What are you doing to do to take care of yourself today, or in the near future, as soon as you can?
If you are someone who has a hard time engaging in self-care, or figuring out easy, fast, and/or inexpensive ways to treat yourself, and you would like to solicit suggestions, please feel welcome. And, as always, no one should offer advice unless it is solicited.
* * *
I'm going to go for a very gentle float in the pool. I haven't been able to swim for a month, because I strained my rotator cuff. Honestly, I'm not sure which has been worse — the physical agony in my neck, shoulder, and back from the strain, or the emotional angst of not being able to swim, which has become such an important act of self-care for me.
I still need to take it easy for awhile, but I'm looking forward to getting back in the water and just paddling around gently a bit. Hopefully sometime in the next week!
Discussion Thread: Self-Care
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 532
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: Therese Patricia Okoumou Scales the Statue of Liberty on the 4th of July in Protest of Trump's Nativist Policies and Trump Wanted War in Venezuela (and Maybe Still Does).
Here are some more things in the news today...
[Content Note: Nativism; white supremacy; abuse. Covers entire section.]
Canadian Press at the Toronto Star: U.S. Border Patrol Questions Crews of at Least 10 Fishing Vessels in Canadian Waters.
In the past two weeks, at least 10 Canadian fishing boats from New Brunswick have been intercepted by U.S. Border Patrol agents while fishing in the disputed waters around Machias Seal Island, a spokesperson for the fishermen says.So, a couple of things to note: 1. Trump is upping his campaign of belligerence toward Canada (see also: trade) by provoking a territorial dispute; 2. The pretense under which U.S. Border Patrol is intercepting and boarding Canadian fishing vessels is complete bullshit, and its true objective may just be further communicating Trump's ongoing hostility toward Canada, or there's a possibility that the Trump Regime is beta-testing drills to stop an outflow of U.S. citizens seeking asylum, in anticipation of mass exists. That's ominous. It's also a reminder of the number of times I've had reason to suggest that Trump's southern border wall is really something he wants to keep us in, rather than or in addition to keeping people out.
Laurence Cook, chairman of the advisory board for Lobster Fishing Area 38, said Wednesday that some Canadian vessels were boarded by American agents who asked about possible [undocumented] immigrants."
...Machias Seal Island, which is about 19 kilometres southwest of Grand Manan Island and east of Maine, is in a disputed area known as the Grey Zone, where lobster fishermen from both Canada and the United States have long fished side by side. ...[Since the late 1700s, both Canada and the U.S. have claimed] sovereign jurisdiction over the island and the surrounding waters at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.
As lucrative lobster catches have increased in the zone, competition between fishermen has intensified in the past decade.
"Neither country accepts that there is a Grey Zone," said Stephen Kelly, a research scholar at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and a former American diplomat who served in Canada. "That's created more tension in the area over the last decade."
Kelly said both countries have done very little to assert their claims.
"Sometimes doing nothing is better," he said. "But in this case, just because it looks like it's not broken can be very deceiving — especially with our new president in the United States. The last thing Canada wants is for Donald Trump to seize on this as an example of U.S. sovereignty being challenged."
The suggestion that the border agents were looking for illegal immigrants seems improbable, he said.
"That's possible, but...the Gulf of Maine is not a major route for illegal immigrants sneaking into the United States," Kelly said. "If anything, people are sneaking the other way. They're trying to get out of the U.S. and into Canada to claim asylum."
Sonia Moghe and Nicole Chavez at CNN: DNA Testing Being Done on Separated Migrant Children and Parents, Official Says. "DNA testing is being conducted as part of the process to reunite children who were separated from their parents at the border, a federal official with knowledge of the reunifications told CNN. 'The safety and security is paramount and that it is not uncommon for children to be trafficked or smuggled by those claiming to be parents. To our knowledge this is a cheek swab and is being done to expedite parental verification and ensuring reunification with verified parents due to child welfare concerns,' the official said. The source could not discuss how long the practice has been taking place, if the testing requires consent and if the DNA is stored in a database."
This is some bullshit, especially because there is absolutely no evidence that "it is not uncommon for children to be trafficked or smuggled by those claiming to be parents." Just recently, MSNBC's Chris Hayes challenged GOP Rep. Roger Marshall on that very claim, and Marshall had no answer. Because it is a lie.
This thread by reporter Adam Klasfeld is a must-read in its entirety:
“I simply cannot believe that my government could have done this to these people,” legal coordinator for a Texas nonprofit, under oath, on Trump’s family separation policy.
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) July 3, 2018
One of 900+ pages of declarations by attorneys, immigrants and others recently made public.
Thread. pic.twitter.com/4ITEJekbnp
I strongly encourage you to read the entire thing to understand the scope of what's happening, which is much worse than the headlines suggest. It is honestly a grave shame on the U.S. media that the horrors of what's happening at the southern border aren't leading the news every moment of every day right now.
