It's Not Just You
For reasons out of my control, comments are taking an inordinately long time to appear on the page. Disqus is recording them, however; they're just not posting — which is why you're seeing a higher number of comments indicated on the main page than are appearing on individual post pages.
I will alert Disqus to the problem, and hopefully they will fix the glitch ASAP.
UPDATE: It's fixed! Thanks very much, Team Disqus!
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Diverkat: "What's a risk that you took that paid off?"
Meeting that Scottish guy.
Monday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by the distant sound of a train.
Recommended Reading:
The Marshall Project in collaboration with New York Magazine: [Content Note: Nativism] How Donald Trump's War on Immigrants Is Playing out in His Hometown
Nigel Roberts at NewsOne: [CN: Racism in policing] Black Lives Still Don't Matter to Cops: Arrests Not Likely for African-American Homicide Victims, Study Finds
Anne Quito at Quartz: Women Scientists Star in a Series of Beautiful Posters for Kids
Maiysha Kai at the Glow Up: 'She Broke Me': Cardi B Gets Real About Being a New Mom
Beth Elderkin at io9: Mark Hamill Shares His Feelings on the First Star Wars Movie Without Carrie Fisher
Chelsea Steiner at the Mary Sue: Octavia Spencer Is Playing Real Life She-ro Madam C. J. Walker in Upcoming Netflix Limited Series
Rochelle Johnson at Beauticurve: Four Reasons to Wear Whatever You Want!
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Sure
This afternoon, Donald Trump said he would "certainly meet" with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with "no preconditions."
Trump says during a joint news conference with Italy's leader that he believes in meetings and is pointing to the benefits of recent meetings with North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin.The benefits to whom?
We all know the answer to that, of course. It isn't the United States.
The Makeup Thread
Here is your semi-regular makeup thread, to discuss all things makeup and makeup adjacent.
Do you have a makeup product you'd recommend? Are you looking for the perfect foundation which has remained frustratingly elusive? Need or want to offer makeup tips? Searching for hypoallergenic products? Want to grouse about how you hate makeup? Want to gush about how you love it?
Whatever you like — have at it!
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Shaker Catvoncat was kind enough to send me a wonderful gift last week: Becca lip gloss by Chrissy Teigen in Beach Nectar! (I am sharing news of this generous gift with Catvoncat's persmission.) Thank you, Catvoncat! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!
After the package arrived, I took a quick pic to send to Cat:
It's such a perfect color for me that it doesn't even look wildly out of place when I'm not even wearing any other makeup. (As I wasn't in the above photo.) That's the kind of lip color that always works best for me — something that just brightens up my lips a little bit.
It's not that I don't love a bright red lip or even a blue or purple or black lip — I do! But a bold lip definitely doesn't suit me as well.
So thanks again, Cat! I will be wearing this gloss for a long time to come!
Anyway! What's up with you?
(As always, I'm not affiliated in any way with any of the companies whose products I mention, nor am I getting anything in exchange for my recommendations. I just like the products!)
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Please note, as always, that advice should be not be offered to an individual person unless they solicit it. Further: This thread is open to everyone — women, men, genderqueer folks. People who are makeup experts, and people who are makeup newbies. Also, because there is a lot of racist language used in discussions of makeup, and in makeup names, please be aware to avoid turns of phrase that are alienating to women of color, like "nude" or "flesh tone" when referring to a peachy or beige color. I realize some recommended products may have names that use these words, so please be considerate about content noting for white supremacist (and/or Orientalist) product naming.
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 557
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: Manafort Trial Starts Tomorrow and "Quiet Skies" and Rough Waters Ahead and Sessions Announces "Religious Liberty Task Force".
Here are some more things in the news today...
Let's start with a couple of pieces of GOOD NEWS from my adopted state of Pennsylvania — both of which can be replicated in other states/cities around the country and hopefully will be!
1. [Content Note: Guns; video may autoplay at link] AP/Morning Call: Company Agrees to Block 3D Downloadable Guns in Pennsylvania. "State officials say they've successfully stopped a company that makes 3D downloadable guns from making them internet-accessible in Pennsylvania and from uploading new files. Attorney Gen. Josh Shapiro says Texas-based Defense Distributed agreed to block Pennsylvania users after an emergency hearing Sunday in federal court in Philadelphia. Shapiro says he, Gov. Tom Wolf, and the Pennsylvania State Police sued the company before its formal rollout of a downloadable gun program Wednesday. He says the company said in court it actually began distributing gun files Friday and by Sunday, 1,000 people had downloaded 3D plans for AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifles. Wolf says untraceable guns in the hands of unknown users 'is too daunting to stand by and not take action.'"
This action will not, of course, prevent 3D-printed resin guns being made and/or owned in Pennsylvania, but it's the best that the state could do under the circumstances, and I'm glad they did it. The more states that do it, the more effective such injunctions will be.
2. [CN: Nativism] E.A. Crunden at ThinkProgress: Philadelphia Won't Share Information with ICE in Big Win for Activists. "Philadelphia will stop sharing information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), citing both its misuse and the detention of undocumented immigrants who are not accused of committing any crime. The city has been under pressure from Occupy ICE activists to end information-sharing with the agency. In an announcement made Friday, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) said that the city would not renew the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System, or PARS. That shared law enforcement program allows ICE to access police information about people who have been arrested. 'We're not going to provide them with information so they can go out and round people up,' said Kenney."
