Suggested by Shaker Wonder: "When do you remember first becoming aware of a world beyond your family-of-origin? What caught your attention? How old were you? What did you think/feel about it? What did other people around you say/do?"
Walking around Glendale hand-in-hand with my grandfather as a young child, while he talked to people in the neighborhood, and showed me his favorite things in the parks and the cemeteries, and introduced me to the local shopkeepers.
It made me feel happy, alive, safe, and curious about people and the world.
Question of the Day
What I'm Listening To
A thread for sharing what we're currently listening to: Music, podcasts, audiobooks, whatever.
Franz Ferdinand: "Lazy Boy"
This song just cracks me up — and I find it so weirdly romantic, too. I know that feeling of I love you too much to get out of bed; I just have to lie here thinking about how I love you all day, because my brain can't focus on anything else, anyway. Yes!
I also dig how the lyrics are the laziest, lol. Perfection.
This Is Infuriating
[Content Note: White supremacy.]
Another day; another time I am going to refuse to listen to Sarah Huckabee Sanders lie and cover for this wreck of a president.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
I don't care what she has to say about recordings of racial slurs existing or not existing.
HE IS DEMONSTRABLY RACIST. HIS ENTIRE AGENDA IS RACIST.
"We can only be sure he's racist if there's audio of him using a slur, 'cuz so far he's merely abused the power of the presidency to block Muslims from entering and wage an obscene nativist war; repeatedly questioned the intellect of Black people; used an anti-semitic slogan..."
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
And that's just the tip of the iceberg since he's been elected, which is to say nothing of his LIFETIME OF RACISM, which has been publicly documented for nearly as long as my ancient ass has been alive.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
To cast even the most cursory gaze over Trump's record and then draw the line at whether he used a slur is an absurd and *dangerous* threshold.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
It's a metric that allows the sitting U.S. president to oversee a rank white supremacist agenda while not being regarded as racist.
This entire thing is fucking absurd. And it utterly reprehensible that anyone but his most indecent supporters would continue to extend him the benefit of the doubt, good faith, and good will that he patently DOES NOT DESERVE.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
Again. https://t.co/QPV0hXdxLX
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
Quote of the Day
"In my opinion, email voting is the most dangerous form of voting. ...It's like attaching a $100 bill to a postcard and mailing it and expecting it to get there." — David Jefferson, "a computer scientist at California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and former board chairman of both the California Voter Foundation and Verified Voting, nonpartisan groups that promote secure and transparent election technology."
Jefferson is quoted in a piece at McClatchy by Tim Johnson, Greg Gordon, and Christine Condon, on the endemic insecurity of email voting and the refusal of multiple states to abide recommendations against email ballots by cybersecurity experts: "Top computer researchers gave a startling presentation recently about how to intercept and switch votes on emailed ballots, but officials in the 30 or so states said the ease with which votes could be changed wouldn't alter their plans to continue offering electronic voting in some fashion. ...'Anyone who controls a router can change a ballot,' Jefferson said."
I continue to be very worried about the midterms.
Daily Dose of Cute
happening on my lap: "I'm RIGHT HERE."
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 572
One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.
So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.
Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.
* * *
Earlier today by me: Trump Starts the Day by Expressing Contempt for the Rule of Law — Again and The Republican Party Abets Trump's Tyranny.
Here are some more things in the news today...
"Our defense is that the president will pardon Mr. Manafort, your honor." https://t.co/0b6dDmwTwG
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
Alyza Sebenius at Bloomberg: Hackers Already Attacking Midterm Elections, Raising U.S. Alarms. "The U.S. midterm elections are at increasing risk of interference by foreign adversaries led by Russia, and cybersecurity experts warn the Trump administration isn't adequately defending against the meddling. At stake is control of the U.S. Congress. The risks range from social media campaigns intended to fool American voters to sophisticated computer hacking that could change the tabulation of votes. At least three congressional candidates have already been hit with phishing attacks that strongly resemble Russian sabotage in the 2016 campaign. Among them was Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat in one of the year’s most hotly contested races."
