Suggested by Shaker Yankee Transferred: "Do you remember a time when you were laughing uncontrollably, and what it was over?"
This literally just happened to me the other day while I was texting with Deeky! I swear to Maude, we have so many funny conversations, but that one (which was, naturally, about some garbage TV show) was in the Top Ten for sure.
Question of the Day
Your Best Photograph
If you're a photographer, even if a very amateur one (like myself), and you've got a photo or photos you'd like to share, here's your thread for that!
It doesn't really have to be your best photograph—just one you like!
Please be sure if your photo contains people other than yourself, that you have the explicit consent of the people in the photos before posting them.
* * *
I snapped this while out walking the Schuylkill River trail a couple of weekends ago, on an unseasonably beautiful January day.
This is a quiet place that I like very much. It's a favorite spot for contemplating things, with something beautiful to look at in each direction and the sound of water to accompany one's thoughts.
Raj Shah's Dangerous Misrepresentation of Domestic Violence
[Content Note: Domestic violence.]
White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah gave his first White House press briefing today, and naturally he was asked about Rob Porter and when the White House knew that two of his ex-wives had made abuse allegations against him.
The whole thing was a shitshow, but the following exchange stands out as particularly troubling:
Raj Shah says John Kelly "had not seen images" prior to initial statement defending Rob Porter, but does not say whether Kelly knew of domestic violence allegations. https://t.co/DNE9hD94Q2 pic.twitter.com/memvFpyxV2
— ABC News (@ABC) February 8, 2018
Female Reporter (offscreen): And you've used the term "fully aware" — I don't understand what that means. What does that mean John Kelly knew or didn't know? What is —Shah is essentially saying here that Kelly can't be held responsible for ignoring the allegations against Porter because he hadn't seen the now-public images of his ex-wife's battered face.
Shah: Well, I do know, for instance, that he had not seen images, uh, prior to, uh, his statement — the statement on Tuesday night.
Reporter: Did he know of the allegations?
Shah: Sorry, say that again?
Reporter: Did he know of some of the allegations —
Shah: Again, I'm not gonna get into the specifics of what may have, uh, emerged from the investigation.
Reporter: — used the words "fully aware," so I'm just trying to understand —
Shah: I understand; I'm saying specifically on images. I don't have every single detail; I'm not gonna get into every single specific.
Not only does that suggest it was fine to assume bitchez be lying until they saw photographic evidence, which often doesn't exist in abuse cases, but it empowers the dangerous narrative that every person who is abused by a partner is left with visible injuries. This is not the case.
It isn't surprising that this vile administration would engage myths about domestic violence in its defense of a domestic abuser and his disgusting abettors, but it is nonetheless appalling.
Fuck this entire administration. I loathe each and every one of them.
The What Happened Book Club
This is the sixteenth and final installment of the What Happened Book Club.
(That it's the sixteenth installment even though we're on Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen isn't a mistake; it's because we also covered two chapters last time.)
So let us conclude our discussion with Chapter Seventeen: Love and Kindness and Chapter Eighteen: Onward Together.
* * *
These, too, were difficult chapters to read, for a different reason. Hillary Clinton ends her book on a note of optimism, sharing with us her belief that we will be okay. It is an optimism I don't share at the moment, though I hope to be proven wrong. Her final words, however, are "Keep going," and that is a sentiment with which I agree, and advice I eagerly take.
There was still a lot I loved about these final chapters; the section about Eleanor Roosevelt was a particular favorite. I liked seeing the criticism she got as First Lady for being "new agey" through her eyes, and it was both enlightening and sad to learn how she struggled to find a way to convey a simple message about community, empathy, and compassion without inviting vicious political blowback.
And to end my piece about these two chapters, I am going to go back to their beginning.
Chapter 17, on love and kindness, opens thus:
Politics has always been a rough business. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams hurled insults at each other that would make today's nastiest politicians blush. It's just how the game is played: Every campaign seeks to draw contrasts with opponents and media want to cover conflict. So it's not surprising that two words you don't hear very often in our knock-down, drag-out political brawls are love and kindness. But you heard them from our campaign.Instead, Donald Trump won the election, and the theft of love and absence of kindness has been a loud and brutal project of his presidency.
It started as something I'd occasionally mention at the end of speeches, how our country needed compassion and a spirit of community in a time of division. It eventually became a rallying cry: "Love trumps hate!" Partly this was because the race felt ugly and mean and we wanted to be an antidote to that. But partly it was because I've been thinking for a long time about how our country needs to become kinder and all of us need to become more connected to one another.
That's not just a sweet thought. It's serious to me. If I had won the election, this would have been a quiet but important project of my presidency.
Fuck every single person who said or implied there was no difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 15, 2017
That we are not being governed by a president who wanted to make love and kindness a centerpiece of her presidency may ultimately be the greatest loss to this nation.
It is a thing unseen; most of us will never grieve the loss of what was never there.
But those of us who know what could have been understand, with certainty and pointed regret, in how very different a place the republic would find itself, under the circumstances that were possible but denied.
People sniff carelessly that, had Clinton been elected, the country would have been just as divided. Republicans would have moved to impeach her and Trump voters would viciously hate her and the nation would be tearing apart at its seams.
Maybe so. But the president being a target of invective is a very different sort of divisiveness than the president hurling the invective.
But of course there is no more compelling argument for love and kindness than this: Its paucity is what opened the door that Donald Trump walked through.
On November 10, 2016, I wrote that love would be the center of my resistance. So it has been, and so shall it continue to be. No matter how much I loathe Trump (oh so very, very much), I will always love the people for whom I resist even more.
Thank you for your love and kindness, Hillary Clinton. And thank you for this book.
Daily Dose of Cute
snuggly cuteness?! (That's rhetorical. I snuggle it, of course!)
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 385
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: The White House Knew About Rob Porter's Abuse, Russians Hacked U.S. Voting Systems, and Bush Says Russia Meddled; Still Silent on SCOTUS Meddling.
