Suggested by Shaker Suzy: "Are you a dog person, a cat person, both, or neither?"
I think we all know my answer to that one!
Question of the Day
Throwback Thursdays
I'm not sure which airport this was: Either we were flying home from New York out of Laguardia, or my grandparents were flying home from Chicago out of O'Hare or Midway. We usually flew to New York for Christmas when I was that age, so, based on our cold weather clothing, I'm guessing it was Laguardia, just after New Year's, 1976.
I love how patiently my grandfather held out his hand, as I pulled rocks out of the decor and handed them to him. This likely went on for a ridiculously long time, lol, but he never got impatient with me. He was so kind. I always felt so safe with him.
[Please share your own throwback pix in comments. Just make sure the pix are just of you and/or you have consent to post from other living people in the pic. And please note that they don't have to be pictures from childhood, especially since childhood pix might be difficult for people who come from abusive backgrounds or have transitioned or lots of other reasons. It can be a picture from last week, if that's what works for you. And of course no one should feel obliged to share a picture at all! Only if it's fun!]
For Women, Our "Peak" Isn't Determined by Men
In a strange piece at the New York Times, Maya Salam for some reason re-invigorates evolutionary psychology and MRA talking points to undercut a comedy special she both praises and seems to entirely miss the point of.
The piece begins (emphasis added):
If you haven't watched 'Nanette,' Hannah Gadsby's fearless comedy special on Netflix, do that now. (We'll wait.)I want to first note that I watched Gadsby's comedy special recently and I know exactly how it probably looks to misogynists: A 40-year-old butch-looking woman is not really in her prime. That's absurd. The old bat is clearly just jealous of cute younger women.
In it, Ms. Gadsby takes on the fragility of masculinity — and at one point drills into Pablo Picasso, who, well into his 40s, had an affair with a teenage girl.
Ms. Gadsby, who has a degree in art history, recounted how Picasso justified the relationship by claiming that he and the girl, Marie-Thérèse Walter, were both in their prime. Seething, Ms. Gadsby said: "A 17-year-old girl is never in her prime. Ever! I am in my prime." She is 40.
Which brings me back to Salam's piece. She notes that she was reminded of Gadsby's bit when she heard about a study of an online dating app showing that women's desirability to heterosexual men "peaks" at age 18. This was used to "disprove" Gadsby's claim:
The researchers determined that while men's sexual desirability peaks at age 50, women's starts high at 18 and falls from there.Where Gadsby's piece interrogates the idea that a woman's "peak" is something that is determined by whether or not a man wants to fuck her, Salam seems to concede otherwise. This concession is also made within the title of Salam's piece itself (possibly generated by an editor), that asserts: "For Online Daters, Women Peak at 18 While Men Peak at 50, Study Finds. Oy."
In other words, not so far from the ages of Walter and Picasso."
I don't see a great need for that resigned "oy." It's not, actually, a huge, groundbreaking revelation that many men want to have sex with younger women. This proves jack about when a woman does or does not "peak."
Relatedly, the article goes on to note that men tend to be less attracted to women with postgraduate education and... yeah. No shit. And while Salam cites the weak-sauce evopsych rationale that men just want to have sex with younger, less educated women for childbearing reasons, in my experience, a lot of men don't want to date smart, educated, and/or funny women because they have no fucking clue how to relate to women as peers, let alone actual human beings. (Also related: It's not that women aren't funny. It's that men simply don't want us to be.)
Near the end of her comedy special, after recounting previous experiences of men assaulting her when she was younger, Gadsby declares, "I am in my prime. Would you test your strength out on me?" She defines her peak and, consequently, it's determined by when she feels strong, not by the extent to which men are comfortable or turned on. Indeed, to the contrary, her entire routine as a comedian in her peak does, and should, make many men feel deeply uncomfortable.