Hooray! I wish the city had made this decision far sooner, but better now than never.
* * *
NEW: NYT uncovers Kavanaugh played key role as Staff Secretary in Bush's controversial "signing statements" where he claimed power to ignore hundreds of laws.
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) July 29, 2018
This is perfect example why Senate must see records from Kavanaugh's full time working for Bushhttps://t.co/ZR8wlstYww
Sheryl Gay Stolberg at the New York Times: GOP Faces Another Midterm Threat as Trump Plays the Shutdown Card.
Congressional Republicans, already facing a difficult election landscape, confronted a prospect on Sunday they had worked feverishly to avoid: a threat by [Donald] Trump to shut down the government over funding for a border wall.That's a lot of paragraphs hand-wringing about how Trump's belligerent bullshit will harm his own vile party without mentioning even obliquely how harmful a government shutdown is for the American people.
"I would be willing to 'shut down' government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!" Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. "Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!"
Last week, Republican leaders thought they had reached a deal with Mr. Trump to delay a confrontation on funding for the wall until after the November midterm elections, according to a person familiar with their discussion.
But Mr. Trump's shutdown threat, in which he also demanded several pieces of a comprehensive immigration overhaul that is stalled in Congress, has opened the door to a politically bruising spending fight as the fiscal year ends in September.
With the election coming just weeks later, the party can ill afford a disruption that voters — already disgusted by Washington dysfunction — may hold the president accountable for.
A shutdown would also distract from Senate Republicans' main business in September: their push to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Andy Towle at Towleroad: Trump Blabs About Meeting at Which NYT Publisher Warned Him 'Fake News' and 'Enemy of the People' Rhetoric Is 'Dangerous'. "Donald Trump tweeted Sunday about a meeting with New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger that was intended to be off-the-record. Tweeted Trump: 'Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times. Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, 'Enemy of the People.' Sad!' Sulzberger took the liberty of responding to Trump's tweet, since he had made the meeting public."
And naturally Trump's base thinks that Trump came out the victor in all of this, because nothing matters except Trump's ability to shit-talk institutions that (ostensibly) protect and defend the U.S. democracy.
Speaking of Trump's base...
Funny how the economic anxiety argument has gone right? Proud to lose their savings and jobs under Trump. If they are proud to lose their $ under Trump, why would "free college" or "single payer" from Dems change their minds? Glad people see economic anxiety arg was a farce https://t.co/06yUtzXP9r
— Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) July 30, 2018
Natasha Bertrand at the Atlantic: How Russia Persecutes Its Dissidents Using U.S. Courts. "Much attention has been paid to Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the fear of a repeat in the upcoming midterms. Less examined, however, has been Russia's abuse of Interpol and the American court system to persecute the Kremlin's rivals in the United States — a problem that the Atlantic Council described in a recent report as another form of 'interference' by Russia. Russia's requests to Interpol to issue Red Notices — the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant in use today — against Kremlin opponents are being met with increasing deference by the Department of Homeland Security, according to immigration attorneys and experts in transnational crime and corruption with whom I spoke."
Rudy Giuliani asserting that Mueller doesn't "have a goddamn thing" on Trump might be more convincing were it not for the fact that THE COLLUSION IS RIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN. https://t.co/2mVg9NPdhd
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 30, 2018
[CN: White supremacy] Kelly Weill at the Daily Beast: GOP Candidate Corey Stewart's Spokesperson Called Majority-Black Cities 'Shitholes'. "Corey Stewart, the Republican candidate for Senate in Virginia, has been shunned by his own party over his ties with neo-Confederate groups and his refusal to condemn white supremacist violence. That hasn't stopped several activists who express similarly extreme views from working for Stewart. One of Stewart's spokespersons, Rick Shaftan, tweeted that three majority-black U.S. cities were 'shitholes' and repeatedly warned against opening businesses in black neighborhoods. Shaftan, along with Stewart's other spokesperson, previously worked on behalf of an anti-Semite running for House Speaker Paul Ryan's seat in Wisconsin."
[CN: White supremacy; anti-semitism; images of Nazi graffiti at link; video may autoplay at link] Justin L. Mack at the Indianapolis Star: Anti-Semitic Graffiti Found at Carmel, Indiana, Synagogue. "Police are investigating after anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered over the weekend at a Hamilton County synagogue. ...The vandalism occurred late Friday or early Saturday and was discovered Saturday morning. The crime scene remained intact and surrounded in yellow police tape Sunday morning. The graffiti, which comprised a pair of Nazi flags and iron crosses, was spray painted on two walls of a brick shed that surrounds the property's garbage bin. On the grass in front of one of the Nazi flags, there are apparent burn marks in two places, and a portion of the graffiti bears a black burn mark, too."
This would be profoundly troubling to read about any day, but it's even more upsetting to read about it on the same day that the Trump Regime has introduced a Christian Supremacist task force that will inevitably make terrorism against minority religions even more common.