Don't be a Good American. Be a good person. Do whatever you can do to resist Trump's vile nativist agenda, and do it tenaciously. Do it like lives depend on it, because they do.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 4, 2018
Jamelle Bouie at Slate: White Fight.
Under the Trump administration, even naturalized citizens are now a target. The government agency that oversees immigration applications is hiring lawyers and immigration officers to review cases of immigrants suspected of obtaining citizenship through fake identities or other false information on their applications. Cases would be referred to the Department of Justice, where offenders could lose their citizenship or legal status.Bouie connects a lot of the threads on which I've been harping for the past several years here: That Trump is waging a war on all immigrants; that the war on immigrants is a dry run for assaults on the larger populace; that Republicans have been laying the groundwork for this presidency for a very long time, and Trump is not an outlier but the endgame. It's why removing Trump will not stop the rot; this is a party-wide toxicity, empowered by a base of thronging hatred.
"We finally have a process in place to get to the bottom of all these bad cases and start denaturalizing people who should not have been naturalized in the first place," L. Francis Cissna, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in an interview with the Associated Press last month. "What we're looking at, when you boil it all down, is potentially a few thousand cases."
The small scale of this effort belies its significance. As a country, the United States makes few distinctions between naturalized citizens and their native-born counterparts. The naturalization process, which includes long-term residents with deep ties to the U.S., is assumed to be permanent. This new task force on denaturalization throws that permanence into question, bringing suspicion on anyone who received their citizenship through means other than birth.
There's no guarantee this effort will stay confined to cases of cheating and fraud. The Trump administration has shown, in its drive to criminalize asylum-seekers, that the existing processes for seeking legal status can effectively be criminalized at any time. The president's willingness to demonize all immigrants as intruders on American soil offers little comfort.
...Even if you blocked all immigration to the United States and removed millions of naturalized citizens, existing trends make demographic change inevitable. At some point in the not-distant future, a majority of Americans will be of black, Hispanic, and Asian origin. But there's a difference between a nation's population and its electorate — its share of people who can exercise the full rights and privileges of citizenship. Republicans realize this, and are trying — at every level of government — to reverse-engineer a white electorate large enough to secure their own power, and along with it, the existing hierarchy of class and race.
Ali Winston and A.C. Thompson at Frontline with ProPublica: He Is a Member of a Violent White Supremacist Group; So Why Is He Working for a Defense Contractor with a Security Clearance? "[Michael Miselis, a UCLA doctoral student with a U.S. government security clearance to work on sensitive research for a prominent defense contractor] works as a systems engineer for Northrop Grumman, the giant defense contractor with a plant in Redondo Beach, California. ...Such security clearances are typically issued in a two-step process. The federal Office of Personnel Management conducts an investigation into the individual. The agency's findings are then forwarded to a special unit within the Department of Defense, which makes the final determination on whether the person should receive a clearance, a status that often allows the person access to classified or otherwise sensitive information concerning national security. Public affairs officers at the Defense Department declined to comment about Miselis and his security clearance."
Dr. Maha Hilal at Rewire.News: The Muslim Ban Reminds Us Exclusion Has Always Been a Fundamental Part of U.S. History. "If religious freedom is something to be fought for, it should be fought for while dismantling systems of white supremacy, xenophobia, and Islamophobia that exist to justify abuse of Muslims and others. Using the claim of religious freedom — a right often leveraged to oppress those who are not white Christians — only hides deeper systems of oppression. What should therefore be sought is not just religious freedom for adherents of all faiths, but an end to the systems that dehumanize Muslim and other communities." Indeed.
* * *
Chris Strohm at Bloomberg|Quint: Mueller Taps More Prosecutors to Help with Growing Trump Probe. "Special Counsel Robert Mueller is tapping additional Justice Department resources for help with new legal battles as his year-old investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 election continues to expand. ...Mueller and his team of 17 federal prosecutors are coping with a higher-than-expected volume of court challenges that has added complexity in recent months, but there's no political appetite at this time to increase the size of his staff, the officials said."
JFC pull your thumb out already and just finish one part of any piece of this investigation, Mueller. This is just absurd, because the investigation will be "expanding" forever as long as the relentlessly corrupt Trump is allowed to remain in power. I am more convinced with each passing day of zero accountability and no end in sight that Mueller's investigation is a charade designed to keep us believing that the law will eventually save us, pliably behaving while the Republicans consolidate their power behind Trump.
It's not a great sign, frankly, that the Senate Intelligence Committee "just released a bipartisan report concurring w/ intel community that 1) Russia interfered; 2) Putin approved it; & 3) The goal was to sow chaos & help Trump's election chances." Because if the Republicans are the Senate Intelligence Committee are finally ready to concede what we all knew a year and a half ago, that means they no longer fear any consequences for their party or their president.
Meanwhile...
