Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker speedbudget: "What is the first song you can remember hearing a curse word in?"
That is a very funny question! I honestly cannot remember what it was, but I can assure you, given what I was like as a church-going kid, that I would have been absolutely scandalized by it, lol!
Discussion Thread: Self-Care
What are you doing to do to take care of yourself today, or in the near future, as soon as you can?
If you are someone who has a hard time engaging in self-care, or figuring out easy, fast, and/or inexpensive ways to treat yourself, and you would like to solicit suggestions, please feel welcome. And, as always, no one should offer advice unless it is solicited.
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I am going to pour myself a tall glass of ice cold cucumber water and sit in a comfy chair and drink it while thinking about absolutely nothing for 10 minutes.
It's Okay to Not Feel Like Everything Will Be Okay
[Content Note: Emotional policing.]
Soon after the 2016 election, I published a piece with the same title as this one, in which I wrote:
Something has been upended that cannot be easily righted, and I'm not going to feel okay about the fact that every breath in my chest just got a little tighter.In the intervening 15 months, things have gotten precipitously worse. As I entirely expected they would. Things tend to go to shit when a disloyal, intemperate, bigoted, authoritarian megalomaniac is given unfettered power and access to a vast nuclear arsenal.
And they were already pretty tight, even before this.
I know how to live in a space of survival. And I will persevere, for as long as the fates allow. That does not require me to concede that everything will be okay.
And, at least in this space, it's okay if you don't feel like everything will be okay, too.
I have spent an enormous amount of my time every weekday creating a detailed compendium of many of this administration's abuses. Each day, I promote the We Resist thread on Twitter, and frequently it is met with exasperation and scorn. I am accused of being "negative" and "depressing" for compiling this relentless onslaught of bad news, and I am scolded for not instead telling people what actions to take to resist, and I am obliged to see "Debbie Downer" memes and GIFs in my mentions.
Simultaneously, when I write pieces about how well and truly dire the situation has become, because we can't resist what we won't even speak about honestly, I am told that I am a defeatist, that I am hurting the resistance, that I need to STFU and FOAD, that I am a hysterical alarmist to whom no one serious should ever listen.
None of this invective gets directed at me because I am wrong. The people yelling at me aren't challenging my facts. The reason they want me to shut up shut up shut up is because I am interfering with their insistent belief that everything will be okay.
It might not be. It looks very much like it won't. It already isn't, for immigrant families being torn asunder and for victims of hate crimes committed by hatemongers empowered by this presidency and for people who defend on social service organizations whose funding is drying up, just for a start.
It's not okay. And it's okay to not feel like it's going to get better, simply or quickly or maybe ever in the remainder of your lifetime.
A thing like restoring trust in public institutions is a monumental task. It's far, far easier to erode trust than it is to rebuild it. I am 43 years old, and I don't believe it will be accomplished before my time on this rock comes to an end.
How can I possibly believe everything is going to be okay?
The fact is I don't.
And I'm not saying that, publicly and straightforwardly, as a resignation. To the absolute contrary, I don't believe that things can be okay if we aren't all fighting as hard as our grim circumstances demand; as hard as though we all know that things won't be okay without a leviathanian effort from each and every one of us.
We have to acknowledge the precipice on which we find ourselves, if we're ever to back away.
I don't feel like it's going to be okay.
That motivates me to fight with perseverance and resilience. And yet there are vanishingly few places where I can express that without reflexive and hostile pushback.
Because there are too many people who want to live in some fucking fantasy world where our institutions aren't corrupt, where checks and balances still exist, where the rules still matter, where other people will fix it.
They are too indolent to do anything except admonish me for being a downer and not indulging their delusion that a democracy can be sustained if We the People abandon our duty to fight for it.
No one else is coming.
And the people who shush me when I say that everything isn't going to be okay are one of the reasons it won't be.
Quote of the Day
"I assumed that my passive concern would be enough. Passive concern never is."—Science journalist Ed Yong, in a very fine piece for the Atlantic, "I Spent Two Years Trying to Fix the Gender Imbalance in My Stories."
I strongly encourage you to head over and read the whole thing. As a person who makes an ongoing effort to include marginalized writers' work and voices here, I appreciate Yong's piece immensely — and I share his conclusion that it really doesn't take an enormous amount of effort; just a willingness and desire to prioritize diversity.
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 383
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 Fannie: Dispatches From the Queer Resistance (No. 6). And by me: Quentin Tarantino Is an Abusive, Disgusting Person.
Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: Trump's Lawyers Don't Want Him to Sit for Interview with Mueller. "Two lawyers for [Donald] Trump are urging the President to decline special counsel Robert Mueller's request for an interview in the Russia probe out of concern that Trump would end up lying to investigators, the New York Times reported Monday, citing four sources familiar with the matter. Trump's lawyers have been discussing the possibility of an interview with Mueller's team since late last year, and they've reportedly been looking for ways to avoid or limit a sit-down interview between the President and Mueller's investigators."
When Trump first said that wanted to talk to Mueller, I noted that he would use his lawyers to get out of it. And here we are.
Speaking of Trump being totally predictable...
WH spokesperson Hogan Gidley tells NBC News President Trump was being "tongue in cheek" yesterday when he accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding during parts of his State of the Union address.
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) February 6, 2018
Me, yesterday:
Note the jocular tone Trump uses to call his ideological opponents "treasonous." That tone is no accident. It serves to preemptively deflect criticism w/ claims of "joking" while diminishing the inherent gravity of treason, should he ever be charged w/ it. https://t.co/cc7i2fMUGf
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 5, 2018
People keep insisting that Trump doesn't know what he's doing, but here's the deal:
Trump knows what he is doing. Trust that.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 6, 2018
If he was really as chaotic as he wants people to believe, I wouldn't be able to constantly predict what's going to happen next. It's simple pattern spotting.
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Today in Russia Reversal garbage... Maxwell Tani at the Daily Beast: Nunes Tells Hannity: Clinton Collaborated with Russia to Frame Trump. "In a remarkable interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes on Monday night claimed it was the Hillary Clinton campaign that had been the real Russian collaborator, and had effectively weaponized the FBI against Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. ...'There's clear evidence of collusion — that the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign colluded with the Russians,' Nunes said... 'I just go by the old rule: Whatever they accuse you of doing, they're actually doing,' Nunes said." LOLOLOLOL omg this fucking guy.