[CN: Nativism] This is also bitterly ironic, for the same reason... catherine lizette gonzalez at Colorlines: Detained Asylum-Seekers Say Government Violated Their Religious Freedom. "A lawsuit filed [July 27] on behalf of 74 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees alleges that prison authorities at the Sheridan Correctional Institution [in Oregon] have violated the Constitutional and religious freedom rights of detained immigrants — many of whom are Sikh and Hindu — by ignoring religious dietary restrictions, failing to provide language interpreters, and seizing sacred items and clothing. Several Sikh men also say that officials confiscated their turbans upon arrival. According to the lawsuit, detained asylum-seekers have been held in custody for eight weeks without religious accommodations or access to language interpreters or anyone in the outside world, including legal advocates, family members, and religious leaders."
[CN: Nativism; abuse] Tina Vasquez at Rewire.News: The Misery of Family Detention: One Woman's Story.
Angelina told Rewire.News, through an interpreter, that she wants people to understand how desperate it feels to be detained without access to an attorney and with no knowledge or understanding of where your case stands or how long you will be detained. Indeed, many sign their own deportation orders because of the "crushing depression" of being detained for so long. She also wants people to expand the ways they talk about family detention and family separation, centering those most affected.[CN: Nativism; sex abuse of children; descriptions of assault at link] Michael Grabell and Topher Sanders at ProPublica: Immigrant Youth Shelters: 'If You're a Predator, It's a Gold Mine'. "Using state public records laws, ProPublica has obtained police reports and call logs concerning more than 70 of the approximately 100 immigrant youth shelters run by the U.S. Health and Human Services department's Office of Refugee Resettlement. While not a comprehensive assessment of the conditions at these shelters, the records challenge the Trump administration's assertion that the shelters are safe havens for children. The reports document hundreds of allegations of sexual offenses, fights, and missing children."
"[E]ven when one person, like my husband, is detained, it's like the whole family is there. Our heart is there. We experience the stress and fear of not knowing," Angelina said. "Being in detention doesn't just affect the person in detention; it affects the whole family. And when one family member is detained, that too is family separation."
Sob.
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And some environmental news, as a reminder we still need to resist the Trump Regime's vile policy of ignoring climate change...
[CN: Wildfires; death] Paul Vercammen, Amir Vera, and Nicole Chavez at CNN: Carr Fire in California Is So Hot It's Creating Its Own Weather System. "The Carr Fire raging in Northern California is so large and hot that it is actually creating its own localized weather system with variable strong winds, making it difficult for experts to predict which way the blaze will spread. At least seven people were still missing in Shasta County, California, as shifting winds, dry fuel and steep terrain helped the monstrous fire engulf almost 100,000 acres by Sunday night, authorities said. The fire has claimed six lives, including a firefighter and bulldozer operator working to extinguish the blaze. Sixteen people had been reported missing, but nine of those have been found safe, according to Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, who spoke at a Sunday news conference. The fire, which started a week ago, has burned 98,724 acres and is just 20% contained."
[CN: Displacement] Nick Fogarty and Catherine Graue at ABC Australia: Vanuatu Volcano: Entire Island to Be Evacuated as Ash Blankets Villages and Blacks Out Sky. "The population of an entire island in Vanuatu is set to be evacuated for the second time in less than a year because of an erupting volcano. Around 11,000 people live on Ambae island in the country's north, where the belching of the Manaro volcano has left homes and crops covered in grey ash. The volcano's alert level was raised this week, after ash clouds reportedly turned day into night when they blocked out the Sun. Vanuatu's Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu announced via Twitter that the country's cabinet had extended a state of emergency and that residents would be ordered to leave."
[CN: Displacement; death] Yessenia Funes at Earther: In Myanmar, Rains Displaced 119,000 in Earth's Latest Climate Disaster. "Another day, another extreme weather event disrupting life on our planet. Torrential rains associated with Myanmar's monsoon season have wrought havoc. Floods have killed at least 11 people and forced the evacuation of more than 119,000 throughout the country on Monday, reports Reuters. Three of the deceased include soldiers who were helping with relief efforts. Another three civilians drowned in the state of Mon on the southern coast. At the Zaung Tu Dam, 7.79 inches of rain fell on Wednesday last week, setting a new daily record. ...Many of the rivers in Myanmar remain above their danger levels as of Monday, according to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology."
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And finally...
This tiny line jumped out at me: "Female employees among the 30 staff he controlled complained that he criticized how they dressed." If this dude had been fired for sexual harassment, none of this would have happened. Listen to women! https://t.co/wBKIVS9ylJ
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 29, 2018
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Sessions Announces "Religious Liberty Task Force"
[Content Note: Christian Supremacy.]
This is very bad:
NEW: Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces "Religious Liberty Task Force."
— ABC News (@ABC) July 30, 2018
Sessions says the task force will "help the Department fully implement our religious liberty guidance," including "making sure our employees know their duties to accommodate people of faith." pic.twitter.com/R6s2CYmdue
Transcript: [Jeff Sessions, standing at a podium] Today I announce — ah, ah, I am announcing a next step: The Religious Liberty Task Force, to be co-chaired by the Associate Attorney General, Jesse, and the Assistant Attorney General for Office of Legal Policy, Beth."We're going to remain in contact with religious groups across America, to ensure that their rights are being protected," says Sessions. Not a word about meeting with atheists, of course. Not a peep about atheists' right to be free from the imposition of religion.