[Content Note: Racism; surveillance] Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian at the Daily Beast: Chinese Cops Now Spying on American Soil. "A major human rights crisis is unfolding in northwestern China, according to the United Nations, which said last week that there were credible reports that the Chinese government is holding one million or more ethnic minorities in secretive detention camps. Yet even for those who have escaped China, surveillance and intimidation have followed. As part of a massive campaign to monitor and intimidate its ethnic minorities no matter where they are, Chinese authorities are creating a global registry of Uighurs who live outside of China, threatening to detain their relatives if they do not provide personal and identifying information to Chinese police. This campaign is now reaching even Uighurs who live in the United States."
[CN: War; death]
"America killed the children of Yemen" - sign at mass funeral for the children killed in last week's airstrike on a school bus. We made and sold the bomb that killed 40 innocent kids. This is being done in our name. We need to care. It needs to stop https://t.co/2b6habWLqr
— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) August 14, 2018
Meanwhile, the U.S. president is engaging in Twitter Theater with his latest fake nemesis:
So, the 1st tape frames Kelly as a usurper, about which Trump has complained. The 2nd tape frames Trump as a hapless guy, a narrative from which Trump benefits. And the 3rd tape frames Ivanka and Jared as clueless but compassionate, another beneficial narrative to Family Trump. https://t.co/JmGnU30uSl
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 13, 2018
Even if Omarosa isn't actively coordinating with Trump to sell her books and help him out in the process, the press still hasn't learned to identify when supposedly negative narratives actually help Trump.
"OMG THESE TAPES ARE GONNA BE THE END OF HIM!" Oh are they now.
Omarosa is not an enemy of Trump, and he is not her enemy. They are two actors, staging a play, to their mutual benefit. They don't have to like each other, which isn't the point. It doesn't even matter to her if he's a racist, sexist piece of shit. (She knew all of that when she accepted the job in his administration!) He can help her, and she can help him, and that's all that matters to either of them.
But while the nation and world democracies collapse, we're back to debating whether Trump is really a racist and gossiping about whether there's a recording of him using a racist slur.
I am profoundly disgusted (though unsurprised) that there are people hanging their decision about whether Trump is racist on the existence, or not, of a recording of him using an anti-Black slur, when his entire agenda is full-tilt white supremacy.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
And that's really all I have to say about that.
* * *
[CN: Nativism; white supremacy; abuse. Covers entire section.]
Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: ICE Agents Set 'Trap' for Immigrants Seeking Legal Residency.
Two federal immigration agencies worked together in a coordinated effort to set deportation traps for unsuspecting immigrants seeking legal status, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleged in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen this week.Rage seethe boil.
According to the Boston Globe, the two agencies arranged meetings for the undocumented immigrants at government offices, where they were subsequently arrested, and in some cases deported.
According to e-mails obtained by the Globe between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and employees of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), ICE asked government officials to space out the meetings so that the public wouldn't catch on and draw "negative media interests."
"As far as scheduling goes, I would prefer not to do them all at one time as it is [not] only a strain on our ability to transport and process several arrests at once, but it also has the potential to be a trigger for negative media interests, as we have seen in the past," Andrew Graham, an ICE officer, wrote to a USCIS employee in one email from October.
Jorge Rivas at Colorlines: Feds Crack Down on Volunteers Helping Migrants Survive the Arizona Desert. "Nine humanitarian volunteers with the group No More Deaths are facing federal charges after leaving water bottles for migrants in the Arizona desert. They are charged with misdemeanors for driving in a wilderness area, entering a wildlife refuge without a permit, and abandonment of property. ...One No More Deaths volunteer, Scott Warren, is facing felony human-smuggling charges for allegedly providing two migrants with 'food and water for approximately three days,' according to United States District Court of Arizona records."
Tina Vasquez at Rewire.News: New Immigrant-Led Coalition Is 'Going to Get People Out of Sanctuary'. "A new nationwide coalition has formed to free the people forced by the Trump administration to enter churches where they have been confined for weeks, months, and in one instance, more than a year. Called Colectivo Santuario, the coalition comprises immigrants in sanctuary, immigrant organizers, attorneys, and allies in faith communities spanning seven states—Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia. ...'I'm grateful to be here, but it's a certain kind of suffering being stuck in one place. I call it a 'golden cage.' So many good people help us, we are never lacking food, shelter; we have everything we need, but we can't leave,' [said Juana Luz Tobar Ortega, a 50-year-old immigrant from Guatemala who entered sanctuary in North Carolina in May 2017]."
