NEW: CIA's Pompeo gives the latest indication Trump is considering a preemptive strike on North Korea.https://t.co/O1ztzxLShM
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) January 23, 2018
Everything is fine. *jumps into Christmas tree*
Yikes
Everything is fine. *jumps into Christmas tree*
Three School Shootings in Two Days
[Content Note: Guns; shooting; injury; death.]
Yesterday, in Texas, there was a school shooting in which a 15-year-old girl was shot by a 16-year-old boy who had "a history of aggressive actions at school."
Cassie Shook, a 17-year-old junior at the school, told The Associated Press that she was driving up to the building when she saw "the doors fly open and everyone screaming and running out of the building." She said she was angry when she learned who the suspect was because she'd complained about the boy at least twice to school officials, including to a vice principal.It was also avoidable if he hadn't had access to guns, but we're not supposed to talk about that.
"This could have been avoidable," she said. "There were so many signs."
Also yesterday, in Louisiana, there was a very strange shooting incident at a high school in New Orleans: "Police Chief Michael Harrison told reporters shots were believed to have been fired from a dark pickup truck outside the NET Charter High School. The campus was locked down immediately afterward but students were later released. The injured student was among a group outside the building at lunch time. Harrison says investigators found another student in that group had gunpowder residue on his hands. Another student — not part of that group — was found possessing live ammunition, according to authorities. Their role, if any, in the shooting, was unclear."
Today, in Kentucky, a 15-year-old opened fire with a handgun, killing two and wounding 12 others: "A shooting at Marshall County High School in Western Kentucky killed a 15-year old boy and a 15-year-old girl and wounded 12 others, according to Kentucky State Police. Five more were treated for injuries, but they were not shot, Gov. Matt Bevin and police said. All of the victims are believed to be students. The suspect is a 15-year-old boy who was apprehended at the school by a deputy. The boy will be charged with murder and attempted murder, police said."
My sympathies to those who were injured and to the loved ones of those who were killed. I am so sorry.
I am also sorry, for all of us, that stories of school shootings have become so routine that they barely make a comparative blip in the news anymore. If that were the result of a deliberate, thoughtful decision made in order to stop rewarding mass killers with infamy, that would be okay. But that's not why these shootings are being largely ignored. They are being ignored because there weren't enough victims.
And I don't even know how to begin processing that.
Fat Fashion
This is your semi-regular thread in which fat women can share pix, make recommendations for clothes they love, ask questions of other fat women about where to locate certain plus-size items, share info about sales, talk about what jeans cut at what retailer best fits their body shapes, discuss how to accessorize neutral colored suits, share stories of going bare-armed for the first time, brag about a cool fashion moment, whatever.
* * *
I felt like doing nothing all weekend, but I did drag myself off the couch to go for a swim, and I'm glad I did. (Swimming: The best activity when you just want to keep crying!) The only way I was able to motivate myself to leave the house was to dress colorfully, in clothes I love.
Except for the blue tweed blazer from Jessica London (which is currently on clearance for a steal), I purchased all the other items years ago. The purply-pink sweater was a Lane Bryant purchase; the jeans are from Torrid; and the shoes are Camper.
I love this combination of bold colors (navy + pink + chartreuse), and the shoes really tie it together, as the detailing and heel are a similar dark pink to the sweater.
For reasons I don't entirely understand myself, I tend to favor bright, happy colors when I'm feeling down. Today, for example, I'm wearing a vibrant blue t-shirt with cut-off jeans and purple knee socks. I guess avoiding drab colors is one of the ways I try to keep my chin up.
Anyway! As always, all subjects related to fat fashion are on topic, but if you want a topic for discussion: What colors and styles do you wear when you're feeling down in the dumps?
Have at it in comments! Please remember to make fat women of all sizes, especially women who find themselves regularly sizing out of standard plus-size lines, welcome in this conversation, and pass no judgment on fat women who want to and/or feel obliged, for any reason, to conform to beauty standards. And please make sure if you're soliciting advice, you make it clear you're seeking suggestions—and please be considerate not to offer unsolicited advice. Sometimes people just need to complain and want solidarity, not solutions.
Daily Dose of Cute
In celebration of Matilda's life of undiluted sweetness — and the love she had for her furry siblings, and that they had for her — here are pix of Tils with all the other furry residents of Shakes Manor. ♥
It looks like Tils and Zelly might be facing off in that last picture, but they weren't. They were snuggled up, just gazing at one another.
Zelda doesn't like anyone — not people nor beast — encroaching on her space while she's curled up. She'll happily curl up next to you, but if anyone sits too close while she's resting, she grumbles and moves. The exception was Matilda. Not only would Zelda tolerate Tilsy snuggling up in her space, but she let Matilda walk on top of her. Special dispensation for Tilsy, who deserved nothing less.
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 369
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: On the Shutdown Deal and The Consequences of Trump's War on the Press.
Michael S. Schmidt at the New York Times: Jeff Sessions Is Questioned for Hours in Russia Inquiry.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours last week by the special counsel's office as part of the investigation into Russia's meddling in the election and whether the president obstructed justice since taking office, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman.I can picture Sessions' blank, blinking face and hear his gormless "Not that I can recall"s as he was questioned, and just the thought of it enrages me.