The task force will help the department fully implement our religious liberty guidance by ensuring that all Justice Department components — and we've got a lot of components around the country — are holding that guidance in the cases they bring and defend, the arguments they make in court, the policies and regulations they adopt, and how we conduct our operations.
That includes making sure our employees know their duties to accommodate people of faith. As the people in this room know, we have to practice what you preach. So we're going to remain in contact with religious groups across America, to ensure that their rights are being protected.
We have been holding listening sessions and will continue to host them in the coming weeks. This administration is animated by that same American view that has led us for two hundred and forty-two years: That every American has a right to believe and worship and exercise their faith in the public square.
And of course we know damn well that minority religious groups will not be protected from the imposition of a very limited brand of conservative Christianity, either. As ever.
We must be very blunt about what the creation of this task force is: Another huge step forward in the Trump Regime's creation of a regressive Christian white ethnostate.
"Quiet Skies" and Rough Waters Ahead
[Content Note: Privacy violations.]
It's been a minute since we've discussed the TSA's horrendous penchant for invading travelers' privacy in egregious ways.
But of course anything that was bad during the Obama administration is exponentially worse during the Trump administration.
So, at the Boston Globe, Jana Winter has an extensive piece on "Quiet Skies," a TSA program which tasks federal air marshals with "following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program."
The previously undisclosed program, called "Quiet Skies," specifically targets travelers who "are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base," according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.Ah, the old "we can't disclose results because safety" chestnut. Which we know means: There is no point to this program and it hasn't achieved a goddamned thing.
The internal bulletin describes the program's goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft "posed by unknown or partially known terrorists," and gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked.
But some air marshals, in interviews and internal communications shared with the Globe, say the program has them tasked with shadowing travelers who appear to pose no real threat — a businesswoman who happened to have traveled through a Mideast hot spot, in one case; a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, in another; a fellow federal law enforcement officer, in a third.
It is a time-consuming and costly assignment, they say, which saps their ability to do more vital law enforcement work.
TSA officials, in a written statement to the Globe, broadly defended the agency's efforts to deter potential acts of terror. But the agency declined to discuss whether Quiet Skies has intercepted any threats, or even to confirm that the program exists.
Release of such information "would make passengers less safe," spokesman James Gregory said in the statement.
And anyone with a lick of sense understands that what makes passengers less safe is the TSA scrutinizing their movements and heaping undeserved suspicion on them, recording that information for future use in ways that can only be harmful to the "thousands of unsuspecting Americans" who have been assessed in ways that are profoundly troubling.
[The] targeted airport and inflight surveillance [is] carried out by small teams of armed, undercover air marshals, government documents show. The teams document whether passengers fidget, use a computer, have a "jump" in their Adam's apple, or a "cold penetrating stare," among other behaviors, according to the records.It's easy to imagine how many disabled people have been unjustly targeted by this program, based on the metrics being used to identify "suspicious" behavior, as well as people who have reason to be nervous about flying — like trans people for whom security checks are deeply fraught and potentially traumatizing, and fat people for whom flying is an endless nightmare.
Air marshals note these observations — minute-by-minute — in two separate reports and send this information back to the TSA.
It's not at all clear that the program is even legal: As George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told the Globe, "U.S. citizens don't lose their rights simply because they are in an airplane at 30,000 feet."
Or just walking through an airport.
Unfortunately, the current president has brazen contempt for the law. So it's even less clear how this program gets the axe.
One hopes that the federal air marshals speaking out about how it's preventing them from doing effective work that legitimately keeps passengers safe will be enough to persuade someone empowered to stop the program to do precisely that.
Manafort Trial Starts Tomorrow
Welcome to the week in which the trial of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort begins.
Tomorrow, to be exact.
I'm seeing lots of very excited tweets about the impending "fireworks" and about how "explosive" it will be and telling people to "buckle up" and "grab the popcorn" and so forth.
Maybe! But probably not!
"What’s likely to be missing: answers about whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election, or really any mention of Russia at all." FYI. https://t.co/LB6Mlj2GVL
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 30, 2018
Unless something very dramatic and unexpected happens, it will probably be a fairly dull and technical trial. Which is okay! In fact, it will be better than okay if it results in convictions against Manafort, because he is a very bad guy who needs to be held accountable for being a gross, mercentary dirtbag who helps gross, authoritarian nightmares seize and consolidate power.
It's just important to have reasonable expectations about what to expect from this trial. Which is about Manafort and his various swindles.
There is still a possibility Manafort will strike a deal in exchange for testimony against a bigger fish. My guess is that said possibility is very small, given that Manafort surely knows that his best bet is to protect Donald Trump, in exchange for a future pardon.
In any case, we'll get a look at one part of Special Counsel Bob Mueller's case for the first time, and we'll get to see what some other major cooperating players, like Rick Gates and Tad Devine, have to say for themselves. It doesn't need to be a thrill-ride to be compelling.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
Friday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by popcorn.
Recommended Reading:
Shay Stewart-Bouley at Black Girl in Maine: [Content Note: Misogynoir; violence; white supremacy] Black Women's Blood Is Spilled Too Freely
Lynn Parramore at the Institute for New Economic Thinking: Meet the Economist Behind the One Percent's Stealth Takeover of America
Anne Branigin at the Root: Stacey Abrams, Who May Become the Country's First Black Female Governor, Lands Cover of Time's 'The South' Issue
Lance Mannion at his eponymous blog: Republicans Don't Vote Against Their Own Interests. They Vote Against YOURS!
