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 350
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: Wolff, Bannon, Trump, and Useful Scandal and Trump Will Find a New Way to Disenfranchise Voters.
Samuel Gibbs at the Guardian: Meltdown and Spectre: 'Worst Ever' CPU Bugs Affect Virtually All Computers.
Serious security flaws that could let attackers steal sensitive data, including passwords and banking information, have been found in processors designed by Intel, AMD, and ARM.This whole thing is just unreal. Cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth has a detailed thread on Twitter, which I highly recommend. Holy shit.
The flaws, named Meltdown and Spectre, were discovered by security researchers at Google's Project Zero in conjunction with academic and industry researchers from several countries. Combined they affect virtually every modern computer, including smartphones, tablets, and PCs from all vendors and running almost any operating system.
Meltdown is "probably one of the worst CPU bugs ever found," said Daniel Gruss, one of the researchers at Graz University of Technology who discovered the flaw.
Meltdown is currently thought to primarily affect Intel processors manufactured since 1995, excluding the company's Itanium server chips and Atom processors before 2013. It could allow hackers to bypass the hardware barrier between applications run by users and the computer's core memory. Meltdown, therefore, requires a change to the way the operating system handles memory to fix, which initial speed estimates predict could affect the speed of the machine in certain tasks by as much as 30%.
The Spectre flaw affects most modern processors made by a variety of manufacturers, including Intel, AMD, and those designed by ARM, and potentially allows hackers to trick otherwise error-free applications into giving up secret information. Spectre is harder for hackers to take advantage of, but is also harder to fix and would be a bigger problem in the long term, according to Gruss.
* * *
Sadie Gurman at the AP: U.S. to End Policy That Let Legal Pot Flourish. (And medical marijuana.) "Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding the Obama-era policy that had paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country, two people with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. Sessions will instead let federal prosecutors where pot is legal decide how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana law, the people said. ...The move by [Donald] Trump's attorney general likely will add to confusion about whether it's OK to grow, buy, or use marijuana in states where pot is legal, since long-standing federal law prohibits it. It comes days after pot shops opened in California, launching what is expected to become the world's largest market for legal recreational marijuana and as polls show a solid majority of Americans believe the drug should be legal."
Jeff Sessions has destructively doubled down on the failed, costly, and racially discriminatory war on drugs, ignoring facts and logic, and trampling on the will of CA voters.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 4, 2018
Have no doubt -- CA will pursue all options to protect our reforms and rights. https://t.co/0EuSp5GJ2z
Gavin Newsom is California's Lt. Governor. Colorado Democrats also had a response, very different in tone but just as terrific:
We'll give Jeff Sessions our legal pot when he pries it from our warm, extremely interesting to look at hands. https://t.co/LF0RpdCiHG
— Colorado Senate Dems (@COSenDem) January 4, 2018
This is going to be bad for a lot of folks who need pot for health reasons — among which I definitely include dealing with the anxiety produced by awful governance precisely like this decision.
* * *
Kevin Robillard at Politico: Republican Wins Drawing to Decide Control of Virginia Statehouse. "Republicans will fully control Virginia's House of Delegates after an incumbent GOP member won a drawing Thursday to decide a tied election... The state elections board chairman pulled a film canister out of a ceramic bowl containing the name of Republican David Yancey, giving him the victory over Democrat Shelly Simonds. Each received 11,608 votes in the race for a Newport News-based seat in the Virginia legislature's lower chamber. ...Thursday's drawing came after a three-judge panel refused to hear Simonds' arguments over a single contested ballot. While an initial recount gave Simonds a one-vote lead, Yancey's lawyers successfully argued a discarded ballot should have been counted as a vote for the Republican."
More background on that story here, in case you missed it.
And as Republicans were killing democracy in Virginia, back in D.C., they were busy continuing to usher in authoritarianism...
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issues statement saying "all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing." pic.twitter.com/r2P1fzfMem
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 4, 2018
...and, naturally, waging class warfare. Molly Hensley-Clancy at Buzzfeed: A New Betsy DeVos Proposal Would Make It Much Tougher for Students to Get Loan Forgiveness. "The Education Department is planning to suggest new rules that would make it far more difficult for borrowers to obtain student loan forgiveness after being defrauded by their colleges, according to drafts circulated by the department and obtained by BuzzFeed News. The department's plan would require individual students to prove that their college intentionally deceived them — something that sparked alarm among student advocates, who argue it would push loan forgiveness out of reach for the vast majority of borrowers. The proposal is part of the early stages of an effort by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to rewrite the government's standards for loan forgiveness, called the 'borrower defense' regulations."