The meeting marked the first time that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, are known to have interviewed a member of Mr. Trump's cabinet.
...Mr. Mueller's interest in Mr. Sessions shows how the president's own actions helped prompt a broader inquiry. What began as a Justice Department counterintelligence investigation into Russia's election interference is now also an examination of whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry, and the nation's top law enforcement officer is a witness in the case.
For Mr. Mueller, Mr. Sessions is a key witness to two of the major issues he is investigating: The campaign's possible ties to the Russians and whether the president tried to obstruct the Russia investigation.
Mr. Mueller can question Mr. Sessions about his role as the head of the campaign's foreign policy team. Mr. Sessions was involved in developing Mr. Trump's position toward Russia and met with Russian officials, including the ambassador.
Along with Mr. Trump, Mr. Sessions led a March 2016 meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where one of the campaign's foreign policy advisers, George Papadopoulos, pitched the idea of a personal meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. Mr. Papadopoulos plead guilty in October to lying to federal authorities about the nature of his contacts with the Russians and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel's office.
As attorney general, Mr. Sessions was deeply involved in the firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the president has repeatedly criticized Mr. Sessions publicly and privately for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
Jonathan Swan at Axios: FBI Director Threatened to Resign Amid Trump, Sessions Pressure. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions — at the public urging of [Donald] Trump — has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, but Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge. Wray's resignation under those circumstances would have created a media firestorm. The White House — understandably gun-shy after the Comey debacle — didn't want that scene, so McCabe remains. Sessions told White House Counsel Don McGahn about how upset Wray was about the pressure on him to fire McCabe, and McGahn told Sessions this issue wasn't worth losing the FBI Director over, according to a source familiar with the situation." JFC.
Nicole Lafond at TPM: Dems Ask FB, Twitter to Probe If Russian Bots Boosted Nunes' Memo Hashtag. "California Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff are asking Twitter and Facebook to probe whether a hashtag promoting the release of a classified memo compiled by Republicans was propagated by Russian bots. In a letter sent to the two companies' CEOs Tuesday, Schiff and Feinstein asked the social media giants for 'urgent assistance' in 'our efforts to counter Russia's continuing efforts to manipulate public opinion.' The memo in question was authored by Rep. Devin Nunes' (R-CA) staffers. It reportedly contains classified information about the conduct of senior Department of Justice and FBI officials that allegedly proves Republicans' claims of the Justice Department's bias against [Donald] Trump. The memo was made available to the entire House of Representatives on Thursday, which prompted calls on social media for the memo to be made public, including a Twitter hashtag '#ReleaseTheMemo.'"
NEW: Sen. Feinstein, Rep. Schiff urge Facebook and Twitter to investigate involvement of Russian bots in pushing "Release the Memo" campaign: "If these reports are accurate, we are witnessing an ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors." pic.twitter.com/SkAci5NefK
— ABC News (@ABC) January 23, 2018
In a private conversation about Feinstein's and Schiff's letter, Eastsidekate said (which I'm sharing with her permission): "I'm glad they wrote that letter, but the fact that they had to is terrifying. 'Hey tech companies, the Kremlin is using your companies to push a Republican plot against democracy (or vice versa), little help?' is not something one sees in a functioning nation." Indeed.
Meanwhile:
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who has read many of the actual underlying documents behind the Nunes memo, calls it a "profoundy misleading document” that amounts to a “conspiracy theory.” pic.twitter.com/TblgAVTsGf
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) January 23, 2018
Nunes is a chaos agent whose incessant spinning of fuckery works simultaneously to the Trump administration's and Russia's favor. This is not a coincidence.
* * *
Emily Guskin at the Washington Post: Most Americans Don't Trust [Donald] Trump with the 'Nuclear Button'. "About half of Americans are concerned that [Donald] Trump might launch a nuclear attack without justification, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. This worry comes as Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continue to provoke each other on Twitter and follows a previous Post-ABC poll that found a large majority of Americans are concerned about the United States going to war with North Korea. Overall, 38 percent of Americans trust Trump to handle the authority to order nuclear attacks on other countries, while 60 percent do not. Among those who distrust Trump, almost 9 in 10 are very or somewhat concerned the president might launch an attack. Combining those results, the poll finds 52 percent of the public overall is concerned the president might launch a nuclear attack without reason, including one-third who say they are 'very' concerned, according to the poll."
That is also typically not something one sees in a functioning nation.
I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that fear about Trump's recklessness is both highly partisan and highly gendered: "Partisanship is by far the biggest factor in opinion: Almost 6 in 10 Democrats are 'very concerned' about Trump directing an unjustified nuclear attack, compared with about 3 in 10 independents and fewer than 1 in 10 Republicans. Gender is also a factor on this question, with almost twice as many women than men 'very' concerned Trump might launch a nuclear attack — 42 percent vs. 22 percent." Welp.
In other dreadful foreign policy news...
[Content Note: Drones; death] Julian Borger at the Guardian: U.S. Air Wars Under Trump: Increasingly Indiscriminate, Increasingly Opaque.
