Shaker Gourmet

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, May 22, 2018
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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!

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I just came across this Sausage, Spinach, and White Bean Soup crockpot recipe, looking for a way to use up some beans I've got, and it looks so yummy. I may have to make that before it gets too warm for soup!

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This Is a Real Thing in the World

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, May 22, 2018
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Not since the glorious Ronpaulbuxxx of yore have I seen such a magnificent specimen!

(This is why bitcoin will ALWAYS be inferior. Can bitcoin offer me a commemorative cryptocoin of this historic meeting? I DIDN'T THINK SO.)

Obviously, everything about this is perfect: How beautiful it is, how perfect the likeness of the two stunning leaders, how classically authoritarian it is, what a superb money-making opportunity it is for a totally uncorrupt White House and an ethical AF president who definitely isn't exploiting the office for his own personal wealth or glory, how classy it is (although I admit it could use a little more gold).

But this is definitely my favorite part:


Methinks I spy a silver fox who's angling to get a coin of his own! Don't worry, Pence — all the great authoritarians get them, so it's only a matter of time.

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Trump Has Two Unsecured Phones, Because Security Is "Inconvenient"

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, May 22, 2018
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This is such a serious problem — and so obviously serious that I can't imagine I would even need to explain why it's so serious, nor that I could possibly convince anyone who's chosen to remain unconvinced.

All there is left to say is:

image of a nuclear explosion to which I've added text reading BUT HER EMAILS

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Open Thread

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, May 22, 2018
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Hosted by a turquoise sofa. Have a seat and chat.

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Question of the Day

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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Suggested by Shaker Brenda A.: "What DIY (do-it-yourself) project were you particularly pleased with?"

Olivia's post-surgical shirt, lol.


I will never get over how hilariously cute she looked in that thing, which also turned out to be incredibly effective in protecting her sutures while the incision healed!

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Monday Links!

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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This list o' links brought to you by blackberries.

Recommended Reading:


Angela Helm at the Root: Samaria Rice to Open Tamir Rice Cultural Center in 2019

Kathleen at Lainey: A Black Royal Wedding

Monica Roberts at TransGriot: Introducing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex!

Blue Telusma at the Grio: 7 of the Most TURNT UP Moments from Harry's and Meghan's Royal Wedding Reception

Jamilah King at Mother Jones: Ali Wong Stuck with the Major Your Mom Told You to Drop and Here She Is Today

Samuel James at Black Girl in Maine: [Content Note: Racism; eliminationist violence] Choosing Sides

Wendy Lu at Everyday Feminism: [CN: Disablism] Disabled People Don't Need to Be "Fixed" — We Need a Cure for Ableism

Matt Simon at Wired: The 6-Foot Chinese Giant Salamander Is in Serious Trouble

Ryan F. Mandelbaum at Gizmodo: Why Is This Asteroid Orbiting the Wrong Way Around the Sun?

Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!

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Trump Makes Another Big Authoritarian Move, Part 2

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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Earlier today, I noted that Donald Trump had tweeted his demand "that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes — and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!"

This afternoon, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray met with Trump at the White House. And White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders put out this statement on that meeting: "Based on the meeting with the President, the Department of Justice has asked the Inspector General to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's or the Department of Justice's tactics concerning the Trump campaign. It was also agreed that White House Chief of Staff Kelly will immediately set up a meeting with the FBI, DOJ, and DNI together with Congressional leaders to review highly classified and other information they have requested."

The president is currently under investigation. He's essentially asking to see what they've got on him.

That is just a brazen abuse of power.

And, as usual, there's no one around with the power and willingness to stop him.

Meanwhile:


Receipts and more receipts.

There is nothing that isn't depressing about watching my country slide into an authoritarian dictatorship, but always rivaling for pole position is the fact that this is happening chiefly because of a failure to listen to women.

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OMG SHOEZ

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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Listen, the news is tough, and we all need moments of escape from the horror to recuperate and prepare for the next onslaught, and I can talk about shoes all the livelong day, so welcome to the OMG SHOEZ thread.