Oh, and of course the GOP is still obsessing about Hillary Clinton's fucking emails. Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: Justice Department 'Looking Into' Hillary Clinton's Emails — Again. "Justice Department officials are taking a fresh look at Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she served as secretary of State, The Daily Beast has learned. An ally of Attorney General Jeff Sessions who is familiar with the thinking at the Justice Department's Washington headquarters described it as an effort to gather new details on how Clinton and her aides handled classified material. ...A former senior DOJ official familiar with department leadership's thinking said officials there are acutely aware of demands from [Donald] Trump that they look into Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of State — and that they lock up her top aide, Huma Abedin." Jesus fucking Jones.
* * *
[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism] AP/Guardian: Ohio Police Officer Who Shot and Killed Black 22-Year-Old Says He Faced 'Imminent Threat'. "A white Ohio police officer who fatally shot a black man in a Walmart store says he believed he faced an 'imminent threat,' although he acknowledges he never saw the man point what turned out to be an air rifle or threaten anyone. Beavercreek officer Sean Williams made his statements during a deposition in a federal lawsuit filed by the family of John Crawford III. Crawford, 22, was killed 5 August 2014, after police responded to a 911 call about someone waving a rifle in a store in Beavercreek, a Dayton suburb. ...The civil case is scheduled for trial next month. Crawford's relatives sued Beavercreek police and Arkansas-based Walmart, alleging negligence and civil rights violations. Police and Walmart have denied the allegations."
My previous coverage of the murder of John Crawford can be found here.
[CN: Homophobic violence; sexual assault; carcerality] Michael Fitzgerald at Towleroad: Corrections Officers Ignored Gay Prisoner's Pleas for Help as He Was Repeatedly Raped and Beaten. "A gay prisoner has filed a federal lawsuit claiming he was repeatedly raped and beaten after he was assigned to a cell with a man who had earlier threatened him. The then 21-year-old inmate is seeking damages for physical and emotional pain and suffering as well as a punitive award. Representing the alleged victim, Denver attorney David Lane said: 'This is malice. This is sadistic. They set him up to be beaten and raped and that is exactly what happened to him.'" Fucking hell.
[CN: Nativism; privacy violations] Phuong Lee at the Seattle Times: Washington State AG Sues Motel 6 over Giving ICE Info on 9,000 Guests. "Washington's attorney general sued Motel 6 on Wednesday, alleging the national budget chain disclosed the private information of thousands of its guests to U.S. immigration authorities in violation of the state consumer-protection law. Attorney General Bob Ferguson said motel employees divulged the names, birth dates, driver's license numbers, license-plate numbers, and room numbers of at least 9,150 guests to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents without a warrant. At least six people were detained on or near motel property during a two-year period." Good lord.
Kira Lerner at ThinkProgress: New Hampshire Democrats Call out Republicans for Attempting to Pass 'Poll Tax' on College Students. "New Hampshire's Senate voted on Tuesday to advance legislation that would require voters to be residents of the state, effectively disenfranchising thousands of college students who are currently considered eligible voters. All 14 Republicans voted to advance House Bill 372, which would tighten the state's voter registration requirements to require eligible voters to be legal 'residents' of New Hampshire." These fucking assholes.
[CN: Sexual harassment] Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: CBS News Fires Political Director over Allegations of Inappropriate Behavior. "CBS News said on Wednesday that the network parted ways with political director Stephen Chaggaris over allegations of inappropriate behavior. 'In the last two weeks, accounts of inappropriate behavior by Steve Chaggaris were brought to our attention and were immediately investigated,' CBS said in a statement to CNN. 'As a result, CBS News has severed ties with Mr. Chaggaris for violating company policy, effective immediately.'" Another dude who had undue influence over the tone of coverage during the last presidential election.
[CN: Sexual assault] Stephanie Chan at the Hollywood Reporter: Terry Richardson Under Investigation by NYPD. "Terry Richardson is under investigation by the New York Police Department. On Tuesday, the New York Daily News reported that the controversial fashion photographer is the target of NYPD's Special Victims Squad, after several women told the news organization that investigators reached out in recent weeks for interviews about their experiences with Richardson. The non-profit advocacy organization Model Alliance confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that they are cooperating as well. The investigation comes after Richardson was accused of rape by model Caron Bernstein, 47, who was among those to be contacted by a special victims detective for a meeting, according to the Daily News." About time this guy was seriously investigated. Fuck.
* * *
And some good resistance news: Miriam Zoila Pérez at Rewire: New Study Shows a Historic Increase in Laws Supportive of Reproductive Rights in 2017. The bad news is that there are more anti-choice laws being passed than ever. But let's focus on the good news: "According to a Guttmacher Institute analysis released [January 2], 21 states adopted 58 proactive measures, a sharp increase from the 28 enacted in 2016. The 2017 measures included 12 on abortion, 35 on contraception, and 11 on issues such as sex education. These state policies can have a major impact on women seeking access to abortion and contraception in those states, particularly those who rely on public funding like Medicaid. Women of color are disproportionately impacted because they are more likely to be using Medicaid and more likely to be low-income."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Trump Will Find a New Way to Disenfranchise Voters
[Content Note: Voter suppression.]