According to statistics compiled by the Airwars watchdog group, there were nearly 50% more coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in 2017 compared with the previous year. Civilian deaths rose by 215%. The coalition, almost all U.S. planes, dropped 20,000 bombs on Raqqa. By the end of the five-month campaign, 80% of the city was declared uninhabitable by the U.N., and 1,800 civilians are thought to have been killed. Airwars estimates 1,400 of those deaths were caused by coalition air and artillery bombardment.Ali M. Latifi and Aoun Abbas Sahi at ThinkProgress: Trump's Bombast Further Divides Afghanistan and Pakistan, as Civilians Await Meaningful Change. "Trump's words have not only highlighted the growing divide between Afghanistan and the neighboring U.S. ally Pakistan, but also threatened the United States' own relationship with Islamabad. ...While state officials fawn over Trump, many Afghan civilians question the U.S. president's strategy for Afghanistan, and by extension, Pakistan. They wonder whether his fiery speeches and tweets will lead to meaningful, positive action on the ground."
...[W]hat certainly changed was the command tone. The defence secretary, James Mattis, and other officials started calling the campaign against Isis a "war of annihilation" and that is how it was conducted, even in densely packed cities, where the average munition used was a huge 500lb bomb.
In Afghanistan, there were no last-stand battles in crowded cities, but the number of civilian casualties almost doubled in 2017 compared with the year before.
Trump also widened the war. To get around those restrictions the Obama administration placed on operations outside battle zones, the Trump administration declared regions of Yemen and Somalia to be areas of "active hostilities." As a result, there were more US strikes on Yemen in 2017 than in the four previous years combined, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) found.
The use of drones has been part of the global expansion of the anti-Isis campaign. It is another trend started under Obama and extended by Trump, but in ways and on a scale that the administration has not made clear.
"Reportedly this administration has made changes, but it has not acknowledged so publicly. So that's a big step backwards in terms of transparency," said Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch.
"Drones are used more frequently among the tools that are causing those civilian casualties but it is difficult to assess the scale of those casualties and whether they are lawful or not without information about the targeted killings actions."
The increased reliance on drones, the spread of the counter-terror battle to remote new areas, where reporting is minimal or non-existent, combined with looser rules of engagement and a gung-ho command tone, threaten to combine to create an increasingly indiscriminate, increasingly opaque, global war in which civilians are likely to account for an ever larger share of the victims.
[CN: Homophobia] Michael Fitzgerald at Towleroad: Chechnya's Anti-Gay Leader Attacks Human Rights Group as Revenge for Instagram Deactivation. "Russia's oldest human rights group Memorial has said that Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov likely directed ongoing attacks against it after he lost his Instagram account dues to U.S. sanctions. In December, Vladimir Putin ally Kadyrov, 41 was sanctioned by the US Treasury over alleged human rights abuses. Facebook, which also owns Instagram, said the U.S. decision meant it was legally obliged to deactivate his accounts. Last week, Memorial offices in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia were torched by masked men. Days earlier, Oyub Titiev, the head of Memorial's office in Chechen capital Grozny, was arrested for possession of six ounces of cannabis. That charge could potentially lead to a 10-year prison sentence. Memorial representatives believe that Chechen security forces were involved in both cases."
That is something that the United States would be addressing, if Hillary Clinton were our president and we had a functioning State Department.
* * *
President Trump is accused of paying $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to hide an affair a month before the election. In what is probably just a coincidence, the Trump campaign transferred $130K to the Trump businesses a month after the election. pic.twitter.com/KKknIC9ClC
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) January 23, 2018
Edward-Isaac Dovere at Politico: Tony Perkins: Trump Gets 'a Mulligan' on Life, Stormy Daniels. "[Conservative evangelical leaders] embrace Trump the policymaker, says Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, despite being uneasy about Trump as a man. Perkins knows about Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who claimed, in a 2011 interview, that in 2006 she had sex with Trump four months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron. He knows of the reports that Daniels (real name: Stephanie Clifford) was paid off to keep the affair quiet in the waning weeks of the 2016 election. He knows about the cursing, the lewdness, and the litany of questionable behavior over the past year of Trump's life or the 70 that came before it. 'We kind of gave him— 'All right, you get a mulligan. You get a do-over here,'' Perkins told me in an interview for the latest episode of POLITICO's Off Message podcast. ...Evangelical Christians, says Perkins, 'were tired of being kicked around by Barack Obama and his leftists. And I think they are finally glad that there's somebody on the playground that is willing to punch the bully.'"
Zero principles. At least these fuckers are being honest about it now. They just want someone to punch progressives. Noted.
Speaking of the lack of principles among the party of moral values COUGH... [CN: Objectification; misogyny] Noor Al-Sibai at Raw Story: Hot Mic Catches GOP Senator Ogling 'Beautiful' Teenaged Girls with Fellow Lawmaker. "As the Senate prepared to pass the continuing resolution that would reopen the government, a Mississippi Republican was caught on a hot mic making comments about the appearances of high-school aged pages. 'I thought you were going to say this was one of the most beautiful girls,' Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MI) said, as flagged by CQ Roll Call's Amelia Frappolli. 'What about these others?'" Goddammit.
[CN: War on agency] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire: Trump's Federal Agencies Are the Greatest Threat to Roe. "Within the first year of his presidency, [Donald] Trump has managed to stack his cabinet with anti-choice ideologues. He's released two separate executive orders targeting reproductive rights, including one that purports to create an entirely new division within Health and Human Services to back health-care providers that refuse to offer abortion and contraception services, or who have a moral or religious objection to treating LGBTQ patients. And his most powerful attorneys are arguing in the case of Hargan v. Garza that the federal government has the right to unilaterally block access to abortions for undocumented minors in its custody, setting up a direct attack on Roe's legacy — and maybe even a direct challenge to the decision itself."