* * *
Jay Michaelson at the Daily Beast: There Are Painful Problems in the Vetting of Brett Kavanaugh. "Arguably the most important domestic act of Donald Trump's presidency — shifting the Supreme Court to the right — is being carried out in an unprecedented and, if the standards of the legal profession were being applied, unethical way. That's because the release of the records of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's conservative pick to replace the centrist justice Anthony Kennedy, is being overseen by Kavanaugh's own former deputy at the Bush White House, William Burck, now working as an attorney for the former president."
[CN: Death penalty; torture]
Absolutely disgusting. Would that states with the death penalty spent half as much time developing policy to support people in their lives as they did figuring out ways to kill people. https://t.co/AwGLqnTQyZ
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 13, 2018
[CN: Carcerality; class warfare] Imani Gandy at Rewire.News: New Lawsuit Challenges Illegal "Debtors' Prison" System in Arkansas County. "Thousands of White County residents have been and will be stripped of their constitutional rights, incarcerated solely because they are indigent and unable to pay the court fees and fines that they owe, according to the lawsuit filed by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. That's because District Judge Mark Derrick, who presides in in eight different courtrooms in eight different towns in White County (about an hour from Little Rock) and two additional courts in another county, has implemented a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to failure to pay court debt."
Alaska seafood industry suffering, laying off workers in aftermath of Trump tariffs https://t.co/tAkHYPVIdv
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) August 14, 2018
[CN: Animal harm] Mallory Pickett at the Guardian: Toxic 'Red Tide' Algae Bloom Is Killing Florida Wildlife and Menacing Tourism. "[This year] 267 tons of marine life, including thousands of small fish, 72 Goliath groupers, and even a 21-ft whale shark have washed up on the beach [of Sanibel Island off the coast of southwestern Florida] since July — thanks to a a disastrous 'red tide' of toxic algae. ...While algal blooms are common here, they are usually constrained to a few months in late summer or early fall, and are mainly noticeable for the dark, greenish-red color they give the water. But this bloom [of Karenia brevis] has lasted from one season into the next without reprieve, and achieved the unusually high densities believed to be responsible for killing so much wildlife."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Shaker Thumbs
Shaker Thumbs is your opportunity to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to a product or service you have used and that you'd recommend to other Shakers or warn them away from.
Today, I'm going to give a big ol' thumbs-up to the Pelonis 18-Inch 3-Speed Oscillating Stand Fan. We picked up ours at Lowe's for $35.
I mentioned that we recently finished a room in our house, and it happens to be the one part of the house that isn't air conditioned. It's on the lower level, so it naturally stays quite cool, but that still isn't enough for me (because of my hypohidrosis). It's fine on most days, however, with the addition of a fan.
Our old stand fan got broken during the move a few years back, so we had to get a new one. This one has been really good so far, after using it regularly for the past couple of weeks. It was easy to assemble, and it's light enough to carry around. (Hence the picture of it in our living room, where it is currently.) It also came with a wee remote, which I haven't had need to use yet, but it's a nice extra feature!
I figured between the heatwaves across the country, the traveling smoke from wildfires out west, and the flooding on the east coast, lots of folks might be in the market for fans at the moment, so I'd go ahead and mention how much I like this one.
Anyway! Give us your thumbs-up or thumbs-down in comments!
[Just to be abundantly clear, I am not affiliated in any way with companies or products recommended in this series, nor am I receiving any form of payment from them. Anything I share here is just because I like it!]
The Republican Party Abets Trump's Tyranny
It's frankly feels trite at this point to make the indisputable observation that Congressional Republicans have totally abandoned their duty to provide checks and balances on the executive branch of the U.S. federal government. The GOP caucus is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump Regime and whatever nefarious masters (corporatists, oligarchs, the Kremlin) the president and his regime serve.
And yet: This evident fact rarely makes its way into coverage of the Trump presidency.
I read all three of the following pieces this morning, about Donald Trump's various abuses of power and contempt for the law, and none of them gave even passing mention to Congress' capacity and responsibility to limit Trump's behavior:
"NDAs have not been widely used by past administrations outside the transition time between presidents, in part because most legal experts believe such agreements are not legally enforceable for public employees." https://t.co/PZCtiJMdvz
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
"Trump made no bones about his distaste for Agent Strzok, just as he similarly publicly criticized Dir. Comey & Dir. McCabe prior to their terminations. All three men played a role in the investigation into the president's campaign before they were fired." https://t.co/NC5z7nwDwL
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
"Faithfully executing the laws requires the president to act reasonably and in good faith. It does not countenance the deliberate sabotage of an act of Congress. Put bluntly: Mr. Trump's assault on Obamacare is illegal." But who's gonna stop him, though? https://t.co/gF4Fiksn6I
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
But who's gonna stop him, though?