Nicole Lafond at TPM: Trump Plans to Meet with Putin One-On-One, Without Aides. "During his first formal summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month, [Donald] Trump plans to meet with the world leader one-on-one, CNN reported. Aides will be allowed to enter the meeting, which is set for July 16 in Helsinki, Finland, after the two have had a chance to talk on their own. ...Without aides present, there will be no official record of the conversation between the two presidents."
Wonder if they'll talk about this:
No kidding. https://t.co/D6QVyIGvPR
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 4, 2018
Or this:
Russia mocks Britain over latest Salisbury poisoning incident https://t.co/sKglYmYKjK pic.twitter.com/77iSr9TZtH
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) July 5, 2018
Or, worse yet, this:
Of course Trump has no contingency plan in case of midterm losses and is confident Republicans will prevail. The GOP is working to rig the election w/ gerrymandering and voter suppression, and Trump's done nothing to prevent foreign meddling on his behalf. https://t.co/Ua0qhaWwoq
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 5, 2018
This is incredible, but true: The United States President who was installed after an election in which Russia meddled to help him win is now going to meet with Vladimir Putin one-on-one and off-the-record, right before a midterm election that said president is unaccountably confident about his party winning. And the U.S. political press is basically just treating that as business as usual. Cool.
Democracy was fun while it lasted, huh?
* * *
[CN: Class warfare. Covers entire section.]
Andrew Van Dam at the Washington Post: Is It Great to Be a Worker in the U.S.? Not Compared with the Rest of the Developed World. "In particular, the [new 296-page report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] shows the United States's unemployed and at-risk workers are getting very little support from the government, and their employed peers are set back by a particularly weak collective-bargaining system. Those factors have contributed to the United States having a higher level of income inequality and a larger share of low-income residents than almost any other advanced nation. Only Spain and Greece, whose economies have been ravaged by the euro-zone crisis, have more households earning less than half the nation's median income — an indicator that unusually large numbers of people either are poor or close to being poor."
[CN: Disability; ageism] Ari Neeman at People's Policy Project: We Must Take Disability and Aging Support Work Seriously. "From 2005 to 2015, personal care attendants — the most common type of in-home support worker — saw their wages drop in real terms. The bulk of the in-home support workforce is part-time, and over half must rely on public assistance to make ends meet. Unsurprisingly, turnover rates are estimated at between 45 to 65 percent, meaning that people with disabilities, seniors, and families face an ongoing battle to get access to support workers that can meet their basic needs, let alone support the kind of independence Charlie had. We are taking one of our society's most important tasks — the provision of assistance to people with disabilities and seniors — and rendering it employment of last resort. As the population ages and demand for support work increases, these problems will accelerate."
Tara Francis Chan at Business Insider: As Trump Targets Trade, a Chinese Factory Says It's Been Hired to Make Flags for Trump's 2020 Campaign. "The factory, which used to make red scarves for the communist Young Pioneers before China opened up its trade, now makes about 100,000 international flags a day. 'We also make flags for Trump for 2020,' Li Jiang told NPR's 'The Indicator' podcast. 'It seems like he has another campaign going on in 2020. Isn't that right?' ...The committee organizing Trump's 2020 campaign, Donald J. Trump for President Inc., last year stated a commitment to 'buy American' and said it had 'produced and manufactured all of our merchandise right here in America' down to the American-made stitching on its 'Make America Great Again' hats." Yeah, that all sounds about right.
* * *
[CN: Sexual assault; rape culture]
There have been more allegations of sexual abuse made against Kevin Spacey, and it's getting comparatively little coverage given the extraordinary number of accusers.
"Overall, the Oscar-winning actor, 58, has faced sexual assault accusations from more than 30 men." https://t.co/1SZsT2x5Vv
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 4, 2018
And Rep. Jim Jordan continues to be an absolute piece of shit. Abby Baird at ThinkProgress: Republican Congressman Calls Police on Former Students Who Say He Ignored Sex Abuse. "Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) claims he is being 'bullied' by former Ohio State wrestlers who accuse the congressman of [ignoring] the sexual abuse of hundreds of student athletes while he worked as the assistant wrestling coach from 1986 to 1994. According to a CNN report Wednesday, Jordan will contact the Capitol police after receiving emails from one of the wrestlers who has accused Jordan of doing nothing about the sexual abuse by the team doctor, Dr. Richard Strauss. A source in Jordan's office told CNN that the emails were threatening because of how many had been sent but provided no other details about why the congressman believes he is being 'bullied.'" This fucking guy.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
What I'm Watching
This is a thread to share all the good things you're watching at the moment, or have recently watched. Serialized shows on broadcast or streaming; films; digital shorts; stand-up; documentaries; performances — whatever! Tell us what you're watching and enjoying these days.
I'm watching — using the present tense here, because although I've already watched it, I am definitely going to watch it again, and again — Hannah Gadsby's stand-up special Nanette, available on Netflix.