Speaking of more important news...
Donald Trump's nightmare "Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity" is being disbanded after it's become "mired in multiple federal lawsuits and faced resistance from states that accused it of overreach."
You might think that's good news, but of course it's not the whole story: "In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said...Trump had signed an executive order asking the Department of Homeland Security 'to review its initial findings and determine next courses of action.' ...[A senior White House aide], who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the commission and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the Department of Homeland Security is 'better equipped to take up the matter.'"
Why on earth would the Department of Homeland Security be "better equipped" to address voting fraud? If you think it's because there are foreign governments meddling in our elections, hahahaha of course that's not the reason, since the president doesn't even believe that's happening.
It's because DHS is tasked with executing Trump's nativist, anti-immigrant policies — and while Trump unaccountably believes Vladimir Putin when he says he didn't interfere in our election, he refuses to believe multiple nonpartisan researchers who have concluded that widespread voter fraud does not exist, and that millions of undocumented immigrants did not vote in the last presidential election or any other.
As ProPublica's Jessica Huseman noted on Twitter, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who was running the "Election Integrity" commission with Vice-President Mike Pence, confimed "what many experts suspected: DHS will look for non-citizens on the voter rolls states have already turned over. Kobach calls it a 'tactical shift.'"
Kobach said that he would remain in close contact with the White House and the Department of Homeland Security as that agency begins to investigate the issue instead of the commission. He said Trump made the final decision to disband the commission Wednesday after multiple weeks of discussion on the matter. DHS was chosen because the agency oversees immigration and can come up with an accurate estimate of the number of noncitizens on voter rolls, Kobach said.That's the man tasked with protecting election integrity describing a "perfect world" as one in which he would have been allowed to disenfranchise voters across the country without anyone trying to stop him.
"This is a tactical shift by the president who remains very committed to finding the scope of voter fraud," said Kobach, the architect of a controversial law that requires Kansas voters to provide their birth certificates or other proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. "In a perfect world, the commission would've moved swiftly and there wouldn't be any lawsuits."
Republicans' attempts to undermine voting rights and voting access, especially among voters in demographics who historically tend to vote Democratic, continues to be a major concern.
And, once again, I will note that anyone who is talking about the "blue wave" they believe is coming in the 2018 midterms had better preoccupy themselves with what Trump, Pence, Kobach, and the DHS are up to.
Because there is no "blue wave" without free and fair elections.
And there will be no free and fair elections, if Republicans (and their pals in Russia) have anything to say about it.
Wolff, Bannon, Trump, and Useful Scandal
In yesterday's We Resist thread, I wrote about unethical fuckshit Michael Wolff's toxic project of documenting the Trump White House and selling questionable (at best) narratives about what's happened there in the past year, in service to his own notoriety and wealth.
In the intervening day, more scandalous and salacious details have poured forth into the public square; Donald Trump and Steve Bannon appear to be having a public feud (emphasis on appear to be); and the political press can't get enough of it, despite the fact that every new excerpt and anecdote from Wolff's upcoming book provides no new information and simply confirms what anyone paying the closest bit of attention already knows for a fact — that Donald Trump is a terrible person who surrounds himself with terrible people.
I don't trust Michael Wolff any further than I could throw him, but even if only ONE of these things is true... https://t.co/5N5Xti5vxc
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 4, 2018
The Trump administration, and every single person who is a part of it, is vile. The policies emanating from the Trump White House are vile. The people who write and defend and enact those policies are vile. The Republican Party is vile. Congressional Republicans' refusal to do their fucking jobs and hold this president and his executive branch accountable is vile.
If any one of the things Wolff is reporting are true, it only confirms what we already know.
But public discussions about the president wanting to know what golden showers are (trust that he already knows that) and debates about whether he is even semi-literate and being held in thrall to elaborate stageplays he puts on with Steve Bannon, all the circuses with none of the bread, work to Trump's benefit.
If we have learned anything about this wreck of a human being since he forayed into politics, it's that he wants the political press and his detractors to be consumed by this horseshit while he maneuvers to grab more power.
So this is the last thing I'm going to be writing about Michael Wolff and his garbage book and its "explosive" revelations. Unless and until the recordings he claims to have made have legal relevance, or there is some other news worth knowing because it comes with attendant consequences for the hideous scoundrels who are the subjects of his work.