The only one of the three branches with any inclination to rein in Trump's seemingly boundless authoritarian urges is the judicial branch, which he is busily reshaping with loyalists as quickly as possible.
Once he neuters the judiciary, and failing a highly unlikely "blue tsunami" in free and fair elections in November, Trump will have consolidated power entirely — with zero resistance and abundant assistance from the Republican Party.
Which is horrifyingly remarkable enough in itself, but it is truly extraordinary that he is managing to do so virtually without comment in the political press.
Instead, they largely remain stuck on the dead stupid narrative that Trump is somehow an outlier of the Republican Party, rather than its grandest inevitability.
So we never get to the part of the story where Congressional Republicans are actively abetting this vile nightmare. It's just story after story about how Trump is flouting the law or ignoring the law or outright breaking the law, with no attendant commentary on how such behavior is neither normal nor a foregone conclusion.
Trump is not an act of nature. He can be stopped. His party refuses to stop him. That warrants comment.
Trump Starts the Day by Expressing Contempt for the Rule of Law — Again
For the record: Donald Trump selected Jeff Sessions to be his Attorney General. He's repeatedly expressed, however, that he is angry at Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation. Trump regards even the most basic respect for the law as a betrayal. https://t.co/XIHHgQ7YWc
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 14, 2018
Again, Donald Trump tries to suggest that the intelligence community was somehow in the pocket of Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that former FBI Director James Comey made an incomprehensible decision 11 days before the election that critically hurt Clinton.
Again, Trump accuses Clinton of having broken the law, despite the fact that she has been aggressively investigated by the FBI, Congress, and the press over her use of a private email server and found to have done nothing illegal or even unethical.
Again, Trump complains about the Attorney General that he chose, because he is furious that Sessions was publicly shamed into at least the appearance of compliance with the law, instead of exploiting his position to shield Trump from accountability.
Again, Trump expresses contempt for the rule of law and an expectation that he be considered above the law.
All of this, in one tweet, before the day has even truly begun.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker SisterShimmy: "What thing have you done lately that made you feel really proud of yourself?"
Well, yesterday, I finally got back in the pool after being sidelined for over two months. I'm still feeling quite poorly, but finally well enough that I could manage a swim.
I was just hoping to be able to do 40 lengths, and I ended up doing 70 (and a bit) for a full mile. I was exhausted, but in a good way, and I feel very proud of what this fat, disabled, stigmatized, underestimated, and mighty body can do!
Monday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by rain, so much rain.
Recommended Reading:
Brian Kahn at Earther: The Mendocino Complex Fire Has Now Spawned the Biggest Single Blaze in California History
Natasha S. Alford at the Grio: Lezley McSpadden, Mother of Slain Teen Michael Brown, Announces Her Run for Ferguson City Council
Katherine Krueger at Splinter: Twitter Is So Bad Today
Madeleine Gatto at Ms.: [Content Note: Medical harm; misogyny] Confronting the Dangers of Medical Sexism at The Bleeding Edge
Jenn Fang at Teen Vogue: [CN: Racism; appropriation] Yellowface, Whitewashing, and the History of White People Playing Asian Characters
Jen Yamato at the LA Times: Crazy Rich Asians: Why the Historic Hollywood Rom-Com Matters
Monica Roberts at TransGriot: Variety's First Ever Transgender in Hollywood Roundtable
Dustin Rowles at Pajiba: [CN: Domestic abuse] The Chris Hardwick Situation Speaks for Itself
Charline Jao at the Mary Sue: [CN: Harassment; rape culture] Colin Jost and Michael Che Are Excited for a "Not Political" Emmys
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!
Trump Speechifies About the Space Force
Last week, Vice President Mike Pence announced the plan for the creation of a Space Force, a sixth branch of the armed forces that Donald Trump had ordered the Pentagon to establish.
Today, Trump spoke to troops at Fort Drum in New York, where he explained that the United States needs a Space Force to defeat our enemies.