On the one hand, I want to tell you literally everything about this special, because OMFG it is everything. On the other hand, I saw it knowing absolutely nothing about it. I hadn't heard of it or Gadsby when I saw it; Netflix just recommended it to me (good job, Netflix!) the day it came out, and I happened to be looking for something to watch.
Seeing it without knowing anything about it made it even more mind-blowing for me, so I will resist gushing endlessly, even as I realize that telling you I want to gush endlessly gives you an expectation that I didn't have.
I will tell you only this one line from this beautiful, powerful piece of art by the extraordinary Gadsby: "There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself."
Ain't that the motherfucking truth.
A friend of mine told me she thought, while watching Nanette, that it sounds like Gadsby has read Shakesville. I don't know that Gadsby would take that as a compliment, but I hope she would. I certainly do.
How about you?
Trump Wanted War in Venezuela (and Maybe Still Does)
Last August, I asserted that the Trump Regime appeared to be interested in starting a war with Venezuela, with Mike Pence leading the public charge. That contention was met with some skepticism, ahem, but it turns out I was right — Donald Trump was war-shopping in Venezuela.
Joshua Goodman at the AP reports:
As a meeting last August in the Oval Office to discuss sanctions on Venezuela was concluding, [Donald] Trump turned to his top aides and asked an unsettling question: With a fast unraveling Venezuela threatening regional security, why can't the U.S. just simply invade the troubled country?And there's no reason to believe that the idea isn't lingering there still. In May, I noted an NBC News report about the U.S. canceling Venezulans' tourist visas at an unsual rate, "for no apparent reason," suggesting it was related to Trump's and Pence's continued hostility toward Venezuela — which, as I suggested in May, will probably remain a target for this regime as long as they continue to pursue foreign policy objectives that have a high risk of causing a conflagration that cuts off the U.S. from major oil resources in the Middle East.
The suggestion stunned those present at the meeting, including U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom have since left the administration. This account of the previously undisclosed conversation comes from a senior administration official familiar with what was said.
In an exchange that lasted around five minutes, McMaster and others took turns explaining to Trump how military action could backfire and risk losing hard-won support among Latin American governments to punish President Nicolas Maduro for taking Venezuela down the path of dictatorship, according to the official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.
But Trump pushed back. Although he gave no indication he was about to order up military plans, he pointed to what he considered past cases of successful gunboat diplomacy in the region, according to the official, like the invasions of Panama and Grenada in the 1980s.
The idea, despite his aides' best attempts to shoot it down, would nonetheless persist in the president's head.
Trump pretty clearly sees Venezuela as a resource he wants to exploit and control. That's a situation we need to understand and watch very closely.
Therese Patricia Okoumou Scales the Statue of Liberty on the 4th of July in Protest of Trump's Nativist Policies
Yesterday, a 44-year-old woman named Therese Patricia Okoumou scaled the base of the Statue of Liberty in protest of the Trump Regime's war on immigrants. Okoumou is herself an immigrant to the United States who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The images of her protest are absolutely striking.
“Differences of race, nationality or religion should not be used to deny any human being citizenship rights or privileges." - Rosa Parks
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 5, 2018
"When one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." - Rosa Parks #TheresePatriciaOkoumou pic.twitter.com/BMYjkdAH6O
Resistance is patriotic #TheresePatriciaOkoumou #OnwardTogether #HappyFourth #AbolishICE pic.twitter.com/sedIepEG8q
— Hillary In Pictures (@HillaryPix) July 5, 2018
Also, if you've never been to the Statue of Liberty, or ever paid much attention to how it's structured, take a look at this image, care of the National Parks Service, to see what it actually means to scale the Statue all the way to her base and settle into the folds of her dress:
As Bree Newsome, who in 2015 scaled the 30-foot flagpole at the South Carolina state capitol to remove the Confederate flag, noted on Twitter, this was a pretty great way to mark the Fourth:
Protesting at the Statue of Liberty demanding an end to state violence & the inhumane detention of children seems a fitting way to spend a holiday that's purportedly about celebrating the end of tyranny. Happy July 4th to #TheresePatriciaOkoumou
— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) July 5, 2018
✊🏾❤️
Indeed. Which nonetheless did not prevent some of the tourists, who had to be evacuated from the island while police arrested Okoumou, from complaining about how she ruined their trip.
Some Liberty Island tourists ferried back to the Battery after the evacuation were upset about having their visits interrupted.
"We had just gotten on the island, we walked probably five minutes and all of a sudden, they're shuffling us out. We didn't even spend 10 minutes," said one woman from Columbus, Ohio.
Another man visiting from Miami with his family said the protester "ruined our visit."
"It's not every day you get to go to the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July," he told News 4. "At first we thought it was a terrorist attack, and then we found out it was a protester... I think there is a right way of protesting, a legal way of protesting, and she just ruined our trip."