Joe Romm at ThinkProgress: Trump Hits Solar Imports with Tariff But Still Concedes Millions of Jobs to China. "Donald Trump decided to slap a 30 percent tariff on imported solar cells and panels, the White House announced Monday. The tariff comes after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled last year that China had harmed the domestic solar manufacturing industry with policies aimed at taking over the global market. While the administration claimed the president was acting to protect American jobs, the new tariff is only the latest in a series of efforts by the White House to slow the installation of renewable energy in this country in favor of fossil fuels — a strategy that kills jobs in both the near term and long term."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
The Consequences of Trump's War on the Press
[Content Note: Violence; white supremacy; terrorism.]
Donald Trump has been waging a war on the press since virtually the moment he announced his candidacy in July 2015.
In the first year of his campaign, Trump made "incredible personal attacks on members of the press, openly mocking disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski; saying Fox debate moderator Megyn Kelly had 'blood coming out of her wherever'; ginning up outrage against the press at campaign events; and launching an all-out jeremiad against the media during a press conference, during which he called the press 'sleazy' and 'unbelievably dishonest.'"
He defended his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was accused of physically assaulting a female reporter, in addition to having allegedly "pushing a CNN reporter who tried to ask the candidate a question; physically confronting an aide for a rival campaign in a post-debate spin room; publicly shouting threats over the phone at a restaurant; making sexual comments about female journalists; and calling up women in the campaign press corps late at night to make unwanted romantic advances."
Further, Trump blocked news organizations from his campaign events, revoking the press credentials of established institutions like the Washington Post, because he didn't like their coverage.
This was all before he started screaming "Fake news!" and elevating his war on the press to dangerous levels, as part of a demonstrable pattern Aphra Behn comprehensively documented.
The press is not above criticism. But Donald Trump's war on the free press is not "criticism." It is a sustained campaign to discredit reputable media institutions; to elevate propagandists; to intimidate individual reporters; to silence critics; and to make himself the arbiter of what constitutes "the truth."
This is a chapter right out of the authoritarian's playbook. And it has consequences.
Darran Simon at CNN: Michigan Man Arrested After Caller Threatens to Kill CNN Employees.
Authorities arrested a Michigan man last week after he allegedly called CNN several times, threatening to kill employees at the network's Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters, according to a federal affidavit.I'm sure we'll hear all about how Griesemer is "mentally unstable" or too young to be held accountable or some other excuse that would only be afforded to a white man, who will be described as having "acted alone," despite the fact that he is acting in precise accordance to the anti-Black, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, press-hating agenda of the United States president.
Brandon Griesemer made 22 calls to CNN on January 9 and January 10 and four calls, which were recorded, contained threats, according to the affidavit, which was unsealed Friday.
Griesemer, whose age was not given, also made disparaging statements about Jewish people, African-Americans, and the network in several calls, the affidavit said.
...Michigan authorities first crossed paths with Griesemer last fall.
On September 19, a man — later identified as Griesemer — called an employee at an Islamic center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and made derogatory comments about the mosque and Muslims, an FBI agent said in the affidavit.
...CNN received the first threatening call around 3 p.m. on January 9. The call was made to a publicly listed phone number at the Atlanta headquarters from the same cell phone number used to call the Islamic center in Ann Arbor on September 19, the affidavit said.
It was the first of three threatening calls that day to CNN from that number, according to the affidavit.
"Fake news. I'm coming to gun you all down," said the caller, who cursed and used an expletive directed at African-Americans, the affidavit said.
"I am on my way right now to gun the f****** CNN cast down ...I am coming to kill you," the caller said a second call to CNN, according to affidavit.
Where did he get radicalized?
The answer to that question could not be more clear.
On the Shutdown Deal
This is a good piece by Jim Newell at Slate explaining "Why Democrats Caved," striking a deal with Republicans that seems like a shitty and incredibly stupid deal on its face: Agreeing to reopen the government at current spending levels for another 17 days in exchange for a promise from Mitch McConnell "to debate immigration through regular order after Feb. 8 if no deal is struck beforehand."
No deal is going to be struck beforehand. And McConnell will almost certainly break his promise.
Because these two things are manifestly obvious to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to Congressional politics, many people quite understandably feel like the Democrats made a bad deal for no reason.
But there is one big reason, as Newell notes (emphasis mine):
No one could really say the truth about why Democrats accepted this offer from McConnell: that it was the best they were going to get.That is: The Democrats had lost before they even began. The question was only how much they were going to lose.
This shutdown was always going to be decided by the "blame game," as annoying as that is to say. As each side made their arguments in recent days, Republicans had the more straightforward one — Democrats were responsible for the shutdown because they filibustered a funding bill in order to secure something else. A DACA fix is popular; shutting down the government over one is much less so, especially in many of the states Senate Democrats are trying to hold in November. The polling was beginning to gravitate in Republicans' favor.
"I hear our numbers are dropping like a rock," Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York told Bloomberg on Monday.