"It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space," Pres. Trump brings up Space Force to troops at Fort Drum, New York. https://t.co/qKWR9Gpv7C pic.twitter.com/YG4SBBHsam
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 13, 2018
Transcript: In order to maintain America's military supremacy, we must always be on the cutting edge. That is why we are also proudly reasserting America's legacy of leadership in space.Well, this is terrifying.
Our foreign competitors and adversaries have already begun weaponizing space, developing new technologies to disrupt vital communications, blind satellites, and just — I mean, they've given me rundowns; I've seen things that you don't even want to see, what they're doing and how advanced they are. We'll be catching them very shortly.
They want to jam transmissions, which threaten our battlefield operations and so many other things. We will be so far ahead of them in a very short period of time. Your head will spin.
China even launched a new military division, to oversee its warfighting programs in space. Just like the air! The land! The sea! Space has become a warfighting domain.
It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space.
Based on this speech, it sounds like Trump envisions having a bunch of starship troopers flying around in space jets shooting laser guns at the space robots our "competitors and adversaries" have launched into the stars.
That's not how satellite communications are disrupted, but never mind the details. The point is to waste a whole lot of money that might otherwise be used to feed or house or provide healthcare to people in need, to give a bunch of kleptocratic chickenhawks boners over "America's military supremacy."
And let us all appreciate the bitter irony that Trump wants to invest enormous resources forming his ridiculous Space Force, ostensibly to protect a country on a planet he is meanwhile abandoning to the devastation of climate change.
It's really something that I have to listen to this vile bozo yammering on about a Space Force on the same day that excessive rainfall exacerbated by climate change has caused flash flooding and required water rescues all over the region where I live.
People are literally having to be rescued from their rooftops by helicopters on the eastern seaboard and people are being displaced and killed by an unfathomably immense wildfire on the west coast, and this dirtbag is banging on about a Space Force while ignoring climate change.
For fuck's sake.
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 571
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: Counterprotesters Win the Day at White Supremacist Demonstration and F#@k Stephen Miller and I Am Very Worried About the Midterms.
Here are some more things in the news today...
The big news this morning is that the FBI has fired Peter Strzok, in what is clearly retaliation for his anti-Trump texts during the election and his willingness to testify about Trump's corruption.
'FBI Deputy Director David L. Bowdich ordered the firing on Friday — even though the director of the FBI office that normally handles employee discipline had decided Strzok should face only a demotion and 60-day suspension." https://t.co/kzGNy0KLuY
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 13, 2018
This is very bad, and I couldn't put it any more succinctly than Chris Sampson did:
Peter Strzok was fired in retaliation for his political views
— Chris Sampson (@TAPSTRIMEDIA) August 13, 2018
Welcome to another chapter in the #AmericanDictatorship
Yes. That sums it up. Sob.
* * *
In other top news today, there is lots of discussion of Omarosa's secret recordings of Donald Trump and John Kelly, and how Trump claimed he had no idea that Kelly had fired her.
The common takeaway is that Trump has no idea what's happening in his own administration, but, in my estimation, that's just more of the same familiar miscalculation about how savvy (and controlling) Trump actually is (and has repeatedly shown himself to be).
Something to consider as we hear reports that Trump has "no idea what's going on" in his own administration: It's exceedingly common for unethical leaders who want to avoid accountability to claim they are unaware of abuses and failures that happen on their watch.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 13, 2018
I don't believe for a moment that Trump doesn't know what's happening in his White House. And I do believe that every "OMG WHAT A DUM-DUM HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING IN HIS OWN WHITE HOUSE" abets him, because he has repeatedly increased his power via underestimation.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 13, 2018
Meanwhile, Trump certainly knew what he was doing here, too...
[Content Note: Misogyny; racism] Anne Gearan at the Washington Post: Trump Poses with Supporter with Sexist Patch at Motorcyclist Event. "'I (heart) Guns & Titties,' reads one patch on the unidentified man's vest. The patch features a drawing of a woman's naked torso and breasts and a pair of handguns atop her nipples. Other patches visible in blown-up versions of images from the rain-drenched event include one that reads 'This is America. We eat meat, we drink beer, and we speak [expletive] English.' Another says, 'Terrorist Hunting Permit.'"