What does the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July even mean to you if you're angry about a protestor who makes a scene to resist the Trump Regime's war on immigrants? https://t.co/21vq6yV9Dg pic.twitter.com/Qh6tiYLDHk
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 5, 2018
Okoumou, an immigrant who scaled the Liberty, a statue dedicated to welcoming immigrants to this country, on the Fourth, a holiday on which people ostensibly show their patriotism to the nation's democratic ideals, understands the meaning of "the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July" far better than these American tourists.
And she is a greater patriot than any Republican currently holding federal office, too.
She will be arraigned in federal court this morning, and, after that hearing, it will become clearer what we will be able to do to best support her.
Open Thread + Programming Note
As today is a national holiday in the U.S., a number of mods will be traveling or otherwise engaged, so we're taking the day off and will see you back here tomorrow.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker lattendicht: "Have you ever ridden a horse?"
I certainly have! There is something incredibly powerful and calming, at least for me, about spending time with horses. Every chance I've ever had to hang out with, care for, ride, walk beside, or nuzzle the velvety muzzle of a horse, I've taken it, for literally as long as I can remember.
That's my wee diaper-sagged ass feeding carrots to Todie, our neighbor's horse. I was about thirteen months old in that photo, which was taken the summer of 1975.
My mom and I used to walk down to the pasture, which was maybe 100 yards from our house, and it always seemed like the longest walk in the world, because I couldn't wait to see Todie, and his small companion pony Princess. I loved them beyond words.
One of the privileges of growing up in an exurban area is access to animals, which not every kid in the city and suburbs has so easily (or at all). I love that there are now therapy programs that connect people with horses, mini-horses, and ponies — particularly when they also do visits at libraries, not only providing much-needed therapeutic visits to people who (more evidently) need it, but also exposing more kids to animals with whom they might not get to interact otherwise.
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.
* * *
Here's a picture I took a month ago of a glorious sunset glowing through dissipating storm clouds. I know, I know — another sunset. I am nothing if not predictable!
[Related Reading: Head in the Clouds.]
LOLOLOLOLOL Shut the F#@k Up, Man
[Content Note: Disablism; misogynoir.]
Crazy Maxine Waters, said by some to be one of the most corrupt people in politics, is rapidly becoming, together with Nancy Pelosi, the FACE of the Democrat Party. Her ranting and raving, even referring to herself as a wounded animal, will make people flee the Democrats!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018
(Get this guy accusing someone else of "ranting and raving." LOL!)
I didn't see this earlier, but Donald Trump started the day by attacking Rep. Maxine Waters again, and suggesting that it's a problem if she is part of the FACE of the Democratic Party.
Dude.
It's not a problem for the people who are, have been, and will remain the beating heart and soul of the Democratic Party: Black women.
And it sure ain't a problem for me.
Fat Fashion
This is your semi-regular thread in which fat women can share pix, make recommendations for clothes they love, ask questions of other fat women about where to locate certain plus-size items, share info about sales, talk about what jeans cut at what retailer best fits their body shapes, discuss how to accessorize neutral colored suits, share stories of going bare-armed for the first time, brag about a cool fashion moment, whatever.
* * *
It is so freaking hot here that I was really glad to have a light blouse to wear when I had to venture outdoors yesterday evening.
I don't remember where I got the blouse; I think it might have been Jessica London. The red jeans I got from Loft, and I will say once again that I am loving their new plus line.
Back in my body-loathing days when I draped myself in layers of black fabric, I literally never had a single piece of appropriate clothing for summer, no less for a stretch like the heatwave we're having now.
I never would have owned, no less worn, a blouse like the one pictured above. Too sheer; too fitted (and it's not fitted at all!); far too colorful; too likely to draw attention. The thought of wearing red pants would have ended me!
So thank Maude for having moved into a better relationship with my body, because I was exceedingly glad to have a breezy blouse and lightweight pants when my phone was reading "96° | Feels like 106°" ughhhhhh.
Anyway! As always, all subjects related to fat fashion are on topic, but if you want a topic for discussion: What's your go-to outfit when it's hot as balls out there?
Have at it in comments! Please remember to make fat women of all sizes, especially women who find themselves regularly sizing out of standard plus-size lines, welcome in this conversation, and pass no judgment on fat women who want to and/or feel obliged, for any reason, to conform to beauty standards. And please make sure if you're soliciting advice, you make it clear you're seeking suggestions—and please be considerate not to offer unsolicited advice. Sometimes people just need to complain and want solidarity, not solutions.
[Note: I am not receiving anything in return for my recommendations here, nor am I affiliated in any way with any of the companies mentioned herein. Any endorsements made are on products I purchased myself, just because I like them!]
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 530
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: Photo of the Day and Surviving the Trump Regime Is Warping My Sense of Time and Devastating: Merkel Backs Down and Agrees to Refugee Camps at Border.
Here are some more things in the news today...