There is no compelling evidence that rejecting McConnell's offer would have resulted in a better outcome for Democrats.
As far as I can tell, the Democrats got the best they could, which was nothing. And they would have gotten worse than nothing otherwise, because every Republican in Congress would have been jumping in front of every mic and camera they could find to blame the Democrats, and because Donald Trump would have spent all day every day tweeting that the Democrats were at fault, and because our political press is fucking garbage, and would have breathlessly reported each one of those tweets, without the context that Trump is a liar and that's not how responsibility works when your party rules the executive and legislative branches of the government.
Sure, I get it. Be angry at the Democrats, who constantly make strategic errors. But they are, truly, the least of our problems in this situation. The Republicans are primarily at fault, because they are actively trying to destroy the federal government. And the second largest share of the blame goes to the political press, who still insist on covering this president and his loathsome party like business as usual.
"Both sides" was always wrong. But it is wrong in a way that is complicit when one side has all the power and opts to use that power to pursue an agenda of white supremacist, nativist authoritarianism.
The Oscars Thread
The 2018 Oscar nominations were announced this morning. NPR has a complete list of nominees.
The only two films I've seen in any of the major categories (acting, directing, and best picture) are Get Out and Dunkirk, so I've got zero commentary to add about the nominations, besides yay for Jordan Peele and Greta Gerwig both being nominated for Best Director, a category which is usually nothing but white men.
[Content Note: Rape culture] I guess I'll also just note that a lot of the people nominated have either worked with Woody Allen and/or were signatories on the Free Polanski petition; that Gary Oldman was accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife; and that Dear Basketball, a nominatation for Best Animated Short Film, is based on a poem written by accused rapist Kobe Bryant and also narrated by him.
Time's not up just yet, I guess.
Anyway. Discuss!
Goodbye, Matilda
This weekend, we had to say goodbye to Matilda. It was not entirely unexpected, but it was sooner than we'd hoped.
The short version is that the meds to treat her hyperthyroidism put too much strain on her kidneys. The resultant nausea made her stop eating, and, when none of the many efforts to entreat her to start eating again were successful, she faded very quickly.
The vet was wonderful with her. Iain and I held her and pet her, and she went peacefully, still purring.
We brought Tils home as a kitten, and she was a perfect companion for 15 years. Contrary to her imperious appearance, she was extraordinarily sweet and goofy — just a bundle of loving fuzz, one of whose favorite places was tucked in between my back and the back of my office chair while I worked.
I can't even imagine how many of the words I've published in this space were composed with the comforting rattle of Tils' purr against me, or her wee furry paws kneading my spine.
Matilda got along splendidly with every person, cat, and dog she ever met, and she never caused a fuss or misbehaved. She was just undiluted sweetness, her whole darn life.
She was unusually talkative and playful; she was unfathomably graceless and ferociously beautiful; she purred like a lawnmower.
I loved her mightily, and I will miss her so, so much. I feel very sad, and I feel very fortunate to have known her for as long as I did.
My life is better because she was in it. I hope I returned the favor.
[Note: I will be taking the rest of the day off, and I will return tomorrow.]
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
Friday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by snowpeople.
Recommended Reading:
Transgender Law Center: TLC Condemns Illegal HHS Rule Granting 'License to Discriminate'
Sarah Sloat at Inverse: The Struggle to Save Scientific Research from a Government Shutdown
Charline Jao at the Mary Sue: [Content Note: Sexual assault] "The Police Did Nothing": Anika Noni Rose Opens Up About Being Assaulted on a Plane
Michael Fitzgerald at Towleroad: [CN: Sexual assault; "revenge porn"] Lesbian YouTube Star Chrissy Chambers Wins Landmark 'Revenge Porn' Case
Caroline Reilly at Rewire: [CN: Rape culture] Losing Your Job for Sexual Harassment Is Not a Violation of Due Process
Dianne Stewart, Stephen Herzenberg, and Heidi Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute: Unrigging the Economy to Grow the Middle Class: Pennsylvania Takes the Lead on Overtime
Hattie Soykan at BuzzFeed: 17 Jokes About Women in Movies That Aren't Really Jokes Because They're True
Jason Del Rey at Recode: Amazon Is Raising the Price of Prime Monthly Memberships by Nearly 20 Percent
Rae Paoletta at Inverse: This Neutron Star Merger Is Glowing in a Seriously Weird Way
ZooBorns: Endangered Orangutan Baby Brings in New Year
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
#365feministselfie: Week 3
I am again participating in the #365feministselfie project, now entering its fifth year, and promised a thread for others to share selfies and/or talk about the project, visibility generally, self-apprecation, and related topics. So here is a thread for Week 3!
A few of my selfies over the last week:
my friend K and her husband D. | Dorktown. Population: Me!
Please feel welcome and encouraged to share your own selfies in comments, or share your thoughts on the project, or solicit encouragement or advice, or do whatever else feels best for you to participate, if you are inclined to do so!
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 365
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: A Year of Malice and The Shutdown Thread.
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Jennifer Jacobs and Bill Allison at Bloomberg: Trump to Mark One-Year Anniversary with Gala at Mar-a-Lago. "Donald Trump will mark the first anniversary of his inauguration on Saturday with a celebration at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, with tickets starting at $100,000 a pair. That amount, according to the invitation, will pay for dinner and a photograph with the president. For $250,000, a couple can also take part in a roundtable. ...The event, hosted by Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and the casino mogul Steve Wynn, will benefit the Trump presidential campaign and the RNC."