Caitlin Blunnie at Reproaction: Reproaction's Self-Managed Abortion Campaign Comes to Northern Virginia
Douglas Rushkoff at the Guardian: How Tech's Richest Plan to Save Themselves After the Apocalypse
Andy Towle at Towleroad: Hillary Clinton Gets Standing Ovation at Broadway's Hello, Dolly!
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
World of Shakescraft
As you know, I am not a crafty person. I am terrible at crafts! And I'm only slightly better with DIY home projects, with the occasional modest success.
But lots of Shakers are very talented crafters and DIY-ers, and I am happy to read about all of your terrific projects! So here is a thread to talk about your current crafting and/or DIY project(s), completed projects, or future projects; to share ideas; to brag about your successes or lament your setbacks; and to solicit advice from fellow creators!
(As always, make sure you don't offer advice unless it's solicited.)
Have at it in comments!
Daily Dose of Cute
Olivia has always been a social cat, but, in her dotage, she has gotten ridiculously clingy — and one of her favorite maneuvers is wedging herself between my legs as I'm sitting on the sofa, staring up at me intently, until I pet her with appropriate attention and vigor, lol. It's a very effective strategy, frankly. She's a very smart girl!
Bonus Sophs, thinking about Tony and subtly inviting a belly rub:
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 554
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 Fannie: Here's Why Some People Can't Stand Bernie Sanders. And by me: Collusion, But His Tweets, and Maybe Something Will Matter Someday and BrianWS and Liss Talk About Their Election Terrors.
Here are some more things in the news today...
Lots of news about Michael Cohen, of course, and the presumption that he's fixing to "flip" on Donald Trump. I sure hope that is the case! But I have my doubts. On Wednesday, I noted:
The odd thing about this recording is how the conversation sounds like it's between two people who think they're being recorded. https://t.co/eLnEoo9rkA
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 25, 2018
Whatever it is, I don't think it's as straightforward as: Cohen just recorded Trump without his knowledge and this is a natural conversation he captured.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 25, 2018
And in any case, Cohen should not be reflexively trusted.
Exactly so. Cohen has been a Trump loyalist for far too long to take it at face value that he's just decided to flip so easily. No honor among thieves and all that, but he's not a mutual thief. He's a sycophant. A minion. The type who remains loyal even after he's been betrayed.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 25, 2018
I haven't, however, been able to figure out what the Cohen theater is all about, but seeing this at the Daily Beast today gave me an idea:
If it is indeed theater, the point is may be to send a message to anyone who would actually contemplate turning on Trump.
What's in it for Cohen? Well, he's probably neck-deep in real criminality that is being concealed beneath all of the theatrics.
He'll probably do anything he can to protect Trump, because as long as Trump is protected, he's protected. Either via Trump obstructing any investigation that would find Cohen guilty, or via subsequent pardon.
Just a thought. But maybe Cohen is the person who will surprise me, and defy his reputation as the premiere Trump loyalist to become a key witness against him. Dare to dream!
* * *
Rebecca Morin at Politico: Putin Invites Trump to Moscow for a Second Meeting. "Russia President Vladimir Putin on Friday said he invited [Donald] Trump to Russia for another face-to-face meeting — a meeting the White House says Trump is open to. 'We are ready to invite [Donald] Trump to Moscow. He has, by the way, such an invitation, I told him about it,' Putin said."
This is all happening while Trump continues to lash out at our Intel Agencies who are sounding Code Red bec Russian intel hackers responsible for the 2016 election are again beginning their attacks for midterms. Trump is not only inviting Russia’s attacks but again helping them
— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) July 27, 2018
Everything is fine. (Everything is not fine.)
* * *
[Content Note: Nativism; abuse. Covers entire section.]
Sabrina Siddiqui at the Guardian: Trump Plans to Rescind Work Permits for Spouses of Immigrants on H-1B Visas.
[In 2015], Barack Obama's administration implemented a rule that granted work permits to certain immigrants on H4 visas. Known as H4EAD, the policy enabled the spouses of H-1B workers who were already awaiting green cards to apply for employment authorization.Staff at the BBC: U.S. Child Migrants: Over 700 Not Reunited with Families by Deadline. "Some 711 migrant children taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border have not yet been returned to them, despite a court-ordered deadline. U.S. government lawyers said the children were not eligible to be reunited with their parents. ...In 431 cases the parents were no longer in the U.S., a court filing said." BECAUSE THE TRUMP REGIME DEPORTED THEM.
But now Donald Trump's administration is expected to formally rescind the Obama-era rule — potentially upending the lives of tens of thousands of immigrants who took advantage of the H4EAD work permits.
The proposed rules change, which was anticipated last month, but has not yet been announced, is part of the Trump administration's efforts to reshape America's immigration system.
Advocates laboring to save the Obama-era policy say doing away with the rule could once again confine immigrant spouses, mostly women, at home and strip their families of a necessary second income.