Josh Israel at ThinkProgress: Trump Shrugs off News of Secret Nuclear Facility; Pretends He Prevented War with North Korea. "Despite Donald Trump's claims that Kim Jong Un would denuclearize, his own Defense Intelligence Agency reportedly believes that North Korea has no intention of ending its nuclear program. Still, days after U.S. intelligence officials said North Korea has actually increased its production at secret nuclear facilities, Trump tried to take credit on Tuesday for single-handedly preventing war with the country. 'If not for me,' he tweeted, 'we would now be at War [sic] with North Korea!'"
Donald Kirk at the Daily Beast: Pompeo Heads Back to North Korea; What More Will Trump Give Away? "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives in Pyongyang on Thursday pretty sure the North Koreans will have some American soldiers' remains to offer, if nothing else, at a time when the administration needs something, anything, to show Kim Jong Un would keep at least one of the commitments from his schmoozefest with [Donald] Trump in Singapore on June 12. But nukes? Complete, verifiable, irreversible 'denuclearization' — CVID, as the Americans say? We are a long, long way from that. And reports by NBC News and The Washington Post over the last few days suggest we are getting farther away all the time."
Lee Jeong-ho at the South China Morning Post: North Korea Is Looking to China to Boost Its Economy, But What About Denuclearisation? "'Beijing has promised solid economic support to Pyongyang throughout a series of bilateral summits held in China,' a senior South Korean diplomatic source said, adding that it was an attempt by the North to bring about economic change before it had fully denuclearised. Washington has long demanded a 'complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement' of Pyongyang's nuclear programme, in return for economic compensation. 'North Korea can now start developing its economy without giving up its nuclear weapons [by strengthening economic ties with China],' the source said."
Awesome. (Not awesome.)
* * *
[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse. Covers entire section.]
Kate Irby at McClatchy: Congressman Denied Entry to California Detention Facility for Children Under Age 14.
The cry of a child could be heard just inside the nondescript, brown detention facility in Pleasant Hill, California, a San Francisco suburb, and Rep. Jeff Denham wanted to see for himself what was inside.Note that Denham is a Republican. He was, presumably, hoping to show up to prove that critics of the administration are exaggerating. Instead, what he found was precisely what critics have been detailing.
He knocked on the door and waited about five minutes, alternatively silent, knocking some more and asking the security guard if employees inside were aware he was out there. The guard eventually told him the employees inside had been instructed to not answer the door, not to even speak to him.
He'd been trying for more than a week to tour the facility.
...The facility, Denham said, was detaining immigrant children ages 13 and younger. He said he was told that there were 25 children inside, and two girls had been separated from their parents. He had been told as recently as Friday that he was cleared to go in, he said, but the facility changed their tune over the weekend.
...He said he worked with multiple parts of [Donald] Trump's administration, including the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, to gain access to the facility.
...Denham said Southwest Key requested two weeks notice before Denham was allowed to tour the building, but would not explain why it needed that kind of time to prepare. Denham didn't want to wait because Congress would be back in session and trying to legislate on the issue by the time two weeks passed.
"They knew that we were coming," Denham said. "We knew cameras most likely wouldn't be allowed in, but if they wanted to show the conditions, and what a lovely facility they run, then why wouldn't they want people to come in and report on it?"
And surely he knows the answer to his own question. The reason they don't "want people to come in and report on" the facility is because there is heinous abuse going on behind the tightly guarded doors.
Meanwhile, as you may recall, a number of refugees stopped at the border have been transferred en masse to prisons overwhelmed by the sudden influx. As a result, one of the prisons to which 1,000 refugees were sent is now contending with rapidly spreading infectious disease, and the detainees are suffering mightily:
This is unconscionable! "Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said he was appalled when some of the detainees told him they had been unable to wash their clothes, underwear, and bed linens since they arrived more than three weeks ago." https://t.co/6aGJlTQqhB
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 3, 2018
And of course, as I've been urgently warning, all of this is preface to the Trump Regime's ultimate goal of a full-scale attack on documented immigrants, too. Especially Muslims and/or people of color.
Abigail Hauslohner and Andrew Ba Tran at the Washington Post: How Trump Is Changing the Face of Legal Immigration.
As the national immigration debate swirls around the effort to discourage illegal immigration by separating families at the border, the Trump administration is making inroads into another longtime priority: Reducing legal immigration.All of this in service to Trump's desire to turn the United States into a white ethnostate.
The number of people receiving visas to move permanently to the United States is on pace to drop 12 percent in [Donald] Trump's first two years in office, according to a Washington Post analysis of State Department data.
Among the most affected are the Muslim-majority countries on the president's travel ban list — Yemen, Syria, Iran, Libya, and Somalia — where the number of new arrivals to the United States is heading toward an 81 percent drop by Sept. 30, the end of the second fiscal year under Trump.
Last week, the Supreme Court upheld that ban, paving the way for an even more dramatic decline in arrivals from those countries.
Legal immigration from all Muslim-majority countries is on track to fall by nearly a third.
...Some public officials and immigration experts have raised concerns that the administration's approach targets certain nationalities, discriminating against those from poorer and nonwhite countries.