Otherwise, it's not worth my time and energy. And it is taking me away from the things that are.
My resistance, I realize more and more with each passing day, must include resisting giving my attention to the useful scandals, no matter how much the political press and social media, especially Twitter, contort everything and make it seem as though that's all there is.
But there is more.
More important news, and more important pieces of life that don't have anything to do with useful scandals, the discussion of which lessens us all.
We're going to find and engage with bigger things together, with more, here in this space.
Bomb Cyclone Thread
[Previously: IT'S COOOOOOOOLD!!! and "Bomb Cyclone" Headed to East Coast.]
Our #blizzard2018 from space this morning.
— Keith Carson (@KeithCarson) January 4, 2018
Wow. pic.twitter.com/VqdUs14XCO
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Doyle Rice and Doug Stanglin at USA Today: Violent 'Bomb Cyclone' Wreaks Havoc Along the East Coast.
A massive winter storm described as a violent "bomb cyclone" continued to move up the East Coast on Thursday, shutting schools, canceling flights, knocking out power and sparking fears of coastal flooding.We've gotten a few inches of snow already, and it's still falling. But, so far, no major disruptions here. My thoughts are especially with the folks who have lost power. Fuck.
Winter weather watches and warnings remained in place along a 1,000-mile stretch from North Carolina to northern Maine. LaGuardia Airport in New York announced that more than 90% of its flights Thursday will be canceled due to the storm.
Overall, some 2,800 flights were cancelled as of early Thursday, CNN reported. Some 77,000 customers were without power in several states, CBS News said.
The heaviest snow was falling in Delaware and New Jersey as dawn broke Thursday.
Wind gusts of 60 mph to 70 mph, strong enough to cause downed trees and power lines, were predicted in coastal New Jersey, eastern Long Island, N.Y., and coastal New England.
Blizzard warnings were in effect for coastal areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
...As the storm gripped the East Coast, governors in New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia all declared a state of emergency in their states.
After the storm roars through, bitter cold will follow: At least 28 major cities across New England, eastern New York and the mid-Atlantic states will have record low temperatures by dawn on Sunday, the National Weather Service said.
Here's a thread for discussion, checking in, reporting what the weather is like by you, all that good stuff.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Heather T: "Name a book title (real or imagined) that would sum up your life and/or your attitude and/or the kind of day you're having/have had."
Heather T continues:
I came up with a new one today, which related to my ongoing (and relatively mild) difficulties orienting myself in a certain Visitor parking lot I have to deal with on certain mornings. This morning, I attempted to orient myself by observing the number of letters that were visible to me from my perspective in the next space over:The first thing that came to my mind, which is a pretty good description of my life for the past year, was Sinking and Swimming. Both, at the same time. Every day.
"Isitor"
I thought, "It is I, Isitor...."
Wednesday Links!
Note: I'm changing the name of this feature from "blogaround" to "links," because, more and more, I'm including things that aren't necessarily blog posts. So, from now on, the every-other-day round-up feature will be known thus. And please continue to share things you've written or things you've read, whether they are blog entries, articles, or social media entries. Link away in comments!
This list o' links brought to you by unicorn t-shirts.
Recommended Reading:
Sameer Rao at Colorlines: Women in Entertainment Industry Say 'Time's Up' for Workplace Sexual Assault.
Dell Cameron at Gizmodo: Text Alerts Will Tell Net Neutrality Supporters Who to Vote Out of Congress.
Lance Mannion at his eponymous blog: A Story About What People Are for, as Demonstrated at the Jewelry Counter at J.C. Penney.
Admin at the Transgender Legal Center: [Content Note: Trans abuse; carcerality] Ways to Resist Against Anti-Trans Attacks (and You Don't Need a Law Degree to Help)
Daniel Johnson at Black Youth Project: Dallas Police Harass Erykah Badu Just to Say 'Hello'
Rae Paoletta at Inverse: New NASA Image Shows How Unbelievably Lonely and Special Earth Is
Sikivu Hutchinson at blackfemlens: Bad as She Wants to Be: An Interview with Black Guitar Visionary Malina Moye
Catherine Zuckerman at National Geographic, with photographs by Xavi Bou: If Birds Left Tracks in the Sky, They'd Look Like This
Kaila Hale-Stern at the Mary Sue: [CN: Misogyny] Marvel Reveals Thanos' "True Name" and I'm Obsessed with It
Kaiser at Celebitchy: Fixer Upper Quitters Chip & Joanna Gaines Are Expecting Their Fifth Child — If they don't name that kid "Shiplap," I don't want to hear anything about it.
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
The What Happened Book Club
This is the eleventh installment of the What Happened Book Club, where we are doing a chapter a week.