And Trump knows damn well what he's doing here, as well...
[CN: Violence] Julian Borger at the Guardian: UN Human Rights Chief: Trump's Attacks on Press 'Close to Incitement of Violence'.
[Outgoing UN human rights commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein] said the Trump administration's lack of concern about human rights marked a distinct break with previous administrations, and that Trump's own rhetoric aimed at minorities and at the press was redolent of two of the worst eras of the 20th century, the run-up to the two world wars.Chilling.
In an interview with the Guardian, he singled out the US president's repeated designation of the press as "the enemy of the people."
"We began to see a campaign against the media … that could have potentially, and still can, set in motion a chain of events which could quite easily lead to harm being inflicted on journalists just going about their work and potentially some self-censorship," Zeid said. "And in that context, it's getting very close to incitement to violence."
* * *
[CN: Displacement; racism; death. Covers following two tweets.]
BREAKING: Almost 11 months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico concedes more than 1,400 people were killed by the storm last year -- not just the 64 in the official death toll. https://t.co/4N9i9rLrmO
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 9, 2018
"LatinoJustice, a civil rights org, has filed a class-action lawsuit challenging FEMA's decision to end its Transitional Sheltering Assistance program without having a long-term plan for the U.S. citizens who effectively will be rendered homeless." https://t.co/QEmNf5jsgE
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 13, 2018
[CN: Nativism] Ben Leonard at NBC News: Under Trump, Arrests of Undocumented Immigrants with No Criminal Record Have Tripled. "Federal arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record have more than tripled under [Donald] Trump and may still be accelerating, according to an NBC News analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data from his first 14 months in office. The surge has been caused by a new ICE tactic of arresting — without warrants — people who are driving or walking down the street and using large-scale 'sweeps' of likely immigrants, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by immigration rights advocates in Chicago. ICE 'administrative' arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions have spiked 203 percent in the first full 14 months of his presidency compared to the final 14 months of the Obama administration, growing from 19,128 to 58,010, according to NBC's review of ICE figures."
[CN: Nativism; abuse of immigrant children] Elham Khatami at ThinkProgress: Couple's 4-Year-Old Adopted Daughter Facing Deportation Amid U.S. Immigration Crackdown. "Amy and Marco Becerra, who are U.S. citizens, were living in Peru when they decided to adopt their daughter Angela in 2014. A Peruvian court finalized the adoption in 2017, according to a local Fox affiliate. Angela's biological mother, who had developmental disabilities and had been a victim of sex trafficking, had asked the Becerras to care for the girl, Amy Becerra told the news outlet. Because Angela's adoption was a domestic Peruvian one, and not international, the Becerra's had to remain in Peru for more than a year after the adoption was finalized before the United States granted Angela a temporary tourist visa, which expires at the end of the month. With weeks to go before the visa expiration, their daughter's pending immigration application was denied without explanation, meaning Angela would be undocumented come September 1."
[CN: Carcerality; exploitation; wildfires] catherine lizette gonzalez at Colorlines: California Uses Prison Labor to Battle Dangerous Wildfires. "Deadly wildfires have been blazing through California for nearly a month. Spanning more than 600,000 acres, the fire is the largest in the state's history. Among the thousands of firefighters battling to contain the flames, there are more than 2,000 incarcerated people, including 58 youth, from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) risking their lives. They are earning just $2 a day."
Relatedly, police have arrested a man suspected of starting what's being called the Holy Fire, and, surprise, he's an anti-government conspiracy theorist. Amelia McDonell-Parry at Rolling Stone: Man Accused of Setting California Fire Is Reportedly Avid Conspiracy Theorist. "JJ MacNab, a writer who focuses on anti-government extremism, gave Clark's eight years of social media history a thorough review and discovered that he'd been active in the 'sovereign citizen' movement since at least 2010, and was a member of an alternative-government group called the Republic of the united States of America (RuSA), which believes that the country has been under the control of an imposter government since 1871. Clark's Facebook activity, she says, suggests he 'believes in just about every kooky conspiracy out there, including QAnon, Pizzagate, Jade Helm 15, flat earth theories, NESARA, Jesuit conservancies, shape-shifting lizard overlords.'"