Trump admin declares mission accomplished as hundreds of migrant kids continue to remain separated and under US custody. This crisis is nowhere close to over. https://t.co/ZaDXpI7pX0 #FamiliesBelongTogether
— Gabe #DreamActNow OrtÃz (@TUSK81) July 27, 2018
Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: ICE to Deport the Wife of Decorated Marine Veteran. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents notified Orlando, Florida resident Alejandra Juarez Tuesday that she will be deported to Mexico on August 3, according to the Military Times. Juarez, the wife of veteran Marine Sgt. Cuauhtemoc 'Temo' Juarez, also a former member of the Florida National Guard, entered the United States in 1998 and the two married in 2000. ...The mother of two has fought for her right to stay in the country for years, but a crackdown on immigration by the Trump administration has left her with no other choice."
* * *
Seung Min Kim at the Washington Post: Trump Uses Taxpayer-Funded Trip to Campaign for GOP Candidates. "[Donald] Trump on Thursday used a taxpayer-funded trip to Illinois to openly advocate for electing Republicans to Congress — blurring the line between official and political events in the heat of the midterm campaign season. 'You've got to vote Republican, folks, you've got to vote Republican,' Trump said during the speech at a steel plant in Granite City, Ill., that had recently reopened. ...White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters on Air Force One that 'there is no legal prohibition' on endorsing political candidates at official, taxpayer-funded events. 'It is no surprise that the president would want people in Congress who support his agenda,' Gidley said."
Robyn Powell at Rewire.News: Judge Kavanaugh's Supreme Court Nomination Could Put the Americans with Disabilities Act in Danger. "Judge Kavanaugh is known for being anti-regulation, which worries advocates because federal regulations are critical to how disability rights laws — including the ADA — are interpreted and enforced. Moreover, businesses increasingly oppose the ADA. Many, for example, support the ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 (HR 620). This bill, which has passed the House, would significantly weaken the ADA and greatly limit its enforcement. But even if HR 620 does not pass the Senate, advocates worry that if a case challenging the ADA came before the Supreme Court, Judge Kavanaugh's pro-corporate leanings could mean he would vote to undermine it."
E.A. Crunden at ThinkProgress: Two Michigan Communities Given Bottled Water After Hazardous Chemicals Found. "Residents of two Kalamazoo counties will receive bottled water on Friday morning after 'high amounts' of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, were detected during testing conducted by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). A PFAS test yielded 1,410 parts per trillion in their drinking water, 20 times higher than the lifetime health advisory given by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ...City officials said they were unsure how the man-made chemicals entered the water source."
Nicole Knight at Rewire.News: Walmart Accused of Unlawfully Punishing Pregnant Hourly Workers. "A pair of former hourly Walmart workers allege in a court filing that the corporation fired them for seeking treatment in a hospital for extreme nausea, vomiting, severe cramps, and fears of miscarriage. Although the women told their supervisors they would miss work and later furnished doctors' notes, the retail giant considered the absences unauthorized under its 'absence control' policy, the women allege. Dina Bakst, co-president and co-founder of A Better Balance, the legal nonprofit that brought the lawsuit, said the Walmart policy 'flouts New York's pregnancy accommodation law by punishing pregnant workers for lawful absences.'"
Mark Bergen and Josh Eidelson at Bloomberg: Inside Google's Shadow Workforce. "Every day, tens of thousands of people stream into Google offices wearing red name badges. They eat in Google's cafeterias, ride its commuter shuttles, and work alongside its celebrated geeks. But they can't access all of the company's celebrated perks. They aren't entitled to stock and can't enter certain offices. Many don't have health insurance. Before each weekly Google all-hands meeting, trays of hors d'oeuvres and, sometimes, kegs of beer are carted into an auditorium and satellite offices around the globe for employees, who wear white badges. Those without white badges are asked to return to their desks."
Martha Bebinger at NPR: Some Doctors, Patients Balk at Medicare's 'Flat Fee' Payment Proposal. "The Trump administration announced a plan Friday that would affect about 40 percent of the payments physicians receive from Medicare. Not everybody's pleased. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services calls its proposed plan a historic effort to reduce paperwork and improve patient care. But some doctors and advocates for patients fear it could be a disaster."
Why? Because it will deteriorate the quality of patient care and reduce doctors' income. Both are individually concerning — and if you imagine doctors concerned about their income are just being greedy, consider the effect of dramatically reducing anyone's income when we're also in the middle of a student loan crisis, no less someone who took out loans for seven years or more of required education. I know some doctors who are in their 40s and still paying off massive student debt. For a generation now, we've been asking a lot of doctors to take on enormous amounts of student debt on the same salaries doctors used to make when education was more affordable. It's a different world for doctors of Gen X and younger.
Essentially, what this change will do is ensure there are few doctors who accept Medicare patients, leaving Medicare patients without adequate healthcare options.
* * *
[CN: Sexual abuse cover-up]
This is the correct headline: "Jim Jordan, under cloud of sex abuse scandal, announces bid for House Speaker." Thank you, @thinkprogress. https://t.co/F8N8Zu8mqZ
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 26, 2018
[CN: Sexual harassment/assault]
The wait is over. Article not up yet.