That pace will hopefully allow people who need time to procure the book a better chance to catch up, and let us deal with the book in manageable pieces: I figured we will have a lot to talk about, and one thread for the entire book would quickly get overwhelming.
So! Let us continue our discussion with Chapter Eleven: Making History.
* * *
Shakers, I cried a lot during this chapter, in which Hillary Clinton writes about making history as the first woman nominated by a major party for the U.S. presidency.
I cried when she wrote about how difficult it was to strike the right tone in her speech at the end of the primary, and the struggle to balance acknowledging her historic achievement as a woman with not turning off misogynistic voters.
I cried when she wrote about how the thunderous applause that greeted her at her Brooklyn Navy Yard felt like a joyful celebration.
I cried when she wrote about how much Barack Obama's and Bill Clinton's speeches at the convention meant to her.
And I cried when she wrote about taking the stage at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia as a history-making candidate:
Chelsea came back on and welcomed me — "my mother, my hero" — to the stage. There was a deafening roar.And I cried at her final line in this chapter: "I plan to live long enough to see a woman win."
Looking out into that arena full of cheers and banners and music, with thousands of excited people and millions more at home, was one of the proudest and most overwhelming moments of my life.
"Standing here as my mother's daughter, and my daughter's mother, I'm so happy this day has come," I said. "Happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between. Happy for boys and men, too — because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, is clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."
Even after everything that's happened, I still believe that.
I still believe that, as I've said many times, advancing the rights and opportunities of women and girls is the unfinished business of the twenty-first century. That includes one day succeeding where I failed and electing a woman as President of the United States.
Me too.
#365feministselfie
Four years ago, my pal Veronica Arreola invited anyone and everyone who was up for it to participate in her #365feministselfie project. The rules were simple: Post a picture of yourself every day for a year.
I participated in 2014, the first year of the project, and I was really glad that I had. In subsequent years, I would post occasional selfies with the label, but I didn't dedicate myself to doing a picture a day.
This year the project enters its fifth year, and I'm going to try again to do a daily selfie and be a true 365 participant!
My decision to participate again is attributable to a number of factors, but chief among them is this: I spent the whole of last year feeling at risk of losing myself inside the work of documenting the Trump administration's fuckery. Reasserting myself feels necessary for my senses of self and place.
And challenging people to acknowledge our humanity in a context of policy-driven dehumanization by an increasingly authoritarian government is an act of resistance. (There are people who scoff at that notion. You'll note that most of them do so from accounts that conceal their names and faces.) It is scarier for me to visible than it has ever been, which is precisely why I feel obliged to push myself to do it.
Then there is this: I am surviving. Daily selfies are evidence of that. I enjoy looking at the hashtag and seeing evidence of other feminists surviving, too.
It's the sort of community I want and need in this moment.
Here are my four selfies so far (today's was a twofer) that I've shared on Instagram:
I'm sharing all of this — the photos and my rationales for participating once again — in the hope that they may encourage others to participate, if anyone wants to join in, but is feeling on the fence about it.
Also: Let me know in comments if you'd like to have a regular #365feministselfie feature here at Shakesville, where we can share selfies and discuss how we're feeling about the project. I'm thinking a weekly thread, but I'm open to suggestions for more or less, if anyone is interested in having one at all.
Daily Dose of Cute
Actually, she was perfectly happy in that moment, lol. It's just that she gives such great Zero Fucks Face!
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 349
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 Is a Reckless Nightmare.
Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: Firm That Funded Trump Dossier Urges Congress to Release Testimony. "The founders of Fusion GPS, the firm that compiled the dossier alleging ties between Donald Trump and Russia, urged Congress to release their testimony about the dossier to the public in an op-ed published by the New York Times Tuesday night. 'Republicans have refused to release full transcripts of our firm's testimony, even as they selectively leak details to media outlets on the far right. It's time to share what our company told investigators,' Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch wrote in the op-ed. They accused conservatives of pushing 'mendacious conspiracy theories' about the dossier and Fusion GPS' motives for compiling it."
Stephanie Kirchgaessner at the Guardian: Russia-Trump Inquiry: 'FBI Knew of Collusion Allegations During Campaign'. "An op-ed in the New York Times written by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, the former journalists and founders of investigative firm Fusion GPS, said congressional intelligence committees, which are conducting their own investigations into the Trump campaign, have been aware [that the FBI received 'credible allegations' about a Kremlin conspiracy throughout the 2016 US election campaign, including from inside the Trump camp] for months. 'We don't believe the Steele dossier was the trigger for the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling,' they wrote. 'As we told the Senate judiciary committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp.' The op-ed also called on lawmakers to examine financial institutions that were funding the US president's businesses."