Sounds like such a splendid party for the absolute worst people of the One Percent! Also sounds highly unethical and nakedly corrupt, so that seems about par for the Trump course.
Tamara Keith at NPR: Turnover in Trump's White House Is 'Record-Setting,' and It Isn't Even Close. "If [Donald] Trump's first year in office seemed chaotic from a staffing perspective, there's a reason. Turnover among top-level staff in the Trump White House was off the charts, according to a new Brookings Institution report. Turnover in Trump's first year was more than triple that in former President Barack Obama's first year, and double the rate in President Ronald Reagan's White House. A full 34 percent of high-level White House aides either resigned, were fired or moved into different positions in this first year of the Trump presidency." What a cool presidency!
Trump is speaking at the #MarchforLife and Pence is giving remarks in the Rose Garden, making sure we all understand that they unified in their contempt for women's autonomy and agency.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 19, 2018
Happy (early) inaugural anniversary, ladies!
* * *
Natasha Bertrand at Business Insider: Fusion GPS Interview with House Panel Leaves Huge Pile of Breadcrumbs for Trump-Russia Investigators.
The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday released the transcript [pdf] of the panel's November interview with Glenn Simpson, the cofounder of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS.There is a lot at the link, and this thread on Twitter by @HoarseWisperer is a must-read.
The House investigators' line of questioning touched upon subjects that the Senate Judiciary Committee did not delve into, largely due to a shift in focus spearheaded by the committee's top Democrat, Adam Schiff.
Rather than home in on the nature of Simpson's relationship with Christopher Steele — the former British intelligence officer hired by Fusion to research Trump's Russia ties — Schiff and his Democratic colleagues asked Simpson pointed questions about Russian money laundering, Russian organized crime, and whether Trump could be susceptible to Russian blackmail.
The result was a long trail of breacrumbs for investigators probing Trump's relationship with Russia.
Okay, politikids. Grab thyselves a beverage and settle in.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) January 19, 2018
I just careened through 180-pages of House Intel Committee testimony by Fusion GPS and it was just chockablock with tasty bits.
Let's hit the buffet.
1/
I highly recommend reading both Bertrand's piece and the thread in their entirety.
Sam Thielman at TPM: NRA's Ties to Putin Allies Go Back Years. "There's already a lot of reporting out there on the unlikely ties between the gun group and right-wing Russians. The banker at the center of the probe, Alexander Torshin, is a lifetime NRA member who's spent years attending the group's events and amassing a circle of influential American conservative friends. Several of those American conservatives have attended events organized by a Russian gun-rights group that Torshin helped launch. It's also worth noting that the NRA's dark money arm spent more on the 2016 election than did any other dark money group. It spent three times as much in support of Trump as it did for Mitt Romney in 2012, despite the group's antipathy to President Obama. Here, in chronological order, is what we know on the NRA's Russian ties." Another must-read.
* * *
[CN: Christian supremacy]
"Division for Conscience and Religious Freedom." Fuck you. https://t.co/zTqlAwCLlz
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 18, 2018
ICYMI on Wednesday: Trump Administration Revives the "Conscience Clause".
Christine Grimaldi & Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire: Trump Carves Health-Care Discrimination Wing into Civil Rights Office. "The Trump-era HHS, stacked with anti-choice extremists, on Thursday announced the launch of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, a wing of the agency's Office of Civil Rights. The division is a precursor to an imminent rule expected to bolster such 'religious freedom,' or religious imposition, measures at the expense of vulnerable patients. ...Expect the administration to push the boundaries of law, according to Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for reproductive rights and health at the National Women's Law Center. Trump-era officials 'have been willing to take the law as far as they can and then violate the law [in order] to enshrine one set of religious beliefs,' Borchelt said in an interview. 'They don't care what the harm is to individuals. Whatever the [George W.] Bush administration did, I think we would expect to see it taken at least one to two steps further, if not as far as possible beyond that.'"
* * *
Michael Safi at the Guardian: 'Buy a Flat, Meet Trump Jr' Offer Criticised as 'Ethics Atrocity'. "The developers behind a Trump Towers project near Delhi are offering to fly the first 100 investors in the property to the US to meet Donald Trump Jr, the US president's eldest son. ...The specifics of the meeting with Trump Jr were unclear but the offer was repeated on a news broadcast featured on the developer's website with the tagline 'Buy a flat, meet Trump junior.' ...'Making Donald Jr available to those who can afford it in a foreign land based on purchasing a property is an ethics atrocity,' said Norman L Eisen, who served as a special counsel for ethics in the Barack Obama administration and is the chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), a watchdog group. 'Access to the first family should not be for sale. It's particularly inappropriate because we know he is in constant communication with his father, so it does create a conduit to attempt to influence the president and one of his closest confidants and family members.'"