Alice Ollstein at TPM: Shutdown Showdown Fizzles as Pelosi Declines to Whip Dems Against Budget.
In a press conference Thursday morning, about 14 hours before a potential government shutdown, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reiterated that she plans to vote against the budget bill when it comes back to the lower chamber Thursday afternoon. But when pressed by reporters on whether she will whip her Democratic caucus to vote against the bill, which would imperil its passage, she demurred, saying only that she has told them she personally will vote no even though she views it as "a good bill."I mean, yes, I am angry about this — but not at Nancy Pelosi. Yesterday, she did something truly extraordinary, something historical, to try to convince her Republican colleagues to give a fuck about DREAMers, and, if they still don't give a fuck about them, that's on them, it's not on Pelosi, whose party is still, after all, the legislative minority.
"I fought very hard for many of the things in there," she said, pointing to the increase in domestic spending that mirrors a hike in the cap on the military's budget. "It's unfortunate that it's taken shape in such an insulting way for those of us who are trying to protect the values of our country."
The main insult for Pelosi and other House Democrats is Speaker Paul Ryan's refusal so far to pledge to hold a vote on the DACA program, which [Donald] Trump terminated last year, putting about 700,000 young immigrants at risk of deportation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), in order to end the government shutdown a few weeks ago, promised Senate Democrats an immigration debate with an open amendment process.
...So the decision by Pelosi — who spoke for eight hours straight on the House floor Wednesday in protest of Republicans' intransigence on immigration — not to fully use Democrats' leverage to threaten a government shutdown is likely to anger the party's progressive base. Because DACA effectively expires on March 5, advocates for those enrolled in the program have few opportunities left to pressure the GOP-controlled Congress to act to protect them.
The Democrats can force a shutdown from here to kingdom come, but the fact is that the Republicans don't care. They'll let the government shut down and blame the Democrats for it, and laugh all the way to November as support for Democrats tanks over a shutdown the Republicans will allow to last indefinitely.
That's the reality in which Nancy Pelosi exists. If progressives are angry at her because the Republicans are cruel, nativist fuckers, their anger is wildly misdirected. Period.
And right on cue...
James Hohmann at the Washington Post: Improving Poll Numbers Give Republicans Hope That the Midterms Might Not Be So Bad. "If it felt like a tsunami was headed for Republicans at the end of the year, now it's looking more like a normal wave. Under the radar, a flurry of new public polls points to incremental improvements in GOP fortunes and challenges the narrative that has been gelling in most of the media's campaign coverage. There has been a small but significant rise in [Donald] Trump's approval rating over the past month and a shrinking Democratic advantage in the generic congressional ballot, which is moving closer to a level where Republicans could hold onto the House."
And, I mean, no matter how much anyone might want "bipartisan solutions," this is what Congressional Democrats are dealing with...
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Olivia Victoria Gazis at CBS News: House Intel Republicans Plan to Wall Off Their Aides from Democratic Staffers. "In a sign of increasing partisan hostilities, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee plan to construct a wall — a physical partition — separating Republican and Democratic staff members in the committee's secure spaces, according to multiple committee sources. It's expected to happen this spring. For now, some Republican committee members deny knowing anything about it, while strongly suggesting the division is the brainchild of the committee's chairman, Devin Nunes, R-California. ...While acknowledging a wall might not be constructive for the committee's work, [Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas] said, 'The level of trust and the level of everything down there is — it's poison. It's absolute poison down there.'"
That, my friends, is not the fault of Nancy Pelosi.
* * *
[CN: Nativism; abuses of power] Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: ICE Wants to Be an Intelligence Agency Under Trump. "Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement are actively exploring joining the U.S. Intelligence Community, The Daily Beast has learned. ...Internal advocates for joining the America's spy agencies — known as the Intelligence Community or the IC — focus on the potential benefits to the agency's work on counterproliferation, money laundering, counterterror, and cybercrime. ...But civil liberties advocates and government watchdog groups — as well as some current and former U.S. officials — are concerned at the prospect of the nation's immigration enforcers joining the ranks of America's spies. 'The idea that ICE could potentially get access to warrantless surveillance is frankly terrifying,' Jake Laperruque, senior counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, told The Daily Beast." Yeah, this is a terrible, chilling idea.
Just 6,700 refugees were allowed to arrive in the U.S. in the first four months of this fiscal year, well below the pace needed to hit Trump's cap of 45,000 for the year, itself the lowest number since 1980. https://t.co/jJxXtuOg2w
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 8, 2018
[CN: Christian Supremacy] Sarah Pulliam Bailey at the Washington Post: Trump's National Prayer Breakfast Speech Infused with God-and-Country References. "Trump delivered a god-and-country infused speech Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast, appealing to Americans who believe in Christian nationalism — the belief that God has a uniquely Christian purpose for the United States. 'We can all be heroes to everybody and they can be heroes to us,' Trump said, 'as long as we open our hearts to god's grace, America will be free, the land of the free, the home of the brave, and the light to all nations.' ...'America is a nation of believers, and together we are strengthened by the power of prayer,' Trump said." Incorrect. Atheists exist.
The National Prayer Breakfast has always been a gross spectacle for a nation in which we are meant to have a separation of church and state, but it's even more alarming now that we've got an authoritarian sitting in the Oval Office with a dominionist for his vice-president.
[CN: Homophobia] Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: Pence Keeps Lying About Supporting Ex-Gay Therapy as His Feud with Gay Olympian Escalates. "The feud between Vice President Mike Pence and gay Olympic skater Adam Rippon escalated again Thursday when Pence tweeted directly at the athlete, describing his history of supporting ex-gay conversion therapy as 'fake news.' ...Pence's repeated denials that he supported ex-gay therapy can easily be disproved. His 2000 congressional campaign website clearly said that he would only support funding for HIV treatment through the Ryan White Care Act if money stopped going to organizations that 'celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus.' Instead, he argued, 'Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.'" Mike Pence is trash. 🚮
* * *
[CN: Sexual harassment and assault. Covers entire section.]