The Republican Party should be ashamed that they are being called out by a private enterprise for failing utterly to do their jobs or show even the merest traces of patriotism to this nation. But these fucking traitors have the same amount of shame as they have loyalty. Which is zero.
[Content Note: Racism] Melanie Schmitz at ThinkProgress: Fox & Friends Host Delivers Racist Attack on Mueller Grand Jury. "During a segment on Fox & Friends Wednesday — [Donald] Trump's favorite morning news show — host Brian Kilmeade argued that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was not 'demographically pursuing justice' in the Russia investigation because his federal grand jury included too many black jurors. The comment was in response to a leak published in New York Post, during which an anonymous source claimed grand jury panel looked like a 'Black Lives Matter rally.' ...The witness also claimed that 11 of the 20 jurors on Mueller's panel were Black, and that two had been wearing 'peace T-shirts.' 'That room isn't a room where POTUS gets a fair shake,' they said, insinuating that more white jurors were necessary for the process to be deemed fair and credible." Wow. WOW.
David Smith at the Guardian: Trump Tower Meeting with Russians 'Treasonous,' Bannon Says in Explosive Book. "Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president's son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as 'treasonous' and 'unpatriotic,' according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian. Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: 'They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.'"
Bannon calling the meeting treasonous and unpatriotic is getting a lot of press. What's getting slightly less notice is the fact that he then goes on to explain that they still should have taken the meeting anyway, but gone about it differently:
The meeting was revealed by the New York Times in July last year, prompting Trump Jr to say no consequential material was produced. Soon after, Wolff writes, Bannon remarked mockingly: "The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor — with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers.Welp.
"Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately."
Bannon went on, Wolff writes, to say that if any such meeting had to take place, it should have been set up "in a Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, with your lawyers who meet with these people." Any information, he said, could then be "dump[ed] … down to Breitbart or something like that, or maybe some other more legitimate publication."
Bannon added: "You never see it, you never know it, because you don't need to… But that's the brain trust that they had."
Steve Bannon has a record of lying, and his primary interest is Steve Bannon.
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 3, 2018
Michael Wolff has a record of lying, and his primary interest is Michael Wolff.
Trump has a record of lying, and his only interest is Trump.
Take everything with a grain of salt...
With that in mind, I'll also link this pile of shit by Wolff for New York Magazine: Donald Trump Didn't Want to Be President. Which contains passages like this trash:
As the campaign came to an end, Trump himself was sanguine. His ultimate goal, after all, had never been to win. "I can be the most famous man in the world," he had told his aide Sam Nunberg at the outset of the race. His longtime friend Roger Ailes, the former head of Fox News, liked to say that if you want a career in television, first run for president. Now Trump, encouraged by Ailes, was floating rumors about a Trump network. It was a great future. He would come out of this campaign, Trump assured Ailes, with a far more powerful brand and untold opportunities.So, first, what Sarah said: This is unreliable.
"This is bigger than I ever dreamed of," he told Ailes a week before the election. "I don't think about losing, because it isn't losing. We've totally won."
Secondly, this is a story being crafted in a very particular way to serve a very particular purpose, the centerpiece of which is simultaneously salving the lingering wound to Trump's ego over the illegitimacy of his presidency and turning him into a god who can win the most important office in the world without any effort. (And certainly without help from the Russians.)
A tangential benefit to the whole "he didn't want/expect to win" narrative is that it's yet another way of humiliating Hillary. "She WANTED to win and TRIED REALLY HARD to win, and we didn't even care HAHAHA!"
Wolff is awful, and his work here is absolutely toxic.
On a final note, Zeke Miller points to the outrageous sourcing note, which describes his unprecented access. I suppose we aren't supposed to notice it means Wolff was probably exposed to any amount of classified or otherwise sensitive information. For fuck's sake.
* * *
Nicole Lafond at TPM: Next Week: Trump Vows to Announce the Fakest of the 'Fake News Media'. "On Monday, [Donald] Trump plans to make his consistent disdain for the media official by announcing the 'MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR,' he tweeted on Tuesday evening. The subjects for Trump's distinctions will range from 'Dishonesty' and 'Bad Reporting' in a variety of categories, he said."
I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018
Let us be very clear: This hostility toward the free press is a hallmark of authoritarianism. It is not funny. It is vile.
* * *
[CN: Disablist language] Andy Towle at Towleroad: Activist Group Demands That 'Complicit' Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Resign or Ban Trump. "The 'Resistance SF' activist group called on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to resign or ban Donald Trump following Trump's latest tweet threatening nuclear war with North Korea. The group projected '@jack is #complicit' on the social media network's San Francisco headquarters, writing on Facebook: '@jack breaks the rules of his own company, Twitter, to amplify a madman and endanger the world. Jack Dorsey must resign or ban @realDonaldTrump.'" They've got a point.