It is only now, as a 40-year-old woman, after a lifetime of living within a culture (and profession) that contributed to her inability to process her traumas, that she's able to speak about her experiences on her own terms, while also — by the way — basically inventing a new form of comedy.
So, yes. We know. A lot of men do prefer younger, less educated, less experienced, and less autonomous women to date and fuck. But maybe, strangely enough, women have worth regardless.
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
* * *
I don't have any new recipes to share, as it's been so hot here that we've wanted nothing to eat but cold cereal and cold salads, lol! I will mention, however, that I discovered salmon and walnuts are a smashing combination atop a salad!
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 574
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's War on the Press: The Press Fights Back and Trump Revoked Brennan's Security Clearance Because "Something Had to Be Done."
Here are some more things in the news today...
On the same day that over 300 news organizations are publishing editorials about Donald Trump's attacks on the free press, he tweeted this trash:
THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country....BUT WE ARE WINNING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018
Meanwhile, at his propaganda outlet... JM Rieger at the Washington Post: On Fox News, Robert Mueller Is Often a Bigger Bogeyman Than Vladimir Putin. "When conservative radio host Mark Levin appeared on Fox News' Hannity last week to discuss the latest in the Russia investigation, he ended up baffling even some of his most conservative allies. 'Robert Mueller is a greater threat to this republic and the Constitution than anything Vladimir Putin did during the campaign,' Levin said. ...It also closely aligns with another fringe theory long-pushed by Fox: Mueller is part of a coup d’état to overthrow Trump. No fewer than nine Fox hosts and pundits have suggested as much since February 2017... Fox pundits have also called the investigation a 'witch hunt,' 'illegitimate,' and 'corrupt,' and Hannity called it 'a direct threat to this American republic' on the anniversary of Mueller's appointment."
Speaking of Bob Mueller's investigation... Tom McCarthy at the Guardian: Paul Manafort Trial: Judge Hands Case to Jurors After Closing Arguments. "A Virginia court heard closing arguments Wednesday in the trial of the former Donald Trump campaign chairman on charges of bank fraud, tax fraud, and failure to disclose foreign bank accounts. ...Judge TS Ellis III handed the case to jurors Wednesday evening. Deliberations were scheduled to begin in earnest on Thursday morning on the 18 charges."
In other Russia news, cough..
Mystery Russian satellite's behaviour raises alarm in US https://t.co/gOpxbQ0DzI
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) August 16, 2018
Ugh! Royal AF intercepted 6 Russian bombers over the Black Sea.
— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) August 15, 2018
Also Russia blocked part of the Black Sea, and the State Dept is warning that Russia is close to the annexation of the Azov Sea.
Complete silence from @housegop @senategop pic.twitter.com/1W85K80kae
"In the time since the election, a little-known Trump campaign staffer named Daniel Gelbinovich reached out to a number of Washington lobbyists with an eyebrow-raising ask: to shield a Putin ally from U.S. sanctions." https://t.co/LYryTwv2KH
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 16, 2018
Everything is fine. (Everything is not fine.)
* * *
[Content Note: Nativism; abuse. Covers entire section.]
Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: The Trump Administration Hasn't Shared the Number of Separated Kids Under 5 for More Than a Month. "The family separation story that dominated headlines in June and July has now seemed to have fallen from public consciousness, at least in the communities not directly affected. But the crisis is far from resolved as the government failed to reunite hundreds of families it separated as part of its 'zero tolerance' immigration policy. And one critical question remains: How many kids are still separated from their parents? The government has not updated the public — or the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is representing migrant kids in court — in more than a month on the status of kids under the age 5. In mid-July, they estimated that 45 kids remained separated from their parents."