Jeremy Gorner and Annie Sweeney at the Chicago Tribune: Woman Accuses Retired Chicago Cop of Repeated Sexual Assaults Decades Ago.
Trina "Kim" Townsend, 50, walked to the microphone and asked permission to read her statement into the record. In a steady voice, she publicly shared details of a secret she said she had closely guarded for the most part for three decades.Another wrenching story for the "Why Many Women Don't Report" files.
As the hushed crowd of about 50 residents and police officers looked on, Townsend accused a now-retired Chicago cop by name of repeatedly raping her over several years after she had turned to him for help because she was already being molested by a family member.
He "sexually assaulted me on a near monthly basis," she said. "He was always on duty. He was always in the patrol car. Always in uniform. And he always took me to the same area."
...As a result of Townsend's public accusations, the Police Department's Bureau of Internal Affairs has launched a criminal investigation, said spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, though any legal avenues would seem closed because of the passage of time and the statute of limitations.
This is also a perfect, terrible example of why there should be no statute of limitations on reporting sexual assault. Often survivors can't report right away for emotional reasons; sometimes, it's because reporting is not safe for a very long time. https://t.co/5gb6SbNblL
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 8, 2018
I take up space in solidarity with Kim Townsend. ♥
Zachary Cohen at CNN: Air Force Academy Mismanaged Sexual Assault Program, Pentagon Says. "The U.S. Air Force Academy mismanaged its sexual assault prevention and response program during the 2017 academic year and failed to comply with the military's victim assistance and advocacy policy, according to the Department of Defense's annual assessment of service academies released Wednesday. Overall, the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office's assessment found that reporting of sexual assault at the service academies increased in the 2017 school year — documenting a total of 112 reports of sexual assault, up from 86 reports received in the prior year. ...But while it concluded that the U.S. Military Academy and U.S. Naval Academy were in compliance with Pentagon policies that 'govern sexual assault and sexual harassment prevention, victim assistance and advocacy, investigation, accountability, and assessment,' the report determined that the mismanagement of victim response programs at the Air Force Academy did not meet that standard."
Olivia Messer at the Daily Beast: Team USA World Champ Ariana Kukors: U.S. Swim Coach Sexually Abused Me. "Ariana Kukors, a world swimming champion and 2012 Olympian, went public late Wednesday with claims that former USA Swimming National Team Coach Sean Hutchison sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old. Hutchison first became Kukors' coach when she was just 13, at King Aquatic Club near Seattle. It was then that he began 'grooming' her with the goal of sexualizing the relationship, she said in a press release. Kukors, the 2009 world champion in the 200-meter individual medley, is now 28. 'I never thought I would share my story because, in so many ways, just surviving was enough,' Kukors said. 'I was able to leave a horrible monster and build a life I could have never imagined for myself. But in time, I've realized that stories like my own are too important to go unwritten.'"
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Alexia Fernandez at People: Charles in Charge's Alexander Polinsky Accuses Scott Baio of Physical Assault and Mental Abuse. "New allegations against Scott Baio surfaced Wednesday from another one of his Charles in Charge costars: Alexander Polinsky. Polinsky, 43, provided a statement to The Talk which was read out while Nicole Eggert was on the show to talk about her sexual abuse allegations against the actor. Eggert said on the show that Polinsky, who played Adam Powell on Charles in Charge, went with her to file to the police station when she filed a report against Baio and Polinsky also made his own police report supporting her allegations. In addition to supporting the actress' claims, Polinsky alleged he was physically abused by Baio, 57."
Jamiles Lartey at the Guardian: Kate Upton Accuses Guess Executive of Sexual Harassment When She Was 18. "Supermodel Kate Upton has accused a high-ranking Guess fashion executive of repeatedly groping and sexually harassing her on photo shoots when she was 18, in an exclusive interview with Time published on Wednesday. 'Despite doing everything I could physically do to avoid his touch throughout the meeting, he continued to touch me in a very dominating and aggressive way, grabbing my thighs, my arms to pull me closer, my shoulders to pull me closer, my neck, my breasts, and smelling me,' Upton, 25, said. 'I was extremely shaken, surprised, and scared.' The allegations directed at the brand's co-founder and creative director, Paul Marciano, are perhaps the most high-profile ones to come out of the fashion industry since the #MeToo movement began in earnest late last year."
Marlow Stern at the Daily Beast: When Michael Bay Degraded Megan Fox — Then Tried to Sabotage Her Career. "In Hollywood, rumor-mongering is a precious form of currency; a fresh slice of gossip can, with trade winds at its back, sink or float careers. If the #MeToo movement has taught us anything, it's to take industry rumors about women — particularly those circulated by men — with a pinch (or shaker) of salt. She's difficult. She's a nightmare to work with. Stay away from her. The provenance and/or motive for these pernicious bits of hearsay may be viler than you can imagine. ...Which brings us to Megan Fox. The 31-year-old actress has long been saddled with the 'difficult to work with' label, owing to a puzzling episode during the press tour for 2009's Jennifer's Body." (NB: It isn't that puzzling. She was just honest about what a terrible person Michael Bay is.)
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Natalie Stone at People: Gabrielle Union: PTSD from Being Raped Was Triggered After Speaking with Sexual Assault Victims. "Sharing her own story of sexual abuse was both healing and painful for Gabrielle Union. ...During her recent book tour for her best-selling memoir We're Going to Need More Wine, the 45-year-old actress listened to countless stories from fans who shared their own sexual assault stories, which triggered PTSD from her own sexual assault more than two decades ago. 'On my book tour, a lot of cities felt like a revival — there were so many disclosures of abuse during the Q&A portion of talks and during the book signing; even as I was driving away people were flagging down my car in tears,' she says in her March Redbook cover interview, which hits newsstands Feb. 13. 'I didn't realize how big the need was for so many people to just get it out, to have someone look them in the eye and say, 'I believe you.' I cried a lot.' Adds Union: 'I Skyped a lot with my therapist, because the horrors that I was taking in triggered my PTSD.'" I can relate.