Just as many universities believed financial wreckage left by 2008 recession was behind them, campuses across the country have been forced to make new rounds of cuts, this time brought on by loss of international students. https://t.co/lvVoacIoKV
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) January 3, 2018
Gee, I wonder what's behind the decline in foreign student enrollment at U.S. colleges and universities? J/k it's Trump. https://t.co/epz1bbuFSu
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 3, 2018
Ellen Nakashima and Aaron Gregg at the Washington Post: NSA's Top Talent Is Leaving Because of Low Pay, Slumping Morale, and Unpopular Reorganization. "The National Security Agency is losing its top talent at a worrisome rate as highly skilled personnel, some disillusioned with the spy service's leadership and an unpopular reorganization, take higher-paying, more flexible jobs in the private sector. Since 2015, the NSA has lost several hundred hackers, engineers, and data scientists, according to current and former U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. The potential impact on national security is significant, they said." No shit.
Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: Under Trump, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Isn't Even Pretending to Protect Consumers. "Last November, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray resigned to run for governor of Ohio. Unlike most agency heads, who serve at the pleasure of the president, Cordray served a five-year term that was set to expire in mid-2018; while he was in charge, the CFPB remained a bulwark of earnest regulation against a sea of Trumpism. But after Cordray left, Trump installed Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director who once described the CFPB as a 'joke...in a sick, sad way,' as the temporary head of the agency. Though there is some legal uncertainty regarding whether Mulvaney was properly appointed to fill this role, Mulvaney is currently calling the shots within the CFPB. And one of his first decisions appears to be publicly distancing his the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from its mission of protecting consumers." Cool.
[CN: Misogyny] What the fucking fuck, WaPo???
Analysis: How Hillary Clinton might have inspired Trump’s "fake news" attacks https://t.co/AgmOMgN94v
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 3, 2018
Everything terrible that Trump does was inspired by @HillaryClinton, because she accurately identified his loathsome behaviors and various dangerous sociopolitical dynamics while the press diligently ignored her grave warnings. #SoundsLegit https://t.co/CRIxBLqIoa
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 3, 2018
Blaming women has never been quite so amazing. And not in a good way.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 3, 2018
* * *
Nicole Knight at Rewire: Here's What Family Planning Services Look Like in a Devastated Puerto Rico. "The plight of Profamilias, its patients, and employees reflect widespread struggles on the island to regain a semblance of normalcy in a post-Maria world. [Blanca Cuevas, executive director of Profamilias] called the pace of government assistance 'slow and inadequate.' Dark streets, she said, have become dangerous. Shops have closed. Residents lack basic necessities. Workers are left jobless. Hundreds of thousands have fled. For Cuevas, among 'the hardest challenges have been to open the clinics without electricity,' she told Rewire. Profamilias operates two clinics in San Juan, and eight family planning centers around the island. Its clients are largely folks with low incomes who rely on the facilities for affordable gynecological services, sexually transmitted infections tests, contraceptives, and sex ed, among other services."
In 2017, the Trump administration cut funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program. Instead, they’re incentivizing programs that focus on abstinence. This is unacceptable. https://t.co/qJtyVV2KJr
— Center for Reproductive Rights (@ReproRights) January 3, 2018
Tell me again how there was "no difference" between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Fuckers.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
The Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2017
Jon Swift (aka Al Weisel), a brilliant blogger and satirist, and sometime contributor to Shakesville, used to wrap up each year by asking as many bloggers as he could contact to submit their best posts of the year for a massive roundup of awesome writing.
Weisel died in 2010, and, in his honor, Batocchio of Vagabond Scholar has continued to compile an annual Jon Swift Memorial Roundup.
Here is 2017's, and, as always, there's lots of good stuff there.
The piece I submitted this year is "I Write Letters," otherwise known as "Hillary Clinton doesn't owe you a goddamned thing," in which I argued, in response to people who were demanding Hillary Clinton "do something" to save us, that campaigning for 18 grueling months was doing something — the most important thing she ever could have done.
"Bomb Cyclone" Headed to East Coast
[Yesterday: IT'S COOOOOOOOLD!!!]
A monster storm is headed for the East Coast, but don't worry, it's only expected to become a [squints at notes] "bomb cyclone" https://t.co/tLjbbRCQiD
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 2, 2018
OMG. I burst out laughing reading that tweet this morning — the sort of involuntary laughter of fear and dread so stupendous that you have no way of processing it except with a horrified disgorgement of noises hovering somewhere between laughing and sobbing.
The term "bomb cyclone" comes from the meteorological term "bombogenesis," which refers to a midlatitude area of low pressure that drops significantly and rapidly — at least 24 millibars over 24 hours.