Got a favorite pair of shoes you want to share? Bought a new pair about which you're super excited? Have a recommendation to make, or want to caution us away from a purchase you regret? Want to solicit suggestions for a specific event, a foot issue, an elusive something for which you've been hunting? Having trouble finding something particular on a budget? Have at it in comments!

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A kindly reader sent a donation for my birthday, earmarked for splurging on something special for the occasion. So — and with Deeky's encouragement to actually treat myself — I got myself this pair of magenta flats, WHICH I LOVE SO MUCH OMGGGGGG.

image of my lower legs showing my feet clad in shiny magenta flats
Kenneth Cole's New York Westley Loafer

I got them at Shoes.com, which is currently having a 30% off sale, in case you've been waiting for a good sale to get yourself that pair of shoes you've been wanting or needing.

So, that's what up with me! What's up with you?

(As always: I am not affiliated with Kenneth Cole in any way, nor have I received anything in exchange for recommending their shoes. I just really like 'em! I'm also not affiliated in any way with nor receiving compensation from Shoes.com.)

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Daily Dose of Cute

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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There was much delightful Shakespets Tweeting over the weekend, so in case you missed any of it, a recap!


As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

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We Resist: Day 487

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Today in Toxic Masculinity and Trump Makes Another Big Authoritarian Move and SCOTUS Deals Devastating Blow to Class Actions and Border Patrol Agent Detains Spanish-Speaking Citizens.

Here are some more things in the news today...

Andy Towle at Towleroad: Hillary Clinton Trolls Trump with Russian Hat During Speech to Yale Grads. "Yale University has a tradition of students wearing 'over-the-top' hats to one of its graduation events called 'Class Day.' Former Secretary of State and Trump opponent Hillary Clinton was asked to address the grads and decided to partake in the tradition. Said Clinton: 'I see, looking out at you, that you are following the tradition of over-the-top hats. So I brought a hat too: A Russian hat.'"

Hahahahaha! Although, as my friend Shaker SKM pointed out in a private conversation, which I'm sharing with her permission, it's not really Trump that she's trolling here: "It could credibly refer only to her own problem with Putin — she called out his crooked 2011 elections, and he set out to stop her. Trump was purely incidental. Sidelined. She's jabbing at Vlad." Indeed.

* * *

Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Anu Narayanswamy at the Washington Post: RNC Paid Nearly Half a Million Dollars to Law Firm Representing Hope Hicks and Others in Russia Probes. "The RNC's $451,780 payment to Trout Cacheris & Janis adds to the mounting legal fees associated with the investigations by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and several congressional committees of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Hicks hired Robert Trout, founder of the law firm, as her personal attorney in September, according to news reports. The report of the payments for legal and compliance services, contained in the Federal Election Commission report filed Sunday, is the first public disclosure of RNC payments to the law firm since Hicks hired Trout." Swell.

Allegra Kirkland at TPM: How Trump's New Deep State Conspiracy Theory Emerged from the Fever Swamps.
If there's a dark conspiracy theory circulating about Deep State efforts to undermine Donald Trump, it's a safe bet that it started with Rep. Devin Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

That seems to be the case with the purported scandal du jour: That the FBI planted an informant in the Trump campaign in order to gain information about its possible ties to Russia. Such a move, Trump allies argue, would render the Mueller investigation into Russia's 2016 election interference illegitimate.

The source met with three different Trump campaign officials, the Washington Post reported Friday evening. And the source's name began circulating late last week in right-wing media. Still the nature of the intelligence the source provided, and exactly what prompted the FBI to seek to obtain intel from this person remain unclear.

As with previous Nunes-driven controversies, this one started weeks ago with the California Republican's efforts to disclose classified intelligence information, festered in the media fever swamps, and then percolated up to the president, who on Friday said it may be the "all time biggest political scandal!"
Nunes is toxic. If his party had a shred of integrity of patriotism, he would have been removed from office the moment he was discovered to be running interference for the Trump administration on a Congressional investigation being done by his own committee. Instead, he's been left to muddy the waters with rank conspiracy theories from his highest of profiles. Shameful.