— Melissa Silverstein (@melsil) July 27, 2018
Leslie Moonves Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Ronan Farrow Expose
The CBS CEO, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, is accused of unwanted kissing and touching in a New Yorker article set to be published Friday.https://t.co/7aVJ9LtLge
Michael Balsamo and Michael R. Sisak at the AP: Avenatti: 3 Women Paid 'Hush Money' for Trump Relationships. "Michael Avenatti, the attorney for [Stormy Daniels], said Thursday that he now represents three additional women who he says had relationships with [Donald] Trump and were paid 'hush money' before the 2016 presidential election. ...Asked if he had evidence that the women had relationships with Trump, Avenatti said: 'Yes.'"
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
BrianWS and Liss Talk About Their Election Terrors
Once-frequent guest blogger BrianWS, who still may or may not become a full-time contributor someday because you just never know, and who remains a good friend with whom I can talk about anything under the sun, emailed me yesterday with what he described as "just some dark election thoughts." It turned into an interesting conversation, which I am now sharing here with his permission.
BrianWS: This has been floating around in my head for about a week (or whenever the fuck it was that Trump tweeted about Russia helping the Dems — it might have been yesterday or it might have been two months ago for all I fucking know anymore).
Here's a thing I've been thinking about re: free and fair elections and Trump…
Would it not benefit Trump (and Putin) to have the Russians actually manipulate votes in favor of Dems in the midterms, but do so with a digital trail that wouldn't be too hard for someone to find at some point?
I was thinking of it like this:
1.) Dems have a great midterm election. Some of it is from actual votes, some of it is from tampering that moves votes to Dem candidates.
2.) Dems celebrate. "2018 Blue Wave" takes explode all over the internet.
3.) Couple of months later, either before or just after new Dems are sworn in, someone with allegiance to Trump conveniently finds a digital trail that was hidden just enough so as to not be entirely obvious right after the elections, but also a trail that is so clear once discovered that it can't actually be disputed that the Russians "helped" the Dems.
4.) Trump wins in every way — obviously with a trail that is indisputable, chaos breaks loose about seating Dems, holding new elections, cancelling/voiding them outright, whatever.
5.) Trump gets to say "I told you so!" Then he gets to use it to become even more authoritarian in almost every conceivable way from making sure his shitty base knows that he was right, which then moves back into "only I can protect you" territory. It also then discredits the ENTIRE premise of the current Russia investigation, because the only true proof we have of Russian interference is that they helped Dems.
6.) Uses it as an excuse to float canceling elections, delaying them, whatever else under the guise of "well, we sure can't hold elections again until we figure out how these Dem traitors pulled this off with a foreign power!" His base would go wild while being even more dangerous in every way towards all of the groups of people they hate. They'd almost certainly be violent in public and then some. Dems would not ever recover from it unless actual proof that it was an inside job were discovered, which it surely wouldn't be with a plan like this.
Is that at all reasonable, or does that create too much chaos for Trump/Putin to be able to exploit?
Liss: It's certainly a possibility. I don't imagine that even in this scenario, Trump/Putin would allow the Democrats to win a majority, so the most likely outcome would be that Democrats get very close to retaking the House and/or Senate, with a few big unanticipated wins.
Just enough to give liberals hope that voting still matters, always keeping us one election away from winning it back.
And in the meantime, Trump can whip out the "evidence" at any time he needs it.
Maybe right before the new year...?
NEWS, per John Bolton: “The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we’ve agreed that it will be after the first of the year.”
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) July 25, 2018
Cough.
BrianWS: God this is so fucking depressing. But also a great point — having Dems actually retake the House and/or Senate takes away a level of power they need to rubber stamp everything. But to think that two years down the road it could conveniently be discovered right when he needs it most, while STILL having control of all branches of govt and the courts, is as terrifying as any part of this with the ability to immediately implement any of his "protections" without having to go through a chamber with any kind of Dem majority.
Liss: The terrible thing is that they only need to do it on behalf of one Democrat to be able to keep this in their back pocket whenever they need it. They can intervene on behalf of every Republican in every district in every state with a Republican legislature, which can then destroy the evidence, and as long as there is "discoverable" evidence of interference on behalf of a single Democrat, it gives them the leverage they need to "both sides!" the entire thing out of existence.
And our media is clearly not up to the task of greeting it with the skepticism it deserves.
* * *
Our conversation then veered into personal territory, which I will keep between us.
I'm not sharing this to terrify you, although I realize the prospect is indeed terrifying. I'm sharing it because, although such a scenario at one point might have seemed completely out of the realm of possibility, is it now eminently possible, verging on likely, given everything else we know about what has already happened.
I'm also sharing it because I suspect many of you are already contemplating such possibilities — and probably just like BrianWS and me, you have moments, maybe lots of them, where you wonder if you are going mad or being unduly alarmist, and you could use some perspective. There is far too much gaslighting and far too little validation of legitimate fears in this country right now.
And I'm sharing it because I want to prepare you. I would rather talk about these possibilities and then see them not happen, then not talk frankly about them and allow my readership to be blindsided by them if they do.
It's hard to avoid accusations of being — and hard not to feel like — a "downer" for speaking the grim truth. I struggle with it all day every day, at this point. But I just keep telling myself that telling the truth for this community may hurt in the short-term, but will protect people in the long-term. Folks who get legit surprised by what's potentially coming, if it comes, are going to suffer mightily.
Plus, as I've said before, we can't possibly prevent an outcome we refuse to even consider.