Everything is fine:
“The Pentagon... is worried that the W.H. is moving too hastily toward military action on the Korean Peninsula that could escalate catastrophically. Giving the president too many options, the officials said, could increase the odds that he will act.” https://t.co/VVaYp23vBk
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 4, 2018
(Everything is not fine.)
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Maegan Vazquez at CNN: Sessions Calls for 'Fresh Start' at FBI. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he believes the FBI needs a 'fresh start' following FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's decision to step down. 'Well, I have believed it was important to have a fresh start at the FBI, and actually, it was in my letter to the President when I recommended (former FBI Director James) Comey's removal. I used the words, 'fresh start,' and the FBI director is Chris Wray, a very talented, smart, capable leader,' Sessions told the Washington Examiner on the day McCabe left the bureau. ...A clean slate, he said, 'will give them an opportunity to go straight to the American people and say, 'We are gonna win your confidence.''" More importantly, a "clean slate" gives Donald Trump the opportunity to fill the FBI with loyalists and sycophants who will never hold him or his allies accountable.
Meanwhile, today in Republicans Are Democracy Killers...
A remarkable subversion of our democracy continues in Pennsylvania. After losing their fight at the Supreme Court, Republicans are now threatening to impeach members of the state Supreme Court who found the congressional map to be an unconstitutional gerrymander. pic.twitter.com/SbrnCwU43Q
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) February 6, 2018
Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: Pennsylvania Republican Launches Effort to Impeach State Supreme Court to Save GOP Gerrymander.
In a direct attack on the rule of law, Pennsylvania state Rep. Cris Dush (R) sent a memo to his colleagues Monday evening asking them to cosponsor articles of impeachment against five of the state's seven supreme court justices.All of this is happening while the national Republican Party is also waging an all-out war to win a Congressional seat in the state, too.
The justices' crime? Striking down the state's gerrymandered congressional maps, which allowed Republicans to win 13 of the state's 18 congressional seats even in election years when Democrats won a majority of the statewide popular vote.
It's a serious threat. Though the state supreme court's decision dealt exclusively with the GOP's successful effort to gerrymander the state's congressional maps, the state senate maps also produced a senate that is far more Republican than the state as a whole (these maps were drawn by a 5 member commission, not the state legislature).
Republicans control more than two-thirds of the senate seats in Pennsylvania despite the fact that the state has a Democratic governor and Donald Trump's margin of victory in the 2016 presidential election was less than 1 percentage point in the state. Under the state constitution, two-thirds of senators must concur with a majority of the state representatives in order to remove a state official from office.
So, to summarize, Pennsylvania Republicans have outsized majorities in the state legislature, despite the fact that the state is closely divided between Democratic and Republican voters. After the state supreme court voted 5-2 to rein in gerrymandering, the GOP may use its house majority and senate supermajority to remove all five of the justices that opposed gerrymandering.
Alex Isenstadt at Politico: National GOP Breaks Glass in Pennsylvania Race: The National Party Has Deployed Its Full Arsenal in a March 13 Special House Election. "Nearly every corner of the GOP is involved. The White House is working closely with Saccone and dispatching [Donald] Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to the suburban Pittsburgh district on his behalf. The House Republican campaign arm has begun a $2 million TV offensive and is aggressively pressing party lawmakers to help fund the candidate. Bliss' group, Congressional Leadership Fund, is deploying dozens of field staffers, who braved frigid winds last weekend as they canvassed for votes. By the end of the weekend, Republicans were outspending Democrats on TV by a ratio of nearly 5-to-1. The GOP push will only intensify: The Republican National Committee is set to invest about $1 million, much of it on digital, field and other get-out-the-vote activities."
* * *
Paul Wiseman at the AP: U.S. Trade Gap Hits $566 Billion in 2017, Highest Since 2008. "The U.S. trade deficit hit the highest level in nine years in 2017, defying [Donald] Trump's efforts to bring more balance to America's trade relationships. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that the trade gap in goods and services rose to $566 billion last year, the highest level since $708.7 billion in 2008. Imports set a record $2.9 trillion, swamping exports of $2.3 trillion. The U.S. ran an $810 billion deficit in the trade of goods and a $244 billion surplus in services such as banking and education. ...Trump sees trade deficits as a sign of economic weakness and largely as the result of unfair competition by America's trading partners. Most economists see them largely as the result of bigger economic forces: Americans spend more than they produce, and imports fill the gap."
Trump is wrong about trade deficits. But the fact is that he promised that he alone would be able to make the best deals to fix those trade deficits. And, surprise, he hasn't. Do his deplorables care? Nope.
Ben White at Politico: 'The President Clearly Set Himself Up': Trump's Stock Market Miscalculation. "Donald Trump is learning a basic and painful lesson of Wall Street: Stocks also go down. A global market sell-off accelerated Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging nearly 1,600 points at one point in roller-coaster afternoon trading. After a volatile session, the Dow ended down 1,175 points, or 4.6%, at 24,346. It was the largest ever single-day point drop for the Dow and it rattled both Wall Street and Washington, abruptly ending a remarkable period of placid markets where it often seemed the only direction was up."
Guess what? His deplorables don't care about that, either. It doesn't matter what promises he made, what promises he breaks, what lies he tell, what responsibility he shirks, what credit he erroneously claims, what facts he ignores, what bullshit he disgorges as "fact," what epic failures he oversees. They don't care, because he is the powerful id of their darkest impulses, and thus he cannot be wrong.
Religious objections by health workers almost never happen. But the Trump administration wants hospitals, other providers to pay $311M to make sure it doesn't: https://t.co/s3SBs4sQAF
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) February 5, 2018
Echidne of the Snakes on the CDC as we face a horrendous flu season:
The Trump administration approach to preventing and controlling pandemics could serve as a metaphor of many of the changes it has created. The changes all share the view that nothing bad will ever happen, and that, say, all firms only think of the best of their customers, so it's unnecessary to have safety regulations at work or at home, or rules which protect the environment, or even an office intended to protect the interest of consumers.[CN: White supremacy; violence] Casey Michel at ThinkProgress: Growing Number of Killings Tied to Young White Supremacists. "According to the SPLC, the number of killings and injured persons attributed to this newest generation of white nationalists has skyrocketed since the group first made itself known a few years ago. Since 2014, the report found that some 43 individuals had been killed and 67 had been injured in attacks by the so-called 'alt-right.' In just the past year alone, 17 individuals were killed and an additional 43 were injured — by far the highest annual rate of all years included in the study."