* * *
Finally, with a hat tip to Eastsidekate, this story about Oklahoma public schools and educators is absolutely incredible — and a horrifying glimpse into the consequential grotesquery of Republican governance:
Oklahoma schools go on four-day weeks so teachers can make rent by working at Walmart on Mondays https://t.co/dMhajwER3G
— Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) February 8, 2018
And, if you click through to the original reporting at the Economist, this is the final line: "Meanwhile some Republicans, intent on cutting more spending, have an eye on the state's Medicaid programme."
Breathtaking.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Bush Says Russia Meddled; Still Silent on SCOTUS Meddling
In what will surely provoke another infuriating round of profoundly undeserved Bush nostalgia, headlines are blaring today that former president George W. Bush says there's evidence that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. Still benefiting mightily from the soft bigotry of low expectations, Bush is getting a big ol' public pat on the head for stating what is manifestly obvious.
But that's only half his quote. The full quote is: "There's pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled. Whether they affected the outcome is another question."
A question the answer to which is equally as obvious — but Bush is still as Republican as they come, and there ain't no way that a Republican will admit that a Republican presidency is illegitimate, no less that a Republican simply can't reach the White House without some sort of cheating.
Which is why my primary response to this is: Call me when Bush says there's pretty clear evidence that the Supreme Court meddled in the 2000 election.
Because what's his position, exactly? That non-democratic processes are cool when they get him elected but not when they get Donald Trump elected?
Oh.
Like I keep saying: There would be no Trump presidency if there hadn't been a Bush presidency. And Bush's presidency started with a deeply undemocratic decision to halt a recount, at the Bush campaign's request, that two independent audits ultimately found would have delivered the state, and thus the presidency, to Al Gore.
Am I supposed to feel grateful to Bush that he stole an election without the assistance of a foreign adversary?
That doesn't make him a patriot. It makes him a key player in the Republican war on democracy.
Russians Hacked U.S. Voting Systems
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at first link.]
Confirmation of what has long been rumored:
The U.S. official in charge of protecting American elections from hacking says the Russians successfully penetrated the voter registration rolls of several U.S. states prior to the 2016 presidential election.I'm not sure I believe it was only a probe, frankly, but okay.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Jeanette Manfra, the head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, said she couldn't talk about classified information publicly, but in 2016, "We saw a targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated."
Jeh Johnson, who was DHS secretary during the Russian intrusions, said, "2016 was a wake-up call and now it's incumbent upon states and the Feds to do something about it before our democracy is attacked again."
"We were able to determine that the scanning and probing of voter registration databases was coming from the Russian government."
...There is no evidence that any of the registration rolls were altered in any fashion, according to U.S. officials.
Reminder: It was Jeh Johnson who recommended designating election systems as critical infrastructure last August upon evidence of attempted Russian hacking, and Republicans said nope until after the election.
And then, even after the election, they did nothing. So when Johnson testified before the House Intelligence Committee as part of their Russia investigation last June, he opened his testimony by saying: "In 2016, the Russian government, at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyberattacks on our nation for the purpose of influencing our election, plain and simple. Now, the key question for the president and Congress is: What are we going to do to protect the American people and their democracy from this kind of thing in the future?"
The answer to that question continues to be "nothing."
Despite the fact that the Russians aren't going to stop at a probe. They were probing for a reason.
If we are to have any voting rights at all, surely chief among them is guaranteeing the integrity of the elections in which we vote. But the democracy-killing Republicans don't give a fuck about voting rights, so.
Again, the Republicans' refusal to protect U.S. elections from foreign interference is something about which we all need to making noise, if we expect the midterms to be legitimate elections.
We can't say we are looking forward to a "blue tsunami" in November, but just assume that those elections will be fair and valid. MAKE YOUR CALLS NOW. Contact your Senators and Representatives and demand that they designate election systems as critical infrastructure and take the necessary steps to protect them.
The White House Knew About Rob Porter's Abuse
[Content Note: Domestic violence; images of injuries at link.]
White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter has resigned, following reports that he had emotionally and physically abused two ex-wives. But, before he resigned, the White House was vigorously defending him — and it wasn't because they didn't know about his history; it was because they did, and didn't care.
Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng at the Daily Beast report:
The saga began with a Daily Mail piece published on Tuesday evening that reported on allegations of routine domestic abuse by Porter's first wife, Colbie Holderness. "He was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive and that is why I left," she told the Mail... "He was angry because we weren't having sex when he wanted to have sex and he kicked me," Holderness recalled...John Kelly was particularly effusive: "Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor and I can't say enough good things about him. He is a friend, a confidante, and a trusted professional. I am proud to serve alongside him." And then pictures surfaced of Porter's ex-wife, with bruises on her face.
In a separate story, the Daily Mail reported that Porter's second wife, Jennifer Willoughby, said she was "walking on eggshells" during their marriage due to Porter's short temper.
High-ranking White House officials and other Republicans lined up to defend Porter in the face of the allegations. The Daily Mail's first story ran on-the-record remarks from chief of staff John Kelly, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Sen. Orrin Hatch praising Porter's character and professional reputation.
But now we know that only informed the public of what the White House, including Kelly, already knew.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Kaitlan Collins, Kevin Liptak, and Dan Merica at CNN: White House Officials Knew About Porter's Abuse Allegations and Scrambled to Protect Him.
Senior aides to [Donald] Trump knew for months about allegations of domestic abuse levied against top White House staffer Rob Porter by his ex-wives, even as Porter's stock in the West Wing continued to rise, multiple sources told CNN on Wednesday.Nonetheless, Kelly claimed last night to have just learned of the allegations: "In a statement released Wednesday evening, Kelly said he was 'shocked' by the 'new allegations' against Porter." And anonymous sources are leaking that "Trump himself first learned of the allegations this week."