Michael R. Gordon and Chun Han Wong at the Wall Street Journal: Six Chinese Ships Covertly Aided North Korea; the U.S. Was Watching. "Satellite photographs and other intelligence gathered by U.S. officials provide what they say is detailed evidence of at least six Chinese-owned or -operated cargo ships violating United Nations sanctions against North Korea. The U.S. compiled the information from Asian waters as part of the Trump administration's strategy to pressure North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles." Honestly, the most terrifying thing about this is that I have zero ability to assess its veracity and every reason to question whether it's real. It could just as easily be a cynical plant by the Trump administration at a publication which has been dutifully carrying water for them, without regard for journalistic ethics or the world's safety.
Supreme Court says North Carolina does not have to immediately redraw congressional maps that a lower court ruled unconstitutional https://t.co/hkXhIPKeLs
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 18, 2018
Not good.
[CN: Nativism] E.A. Crunden at ThinkProgress: Trump Has No Idea How the Diversity Visa Lottery Actually Works. "Throughout immigration talks, Trump has repeatedly called for a merit-based immigration system, positing it as an alternative to 'the lottery,' a system he has decried. ...That juxtaposition has since dominated much of Trump's rhetoric on immigration, leaving immigration advocates baffled. 'It's confusing because, well, the diversity visa program is actually a merit-based system,' Anu Joshi, Immigration Policy Director for the New York Immigration Coalition, told ThinkProgress. 'On its face what he's saying just isn't correct.'" What a shocker.
Eric Garner's mom said civilian review board told her they're ready to bring administrative charges against officer for chokehold but can't because NYPD won't create a case number https://t.co/7upwqXUodz
— Mike Hayes (@michaelhayes) January 18, 2018
Goddammit.
Nick Anderson at the Washington Post: Comey to Teach Course on Ethical Leadership for College of William & Mary.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *jumps into Christmas tree*
* * *
[CN: Sexual harassment, assault, rape apologia, and silencing. Covers entire section.]
AP/Guardian: Pope Francis Accuses Chilean Church Sexual Abuse Victims of Slander.
Pope Francis has accused victims of Chile's most notorious paedophile of slander, in an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic church its credibility in the country.Yeah, this is your regular reminder that Pope Francis is actually an asshole.
Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev Fernando Karadima, such accusations against Barros are "all calumny."
The pope's remarks drew shock from Chileans and immediate rebuke from victims and their advocates. They noted the accusers were deemed credible enough by the Vatican that it sentenced Karadima to a lifetime of "penance and prayer" for his crimes in 2011.
A Chilean judge also found the victims to be credible, saying that while she had to drop criminal charges against Karadima because too much time had passed, proof of his crimes was not lacking.
Jessica M. Goldstein at ThinkProgress: Bill Cosby Could Face 19 of His Accusers in Court. "There is only one criminal case against Bill Cosby. It's easy to forget that, given the multitudes of women — the total, to date, hovers around 60 — who have publicly accused him of sexual violence. ...But so far, there's only one woman whose case could send Cosby to prison, and that is Andrea Constand. Constand claims that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home in a Philadelphia suburb in 2004. Cosby stands accused of three counts of aggravated indecent assault and, if convicted, could spend ten years in prison. Though it is Constand's allegations, and hers alone, for which Cosby will again be tried, the prosecution hopes to have up to 19 of Cosby's other accusers take the stand. These 'prior bad acts' witnesses, if permitted to speak, will attest to Cosby's pattern of misconduct. They could help prove that Cosby's crime was also his signature: A drugged drink, an unconscious woman, an assault, repeat."
This twitter thread by @Salencita about what happened to Lindsey Port after she disclosed having been sexually harassed by a Minnesota state senator is a must-read. So you know what to expect:
Basically: "We want more women in politics...but not women who have survived sexual harassment and/or assault and have the temerity to talk about it." Cool cool cool.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 18, 2018
Addy Baird at ThinkProgress: Trump Lawyer Set Pp a Shell Company to Pay Adult Film Star Hush Money a Month Before the Election. "Donald Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, established a private company in Delaware in October 2016 to pay hush money to former adult film star Stephanie Clifford, according to a report Thursday. Clifford, who goes by the stage name 'Stormy Daniels,' allegedly had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Cohen had paid Clifford $130,000 a month before the 2016 election in return for her agreeing not to publicly discuss her alleged encounter with Trump last week, and on Thursday, the Journal reported Cohen had done so through a private company and used pseudonyms to mask the identities of the people involved in the transaction."
You may have seen headlines about how Stormy Daniels reported Trump had her spank him with a Forbes magazine, but, unless you dug into those stories, you might not have seen this detail: "The Forbes magazine in question had Trump on the cover."
Of course it did.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
The Shutdown Thread
Here is a thread for discussion about the imminent federal government shutdown, if Republicans can't get their shit together and stop trying to deny healthcare access to children, among other indecencies.
Over at the Washington Post, Damian Paletta and Erica Werner write:
The federal government late Thursday faced increasing odds of a partial shutdown, the culmination of a long period of budget warfare that has now imperiled what most lawmakers agree is the most basic task of governance.Emphasis mine. Their story was published under the headline: "Looming Shutdown Raises Fundamental Question: Can GOP Govern?" No. That has been apparent for a very long time.
The immediate challenge Thursday was a refusal by Senate Democrats to join with Republicans in passing legislation that would keep the government open for 30 more days while legislators continued to negotiate a longer-term solution.