Gregory Korte at USA Today: CIA Director Gina Haspel Sworn in as Trump Blasts Obama's CIA Director as a 'Disgrace'. "[Donald] Trump praised Gina Haspel as the seventh director of the Central Intelligence Agency at a swearing-in ceremony on Monday, just hours after accusing the fifth director of the CIA director of disgracing the office and engaging in a 'political hit job' against him." So former CIA director John Brennan is a "disgrace" for having national loyalty, and Gian Haspel, former torturer, is a tribute to the office. Cool calculations, as always.


A more honest headline would be: Pompeo lays out list of demands he knows will never be met in bid to make Trump administration look reasonable after completely unreasonable decision to withdraw from Iran deal.

* * *

[Content Note: Nativism] Alfonso Serrano at Colorlines: Department of Justice Curbs Authority of Immigration Judges. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday (May 17) issued a directive barring immigration judges from pausing deportation cases while immigrants await visa applications or appeals to criminal convictions, a commonly used tactic known as administrative closure that previously allowed judges to clear low priority cases. Widely used during the Obama administration, administrative closure gave judges flexibility on cases involving immigrants who had lived in the country for several years and whose children or spouses are United States citizens. It also freed up judges to focus on higher priority cases. Sessions, however, argued that judges don't have the authority to suspend cases." Asshole.

[CN: Clergy sex abuse] While everyone is once again singing Pope Francis' praises because he had the magnanimity to say that if a person is made gay by god then god probably doesn't hate them...


Never forget who Pope Francis actually is, folks.

And finally, still in the We Resist thread because who knows if federal aid will be forthcoming... AP/Guardian: Hawaii Volcano Fills Sky with Acid Plumes and Glass Shards as Lava Hits Sea.
White plumes of acid and extremely fine shards of glass billowed into the sky over Hawaii as molten rock from the Kilauea volcano poured into the ocean, creating yet another hazard from an eruption that began more than two weeks ago.

Authorities warned the public to stay away from the toxic steam cloud, which is formed by a chemical reaction when lava touches seawater.

Further upslope, lava continued to gush out of large cracks in the ground that formed in residential neighborhoods in a rural part of the Big Island. The molten rock formed rivers that bisected forests and farms as it meandered toward the coast.

The rate of sulfur dioxide gas shooting from the ground fissures tripled, leading Hawaii county to repeat warnings about air quality. At the volcano's summit, two explosive eruptions unleashed clouds of ash. Winds carried much of the ash towards Wood Valley, Pahala, Naalehu, and Waiohinu in the south-west of the island.

Officials said one small eruption produced an ash plume that reached about 7,000ft. The county of Hawaii issued a civil defense message early on Monday, warning those in affected areas to stay indoors with windows closed and to drive with caution.
I'm thinking about you, Hawaii.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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Border Patrol Agent Detains Spanish-Speaking Citizens

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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[Content Note: Nativism.]

Donald Trump did not invent terrible immigration policy. U.S. immigration policy has been broken for a very long time. But he has empowered and institutionalized a nativist, white supremacist, anti-immigrant agenda that I have long been warning will underwrite a targeting of U.S. citizens.

I can't even tell you how much I wish I'd been wrong about that.

Amy B Wang at the Washington Post: A Border Patrol Agent Detained Two U.S. Citizens at a Gas Station After Hearing Them Speak Spanish.

A Montana woman said she plans to take legal action after a Border Patrol agent detained and questioned her and a friend — both U.S. citizens — when he overheard them speaking Spanish at a gas station.

The incident occurred early Wednesday morning at a convenience store in Havre, Mont., a town in the northern part of the state, near the border with Canada.

Ana Suda said she and her friend, Mimi Hernandez, were making a midnight run to the store to pick up eggs and milk. Both are Mexican American and speak fluent Spanish, and they had exchanged some words in Spanish while waiting in line to pay when a uniformed Border Patrol agent interrupted them, Suda said.