...Porter's ex-wives detailed the allegations to the FBI over the course of a routine background check, they told CNN's MJ Lee on Wednesday. A year into the administration, Porter does not hold a security clearance.
By early fall, it was widely known among Trump's top aides — including chief of staff John Kelly — both that Porter was facing troubles in obtaining the clearance and that his ex-wives claimed he had abused them. No action was taken to remove him from the staff.
Instead, Kelly and others oversaw an elevation in Porter's standing.
And, in typical fashion, Mike Pence is claiming he only just learned of the allegations, but some savvy reporter is finally catchin on to Pence's babe-in-the-woods routine:
Pence in Tokyo said he’d just learned about the allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter this morning. He declined to answer a follow up about why he often seems out of the loop when it comes to controversial White House staff news.
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) February 8, 2018
The facts are these: There was a man who abused at least two women working for the White House. The White House knew. And they promoted and defended him until public awareness of his indecency made it impossible for them to continue to defend him.
This should end John Kelly's tenure at the White House. Just for a start.
And this episode is yet another reminder to women across this nation that their president does not care about us. Not that we could ever forget.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker yes: "What regional word or phrase do you use that would identify to others where you grew up?"
I've written about this before: Because my mom grew up in NYC and had only been in Indiana for about 8 years when I was born, I grew up with an accent and lexicon all my own. My childhood friends would (affectionately) tease me about my pronunciation of words like "horrible," in which I drew out the Rs in a way they found amusing, and about my use of words like "soda" — to which I switched after visiting my grandparents in Queens and asking for "pop" and getting a bowl of Rice Krispies.
I never sounded exactly like I was from anywhere, and I don't think I have a collection of specific regionalisms that easily place me, either.
I've never exactly fit in, and I'm okay with that.
Wednesday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by pearls.
Recommended Reading:
Kiva Bay: [CN: Fat hatred; Nazism; nativism; anti-Semitism; violence] How Nazis Use Fat to Excuse Violence
Shay Stewart-Bouley at Black Girl in Maine: [CN: White supremacy; emotional auditing; menace] I'm in My Feelings; Where Are My White Folks Who Are Riding or Dying for Justice?
stavvers at Another Angry Woman: [CN: Harassment] I've Been Maliciously Reported and Suspended on Twitter
Wendy Wilson with Nancy Adossi at the Grio: [CN: Nativism; racism] 'My Soul Is Tired': I Am Young, Black, and Undocumented in Trump's America
Ben Zipperer at the Economic Policy Institute: EPI Responds to Amazon's Claims That Their Fulfillment Centers Raise Local Employment
Maddy Myers at Compete: Scarlett's StarCraft II Victory Shows How Esports Could Work for the Olympics
Rae Paoletta at Inverse: This Asteroid Can't Wait to Snuggle Earth on Friday
Michael Ballaban at Jalopnik: [CN: Moving GIFs at link] Elon Musk Actually Shot a Tesla Roadster into Space
AJ Caulfield at Looper: Mamie Gummer Cast in True Detective Season 3
Lydia Wang at Bust: 7 Contemporary Female Photographers Who Will Change the Way You See the World
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Go Nancy Go!
Since 10:04 AM this morning, Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi has been holding the House floor, speaking without a break on behalf of DREAMers. For nearly 8 hours now, Pelosi has been standing in 4-inch heels, telling the stories of DREAMers and entering their words into the official record.
JUST IN: From the House Historian's Office: @NancyPelosi has set the record for the longest-continuous speech in House history: pic.twitter.com/w598TQQJRr
— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) February 7, 2018
WOW. @NancyPelosi is a BAMF. But you already knew that. https://t.co/fJfBxP54X4
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 7, 2018
Leader Nancy Pelosi has held the House floor for 7 hours to advocate for a path to citizenship for Dreamers. Nancy knows how important it is to get this done because California is home to more Dreamers than any other state. Go Nancy! #GoNancyGo
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) February 7, 2018
Nancy Pelosi is a 77-year-old wealthy white woman who could be sipping rosé on a beach anywhere in the world right now, but instead she has been on her feet for nearly 7 hours fighting for DREAMers. She is the best of the Democratic Party no matter what some might say. #GoNancyGo
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) February 7, 2018
At 4:07pm ET, Rep. Nancy Pelosi says, "I'll do another, hour. OK?"
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 7, 2018
She then tells Democratic colleagues sitting nearby they're free to go see Former VP Joe Biden speak at Democratic Issues Conference.
Colleagues respond: "We want to see you."https://t.co/uNLfEP8AKE pic.twitter.com/QWzQ0OPRBx
WE WANT TO SEE YOU. #GoNancyGo https://t.co/FfTqJzGxK7
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 7, 2018
Watch just a minute of @NancyPelosi if you can. What she's doing is extraordinary and moving. She is reading the words and telling the stories of the human beings that Trump and the @GOP aggressively dehumanize. #GoNancyGo https://t.co/BCiUUW1kVN
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 7, 2018
A few moments ago, Rep. Pelosi said (I'm paraphrasing from memory): How lucky am I to get to know all these DREAMers through their words?
Blub.
Thank you, Rep. Pelosi. Thank you.
Just Curious
Are there any white male Democratic officeholders anywhere in the United States who don't believe they could have defeated Donald Trump? Just wondering for realsies if any white male Dems will publicly say they too would have lost, given Russian meddling, voter suppression, etc.?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 7, 2018
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
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 384
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: Today in Authoritarianism Watch and Mike Pence Really Wants a War with North Korea.
Let's start out with some good news today!