[CN: Human rights abuses]
U.N. says it has credible reports that China holds A MILLION Uighurs in secret camps https://t.co/n9l9COqbhA @ReutersZengerle
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 11, 2018
[CN: Class warfare] Chris McGreal at the Guardian: Where Even Walmart Won't Go: How Dollar General Took Over Rural America.
"We lasted three years and three days after Dollar General opened," [Doug Nech, owner of Haven's only grocery store, the Foodliner] said. "Sales dropped and just kept dropping. We averaged 225 customers a day before and immediately dropped to about 175. A year ago we were down to 125 a day. Basically we lost 35 to 40% of our sales. I lost a thousand dollars a day in sales in three years."An important read, to understand a huge part of the American economy and why people are struggling to thrive, or even survive.
...Nech calls Dollar General "a cancer" but reserves his anger for Haven's council for subsidising a hugely profitable corporation to compete against him. He asked the council to cut his shop's utility bill to $100 a month until the Foodliner received a matching benefit. It refused, saying that Dollar General had taken advantage of a programme to bring in new business while Nech's was long established.
"It's the principle that they gave them money to come to town."
...In Haven, the former mayor Mike Alfers conceded that the promised financial advantage of Dollar General has largely been lost with the closure of the Foodliner. It is now a fitness centre, with the old grocery store sign still hanging outside. Sales tax revenue for the town rose by more than $60,000 between the years before and after the Dollar General opened. But the Foodliner alone was collecting around $75,000 a year in sales tax which is now gone.
On top of that, Nech paid an annual electricity bill of $37,000, which the city made money on, plus there was the break the council gave Dollar General on its utility bills. It remains to be seen how much business will transfer from the defunct grocery store to the Dollar General but the end result is the Haven's main street is finding it even more of a struggle to survive with the diminished flow of people to pick up groceries.
And finally, a couple of thoughts spawned by the recent celebratory embrace of Trump-opposing conservatives like Rick Wilson, who paved the way for Trump and now lament that we've arrived here:
It's a huge problem that we (cultural "we," not necessarily you and I "we") continually slobber welcomingly over any conservative who even marginally distances themselves from movement conservatism.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2018
We require no introspection, no accountability, no demonstration of even cursory regret, in exchange for treating them as heroes, while people, *especially women*, who have been right and decent all along, are treated like trash.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2018
They're heroes, but a woman who has been resisting their brand of vile politics her whole adult life isn't even worthy of notice.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2018
Or is told to "go away."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
I Am Very Worried About the Midterms
I do not believe we are going to have free and fair elections in November.
Let me be abundantly clear, before I go any further: That does not mean I believe there is no reason to vote. To the absolute contrary, there is urgent need to vote. And there is urgent need to pay attention to how our votes may be compromised ahead of the election, if there is any possibility of making sure that they aren't.
Late last month, I noted that the Republican Party's vast and longterm voter suppression scheme — including but not limited to gerrymandering, voter purges, felon restrictions, Election Day disenfranchisement, and various erosions of voting rights — is a reason this election, like many before it, won't be fair, regardless of Russian interference.
(Side note: Russian interference and/or the interference of other nefarious actors. As I have noted, the very public failure to hold Russia accountable for election meddling not only means that Russia feels empowered to interfere in the midterms, but certainly so does every other state with the capacity and desire to do so. I fully expect that Russia will not be the only foreign state attempting to interfere and/or successfully interfering in the midterm election.)
And yet: Despite a comprehensive voter suppression campaign by the Republican Party, despite Republicans' previous concealment of suspected election interference, despite their refusal to designate election systems as critical infrastructure upon evidence of attempted Russian hacking before the last election, despite almost certain intervention by the Russians and others, despite the sitting president's support of domestic election meddling and his implicit threat to disregard the midterm election result if it does not go in his favor, virtually everyone is behaving as though we are going to have a free and fair election in November.
We are not. That is manifestly apparent. And still there has not emerged a better plan than pretending like everything is normal when it clearly isn't.
We need a better plan.
To be frank, I don't know what that plan looks like, since the majority party in federal governance and in more state legislatures is leading the charge to undermine free and fair elections.
But I do know that we have to start by acknowledging that just showing up to vote on Election Day isn't enough, because our elections are compromised.
I do know that we can't wait until after the election and then tear our hair out when Donald Trump uses the result to consolidate power no matter what the result is.
I do know that we cannot allow the promise of a "blue tsunami" to give people unwarranted hope and keep them complacent, waiting for a solution that can't possibly materialize.