"We were just talking, and then I was going to pay," Suda told The Washington Post. "I looked up [and saw the agent], and then after that, he just requested my ID. I looked at him like, 'Are you serious?' He's like, 'Yeah, very serious.'"

Suda said she felt uncomfortable and began recording the encounter with her cellphone after they had moved into the parking lot. In the video Suda recorded, she asks the agent why he is detaining them, and he says it is specifically because he heard them speaking Spanish.

"Ma'am, the reason I asked you for your ID is because I came in here, and I saw that you guys are speaking Spanish, which is very unheard of up here," the agent can be heard saying in the video.

Suda asks whether they are being racially profiled; the agent says no.

"It has nothing to do with that," the agent tells her. "It's the fact that it has to do with you guys speaking Spanish in the store, in a state where it's predominantly English-speaking."
Utterly chilling. No one should be made to feel that they cannot speak a language other than English in the United States. But now official policy is apparently the equivalent of a racist shitbird screaming, "THIS IS AMERICA! SPEAK ENGLISH!" at people.

(Which, by the way, has been screamed at my husband, who merely speaks with accented English.)

When questioned about the incident by the WaPo, Border Patrol not only did not condemn their agent's actions, but reasserted his right of authority:
A representative from U.S. Customs and Border Protection told The Post the agency is reviewing the incident to ensure all appropriate policies were followed. Border Patrol agents are trained to decide to question individuals based on a variety of factors, the agency added.

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and officers are committed to treating everyone with professionalism, dignity, and respect while enforcing the laws of the United States," the agency said. "Although most Border Patrol work is conducted in the immediate border area, agents have broad law enforcement authorities and are not limited to a specific geography within the United States. They have the authority to question individuals, make arrests, and take and consider evidence."
Demanding ID from anyone speaking languages other than English in public has fuck-all to do with enforcing U.S. law. That Customs and Border Protection doesn't seem to agree with that is deeply troubling.

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SCOTUS Deals Devastating Blow to Class Actions

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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In yet another 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled in Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis that employers are allowed to force employees to sign contracts that restrict their right to sue collectively in federal court and instead force them into one-on-one arbitration with the company.

It is a devastating blow to workers and class actions for endemic workplace abuses.

The decision [pdf] was authored by Neil Gorsuch, of course. Ruth Bader Ginsburg authored the dissent.


This erosion of workers' ability to organize into class action lawsuits against exploitative and/or harmful employers, combined with conservatives' decades of union-busting, is a horrendous blow to the collective power of workers.

Absolutely gutting.

This is a perfect and terrible example of why I nearly spun myself into dust during the last election trying to ensure Donald Trump was defeated, and why the only words I have at the moment are (again) these:


Elections matter. The differences between the Democrats and the Republican matter. HERE IS WHY.

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Trump Makes Another Big Authoritarian Move

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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Yesterday, Donald Trump tweeted a rather extraordinary tweet, even by his own execrable standards:


Leah McElrath quickly noted:


Which is absolutely spot-on. I further observed:


I don't know what's going to happen next — how or when Trump will follow through on his threat. But I do this with absolute certainty: It isn't going to happen randomly.

Donald Trump, so goes the narrative, provides precious little evidence of long-term strategy. That narrative is totally wrong. I cannot state this more urgently.

Trump has been toying with a presidential run for decades, and he became the acolyte of Roy Cohn to learn politics. A very specific kind of dirty, unethical, scorched-earth politics. As a developer in NYC, he cultivated relationships with both Democratic and Republican politicians for decades — but, when it came time to run, there was no question at all for which party he was going to run as a candidate. There was only party whose base was going to buy what he was selling, which itself was shaped to appeal to very particular people in a very particular way at this particular time.

He now sits in the Oval Office, one of the most powerful men on the planet.

That was the plan. He didn't achieve it by accident.

Trump might not be sitting in the Oval Office without intervention from the Russians, but that is not an argument that he had no long-term plan on which he was executing. To the contrary, it's an argument that collusion became part of the plan.

The sooner this notion that the authoritarian Trump is just "winging it" dies a deserved death, the better.