Cameron Joseph at TPM: Another Dem Pulls off a Big Upset in State Legislative Race. "Democrats on Tuesday pulled off another surprising special election upset, this time capturing a Missouri statehouse seat in a deep-red district that [Donald] Trump easily carried in 2016. Democratic candidate Mike Revis defeated GOP nominee David Linton on Tuesday night by a 4-point margin in a seat Trump carried with 61 percent of the vote just over a year ago, and which former President Barack Obama lost by 12 points in 2012. That's a major swing — and the latest time Democrats have vastly over-performed their previous numbers this year." Huzzah! Congratulations Mike Revis and Missouri progressives!
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David Daley at Salon: How the Republicans Rigged Congress — New Documents Reveal an Untold Story.
If there is to be a blue wave in 2018, it will need to overcome a red seawall that was exactingly designed beginning a decade ago and has proven impermeable in state after state ever since. Even in Virginia last November, Democrats won nearly a quarter of a million more votes than Republicans — and it still wasn't enough to overcome district lines rigged to guarantee the GOP a built-in advantage. In Alabama, where Doug Jones recently became the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in decades, disgraced GOP candidate Roy Moore still carried six of the state's seven gerrymandered congressional districts.And, in the process, kill American democracy.
Those kinds of results — Democrats winning more votes, Republicans holding more seats — have become almost commonplace this decade. It's not a coincidence.
The visionaries at the Republican State Leadership Committee, who designed the aptly-named strategy dubbed REDMAP, short for Redistricting Majority Project, managed to look far beyond the short-term horizon. They designed an audacious and revolutionary plan to wield the gerrymander as a tool to lock in conservative governance of state legislatures and Congress.
It proved more effective than any Republican dared dream. Republicans held the U.S. House in 2012, despite earning 1.4 million fewer votes than Democratic congressional candidates, and won large GOP majorities in the Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina state legislatures even when more voters backed Democrats.
Now new court documents, previously unrevealed emails and once-secret internal documents — most revealed here for the first time — uncover how early the Republican planning began, how comprehensive the redistricting strategy was and how determined conservative operatives were to dye America red from the ground up.
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Pompeo and Tillerson have now both announced that Russia will interfere in US elections and that they have no plan -- and likely no desire -- to stop it https://t.co/5b3o1Prf3G
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) February 7, 2018
Jeff Donn, Desmond Butler, and Raphael Satter at TPM: Russian Hacking Group Targets Defense Contractors for Secret Military Info. "Russian cyberspies pursuing the secrets of military drones and other sensitive U.S. defense technology tricked key contract workers into exposing their email to theft, an Associated Press investigation has found. What ultimately may have been stolen is uncertain, but the hackers clearly exploited a national vulnerability in cybersecurity: poorly protected email and barely any direct notification to victims. The hackers known as Fancy Bear, who also intruded in the U.S. election, went after at least 87 people working on militarized drones, missiles, rockets, stealth fighter jets, cloud-computing platforms, or other sensitive activities, the AP found."
Craig Silverman at BuzzFeed: Russian Trolls Ran Wild on Tumblr and the Company Refuses to Say Anything About It. "Russian trolls posed as black activists on Tumblr and generated hundreds of thousands of interactions for content that ranged from calling Hillary Clinton a 'monster' to supporting Bernie Sanders and decrying racial injustice and police violence in the U.S., according to new findings from researcher Jonathan Albright and BuzzFeed News. While Facebook and Twitter continue to face intense public and congressional pressure over the activity from trolls working for the Russian Internet Research Agency, Tumblr has somehow managed to escape scrutiny. But the blogging platform was in fact home to a powerful, largely unrevealed network of Russian trolls focused on black issues and activism. 'The evidence we've collected shows a highly engaged and far-reaching Tumblr propaganda-op targeting mostly teenage and twenty-something African Americans. This appears to have been part of an ongoing campaign since early 2015,' said Albright, research director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University."
Jonathan Swan at Axios: Senate Budget Deal Would Bust Budget Caps, Raise Debt Limit. "The two-year deal I expect McConnell and Schumer to strike: busting the budget caps on defense and domestic spending, raising the debt limit, plus funding for disaster relief and funding for community health centers." Fiscal conservatism what.
I mean, at this point, I think any sensible person can agree that whatever deal is struck to avoid a shutdown will be terrible in at least half a dozen ways, because the Republicans won't agree to it otherwise. There's literally nothing we can do as long as the country is being governed by a party that hates 99 percent of the people of this country.
Matt Shuham at TPM: Trump Tells Stock Market: Going Down Was a 'Big Mistake'. "Donald Trump said Wednesday that it was a 'big mistake' that the stock market went down in recent days, though it wasn't immediately clear whose judgment he meant to impugn. The White House didn't immediately respond to TPM’s request to clarify the tweet." LOLOLOLOLOLsob.
Trump's tweet reads in full: "In the 'old days,' when good news was reported, the Stock Market would go up. Today, when good news is reported, the Stock Market goes down. Big mistake, and we have so much good (great) news about the economy!" OMFG WHAT IS HE EVEN TALKING ABOUT???
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Eli Watkins at CNN: Biden: Trump Should Avoid Mueller Interview, Has 'Difficulty with Precision'. "Former Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that if he were one of [Donald] Trump's attorneys, he would suggest Trump not consent to a special counsel interview for fear of being caught misleading investigators. 'The President has some difficulty with precision,' Biden said in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo. Biden said he marvels at some of the comments Trump makes and referenced a line from Trump on Monday that Democrats who did not applaud his State of the Union address were 'un-American' and 'treasonous.' The White House has since called the remark tongue-in-cheek, with press secretary Sarah Sanders saying on Tuesday that Trump was 'clearly joking.' 'Well let me tell you, he's a joke,' Biden said in response." None of that is helpful, Biden. None of it.
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[CN: Nativism. Covers entire section.]
This is how John Kelly describes the larger pool of immigrants Trump allegedly wants to legalize: “1.8 million were the people that some would say were too afraid to sign up, others would say were too lazy to get off their asses, but they didn’t sign up.” https://t.co/ytOyXfvVnH
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 6, 2018
Ben Collins at the Daily Beast: Border Agents Make Amtrak Riders Prove They're Citizens.