But the impasse raised deeper questions about the GOP's capacity — one year into the Trump administration — to govern. Never before has the government experienced a furlough of federal employees when a single party controls both the White House and Congress, but that's what will happen after midnight Friday if a spending bill fails to pass Congress.
And of course a big part of the reason they can't govern is because they don't want to govern. Governance is fundamentally at odds with destruction, and the Republican Party has become very explicitly a party committed to destroying the government.
Paletta and Werner also note, quite rightly, that Trump bears an outsized portion of the responsibility for bringing us to the brink of this crisis:
Unlike almost any president or administration before him, Trump has fanned the flames of a shutdown.Further to that, Congressional Republicans spent most of 2017 trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act and passing their disgusting tax bill, "spending little time focused on how to pay the government's bills this year." Senate Republicans aren't even "expected to vote on a budget resolution at all this year, a move that would have been unthinkable in recent years, as they said it was a cornerstone of good governing."
Trump has repeatedly mused about the prospects of halting federal operations, saying at one point that the government needed a "good shutdown" to teach Democrats a lesson. The budget he proposed last year was so sparse on key details that the Congressional Budget Office said it could not analyze its impact on revenue.
His aides have not hashed out a broader spending agreement with GOP leaders or Democrats, and the White House and GOP leaders have remained split on how much money to appropriate for the military.
Huh.
This is what happens when people who hate government are put in charge of running it.
A Year of Malice
Today is the last day of Donald Trump's first year in office.
It is fitting, I suppose, that we are waiting to see if the government will be shut down today, because of Trump's incompetence and indecency, and the intolerable cruelty of his entire party — fitting, because one of the driving motivations of Trump's presidency has been breaking the federal government.
Breaking it by choosing to lead federal departments people who don't believe in the objectives of those departments, like Betsy DeVos. Breaking it by choosing to lead federal departments people who have no qualifications to lead those departments, like Rick Perry. Breaking it by ensuring no career bureaucrats with experience and decency would want to work for it anymore. Breaking it by creating warfare with intelligence agencies. Breaking it by wanton deregulation. Breaking it with ineptitude and malignity and laziness and corruption. Breaking it by starving it of resources. Breaking it intentionally.
He has also broken promises, broken his word, broken faith with people who inexplicably trusted him, broken families, broken people's wills, broken spirits.
People who have been broken by Trump over the last year are not weak. There's only so much any person can take. And some of us have already taken much more than others, like immigrants whose hearts have been broken as their families are broken apart.
Trump is animated by malice. He does not want the federal government to serve We the People. He wants the federal government to exist only to confer virtually limitless power to men like him, so that he can remake the country the way he wants it to be, by getting rid of the people he despises and forcing everyone else, the people he merely holds in contempt, to behave in service to his power and glory.
He subjects people to sustained fear, by ignoring real threats like climate change and creating real threats like the possibility of nuclear war. He thrives in the chaos that his recklessness creates, and wallows in the misery that his bigoted agenda causes.
He lies profligately, has no fixed principles beyond self-interest, can neither be cajoled nor shamed into doing the right thing. He expresses abundant hatred for anyone he views as the Other, and outsources the policy prescriptions for harming them to his sadistic vice-president Mike Pence, who delights in being the architect of official abuse while parading around in the mask of a pious man.
Trump is a despot, surrounded by sycophants and enablers. His party indulges and abets him. His base cheers and empowers him. The press normalizes him.
His rank disloyalty to the nation he is meant to be leading has spawned numerous investigations, none of which are anywhere close to disempowering him from continuing on this wicked path of demolishing everything all decent people value.
It has been a wreck of a year.
And I know I am supposed to invoke some silver lining about more women running for office, or people waking up to politics, or the resistance. But fuck that. I don't feel that way. There is no silver lining to this relentless garbage nightmare.
I believe the nation's first female president would have inspired more women to run for office, too, without the debasement of women as a cost of that increased engagement. I have no gratitude to people only waking up to politics now, when the republic is dangling on the edge of a fucking cliff. And everything good about the resistance existed long before Donald Trump.
Like this space. The reason it provides us solace now is because of the commitment to building beloved community and hard work put in for 12 years before that dirtbag took the oath of office he never intended to uphold.
I refuse to breathe life into any narrative that credits Trump for anything of value that existed long before his presidency or would have happened, anyway, with far less collateral damage.
We survive because of each other. And not because of a Russian nesting doll of character defects who substitutes for democratic governance subjecting us to things we must survive.
And I don't feel inclined to apologize for not finding anything good to say about the first year of Trump's presidency. I refuse to spin what's happening in order to give some false sense of hopefulness that everything will turn out okay in the end. Because maybe it won't.
Trusting that everything will be fine is what got us into this terrifying mess. One year in, and, from where I'm sitting, it looks a hell of a lot less like everything will be fine than it did one year ago.
I don't have to be unrealistic to be hopeful. I am still hopeful. But, more importantly, I am angry. And that anger fuels my commitment to resisting.
Donald Trump has spent the last year trying to break this nation. And the only thing I can say with any certainty at this point is that he hasn't yet broken me.
Onward.
Hello. Here Is an Owl in a Whirlpool.
Video Description: A small owl sits in the water in a sink. A retractable faucet head lies in the water, creating a whirlpool effect. The owl spins 'round and 'round, with a sanguine expression.