The Post's analysis also found immigration declines among nationalities not targeted by Trump's travel ban, including nearly all of the countries that typically receive the largest number of immigrant visas from the United States. The number of immigrant visas granted to people from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, Haiti, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Pakistan, and Afghanistan has also declined. Among the 10 countries that send the highest number of immigrants to the United States annually, only El Salvador is projected to receive more visas under Trump: An increase of 17 percent in his first two fiscal years.
The number of immigrant visas approved for Africans is on pace to fall 15 percent.
Meanwhile, the flow of legal immigrants from Europe has increased slightly, though the total number of visas is still much smaller than that from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Which is right in alignment with what's happening across Europe, even as more refugees risk (and lose) their lives trying to find safety.
Patrick Wintour at the Guardian: Mediterranean: More Than 200 Migrants Drown in Three Days. "More than 200 migrants have drowned at sea in the Mediterranean in the past three days, taking the death toll for the year to more than 1,000 and prompting fears that human traffickers are taking greater risks because of a crackdown imposed by the Italian government and the Libyan coastguard. ...The 1,000 deaths landmark was reached on 1 July. It is the fourth year in succession that more than 1,000 migrants have died trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea."
* * *
[CN: Sexual assault; rape culture; toxic masculinity; gun violence; death. Covers entire section.]
Corky Siemaszko at NBC News: Powerful GOP Rep. Jim Jordan Accused of Turning Blind Eye to Sexual Abuse as Ohio State Wrestling Coach.
Rep. Jim Jordan, the powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, is being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students.Emphasis mine.
The university announced in April that it was investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s.
Jordan, who was assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994, has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the abuse until former students began speaking out this spring. His denials, however, have been met with skepticism and anger from some former members of the wrestling team.
Three former wrestlers told NBC News that it was common knowledge that Strauss showered regularly with the students and inappropriately touched them during appointments, and said it would have been impossible for Jordan to be unaware; one wrestler said he told Jordan directly about the abuse.
So, from one horrible aspect of rape culture — people who are supposed to protect you instead protecting abusers — to another: People who are supposed to protect you instead abusing you:
[TW] "Large, a former sex-crimes investigator, is accused of using his 'position of power to form inappropriate relationships with female victims of violent crime' and then sexually assaulting them." https://t.co/R7paAJGsdN
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 3, 2018
And in another corner of toxic masculinity: Domestic violence as a precursor to acts of mass public violence:
"If you dig deep enough, this is the root of a number of mass shootings. Whether it’s domestic violence or a failed marriage or a guy who got turned down in high school, a twisted, misogynistic streak helps fuel the violence." https://t.co/rh4pYBGa4a
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 3, 2018
And at the horrendous intersection of not supporting victims and domestic violence as a precursor to mass violence... Eric Fleischauer and Mary Sell at the Decatur Daily: Triple Homicide Leaves Ex-Wife Dead After Protection Request Denied. "Before she and two others were shot dead near Ardmore on Sunday, Debra Ann Rivera twice had asked a judge to order her ex-husband to surrender his guns because of alleged abuse. The request was denied both times. According to the Limestone County Sheriff's Office, Darwin Brazier, 43, used a semi-automatic SKS rifle with a high-capacity magazine to shoot his ex-wife and two other victims multiple times and then shot himself to death near his home in Madison County." Goddammit.
* * *
In other Trump administration fuckery, there's a lot of news, again, about what a giant corrupt asshole Scott Pruitt is, and I just don't even have the energy to parse through it all to cover it. The truth is, I just don't want to hear a single thing about Pruitt unless and until he's handing in his resignation or being marched out the door by security. But please feel welcome to discuss what a colossal shitbird he is!
[CN: White supremacy]
"The Trump administration will encourage school superintendents & college presidents to adopt race-blind admissions standards, abandoning an Obama administration policy that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying campuses." https://t.co/Ib5gjX64Uv
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 3, 2018
Between this and yesterday's item about the federal judge ruling that students have no right to literacy, this is a full-scale assault on education accessibility, except for the very privileged.
And finally, Paul Campos at NYMag: Broidy Ending Playmate's Hush Payments Doesn't Add Up — Unless He's Covering for Trump. "Now, after making two of the eight payments — the third was due yesterday — Broidy is backing out of the deal. His reasons for doing so make very little legal or practical sense, at least if you assume Broidy actually did have an affair with Bechard. ...By claiming that their agreement is void, Broidy is putting Bechard in a position to tell her story — whatever it may actually be — in whatever forum she likes. I suspect this last point contains a key to understanding why Broidy is trying to back out of the agreement now. Perhaps like so many other people, Broidy has concluded that Donald Trump is a bad business partner." Just as I suggested.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Devastating: Merkel Backs Down and Agrees to Refugee Camps at Border
[Content Note: Nativism; genocide.]
In a bid to preserve her precarious governing coalition, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reversed course and agreed to refugee camps on Germany's border with Austria.