This particular bomb cyclone is expected to drop snow and ice all along the East Coast, even in parts of Florida, with as much as a foot of snow destined for parts of New England, accompanied by winds of up to 70mph.
At the WaPo, Jason Samenow writes: "By Thursday, the exploding storm will, in many ways, resemble a winter hurricane." Uhh.
This is the kind of storm that is incredibly dangerous in multiple ways, in lots of different areas. In warmer states, where there isn't snow and ice removal machinery or salt reserves, driving can become incredibly dangerous. In colder states, the combination of snow, sleet, and wind can create ice that weighs down electrical lines and knocks out electricity right when people need their heating systems the most.
This system sounds like it's going to be a real fucker. If you're in its way, I hope you are able to stay safe and warm.
Trump Is a Reckless Nightmare
This is just a real thing that the United States President tweeted last night:
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018
There are so many things wrong with that tweet, I don't even know where to begin. But this much is clear: Donald Trump is a grave danger to the country he has been elected to protect. He is a grave danger to the planet and all of its people. He must be removed from office. And his party won't do it.
Whatever happens because of his belligerent provocations, the blood is on the hands of every useless wreck in the Republican caucus.
* * *
At Axios, Mike Allen reports in the usual inappropriately gossipy tone that "some White House officials fear accidental war."
Trump's boast last night that he has a "bigger & more powerful" Nuclear Button (caps, Trump's) than North Korea has some administration insiders worried that we could blunder into war.First of all, no, not every war in history was an accident. That people working in a presidential administration believe such rubbish — no less when the last Republican president famously cooked the intelligence to lead the nation to a war of choice — is terrifying and infuriating.
What they're saying: "Every war in history was an accident," said one administration insider. "You just don't know what's going to send him over the edge."
Secondly, if Trump launches a war with his reprehensible and irresponsible tweeting, that won't be "an accident." People, such as Hillary Clinton, have been publicly warning he could start a war with a tweet since before he was even elected (as a reason to not elect him). If a person is repeatedly urged not to engage in a behavior that is likely to have a terrible outcome, and they ignore that advice, and the terrible outcome happens precisely as predicted, that isn't "an accident."
Finally, I am extremely exhausted with and extremely frustrated by Republicans talking about Trump as though he is a force of nature outside their control. He isn't. Remove him.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Lady Blanchester: "If you had the power to create a new national holiday, when and what would it be?"
I would make Election Day a national holiday. Although not everyone has national holidays off, it would certainly make voting easier for a lot of folks, and anything that makes voting easier is something of which I am in favor!
What I'm Listening To
[Content Note: The embedded video has flashing light effects.]
Walk the Moon: Shut Up and Dance
This track has become the official song of the New Year at Shakes Manor, and now no midnight turn of the clock into a new year is complete without this song being played at least three times, lol.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Orrin Hatch Edition
I guess I'd care more about Orrin Hatch retiring if I didn't fully anticipate that his seat will be filled by another Republican just as bad or possibly even worse. But I would be thrilled if Utah proved me wrong.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 2, 2018
P.S.
Mitt Romney is not an improvement. Always remember that Mitt Romney thinks people aren't entitled to food. https://t.co/qIgnkGGxSb
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 2, 2018
Mitt Romney is forever terrible and that does not change no matter how "moderate" he looks by the ever rightward slide into extremism by the rest of his garbage party.
Shaker Thumbs
Shaker Thumbs is your opportunity to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to a product or service you have used and that you'd recommend to other Shakers or warn them away from.
I thought it would be a good time for a Shaker Thumbs thread, since we're in a time of much gift-giving across many traditions and a time of many terrific sales when lots of folks are buying things that have become affordable!
Today I'm giving a big thumbs-up to my Rieker-Antistress Fee 93 Ankle Boots.
They're available in different colors, but mine are in Ozean. And, at the link above, they're currently available for 25% off, as Shoes.com is currently running a great sale.
I got them during a 40% off sale either late last year or earlier this year (yay!), and I love them SO MUCH. Not only are they aesthetically pleasing and give me great traction in the snow, but they are comfy AF.
I've worn them many times since purchasing them, including a number of all-day outings, and my feet always feel great, during and after. There was no sore break-in time, and I don't hesitate to wear them to do a bit of walking, from the grocery store to a museum.
This is the second pair of Rieker boots I've owned, and I can't say enough about how comfortable they are, at least on my feet. It's also really nice to have a boot that is super functional in crappy weather, but also looks decent when you get wherever you're going.
Anyway! Give us your thumbs-up or thumbs-down in comments!
[Just to be abundantly clear, I am not affiliated in any way with Rieker nor with Shoes.com, nor am I receiving any form of payment from either of them.]