And if I'm wrong, if our worst fears never come to pass, then what a jolly laugh we'll have at the silly kook I've been while we enjoy our functional democracy from the comfort of not-gulags.
Here's Why Some People Can't Stand Bernie Sanders
Here's Bernie Sanders on July 26, 2018, talking about how the Democrats need a 50-state strategy:
Sanders told me by phone from Washington, a few days after his Kansas stop, that a 50-state strategy is common sense.Yet, in March 2016, during the Democratic Primary, Bernie's campaign manager Jeff Weaver admitted to doing that very abdication:
"It is beyond comprehension, the degree to which the Democratic party nationally has essentially abdicated half of the states in this country to rightwing Republicans, including some of the poorest states in America, those in the south," Sanders said. "The reason I go to Kansas and many so-called red states is that I will do everything that I can to bring new people into the political process in states which are today conservative. I do not know how you turn those states around unless you go there and get people excited."
Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, said on the call that their campaign chose not to compete in eight of the 32 states that have held primaries or caucuses so far. Weaver identified Texas, Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and Louisiana as the states where they didn't mount a challenge to Clinton, who swept all of the Southern contests; he said the Sanders campaign did not broadcast television advertisements in those eight states or have "a big campaign presence."Bernie Sanders is hypocrite who will take any and every opportunity to trash Democrats and act as though he alone is different because he cares about all the people that Democrats have ignored, forgotten, and abdicated, even if — in fact — he and his well-paid, internationally-connected consultants are as establishment, truth-spinning, and political as they come.
"Almost all of Secretary Clinton's delegate lead come from states where she faced little or no competition," said Tad Devine, Sanders' senior campaign strategist. "Her grasp now on the nomination is almost entirely on the basis of victories in states where Bernie Sanders did not compete."
Bernie's narrative also, of course, erases the hard work that actual Democrats in red states do every day against almost insurmountable conservative and right-wing forces. Of course, this day-to-day, lower-profile, and unglamorous work is likely disproportionately done by women and people of color so it's entirely possible that Bernie doesn't know it's occurring or doesn't view it as political labor.
[Cross-posted at Fannie's Room.]
Collusion, But His Tweets, and Maybe Something Will Matter Someday
Two things of note in the endless, tentacled cthulhu that is Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation of Donald Trump's potential collusion with the Russians, which has been happening right out in the open for many years cough.
1. Jim Sciutto, Carl Bernstein, and Marshall Cohen at CNN: Cohen Claims Trump Knew in Advance of 2016 Trump Tower Meeting.
Michael Cohen, [Donald] Trump's former personal attorney, claims that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, sources with knowledge tell CNN. Cohen is willing to make that assertion to special counsel Robert Mueller, the sources said.Sure. Of course he did. Which is why Trump and his surrogates have long argued that there was nothing unusual or unethical about the meeting, all campaigns seek dirt on their opponents, and hey who wouldn't have gone to meet with someone offering oppo research on their foe — which is all mendacious horseshit which casually ignores that meeting with a foreign adversary to smear one's opponent is not the same as routine oppo research.
Cohen's claim would contradict repeated denials by Trump, Donald Trump Jr., their lawyers and other administration officials who have said that the president knew nothing about the Trump Tower meeting until he was approached about it by The New York Times in July 2017.
Cohen alleges that he was present, along with several others, when Trump was informed of the Russians' offer by Trump Jr. By Cohen's account, Trump approved going ahead with the meeting with the Russians, according to sources.
Anyway. As you can imagine, Trump had something to say about this report.
Arrived back in Washington last night from a very emotional reopening of a major U.S. Steel plant in Granite City, Illinois, only to be greeted with the ridiculous news that the highly conflicted Robert Mueller and his gang of 13 Angry Democrats obviously cannot find Collusion...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2018
....,the only Collusion with Russia was with the Democrats, so now they are looking at my Tweets (along with 53 million other people) - the rigged Witch Hunt continues! How stupid and unfair to our Country....And so the Fake News doesn’t waste my time with dumb questions, NO,....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2018
.....I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (Taxi cabs maybe?). He even retained Bill and Crooked Hillary’s lawyer. Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2018
Sage words as always from a very stable genius.
Speaking of Trump's tweets...
2. Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman at the New York Times: Mueller Examining Trump's Tweets in Wide-Ranging Obstruction Inquiry. Mueller "is scrutinizing tweets and negative statements from the president about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, according to three people briefed on the matter. Several of the remarks came as Mr. Trump was also privately pressuring the men — both key witnesses in the inquiry — about the investigation, and Mr. Mueller is examining whether the actions add up to attempts to obstruct the investigation by both intimidating witnesses and pressuring senior law enforcement officials to tamp down the inquiry."
I mean, no fucking shit he's looking at tweets. It would be absurd if he weren't and hasn't long been scrutinizing Trump's tweets.
The "Mueller is definitely still investigating" news is getting pretty thin, folks.
In any case, I will wrap up by saying once again that it feels increasingly to me like nothing truly meaningful (nothing that touches Trump) is ever going to come from the Mueller investigation, and that the investigation itself is effectively if not intentionally just giving the Republican Party time to consolidate power behind their corrupt authoritarian president.
I hope mightily that I am wrong. I would very much like for all of this to matter.