Katrin Bennhold and Melissa Eddy at the New York Times report:
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who staked her legacy on welcoming hundreds of thousands of migrants into Germany, agreed on Monday to build border camps for asylum seekers and to tighten the border with Austria in a political deal to save her government.As I have noted many times previously, what we're experiencing in the United States is part of a global trend. Which will make it even more difficult to get out from under, as nativist forces shore up extremism around the world.
It was a spectacular turnabout for a leader who has been seen as the standard-bearer of the liberal European order but who has come under intense pressure at home from the far right and from conservatives in her governing coalition over her migration policy.
...The nationalism and anti-migrant sentiment that has challenged multilateralism elsewhere in Europe is taking root — fast — in mainstream German politics.
The new policy, which is still "subject to the approval of the Social Democrats, the third party in Ms. Merkel's coalition," would "establish camps, called 'transit centers,' at points along the border."
"Transit centers" is a particularly ugly euphemism — and a familiar one: "Jews in Nazi-occupied lands often were first deported to transit camps such as Westerbork in the Netherlands, or Drancy in France, en route to the killing centers in occupied Poland. The transit camps were usually the last stop before deportation to a killing center."
And let us be clear: The "migrant crisis" in Germany underwriting this vile policy is ginned-up nonsense just like it is in the United States. Just like in the United States, migration to Germany is down and overall crime is down, despite right-wing lies to the contrary.
Merkel is capitulating to mendacious fearmongering — and of course the argument is that capitulation to this evil is necessary to avoid an even worse one.
But capitulating to right-wing extremism doesn't stall it. We have seen that again and again and again. Capitulation empowers these nationalistic, nativist, white supremacist extremists.
If defenders of democracy believe that the only way to contain them is to give them more power, we are well and truly doomed.
Surviving the Trump Regime Is Warping My Sense of Time
There is so much news, so much bad news, about the Trump Regime every day. Keeping on top of all of it is genuinely impossible. Keeping up with as much of it as any one human being can makes every day feel like a week, and every week feel like a month, and every month feel like a fucking eternity of the depths of hell.
Because I try to keep all the dots connected for readers, with links back to earlier items which are part of the same narrative, I'm always hunting for things I wrote previously. In the Trump era, I constantly go looking for some story I covered a month or so ago, only to discover once I find it that it was actually just a week earlier.
There are times I think: "I wrote about that last week" — and it turns out it was two days previous.
I've lost all sense of time, because my brain is utterly overwhelmed.
There's no tidy conclusion to this, or any larger point. I have just had this conversation with other people a number of times lately, so I wanted to document it here, in case it feels validating for you.
If it feels familiar, you're not alone.
And making sure people in this space don't feel alone right now is important to me.
Photo of the Day
Shaker aforalpha sent me this arresting photo taken by photographer Kelly Bell during the protests against the Trump Regime's nativist agenda on June 30, 2018.
I have been deeply moved by the women who have protested the abuse of immigrant babies with their own babies strapped to their bodies, e.g. Chrissy Teigen and Senator Tammy Duckworth.
And this photo, of a toddler with a sippy cup in one hand and in the other a sign they cannot yet understand, but carries because they are being raised by people who want them to care about the fate of their peers without their privilege, has shattered my heart into a million pieces.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Kathy_A: What is your "favorite animal anecdote from your childhood? Could be pet, livestock, insect, zoo story — whatever!"
It's one I've recounted here before: "The best thing I've ever seen in my life has got to be the buffalo who was holding up traffic by taking a nap in the middle of the road at Yellowstone, until some impatient asshole in an RV decided to nudge him with his front bumper. The buffalo got up, turned toward him, and ran head-on into the dude's grill, completely destroying it. Then he snorted and sauntered away. It was awesome."
Monday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by chirping birdies.
Recommended Reading:
Charline Jao at the Mary Sue: [Content Note: Nativism; child abuse] "I Live in the Constant Fear of Losing My Mom": 12-Year-Old Girl Delivers Passionate Speech at Families Belong Together Rally
Kia Morgan-Smith at the Grio: Congressman John Lewis Inspires Immigration Crowd: "It's Time for Some of Us to Get in Good Trouble"
Laura Beck at Cosmo: Chrissy Teigen Takes Baby Miles on Stage; Delivers Powerful Speech at Families Belong Together
Matt Novak at Gizmodo: Judge Awards $5 to 'Free Speech' Rally Organizer Because a Woman Cursed at Him
Emma Encinas at Ms.: The American Medical Association Just Elected Its First African American Woman President
Andrew Husband at Uproxx: [CN: Sexual assault] Andy Samberg and the Rest of the Cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine Throw Their Support Behind Terry Crews
Halle Kiefer at Vulture: [CN: Misogyny] Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn Looks Back on All the "Bizarre" Fan Hate She Received as Skyler White
Mallika Rao at the Huffington Post: How the Instant Pot Became a New Immigrant Classic
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