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Today in Toxic Masculinity

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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[Content Note: Gun violence; auto violence; domestic violence; misogyny; entitlement; disablism.]

On Friday, Dimitrios Pagourtzis killed ten people and injured at least 13 others at Sante Fe high school in Texas.

Sadie Rodriguez, a mother of one of Pagourtzis' victims, 16-year-old Shana Fisher, said that her daughter was his first target, because he was angry that she had humiliated him by publicly rejecting him after he'd aggressively pursued her for four months, despite her repeatedly telling him no.

Sadie Rodriguez said her daughter Shana Fisher had endured "four months of problems from this boy".

"He kept making advances on her and she repeatedly told him no," she told the Los Angeles Times.

...Ms Rodriguez said Mr Pagourtzis had been increasingly aggressive until her daughter stood up to him, embarrassing him in class.

"A week later he opens fire on everyone he didn't like," she said.
Then yesterday, Roger Self, a former police officer turned private investigator in North Carolina, took his family out to brunch, had them seated at a particular table, then left the meal to get into his vehicle and plow it into the restaurant, killing two people, one of whom was his own daughter, Katelyn Self, a deputy sheriff. The other person killed was his daughter-in-law, Amanda Self, an emergency room nurse. One of her daughters, only 13 years old, was among the injured.

According to a pastor and family friend, Self was "wrestling with mental illness" and had been "beset by anxiety, depression, and mental breakdowns," but: "He's been taking precautions. He had all the guns removed from his house, so he was making steps that were rational steps."

Imagine anyone saying about a woman, or a man of color, who tried to kill their entire family that they had been making "rational steps" before they rammed their car into a restaurant where they killed and injured people in addition to their targeted family.
"Family has been loving him through this," the pastor said. "This was not a conscious act by their father, and they know that."
Except, of course, that it was a conscious act. He chose the restaurant, he called the restaurant, he made a reservation, he invited his family, he chose a particular table, he sat down with them, he got up from the table, he left the restaurant, he got in his car, he started it, and then he deliberately drove it through the restaurant.

Let me be clear: Neither anxiety nor depression make people kill their families. They also don't make men decide that their wives and daughters and daughters-in-law and granddaughters are better off dead, or whatever fucked-up reason Self decided to harm his family.

Mental illness can exacerbate toxic masculinity. But it doesn't create it.

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Open Thread

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, May 21, 2018
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image of a purple sofa

Hosted by a purple sofa. Have a seat and chat.

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The Virtual Pub Is Open

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, May 18, 2018
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image of a pub Photoshopped to be named 'The Beloved Community Pub'
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]

Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.

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Friday Links!

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, May 18, 2018
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This list o' links brought to you by strawberries.

Recommended Reading:

Blue Telusma at the Grio: [Content Note: Racism] Black Man Racially Profiled Trying to Return Items to Hobby Lobby, Even Though He Had a Receipt

Charline Jao at the Mary Sue: Amber Ruffin's "Minute of Fury" Against Roseanne and White People Calling the Cops Is Spectacular

Kayleigh Donaldson at Pajiba: Whitney Cummings Exits as Roseanne Showrunner

Megh Wright at Vulture: Check out a New Trailer for Michelle Wolf's Weekly Netflix Series The Break

("Hey, Liss — did you intend for us to read that first item and get righteously angry, then read the second item and pump our fists in solidarity with Amber Ruffin's perfect jeremiad against white people calling the cops because they're racist assholes, then read the third item and decide that Whitney Cummings should be canceled once and for fucking all for empowering the white supremacy that feeds the aforementioned, then read the fourth item and realize there are much better people than Whitney Cummings who deserve our attention, like Michelle Wolf, who happens to be friends with Amber Ruffin, who appears in the trailer for her show whoa?" Yes. Yes, I did.)