Besides, by the time the next catastrophe happens, Trump might already be gone, and his friends, too. With the money bags, filled from the government coffers?
Whatever the case about that might be, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are going to cut their pandemic prevention efforts by eighty percent. This is because of lack of funds:
Most of the funding comes from a one-time, five-year emergency package that Congress approved to respond to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. About $600 million was awarded to the CDC to help countries prevent infectious-disease threats from becoming epidemics. That money is slated to run out by September 2019. Despite statements from President Trump and senior administration officials affirming the importance of controlling outbreaks, officials and global infectious-disease experts are not anticipating that the administration will budget additional resources.A pandemic is unlikely to stay out of the United States, even if it begins in some other country, and the odds of another pandemic happening in the next few years are fairly high, if the past can be used to predict the future.
But the Trump administration doesn't seem to care, perhaps because it is an administration staffed by people who adore Trump, rather than by people who have the skills and experience necessary for the job? Or because it is an administration not for the American people, but only for Trump's real base (the Koch brothers, the Mercer family and others in the one percent)? Or both?
Alex Hern at the Guardian: Fake News Sharing in U.S. Is a Rightwing Thing, Says Study. "Low-quality, extremist, sensationalist, and conspiratorial news published in the U.S. was overwhelmingly consumed and shared by rightwing social network users, according to a new study from the University of Oxford. The study, from the university's 'computational propaganda project,' looked at the most significant sources of 'junk news' shared in the three months leading up to Donald Trump's first State of the Union address this January, and tried to find out who was sharing them and why. 'On Twitter, a network of Trump supporters consumes the largest volume of junk news, and junk news is the largest proportion of news links they share,' the researchers concluded. On Facebook, the skew was even greater. There, 'extreme hard right pages — distinct from Republican pages — share more junk news than all the other audiences put together.'" I'll be over here on my fainting couch.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Dispatches From the Queer Resistance (No. 6)
[Content Note: Anti-LGBTQ bigotry and slurs; anti-Semitism; reproductive coercion.]
Here's my regular reminder that 77% of LGBTQ voters chose Hillary Clinton over any other contender in the 2016 US presidential election.
Many reasons exist for this disproportionate level of queer support for Clinton. I suspect that a big one was the accurate prediction that, as signaled by his selection of Mike Pence as his VP candidate, Donald Trump was on his way to becoming a hypocritical Christian Cultural Warrior for the far-right. Also, it is the function of the U.S. President to make nominations to the judiciary, which has historically played an important role in recognizing LGBTQ rights when cishet majorities have refused to do so.
Here's a roundup of recent queer-related news. As you read, keep in mind that the morally-bankrupt Donald Trump is beholden to deliver "culture war" wins to white Evangelicals, who largely continue to support him.
1) Republican Administration Issues "Religious Proclamation," Neo-Nazis Celebrate
In a nod toward supporting the special right for bigots (and cake artistes) to discriminate against LGBTQ people and those seeking abortions, Donald Trump proclaimed January 18, 2018 to be "Religious Freedom Day."
Subtly referencing the Masterpiece Cakeshop case that is pending before SCOTUS, his statement read, in part, "No American — whether a nun, nurse, baker, or business owner — should be forced to choose between the tenets of faith or adherence to the law."
The message was received loud and clear.
Via PinkNews, the Daily Stormer (a pro-Trump Neo-Nazi site) published a celebratory response to this proclamation: "Trump 'Declares Open Season' on Faggots." The author of the piece rejoiced at the prospect of "depriving perverts of gay cakes."
2) Department of Health and Human Services Creates "Conscience and Religious Freedom Division"
Also on January 18, 2018, Trump's Republican Administration created a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Pro-choice and LGBTQ advocates have expressed concern that this move could allow medical providers to refuse to provide abortions and to discriminate against LGBTQ patients "for religious reasons."
The National LGBTQ Task Force has responded, in a press release:
"We are not fooled: The new office announced this morning is meant to make it easier for people to discriminate, not to protect people of faith. Health professionals have a duty to care for all their patients regardless of one's gender identity, sexual orientation, faith, creed, race, political views, gender, or disability, and no one should be denied care for being who they are.For some additional context, The National Transgender Discrimination Survey (PDF) reports that 28% of trans and gender-nonconforming respondents have been harassed in medical settings and 50% reported having to teach their providers about transgender care.
The overwhelming majority of people of faith support health care access for women and LGBTQ people. There is no contradiction between meeting your duty to care for all people and living by your moral and religious conviction. All people deserve access to care, including transgender people, those seeking assisted suicide, and those seeking reproductive health services such as an abortion or sterilization."
That is, many LGBTQ people — trans people in particular — already experience significant barriers to the receipt of safe and competent medical care. This new DHHS division will cost more than $300 million to set up, resources that would be better spent addressing barriers to the provision of medical care, not toward protecting Christian Supremacists medical providers' special right to remain ignorant bigots.
Also notable, if you visit this new division's web page, you are greeted by an image of a woman in hijab, which for most Americans signifies a Muslim woman, as a healthcare provider:
3) U.S. Denies Citizenship to Children of Same-Sex Couples
Via The Washington Post, two same-sex couples have filed federal discrimination lawsuits against the U.S. State Department for denying citizenship to their children born outside of the U.S.
The cases hinge on the provisions for birthright citizenship that are specified in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Under this law, babies born abroad are U.S. citizens at birth if one of the child's parents is a married U.S. citizen who lived in the U.S. for a set amount of time. In addition, children born "outside of wedlock" may acquire U.S. citizenship at birth under certain circumstances, such as (a) if the the child's mother is a U.S. citizen at the time of the child's birth, or (b) a blood relationship between the child and father, who must be a U.S. citizen, can be established "by clear and convincing evidence."
For purposes of the INA, the State Department considers the children of married same-sex couples as being born "outside of wedlock." And, under this analysis, only a child's biological parent is considered to be the parent for U.S. citizenship purposes.
In one of the cases, for instance, two women who are married each gave birth to one child. They are all living together as a family. Yet, because one of the women is a citizen of Italy, the State Department has denied U.S. birthright citizenship to the child that she gave birth to. Thus, one of the couple's children is excluded from U.S. citizenship and one is not, based on which woman gave birth to the child.
