says 24 U.S. government officials and spouses fell ill starting last year in homes and later in some hotels. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday he's "convinced these were targeted attacks," but the U.S. doesn't know who's behind them. A few Canadian Embassy staffers also got sick.
Doctors still don't know how victims ended up with the white matter changes, nor how exactly those changes might relate to their symptoms.
[H/T to Shaker SKM.]
TIME's Person of the Year: The Silence Breakers
Pictured on the cover are: Isabel Pascual, a strawberry picker; Ashley Judd, an actress; Adama Iwu, a lobbyist; Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer; and Taylor Swift, a musician.
There are many more women — and men, including Terry Crews — featured in the issue.
A couple of thoughts:
1. Every survivor who is featured in this issue is audacious in the best sense of the word. I take up space in solidarity with them.
2. I like this choice for Person(s) of the Year, but something about the framing isn't sitting well with me. I've been part of a vibrant and tenacious movement to dismantle the rape culture for a very long time, and I don't think it diminishes the significant contributions that survivors are making now to advance and visibilize that movement to note that the movement to break the silence on sexual harassment and assault has existed for a long time. Longer than I've been alive.
"The Silence Breakers" is itself a complicated moniker. Does it mean survivors breaking their own silence? It must. Because plenty of us have been relentlessly making noise, and the problem wasn't silence but a lack of listening. And I'm not sure I love the (unintentional) embedded responsibility hung on survivors implied by "The Silence Breakers," with no attendant framing about the need to listen when survivors speak.
Anyway. What do you think?