David Yaffe-Bellany, Jay Root, and Juan Luis García Hernández at the Texas Tribune: Asylum-Seekers Say They Cross the Border Illegally Because They Don't Think They Have Other Options. "Every month, thousands of asylum-seeking families cross the Rio Grande and turn themselves in to Border Patrol rather than line up at a port of entry. Since October, more than 40,000 family members traveling together have presented themselves at the ports of entry without proper documentation; nearly twice that many have crossed into the country illegally over the same time period. ...'If you are seeking asylum for your family, there is no reason to break the law and illegally cross between ports of entry,' Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen declared on Twitter at the height of the family separation crisis in June. But that message ignored the deep-rooted factors — from smuggling practices to the complexities of U.S. immigration law — that drive Central American asylum-seekers to the river, despite the risks of a clandestine crossing."
Hamed Aleaziz at BuzzFeed: The Trump Administration Is Seeking to Restart Thousands of Closed Deportation Cases. "The Trump administration has requested the restarting of thousands of deportation cases that immigration judges previously had suspended, according to statistics provided Wednesday by the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts. So far this fiscal year, attorneys for Immigration and Customs Enforcement have sought the reactivation of nearly 8,000 deportation cases that had been administratively closed — meaning pushed off the court's docket."
* * *
Katelyn Burns at Rewire.News: Trump's Labor Department Is Expanding Its Imposition of Religious Fundamentalism. "The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) moved to further cement the imposition of fundamentalist Christian religious beliefs on economic and employment policies last week through a new directive and an appointment to the federal agency. ...'This is an attempt to encourage businesses to take taxpayer dollars and then fire people for being transgender,' said Harper Jean Tobin, director of policy at the National Center for Transgender Equality in a statement. 'Religious organizations have ample protections under federal law, but they are not allowed to use federal money to discriminate against people. The language of this directive is so broad and so vague because it is part of a long line of attempts by this administration to sow confusion and encourage any employer to act on their worst prejudices.'"
[CN: Domestic violence] Melissa Jeltsen at the Huffington Post: Violence Against Women Act Is About to Expire. "The Violence Against Women Act — which directs the national response to crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking — will expire at the end of September if lawmakers don't act fast. In late July, House Democrats introduced a measure to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA. Then House lawmakers went on recess. When they return on Sept. 4, they will have only a few weeks before the law expires. ...While VAWA was reauthorized in 2000, 2005 and 2013 with bipartisan support, the current House bill does not have a single Republican co-sponsor to date."
Ahead of one of the most historic gubernatorial races in Georgia history, there's plans to close 75 percent of polling locations in a majority black county. https://t.co/fvv8zYKb3Z
— Asma Khalid (@asmamk) August 16, 2018
[CN: Police brutality; racist violence; white supremacy] Breanna Edwards at the Root: Prosecutors Cannot Call Laquan McDonald, 17-Year-Old Shot and Killed by Chicago Cop, a 'Victim' During Murder Trial. "A Chicago judge ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors will be unable to call Laquan McDonald, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer, a victim until closing arguments. ...'Here we have the defense of self-defense. So, if it's justified, justified use of force, then there is no victim,' Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan said. 'Certainly, there is a person that's dead as a result of this tragic situation but that doesn't mean that the person is a victim legally.' ...Gaughan then conceded that prosecutors could use the word 'victim' in closing arguments 'if the evidence supports it.'"
Twitter CEO: “One solution Twitter is exploring is to surround false tweets with factual context.” He also said “an exception generally would be granted to Trump”
— Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) August 16, 2018
So, everyone has to tell the truth except the president. Sure, that makes sense. https://t.co/nIoqsrEuXc
Lawrence Mishel and Jessica Schieder at the Economic Policy Institute: CEO Compensation Surged in 2017. "[I]n 2017 the average CEO of the 350 largest firms in the U.S. received $18.9 million in compensation, a 17.6 percent increase over 2016. The typical worker's compensation remained flat, rising a mere 0.3 percent. ...CEO compensation has grown far faster than stock prices or corporate profits. CEO compensation rose by 979 percent (based on stock options granted) or 1,070 percent (based on stock options realized) between 1978 and 2017. The corresponding 637 percent growth in the stock market (S & P Index) was far lower. Both measures of compensation are substantially greater than the painfully slow 11.2 percent growth in the typical worker's compensation over the same period."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Trump Revoked Brennan's Security Clearance Because "Something Had to Be Done"
Yesterday, Donald Trump revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump Regime.