The couple are being represented by Immigration Equality and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and the complaints can be read here.
Also, a note: Per The Washington Post article cited above, one of the couples approached the Obama Administration about this issue in 2015, but it was unable to be resolved prior to Trump taking office.
4) Can We Get a Status Update on This?
Hey, I know there's a lot going on but has anyone determined yet if the current Vice President of the United States actually wants to hang queers, or whether Donald Trump was "just joking" about that?
It's still remarkable how quickly that story fell off the radar.
5) Speaking of Mike Pence
The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law has issued a report about the status of "conversion therapy" to "treat" LGBTQ people in the US (PDF). Of note, the report is a reminder that the practice continues, despite professional associations' opposition to it:
"An estimated 20,000 LGBT youth (ages 13-17) will receive conversion therapy from a licensed health care professional before they reach the age of 18 in the 41 states that currently do not ban the practice, unless additional states pass conversion therapy bans."Donald Trump has not, to my knowledge, issued any public remarks on, or opposition to, "conversion therapy."
6) Jamaica Bans U.S. Anti-LGBTQ Pastor
Via The Guardian, Jamaica has banned Steven Anderson, head of the Arizona-based Faithful Word Baptist Church, from visiting the country. Anderson has promoted Holocaust denialism, has prayed for the death of President Obama, believes gays should be put to death, equates homosexuality with pedophilia, and has been barred from entering multiple other countries. His church has also been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.
I guess it's probably a matter of time before he's tapped for service by the Republican Administration.
7) Report Shows Decreased Acceptance of LGBTQ People in U.S.
A recent GLAAD report (PDF) has shown that acceptance of LGBTQ people has decreased among non-LGBTQs for the first time since GLAAD began commissioning The Harris Poll to measure these attitudes four years ago. The report also showed an 11 percentage point increase in LGBTQ individuals reporting discrimination within the past year (55%).
Say, maybe all those liberal/left white-dude-authored "time to ditch identity politics" pieces we saw published right after the election of a Republican Administration openly hostile to LGBTQ people weren't such great ideas after all!
In conclusion, and as always, whoooooops it turns out there were meaningful differences between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Quentin Tarantino Is an Abusive, Disgusting Person
[Content Note: Violence; abuse; rape apologia.]
You may recall that in January 10th's We Resist thread, I linked to a piece at Deadline by Mike Fleming Jr, in which he wrote that he was giving space to the actor Michael Douglas, who'd been accused of sexual harassment, to get ahead of the allegations because: "The accusation story will most likely follow elsewhere, but in this moment of 'she said, he said' trial by journalism, it was never specified whose version had to be first. So here, Douglas states his case."
Fleming is carving quite the niche for himself, as he's now given space to Quentin Tarantino to tell "his side" of the story told by Uma Thurman. Explains Fleming this time: "I offered Tarantino the opportunity to clarify because at this moment, stories get written and then picked up across the globe, often getting twisted to suit convenient narratives in this #MeToo moment."
That Fleming believes stories women tell about being harassed and/or assaulted by men are shaped into narratives that are "convenient" for anyone pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the dude's motives, as does the fact that he doesn't believe that it's a legitimately "convenient narrative" for Tarantino to argue, at distressing length, that the reason he needs to personally spit on and choke the women in his movies because otherwise it won't look authentic.
That's exactly what a "convenient narrative" to excuse assault under the auspices of auteurism looks like.
In sum: Quentin Tarantino gave an interview designed to discredit Uma Thurman, to a man with an apparent agenda to discredit all women who are speaking out against men in the film industry. And the interview was published under the headline: "Quentin Tarantino Explains Everything: Uma Thurman, the Kill Bill Crash, & Harvey Weinstein."
Uma Thurman told her story, but now Tarantino "explains everything," the implication being that Thurman's account cannot be trusted.
The thing is, a careful reading of Tarantino's account confirms that he is indeed the abusive manipulator he has been alleged to be.
Tarantino claims, for instance, that he didn't have to bully Thurman into the driving stunt which ultimately resulted in an injurious crash:
I start hearing from the production manager, Bennett Walsh, that Uma is trepidatious about doing the driving shot. None of us ever considered it a stunt. It was just driving. None of us looked at it as a stunt. Maybe we should have, but we didn't. I'm sure when it was brought up to me, that I rolled my eyes and was irritated. But I'm sure I wasn't in a rage and I wasn't livid. I didn't go barging into Uma's trailer, screaming at her to get into the car. I can imagine maybe rolling my eyes and thinking, we spent all this money taking this stick shift Karmann Ghia and changing the transmission, just for this shot.He pointedly notes that he "wasn't in a rage" and "wasn't livid" and didn't scream at her. Which, of course, is not what Thurman alleged. What she said was: "Quentin came in my trailer and didn't like to hear no, like any director. He was furious because I'd cost them a lot of time. But I was scared. He said: 'I promise you the car is fine. It's a straight piece of road.'" Tarantino, in Thurman's telling, "persuaded her to do it."
Which is exactly what Tarantino admits, after he creates the strawman of his flying into a rage, only to knock that strawman down. In fact, he repeatedly states that he used charm, not anger, to coerce her into driving the car. As Thurman said, he persuaded her — and he did it by exploiting the fact that she trusted him.
He is so delighted with how he convinced her to do something she explicitly said she did not want to do, something that ultimately resulted in her being seriously injured, that he boasts about how he did it, over and over:
Anyone who knows Uma knows that going into her trailer, and screaming at her to do something is not the way to get her to do something. That's a bad tactic and I'd been shooting the movie with her for an entire year by this time. I would never react to her this way.He is literally just bragging about being such a savvy manipulator that he didn't even have to "force her."
...Far from me being mad, livid and angry, I was all…smiley. I said, Oh, Uma, it's just fine. You can totally do this. It's just a straight line, that's all it is. You get in the car at [point] number one, and drive to number two and you're all good.
...I came in there all happy telling her she could totally do it, it was a straight line, you will have no problem. Uma's response was…"Okay." Because she believed me. Because she trusted me. I told her it would be okay. I told her the road was a straight line. I told her it would be safe. And it wasn't. I was wrong. I didn't force her into the car. She got into it because she trusted me. And she believed me.
So, it's decided she would get in the car.
This is not an apology. It the slavering confession of an abuser who delights in hurting women.