Ira Madison III at the Daily Beast: [CN: Sexual assault; violence] Catfish Host Nev Schulman Already Has a History of Assault

Sabeena Akhtar at Media Diversified: 'What Ramadan Means to Me': Muslim Women on the Month of Fasting and Prayer

Harriet Ryan, Matt Hamilton, and Paul Pringle at the LA Times: [CN: Sexual assault] A USC Gynecologist Was Accused of Assaulting His Patients for Years; the University Let Him Continue Treating Students

Mary von Aue at Inverse: Earth Shatters Climate Record, Sending Planet Toward 'Worst Case Scenario'

Brian Kahn at Earther: [CN: Moving GIF at link] A Rare Cyclone Is About to Hit Somalia

Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!

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Republican Politicians Want Kids Dead

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, May 18, 2018
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[Content Note: Gun violence.]

That is the only reasonable conclusion I can reach when they flatly refuse to even entertain the possibility of meaningful gun reform, no matter how many children are slaughtered across this nation.

Here, for example, is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick saying that today's shooting may have been caused by Texas schools having "too many entrances and too many exits," because their proffered solutions are becoming increasingly ridiculous as it has been made patently obvious the only thing that will stem this tide of wanton murder is reducing access to guns.


If Republican leaders don't want me to believe that they want kids dead, then they can withdraw their heads from the NRA's ass and start proposing rational solutions to this problem.

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Daily Dose of Cute

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, May 18, 2018
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image of Sophie the Torbie Cat in close-up, lying on a chaise near a window, looking thoughtful
Contemplative Sophs. Thinking about Tony again, presumably.

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

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We Resist: Day 484

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, May 18, 2018
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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.

* * *

Earlier today by me: Trump to Launch New Assault on Abortion Access and Shooting at Texas' Santa Fe High School.

Here are some more things in the news today...

[Content Note: Gun violence. Covers entire section.]

Nicole Lafond at TPM: Trump on Santa Fe High Shooting: 'This Has Been Going on Too Long'. "This has been going on too long in our country. Too many years. Too many decades now. We grieve for the terrible loss of life and send our support and love to everyone affected by this absolutely horrific attack to the students, families, teachers, and personnel at Santa Fe High. We're with you in this tragic hour, and we will be with you forever. My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools, and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others."


This is one of the most heartbreaking interviews I have ever seen (transcript below):

Transcript:

Paige (shaken and looking down, shaking her head): I managed to keep calm through it all; there was another girl who was just freaking out; they were struggling really hard to keep her calm. It was really — it was really scary.

Male reporter, offscreen: Was there a part of you that was like: "This isn't real; this isn't — this would not happen in my school"?

Paige (smiling bitterly and chuckling mirthlessly): No. There wasn't. Um.

Reporter: Why so?

Paige: It's been happening everywhere. I felt — I've always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too.
Sob.

* * *

Melanie Schmitz at ThinkProgress: What You Should Know about Trump's Latest 'Spy' Claim. "In a tweet Thursday morning, [Donald] Trump claimed that the Obama administration and the FBI had 'spied' on his campaign during the 2016 presidential race, [tweeting]: 'Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI 'SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT.' Andrew McCarthy says, 'There's probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign.' If so, this is bigger than Watergate!' The president appeared to be referring to a column published in the conservative-leaning National Review last week, which claimed that the FBI had placed a spy or 'human source' inside the Trump campaign to pass information to federal authorities."

Kate Riga at TPM: Trump: 'If True' FBI Informant Is 'All Time Biggest Political Scandal'. "Donald Trump on Friday morning ratcheted up the intensity of his desire to hunt down the FBI informant who reportedly met with Trump campaign aides before the 2016 election, [tweeting]: 'Reports are there was indeed at least one FBI representative implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign for president. It took place very early on, and long before the phony Russia Hoax became a 'hot' Fake News story. If true — all time biggest political scandal!' Trump has been stuck on the topic since a Wednesday New York Times report, prompting the FBI to set up precautionary measures to protect the source, should Trump's efforts unmask him or her."

Every day, it's some fresh new fuckery from the paranoiac tyrant. Meanwhile, I can think of at least one political scandal that would be bigger than the false claim that the FBI planted a mole in a presidential campaign.


Cough.