And I do know that we should all be very concerned about this:
"In a room set aside for kid hackers, an 11-year-old girl hacked a replica of the Florida secretary of state’s website within 10 minutes — and changed the results." https://t.co/8Joj4sJJWC
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 12, 2018
And about this:
To be clear: This is but one of many ways that the Republican Party engages in domestic election interference. https://t.co/1hoWBtnlQx pic.twitter.com/g1b4kJhuKO
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 13, 2018
I know that wishing these things away, or pretending they do not exist, will not guarantee us free and fair elections.
And I know that people will respond to this piece by accusing me, like clockwork, of discouraging people from voting. But I utterly refuse to not acknowledge reality. In this age of pernicious, ubiquitous gaslighting about national politics, I'm not going to gaslight myself. Or you.
And personally, I would argue that the Republican Party's intransigent determination to subvert our democracy is more discouraging than my pointing it out, but what the fuck do I know.
I'm going to vote. I am going to vote in every race. I am going to encourage everyone I know to vote and offer to help people get to the polls if they need it and answer every question people throw at me about the elections. Just like I always do.
But I am going to do a lot more between now and then. And if we don't all commit to addressing this reality honestly and meaningfully before Election Day, we might as well not even show up.
And that's the truth. No matter how much it sucks.
Like I've noted previously on this subject: We can't possibly prevent an outcome we refuse to even consider.
So let's make some noise.
F#@k Stephen Miller
[Content Note: Nativism; anti-semitism.]
On the first day of this month, writing about yet another planned reduction in refugee admittance to the U.S., I said of chief White House ghoul Stephen Miller, "I'm so goddamned tired of Stephen Miller. Fuck that guy."
I am hardly the only person who has had it with Miller, a protégé of hardline anti-immigrationists Jeff Sessions and Steve Bannon, and his aggressively despicable nativist scheming on behalf of the Trump Regime.
At Politico, his own uncle, Dr. David S. Glosser, has written an unforgiving and satisfying rebuke of his deplorable nephew. I encourage you to read the entire thing, but here is just an excerpt:
I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, who is an educated man and well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family's life in this country.Having had the misfortune of encountering men like Miller on occasion during my lifetime, I suspect that Dr. Glosser's condemnation will be received by his nephew with the arrogant laughter of indecent men implored to view themselves in a mirror.
I shudder at the thought of what would have become of the Glossers had the same policies Stephen so coolly espouses — the travel ban, the radical decrease in refugees, the separation of children from their parents, and even talk of limiting citizenship for legal immigrants — been in effect when Wolf-Leib made his desperate bid for freedom. The Glossers came to the U.S. just a few years before the fear and prejudice of the "America First" nativists of the day closed U.S. borders to Jewish refugees. Had Wolf-Leib waited, his family would likely have been murdered by the Nazis along with all but seven of the 2,000 Jews who remained in Antopol. I would encourage Stephen to ask himself if the chanting, torch-bearing Nazis of Charlottesville, whose support his boss seems to court so cavalierly, do not envision a similar fate for him.
...Laws bereft of justice are the gateway to tyranny. Today others may be the target, but tomorrow it might just as easily be you or me. History will be the judge, but in the meanwhile the normalization of these policies is rapidly eroding the collective conscience of America.
And I imagine Dr. Glosser knows this. Stephen Miller is already lost. Dr. Glosser's compelling words are for the rest of us who are not.
Counterprotesters Win the Day at White Supremacist Demonstration
[Content Note: White supremacy.]
Yesterday, on the one-year anniversary of the deadly white supremacist action in Charlottesville, a bunch of white supremacists organized an event in D.C. They were, however, utterly overwhelmed by counterprotesters and law enforcement, resulting in pretty terrific headlines like:
Washington Post: White Supremacist Rally Near White House Dwarfed by Thousands of Anti-Hate Protesters.
Politico: Police, Counterprotesters Dramatically Outnumber White Supremacists at Rally.
CNN: White Nationalists Dwarfed by Crowds of Counterprotesters in Washington.
There is a white supremacist in the Oval Office, surrounded by people who abet his vile white supremacist policies, and the power they hold is massive. But yesterday was another very visible and compelling reminder that a majority of We the People continue to reject and fervently resist their agenda.