* * *
What we now know about Quentin Tarantino — in addition to the fact that he has made a career out of making films inordinately preoccupied with sexual violence and torture, in which he has himself played a rapist twice — is that he:
1. Has choked two actresses onscreen (Uma Thurman and Diane Kruger), and spit on one of them (Thurman) as well.
2. Convinced Thurman to get into a car against her will, in which she was ultimately hurt, and now says of the horrendous footage he finally gave her after 15 years: "See, all that is old news. I saw the footage when I found it. Seeing it in the article didn't do anything."
3. Is making a film about the Manson murders, in which Roman Polanski will play a central character.
4. Once defended Polanski's rape of a 13-year-old girl, on a 2003 episode of the Howard Stern Show.
Asked by Stern why Hollywood embraces "this mad man, this director who raped a 13-year-old," Tarantino replied:We have now a very clear picture of who Quentin Tarantino is. He is an abusive, disgusting person. A dangerous person.
"He didn't rape a 13-year-old. It was statutory rape...he had sex with a minor. That's not rape. To me, when you use the word rape, you're talking about violent, throwing them down—it's like one of the most violent crimes in the world. You can't throw the word rape around. It's like throwing the word 'racist' around. It doesn't apply to everything people use it for."Reminded by Robin Quivers that Polanski's victim—who had been plied with quaaludes and alcohol before her assault—did not want to have sex with Polanski, Tarantino became riled up.
Tarantino: No, that was not the case AT ALL. She wanted to have it and dated the guy and—
Quivers: She was 13!
Tarantino: And by the way, we're talking about America's morals, not talking about the morals in Europe and everything.
Stern: Wait a minute. If you have sex with a 13-year-old girl and you're a grown man, you know that that's wrong.
Quivers: ...giving her booze and pills...
Tarantino: Look, she was down with this.
And to anyone who would argue that we shouldn't cancel Tarantino just for the art he makes or the opinions he holds, because, after all, he hasn't hurt anyone, I would remind them that he sure as fuck has.
I'm Going to Crunch Man Doritos in All the Man Caves
Rumors of special, crunchless "Lady Doritos" have been circulating after PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said in an interview that they're "looking at [launching snacks specially designed for women], and we're getting ready to launch a bunch of them soon," and further said:
When you eat out of a flex bag — one of our single-serve bags — especially as you watch a lot of the young guys eat the chips, they love their Doritos, and they lick their fingers with great glee, and when they reach the bottom of the bag they pour the little broken pieces into their mouth because they don't want to lose that taste of the flavor, and the broken chips in the bottom. Women would love to do the same, but they don't. They don't like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don't lick their fingers generously and they don't like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.I know plenty of women who do that, so that's one thing. Also:
This is all I'm gonna say about "Lady Doritos": 1. Stop telling women in every conceivable goddamn way to be silent. 2. In my experience, it isn't female companions I've ever had to ask to stop chewing chips with their mouths open so I can hear the bloody TV.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 6, 2018
Seriously, people. Women are allowed to make noise. And make a mess. And eat with gusto. And be fully human.
This should not be a radical assertion in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and eighteen. WOMEN CAN MAKE NOISE. And should.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker carovee: "What's one item you wish you still had from your childhood? A book, a toy, a blanket, a desk, etc."
When I was really little, I used write "books" on stapled-together scrap paper my grandmother brought home from her job as a high school secretary, and then sell those "books" to my grandparents for 10 cents each, which I could then use to buy candy at the corner store on Myrtle Avenue.
When my grandmother died, my mother brought me a bunch of that scrap paper, and some of the spare notepads on which I'd sometimes write and doodle, which my grandmother had kept in her desk, for as long as I could remember, and probably longer than I'd been alive.
They smelled like her desk, at which I used to write my "books."
I kept them in a box, which was later destroyed in a flood. And I sometimes wish I still had that paper, and the smell of my grandmother's desk it carried.
Monday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by beans.
Recommended Reading:
Anne Armstrong and Cassandra Varanka at Ms.: Taking on Trump's Dangerous Nuclear Posture Review
Heidi Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute: The Trump Administration's Attempt to Dismantle the Fiduciary Rule: A Year in Review
Carrie Baker and Emily Bellanca at Our Bodies Ourselves: [Content Note: War on agency; erosion of reproductive healthcare access] Safe and Supported: Inside the DIY Abortion Movement
Eileen Guo at Inverse: [CN: Workplace abuse] Amazon Wristband Patent Is the Creepiest Idea It Has Come up with Yet
Andrew Liptak at the Verge: [CN: White supremacy] Facebook Strikes Back Against the Group Sabotaging Black Panther's Rotten Tomatoes Rating
Staff at The Grio: [CN: Misogynoir; state violence] Sandra Bland Exhibit Opens in Houston Area Museum
Rick Maese at the Washington Post: Meet Chloe Kim, the 17-Year-Old Snowboarder Poised to Rule the PyeongChang Olympics
Kevin Nguyen at GQ: [CN: Disablist language] Manny Jacinto Is No Dummy — He Just Plays One on The Good Place
Ryan F. Mandelbaum at Gizmodo: Scientists Spot One of the Oldest Stars in the Milky Way
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Trump Calls Democrats "Treasonous" for Not Applauding Him at SOTU
At a speech today in Ohio, where he was supposed to be promoting his tax bill, Donald Trump went on an extended riff about how the Democrats were insufficiently enthusiastic during his State of the Union address, which he found "un-American" and "treasonous."
President Trump mocked some Democrats for their reactions to his State of the Union speech, calling their responses "treasonous" and "un-American" https://t.co/7WVoKZhXFd pic.twitter.com/n2tofYzQC2
— CNN (@CNN) February 5, 2018
So that means they would rather see Trump do badly, okay, than our country do well. That's what it means. It's very selfish. And it got to a point where I really didn't even wanna look too much during the speech over to that side, 'cause, honestly, it was bad energy. No, it was bad energy! You're up there; you've got half the room going totally crazy wild; they love everything; they wanna do something great for our country — and you have the other side, even on positive news, really positive news, like that, they were like death. And un-American. Un-American. Somebody said "treasonous." I mean, yeah! [makes a goofy face and shrugs] I guess, why not? [crowd laughs] Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much. But you look at that and it's — it's really very, very sad.Three observations:
1. It's important to remember that Donald Trump is an inveterate projectionist who always accuses other people of doing whatever he's doing.