Corey El was on an Amtrak train from Penn Station to Niagara Falls last Thursday when he says a Border Patrol officer approached his seat.This is reminiscent of a report from a couple of weeks ago about passengers being asked for ID on a Greyhound bus. Samantha Schmidt at the Washington Post: Video Shows Border Patrol Officers Asking Greyhound Passengers for IDs, Taking Woman into Custody. "As a Greyhound bus pulled up to a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., station on Friday afternoon, en route from Orlando to Miami, the driver announced there would be a 'routine' security checkpoint. Two uniformed officers boarded the bus and introduced themselves as Border Patrol agents, passengers told the Florida Immigrant Coalition, an advocacy group. The officers made their way down the center aisle, row by row, questioning passengers. They instructed each person to present 'a U.S. identification or a passport with a stamp of entrance,' one passenger, Raquel Quesada, told CBS4."
"He asked me, 'Are you an American citizen?'" he said. "I scoffed at him and said, 'Yeah.'"
El quickly got out his phone and took a video of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers questioning another Amtrak customer, which has since gone viral, receiving over 6,800 retweets.
The train was stopped in Syracuse, about 160 miles away from El's destination, for about 20 minutes, he said. El remembers the officers asking two other riders for their citizenship status, and none of them were white. One passenger, who he said was "possibly Middle Eastern," produced a burgundy passport during questioning.
"I originally wanted to tell him off and to refuse to answer. I know it's legal," said El. "But I'm cognizant of the fact that I'm also black. As a person of color, there's a foot on my neck. I know that I can't."
The viral encounter raises a pivotal civil rights question that Amtrak wouldn't clarify in several interactions with The Daily Beast.
It appears we are now entering the "Papieren, bitte!" portion of our descent into authoritarianism.
* * *
There are a lot of horrific apocalyptic scenarios, but the entire world population going "mad as a hatter" from mercury poisoning seems like a particularly bad one. https://t.co/AKg7ggGrdP
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 7, 2018
[CN: Homophobia] Andy Towle at Towleroad: Gay U.S. Olympian Adam Rippon Declined Request from Mike Pence to Talk It Out. "U.S. Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon reportedly turned down a request from Mike Pence to talk after Rippon denounced the homophobic vice president's role in leading the U.S. delegation to PyeongChang. Rippon spoke with USA Today about the choice: 'You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy? I'm not buying it.' Rippon said he'd avoid a meet-and-greet with Pence because of his views: 'If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren't a friend of a gay person but that they think that they're sick.'"
Smart kid. smart enough to know that Pence is going to spin it against him either way, so he might as well stick to his principles, and let the deplorables hate him for refusing to meet with Pence altogether. It would have been a colossal waste of Rippon's time, in addition to the horror of having to meet face-to-face with a shit-demon from the Upside Down.
[CN: Homophobia] Fred Barbash at the Washington Post: A Wedding Cake Is an 'Artistic Expression' That a Baker May Deny to a Same-Sex Couple, California Judge Rules. "'A wedding cake is not just a cake in a Free Speech analysis,' wrote Superior Court Judge David R. Lampe in a decision late Monday. 'It is an artistic expression by the person making it that is to be used traditionally as a centerpiece in the celebration of a marriage. There could not be a greater form of expressive conduct,' he said. ...He compared a bakery to a tire shop, saying that the shop could not refuse to sell a tire to a same sex couple because 'there is nothing sacred or expressive about a tire.' Similarly, had the couple just chosen a cake out of a display case, the bakery could not have refused to sell it to them. 'The difference here is that the cake in question is not yet baked. ...The State asks this court to compel Miller to use her talents to design and create a cake she has not yet conceived with the knowledge that her work will be displayed in celebration of a marital union her religion forbids.'"
Her religion forbids second marriages after divorce, too, because ADULTERY. So is she refusing to bake cakes for different-sex couples where one or both of them is getting remarried? If not, then her objection isn't truly religious in nature, but is just bigotry dressed up as piety. Why does this question never get asked? (I know why.)
[CN: Trans hatred] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire: Lawsuit: Alabama Discriminates Against Transgender People Who Want to Change Their Driver's License. "Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alabama filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging an Alabama policy they say discriminates against transgender people who want to change the gender designation on their driver's license. Policy Order 63 provides for changing the gender designation on a driver license and states that it can be changed only 'due to gender reassignment surgery,' according to the complaint. The policy requires applicants to submit '[a]n amended state certified birth certificate and/or a letter from the physician that performed the reassignment procedure.' These requirements, the ACLU attorneys argue, violate constitutional due process, privacy, and speech rights." Indeed they do!
If you were hoping when you woke up this morning that you'd get to hear Don Jr. 'splaining racism at us, and why wouldn't you, boy oh boy are you in luck! https://t.co/lRhfdgA5kx
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 7, 2018
[CN: Environmental racism] Ayana Byrd at Colorlines: Outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease Linked to Flint Water Crisis. "Between 2014 and 2015, 12 residents of Flint, Michigan, died from — and 87 others became ill with — Legionnaire's disease. New research ties the outbreak directly to the water crisis that hit the city at that same time. In April 2014, Flint switched its water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Flint River. One year later, pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and scientists discovered there were high levels of lead in the water of the city, where 41.2 percent of the residents live below the poverty line and 56.6 percent of residents are Black. In addition, NPR reports, 'Just months after the water source changed, hospitals were reporting large numbers of people with Legionnaires' disease.'"