* * *

Fredreka Schouten at USA Today: Millions Flow to Fast-Growing Lobbying Firms with Ties to the Trump Administration. "Lobbying firms managed by former campaign aides, fundraisers, and others with ties to [Donald] Trump and [Mike] Pence have collected at least $28 million in federal lobbying fees since Trump assumed the presidency, a USA TODAY analysis found." DRAIN THE SWAMP!


David Smith at the Guardian: Bill Gates: Trump Twice Asked Me the Difference Between HIV and HPV. "In both of those two meetings, he asked me if vaccines weren't a bad thing because he was considering a commission to look into ill-effects of vaccines and somebody — I think it was Robert Kennedy, Jr. — was advising him that vaccines were causing bad things. And I said no, that's a dead end, that would be a bad thing, don't do that. Both times he wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV so I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other."

I find it difficult to believe that Donald Trump was truly confused about the difference between HIV and HPV for a couple of reasons. (Not that I think Gates is lying, mind you; I just think Trump might have been fucking with him.)

Reasons #1 and #2:


Then again, maybe Trump's brain has been eaten by syphilis. The U.S. did lose the Vietnam War, after all.

* * *

[CN: Gun violence] Adam Peck at ThinkProgress: Evidence Suggests Las Vegas Shooter Stephen Paddock Was Motivated by Pro-Gun Conspiracy Theories.
[O]n Wednesday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released 1,200 pages of police reports, witness statements, and other evidence, for the first time shedding new light on the man responsible for the shooting.

Just days before the massacre, at least two people told police that a man they believed to be Paddock ranted to them about federal government efforts to impose gun control measures. Another witness recounted how a man thought to be Paddock shared his belief that a "camp" set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was in fact "a dry run for law enforcement and military to start kickin' down doors and…confiscating guns."

The widespread seizure of guns by the federal government — specifically through FEMA — is a popular conspiracy theory amongst extremist gun nuts, and one that was heavily promoted by the National Rifle Association.

On the 10th anniversary of Katrina's landfall in New Orleans, an NRA article published in the Daily Caller vastly overstated the degree to which authorities were disarming gun owners during rescue and evacuation efforts in the city. Even other pro-gun groups criticized the NRA's portrayal of the situation as inaccurate and overblown.

One of the Las Vegas witnesses recalled Paddock telling him that "somebody has to wake up the American public and get them to arm themselves," during a conversation less than a month before the shooting. "Sometimes sacrifices have to be made."
Let's be clear: The NRA isn't just standing in the way of preventing mass shootings; it's promulgating disinformation that underwrites gun violence.

[CN: Homophobia; transphobia]


[CN: Disablism] Robyn Powell at Rewire.News: For People with Disabilities, Earning Pennies Per Hour Is Only Part of the Problem. "Supposedly, the goal of sheltered workshops is to train people with disabilities to work in integrated settings, earning typical wages. However, that is rarely what happens. In fact, only 5 percent of employees who work in sheltered workshops transition to a job in the community, according to an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Of course, subminimum wage is only one of countless ways in which people with disabilities continue to face substantial barriers to finding and keeping meaningful employment. Indeed, the same archaic beliefs about the productivity of people with disabilities that led to Section 14(c) rear their ugly head in every aspect of employment, resulting in abysmal employment rates."


[CN: Carcerality] Samantha Melamed at the Philly Inquirer: Pennsylvania's Newest, Most Expensive Prison Is Finally Ready — and Inmates Are Dreading It. "In a memo drafted by eight of those inmates last September, the men pleaded for better communication about their future living conditions, counseling for inmates distressed by the move, and supports for elderly or infirm inmates who worried about possible top-bunk assignments or other physical challenges. 'The horror stories about where we will live build by the day. This is very stressful,' they wrote, citing rumors about sinking and flooded buildings and broken plumbing at Phoenix. [Nancy Wolff, a professor at Rutgers University who has been volunteering 20 hours a week at Graterford and whose implemented mindfulness-based stress reduction programs, trauma-focused therapy groups, volunteer training, and music and yoga programs were abruptly canceled] said there was no response." Seethe.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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