2. Note the jocular tone he uses to call his ideological opponents "treasonous" for failing to applaud him. That tone is not an accident. It serves to preemptively deflect any inevitable criticism by asserting he was "joking" (and his critics are humorless and over-reacting), while simultaneously diminishing the inherent seriousness of treason, should he ever be charged with it. "Treason" will have become just another incendiary insult that politicians throw at each other, like the president did at Democrats for their lack of clapping. It's not like it means anything. Incredibly sinister stuff.
3. Lest we fall directly into that trap, let us pause to seriously contemplate the gravity of what happened today: The United States president called members of the opposition party "treasonous" — and, even more specifically, members of the Black Caucus, whom his base excoriated for their "disrespect" — because they they did not publicly demonstrate their enthusistic fealty to his satisfaction.
Chilling. And also just another day in the Era of Trump.
#365feministselfie: Week 5
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 5!
A few of my selfies over the last week:
has already brought me priceless entertainment, lol.
at a few minutes before midnight! I made it!
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 382
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 Blatantly Lied About FBI and It Matters and Uma Thurman Speaks Out on Weinstein, Tarantino.
[Content Note: Disablist language] Jonathan Rauch and Benjamin Wittes at the Atlantic: The Republican Party Is a Threat to the Constitutional Order.
The Republican Party, as an institution, has become a danger to the rule of law and the integrity of our democracy. The problem is not just Donald Trump; it's the larger political apparatus that made a conscious decision to enable him. In a two-party system, nonpartisanship works only if both parties are consistent democratic actors. If one of them is not predictably so, the space for nonpartisans evaporates. We're thus driven to believe that the best hope of defending the country from Trump's Republican enablers, and of saving the Republican Party from itself, is to do as Toren Beasley did: Vote mindlessly and mechanically against Republicans at every opportunity, until the party either rights itself or implodes (very preferably the former).That is too kind, in my estimation. But I agree with their overall point: If we still have anything resembling free and fair elections in November, anyone who has any regard for the future of a democratic republic must vote for the Democrats. Period.
...So why have we come to regard the GOP as an institutional danger? In a nutshell, it has proved unable or unwilling (mostly unwilling) to block assaults by Trump and his base on the rule of law. Those assaults, were they to be normalized, would pose existential, not incidental, threats to American democracy.
Future generations of scholars will scrutinize the many weird ways that Trump has twisted the GOP. For present purposes, however, let's focus on the party's failure to restrain the president from two unforgivable sins. The first is his attempt to erode the independence of the justice system. This includes Trump's sinister interactions with his law-enforcement apparatus: his demands for criminal investigations of his political opponents, his pressuring of law-enforcement leaders on investigative matters, his frank efforts to interfere with investigations that implicate his personal interests, and his threats against the individuals who run the Justice Department.
It also includes his attacks on federal judges, his pardon of a sheriff convicted of defying a court's order to enforce constitutional rights, his belief that he gets to decide on Twitter who is guilty of what crimes, and his view that the justice system exists to effectuate his will. Some Republicans have clucked disapprovingly at various of Trump's acts. But in each case, many other Republicans have cheered, and the party, as a party, has quickly moved on. A party that behaves this way is not functioning as a democratic actor.
The second unforgivable sin is Trump's encouragement of a foreign adversary's interference in U.S. electoral processes. Leave aside the question of whether Trump's cooperation with the Russians violated the law. He at least tacitly collaborated with a foreign-intelligence operation against his country—sometimes in full public view. This started during the campaign, when he called upon the Russians to steal and release his opponent's emails, and has continued during his presidency, as he equivocates on whether foreign intervention occurred and smears intelligence professionals who stand by the facts. Meanwhile, the Republican Party has confirmed his nominees, doggedly pursued its agenda on tax reform and health care, and attacked—of course—Hillary Clinton.
We don't mean to deny credit where it is due: Some congressional Republicans pushed back. ...But the broader response to Trump's behavior has been tolerant and, often, enabling.
That advice, of course, does not help voters who live in districts where Republicans are running unopposed. Which is why there should be a Democratic name on every ticket for every office in the country, no matter how unlikely a win.
* * *
Nicole Lafond at TPM: Trump Claims 'Little Adam Schiff' Is 'One of the Biggest Liars and Leakers' in DC. "Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, calling him 'little Adam Schiff' and claiming that he is one of the 'biggest liars and leakers in Washington.' 'Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper!' Trump tweeted, referring to former FBI director James Comey, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, former CIA director John Brennan, and former director of national intelligence James Clapper."
Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2018
"Must be stopped!" A thing that the United States President wrote about a sitting member of the United States Congress. Good grief.
If Rep. Schiff really were one of the biggest leakers in Washington, good for him. He's doing the work that needs to be done to try to rescue this nation from the vile grip of an authoritarian clown and his Russian puppet-master.
Naturally, Schiff had the perfect retort.
Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of “Executive Time.” Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else. https://t.co/lVqQRu2Gjl
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 5, 2018
Professional, witty, and accurate. And then, undoubtedly, Schiff returned to the work of trying to save us.
* * *
Ed O'Keefe at the Washington Post: New Bipartisan Immigration Plan to Be Introduced in the Senate. "Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) plan to formally introduce a bill that would grant permanent legal status to undocumented immigrants known as 'dreamers' and start bolstering security along the U.S.-Mexico border. But the measure would not immediately authorize spending the $25 billion President Trump is seeking to fortify the border with new wall and fence construction. Some Republicans are seeking at least $30 billion. The McCain-Coons plan also would grant legal status to dreamers who have been in the country since 2013 — a larger pool of undocumented immigrants than the 1.8 million Trump supports legalizing. The bill says nothing about curbing family-based legal migration or making changes to the diversity lottery program — two other priorities for Trump and conservative Republicans."
Trump will almost certainly reject this plan, if Senate and/or House Republicans don't reject it first. Which means that the government shutdown that is looming within days may not be averted.
[CN: War-shopping; death] As I've previously noted, Vice President Mike Pence has been doing a lot of the war-shopping for the Trump administration, and this is very provocative:
South Korean TV is reporting our story on Otto Warmbier’s father, Fred, coming to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics as a guest of VP Pence https://t.co/bI97qs3tnz pic.twitter.com/evxneWY0rT
— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) February 5, 2018
I am very sorry for the Warmbiers' loss. I am also angry about the way they are helping this administration pique North Korea by exploiting his death, in sometimes dishonest ways. Their grief is understandable. Their insistence on allowing their grief to be (mis)used to endanger millions of lives is not.