[CN: Institutional neglect] Anne Branigin at the Root: How Last Year's Hurricane Season May Have Decimated the Virgin Islands' Middle Class. "Back-to-back strikes from two major hurricanes last year, Irma and Maria, have undone years of economic and social growth in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a new report from the Washington Post finds. The storms have so thoroughly disrupted the islands' economy, education and health systems that 'a generation of Virgin Islanders' may have been 'blown out of the middle class,' the Post writes. The islands of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix made sizable economic gains in the last 20 years, as the Post writes. Average incomes doubled and poverty rates dropped thanks to a flourishing tourism industry. But the 2017 storms delivered what the Post calls a 'triple whammy' of setbacks: Residents lacked insurance to help offset the damage done to their homes and businesses; federal aid given to the islands has been limited; and, as most major hotels remain closed, jobs have been lost with no sense of when they might reappear."
I know many American politicians and a lot of the political press love to romanticize coal mining, but here's a tragic reminder that it's a job which kills people in a horrible way. https://t.co/7EJtLsXfMD
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 7, 2018
And finally...
[CN: Guns; death] RIP Muhiyidin d'Baha. Nigel Roberts at News One: Rest in Power: Iconic Black Lives Matter Activist Is Killed in New Orleans. "The family of an iconic Black Lives Matter activist is raising funds to bring his remains home to Charleston, South Carolina after he was gunned down in New Orleans on Tuesday. ...Muhiyidin D'Baha, 32, was shot in the thigh and pronounced dead at a hospital, the Times-Picayune reported. The police have neither identified a suspect nor a motive in its ongoing investigation. ...D'Baha made a name for himself in the movement for Black lives after video captured the moment when he suddenly hurled his body through yellow police tape and snatched a Confederate battle flag from the hands of White supremacists during a protest in Charleston last year."
My condolences to his family, friends, fellow activists, and community. I am so sorry. It is a great loss to everyone who was moved by his work.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
TV Corner: This Is Us
We haven't had a This Is Us thread in almost a year (!), so I thought it was definitely time for another one, especially after that Super Bowl episode.
I don't want to spoil anything, since there have been such big developments recently, so I'll save my discussion for comments.
Just two questions:
1. The same question I had last year: Do you think the show writers actually think Toby is a nice guy, or do they know they're writing a textbook Nice GuyTM?
2. Is This Is Us actually (intentionally or otherwise) a parable about the fetishization of whiteness and maleness in the patriarchy actually destroys everyone, including white men?
Have at it in comments!
Mike Pence Really Wants a War with North Korea
Apparently. Zeke Miller at the Associated Press reports:
Vice President Mike Pence said the U.S. is preparing to announce the "toughest and most aggressive" economic sanctions against North Korea in the coming days, boosting pressure on the bellicose government during the Winter Olympics.Pence's announcement of sanctions is getting all the headlines, but, while in Japan, he also promised that "all options are on the table" when it comes to North Korea and said: "The people of Japan can be assured: The full range of the Armed Forces of the United States will continue to be dedicated to the protection of Japan."
Pence, who is set to lead the U.S. delegation at the opening ceremonies Friday, made the announcement in Japan on Wednesday, following meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
"The United States of America will soon unveil the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever — and we will continue to isolate North Korea until it abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile programs once and for all," Pence said.
U.S. officials declined to provide details of the expected sanctions beyond Pence's comments, citing concerns that any additional information could be used by those trying to skirt the new measures. They are expected to be implemented before the conclusion of the games.
This is, of course, not the first time that Pence has rattled the saber at North Korea. And it is only one part of his provocation of North Korea during his visit to the region for the Winter Olympics. As I mentioned on Monday, he also brought Fred Warmbier, the father of Otto Warmbier, in his delegation as his personal guest.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Anyone who imagines that Mike Pence is less of a threat than Donald Trump doesn't know or understand Mike Pence.
The biggest difference between Trump and Pence is that Trump might launch a nuke at North Korea over an insult from Kim Jong-un he hears about on Fox & Friends, while Pence will methodically poke at Kim until he reacts and provides even the thinnest rationale for an attack.
Their methods are different. The depth of their malice is precisely the same.
Today in Authoritarianism Watch
Donald Trump (still) wants a big military parade, like the one he saw in France and couldn't stop gushing about: "It was a two-hour parade. They had so many different zones. Maybe 100,000 different uniforms, different divisions, different bands. Then we had the retired, the older, the ones who were badly injured. The whole thing, it was an incredible thing."
Except, of course, he wants that but even more so.
Greg Jaffe and Philip Rucker at the Washington Post: Trump's 'Marching Orders' to the Pentagon: Plan a Grand Military Parade.
Trump's vision of soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the boulevards of Washington is moving closer to reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America's armed forces.White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the Pentagon have confirmed that this is a real thing in the world.
Trump has long mused publicly and privately about wanting such a parade, but a Jan. 18 meeting between Trump and top generals in the Pentagon's tank — a room reserved for top-secret discussions — marked a tipping point, according to two officials briefed on the planning.
Surrounded by the military's highest-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Trump's seemingly abstract desire for a parade was suddenly heard as a presidential directive, the officials said.
"The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France," said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the planning discussions are supposed to remain confidential. "This is being worked at the highest levels of the military."
Shows of military strength are not typical in the United States — and they don't come cheap. The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to Washington could run in the millions, and military officials said it was unclear how they would pay for it.
Not only is it unclear how much this authoritarian display would cost or whence the funding would come, but also: "It is unclear what role Trump would play, whether he may perhaps serve as a grand marshal or observe the spectacle from a reviewing stand."
Maybe they can just commission a gold throne for which taxpayers can foot the bill, too, so the Almighty Glorious President can watch his military parade go by as it proceeds down Pennsylvania Avenue and passes by Trump International Hotel.
A White House official said that the parade "would be designed as a broad show of strength to send a warning to all of America's adversaries."
Which I can only assume is the gruesome punchline to this vile joke, because a draft dodger who doesn't understand the basics of foreign policy overseeing an ostentatious military carnival does not send the message that America is strong, but that we are weak and foolish and insecure — and being led by the very personification of our nation's most shameful qualities.