Judd Legum at ThinkProgress: Letter from Carter Page Undercuts Central Thesis of Nunes Memo. "Page, according to Time, bragged in a 2013 letter that he acted as an adviser to the Kremlin. 'The letter, dated Aug. 25, 2013, was sent by Page to an academic press during a dispute over edits to an unpublished manuscript he had submitted for publication, according to an editor who worked with Page. 'Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin in preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda,' the letter reads.'"
So federal law enforcement had reason to have their eyes on Carter Page long before the Steele dossier.
Bryan Bender at Politico: Massive Pentagon Agency Lost Track of Hundreds of Millions of Dollars. "Ernst & Young found that the Defense Logistics Agency failed to properly document more than $800 million in construction projects, just one of a series of examples where it lacks a paper trail for millions of dollars in property and equipment. Across the board, its financial management is so weak that its leaders and oversight bodies have no reliable way to track the huge sums it's responsible for, the firm warned in its initial audit of the massive Pentagon purchasing agent. The audit raises new questions about whether the Defense Department can responsibly manage its $700 billion annual budget — let alone the additional billions that Trump plans to propose this month. The department has never undergone a full audit despite a congressional mandate — and to some lawmakers, the messy state of the Defense Logistics Agency's books indicates one may never even be possible." Yikes.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Scott Glover and Drew Griffin at CNN: Super Bowl Anti-Terrorism Documents Left on Plane. "The Department of Homeland Security documents critiquing the response to a simulated anthrax attack on Super Bowl Sunday were marked 'For Official Use Only' and 'important for national security.' Recipients of the draft 'after-action' reports were told to keep them locked up after business hours and to shred them prior to discarding. They were admonished not to share their contents with anyone who lacked 'an operational need-to-know.' But security surrounding the December 2017 reports suffered an embarrassing breach: A CNN employee discovered copies of them, along with other sensitive DHS material, in the seat-back pocket of a commercial plane." OMFG.
Patrick Rucker at Reuters: U.S. Consumer Protection Official Puts Equifax Probe on Ice. "Mick Mulvaney, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has pulled back from a full-scale probe of how Equifax Inc failed to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, according to people familiar with the matter. Equifax (EFX.N) said in September that hackers stole personal data it had collected on some 143 million Americans. Richard Cordray, then the CFPB director, authorized an investigation that month, said former officials familiar with the probe. But Cordray resigned in November and was replaced by Mulvaney, [Donald] Trump's budget chief. The CFPB effort against Equifax has sputtered since then, said several government and industry sources, raising questions about how Mulvaney will police a data-warehousing industry that has enormous sway over how much consumers pay to borrow money."
The payday lending industry has seen regulatory rules loosen under the Trump admin following a concentrated lobbying campaign.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 3, 2018
In April, hundreds of industry members will head to FL for a retreat coincidentally held at the Trump Nat’l Doral Golf Club. https://t.co/4QW5GeOc1X
Paul Lewis at the Guardian: Senator Warns YouTube Algorithm May Be Open to Manipulation by 'Bad Actors'. "Senator Mark Warner, of Virginia, made the stark warning after an investigation by the Guardian found that the Google-owned video platform was systematically promoting divisive and conspiratorial videos that were damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign in the months leading up to the 2016 election. 'Companies like YouTube have immense power and influence in shaping the media and content that users see,' Warner said. 'I've been increasingly concerned that the recommendation engine algorithms behind platforms like YouTube are, at best, intrinsically flawed in optimising for outrageous, salacious, and often fraudulent content.' He added: 'At worst, they can be highly susceptible to gaming and manipulation by bad actors, including foreign intelligence entities.'"
[CN: Anti-semitism; white supremacy] Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Republicans Set to Nominate Former Nazi Leader for Congress. "Arthur Jones — a Holocaust denier, anti-Semite, and white supremacist — is about to become the Republican nominee for a U.S. congressional seat in Illinois. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Jones is the only GOP candidate running in the heavily Democratic 3rd Congressional District, which represents parts of Chicago and its outer lying suburbs. ...Jones is not the only openly bigoted candidate who is running for office as a Republican. In Wisconsin, Paul Nehlen is running to place House Speaker Paul Ryan. Nehlen has openly embraced white supremacist beliefs, including a tweet that reads, 'It's okay to be white.'"
[CN: Sexual assault; rape culture] Anthony Clark at the Daily Beast: She Was Assaulted by the Head of the National Archives; Then the Bush White House Helped Cover It Up. "Weinstein let her in and, without Trautman seeing, locked the door behind them. They were alone. During the next few minutes, Allen Weinstein would sexually assault Maryellen Trautman. Federal investigators would later substantiate that Weinstein, the chief official overseeing the federal government's most important documents, had created a 'hostile working environment by having verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature for multiple female employees.' ...Weinstein ultimately faced no charges, nor was any public notice made of his misconduct. Instead, a little more than a year after the holiday party, the George W. Bush White House permitted him to quietly resign. He then moved on to a major university where he would sexually assault again."
What a supercool fucking party you've got there, Republicans.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Uma Thurman Speaks Out on Weinstein, Tarantino
[Content Note: Sexual harassment and assault; coercion; injury; strangulation.]
Three months ago, Uma Thurman, who worked closely with both Harvey Weinstein and Quentin Tarantino, was asked her thoughts on women in the film industry speaking out about sexual harassment and assault. She gave a cryptic but compelling answer, with a clenched jaw.
Female reporter, offscreen: In light of recent news, uh — Gwyneth has spoken out; Angelina has spoken out; you're such a powerful woman in film. What are your thoughts about speaking out about inappropriate behavior in the workplace?Uma Thurman is ready. And she said what she has to say to Maureen Dowd at the New York Times: "This Is Why Uma Thurman Is Angry." It is a lot to take in. There is a lot about Harvey Weinstein; there is even more about Quentin Tarantino, whose career is inextricably linked to Weinstein, and who evidently shares his contempt for women's agency and safety, though it manifests in different ways.
Thurman: Umm. I think it's commendable. And, uhhh. [she pauses; looks as though she's choosing her words very carefully] I don't have a tidy soundbite for you. [glances directly into camera] Because, I have learned — I am not a child — and I have learned that, when I've spoken [clenches teeth] in anger, I usually regret the way I express myself. [takes breath] So I've been waiting to feel less angry. And when I'm ready, I'll say what I have to say. [nods firmly]
Reporter: Thank you so much.
Thurman: Thank you.
At least what we know of it. Which now includes a story of coercing Thurman to get behind the wheel of an unsafe car onset, which resulted in a crash in which she was injured, and video of which Tarantino refused to release to her for 15 years.
Everything about this is difficult to read, and the video is horrible to watch. I can't stop thinking about how we were sold this narrative about Uma Thurman being Tarantino's "muse," and how often "muse" seems to serve as cover for all manner of abuse. https://t.co/DgSaOohLdk
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 3, 2018
Also: I was troubled by Tarantino even before Uma Thurman's interview, but the fact that she's now the second woman (+ Diane Kruger) to say Tarantino choked her on set is scary, as we know that strangulation is the primary indicator that domestic violence will escalate to murder.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 4, 2018
Women who have worked with Tarantino are sharing major warning signs. I hope studios, and insurers, are listening.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 4, 2018
There is simply no way this man should be given exorbitant amounts of money and virtually unregulated power over women to continue to make films fetishizing sexual violence and torture.
Instead, he is being given precisely that to make his next film about the Manson murders, in which Roman Polanski will play a central character.
I couldn't make that up if I tried.
I take up space in solidarity with Uma Thurman. I am grateful for her voice, and for her anger.
Trump Blatantly Lied About FBI and It Matters
When Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, he and members of his administration and his surrogates repeatedly stated that the FBI was an organization relieved and grateful for Comey's removal.
At the time, this certainly seemed like a dubious claim, at best. But now we know with certainty that it just a straight-up lie.
Nora Ellingsen, Quinta Jurecic, Sabrina McCubbin, Shannon Togawa Mercer, and Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare: 'I Hope This Is an Instance of Fake News': FBI Messages Show the Bureau's Real Reaction to Trump Firing James Comey.
Over the next few days [following Comey's firing], a wealth of evidence emerged to suggest that Trump and [Sarah Huckabee] Sanders were playing fast and loose with the truth. But we now have the documents to prove that decisively. Their disclosure was not a leak but an authorized action by the FBI, which released to us under the Freedom of Information Act more than 100 pages of leadership communications to staff dealing with the firing. This material tells a dramatic story about the FBI's reaction to the Comey firing—but it is neither a story of gratitude to the president nor a story of an organization in turmoil relieved by a much-needed leadership transition.There is much more at the link, including a document with every FOIA email, so anyone can read them for themselves and decide whether Lawfare's characterization of the communications is fair. (In my reading, it is.)
...Over the weekend, we received 103 pages of records responsive to Wittes's first two requests—messages from FBI leadership around the country and across the bureau regarding the firing of Director Comey. The bureau identified 116 pages of responsive material and withheld only 13 pages, so this material constitutes the overwhelming bulk of communications to staff on the subject of the firing.
What does it show? Simply put, it shows that Ellingsen nailed it when she described a reaction of "shock" and "profound sadness" at the removal of a beloved figure to whom the workforce was deeply attached. It also shows that no aspect of the White House's statements about the bureau were accurate—and, indeed, that the White House engendered at least some resentment among the rank and file for whom it purported to speak. As Amy Hess, the special agent in charge in Louisville, put it: "On a personal note, I vehemently disagree with any negative assertions about the credibility of this institution or the people herein."
Before detailing the story these documents tell, let's pause a moment over the story they do not tell. They contain not a word that supports the notion that the FBI was in turmoil. They contain not a word that reflects gratitude to the president for removing a nut job. There is literally not a single sentence in any of these communications that reflects criticism of Comey's leadership of the FBI. Not one special agent in charge describes Comey's removal as some kind of opportunity for new leadership. And if any FBI official really got on the phone with Sanders to express gratitude or thanks "for the president's decision," nobody reported that to his or her staff.
The first reaction the documents reflect is simple shock, confusion and disbelief. The words "unprecedented," "tumultuous," "shock," and "surprise" appear in a great many of the emails. ...Most people at the bureau seem to have learned about the firing from television news. News of Comey's firing broke in the 5 p.m. hour of May 9, and there had been no communication to the bureau before then.
One thing I want to note is that we already knew that most of the FBI learned of Comey's firing from the news, and that there had been no communication with anyone at the bureau to prepare for the imminent leadership vacuum, but, reading it again in this context, it seems pretty clear that the White House either didn't care they might cause, or actively hoped to cause, the very chaos within the Bureau they claimed was existent under Comey's leadership and cited to justify his removal.
Which is cynical in the extreme. And also par for the course with this deplorable administration.
What's extremely concerning to me is that reaction to this disclosure will be not horror, but resignation. Of course Trump was lying. That's what Trump does.
But that is not what presidents (are supposed to) do. That is not what an American president can do, if we want a healthy democracy and trustworthy public institutions.
One of the most troubling things about where we are at this moment is that Trump has exhausted the resistance. So few people are left with the energy to mount the requisite outrage in response to the disclosure that the president and his people ruthlessly and carelessly lied about the FBI to justify an attempted obstruction of justice. That is appalling.
And yet too many people now lack the capacity to be appalled by it, through a combination of outrage fatigue, inurement to Trump's chronic dishonesty, the human mind's need to adapt to new circumstances and accept the abnormal as normal for survival, and/or being overwhelmed by the dozens of other things equally as appalling and equally as deserving of our attentions.
Trump's lies should matter. Most importantly, they should matter to the people tasked with holding him accountable. That they don't makes it that much easier for them not to matter to the rest of us.
They're counting on that.
The Super Bowl Thread
Here is a thread for anyone who would like to talk about the Super Bowl! The ads, or Justin Timberlake being so super boring, or the gameplay, or how Cris Collinsworth owns a timeshare inside Tom Brady's ass, or how neat it is that Trump-loving Patriots owner Bob Kraft just got owned by Eagles owner Jeff Lurie, who earned a doctorate in social policy from Brandeis University, or the absolute joy it brings you to see smug fuck Tom Brady — who is such a poor winner that he was bragging before the game that he's been to the Super Bowl so many times it just feels like another game to him now — get defeated, or Pink's amazng voice, or anything else!
My apologies to Patriots fans. I'm sorry you lost, but I am very glad your QB, coach, and owner did.