During the subsequent press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement attributed to Trump that attempted to justify the startling action with myriad explanations, each of which were variations on accusing Brennan of being too unstable to retain access to classified information.
Brennan has, according to the White House, demonstrated "erratic conduct and behavior," he "has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility," he is a liar who perjured himself before Congress, he has "leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations — wild outbursts on the Internet and television," his conduct is "characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary," and he shares "the very aim of our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos."
That sounds like a pretty good description of someone else I can think of, but not John Brennan.
Anyway.
Despite the Trump Regime's best attempt at rationalizing the unprecedented revocation of a former CIA Director's security credentials because he can no longer be trusted with classified materials, Trump once again undermined the entire endeavor during an interview with the Wall Street Journal, notes Aaron Blake at the Washington Post.
It really was the Russia investigation all along.He can't resist. Trump will lie all day long, but the one lie he cannot bear is the one in which his own power and malice are concealed.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted late Wednesday, [Donald] Trump once again gave away the ballgame when it comes to his efforts to impact the probe and tear down its leaders (both current and former). He confessed that his true motivation for revoking former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance was the "rigged witch hunt" that Brennan once "led."
"I call it the rigged witch hunt; [it] is a sham," Trump told the Journal's Peter Nicholas and Michael C. Bender. "And these people led it!"
He added: "So I think it's something that had to be done."
You could be forgiven for having flashbacks to Trump's interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt in the aftermath of his firing last year of James B. Comey as FBI director. Then, as now, the White House offered a series of motivations for the crackdown on a person who was a liability in the Russia probe. Then, as now, it seemed clear what the actual motivation was. And then, as now, Trump appeared to go out and just admit the actual motivation.
He had the power to fire Comey and humiliate Brennan, and he needs the world to know that he did it and why.
And he fears no consequences for making plain his rank abuses of power, because he knows damn well that no one is going to do anything about it. So fearless is he that the statement read by Sanders included the open threats of further abuses of power toward other prominent administration critics:
As part of this review, I am evaluating action with respect to the following individuals: James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.It is a naked threat to current critics and a warning to those who may contemplate raising their voices in resistance to the Trump Regime: We will come for you.
Security clearances for those who still have them may be revoked, and those who have already lost their security clearance may not be able to have it reinstated.
None of this is normal. And none of it is okay.
RIP Aretha Franklin
[Photo: Cecilio Ricardo | U.S. Air Force]
Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin has died at age 76. Her New York Times obituary is here: "When Ms. Franklin sang 'Respect,' the Otis Redding song that became her signature, it was never just about how a woman wanted to be greeted by a spouse coming home from work. It was a demand for equality and freedom and a harbinger of feminism, carried by a voice that would accept nothing less."
Trying to pick a favorite Aretha Franklin song seems impossible, but I really, really love "Think." The version from the Blues Brothers is amazing.
That voice. There will never be another like it.
Trump's War on the Press: The Press Fights Back
Donald Trump has been waging a war on the press since virtually the moment he announced his candidacy in July 2015.
In the first year of his campaign, Trump made "incredible personal attacks on members of the press, openly mocking disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski; saying Fox debate moderator Megyn Kelly had 'blood coming out of her wherever'; ginning up outrage against the press at campaign events; and launching an all-out jeremiad against the media during a press conference, during which he called the press 'sleazy' and 'unbelievably dishonest.'"
He defended his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was accused of physically assaulting a female reporter, in addition to having allegedly "pushing a CNN reporter who tried to ask the candidate a question; physically confronting an aide for a rival campaign in a post-debate spin room; publicly shouting threats over the phone at a restaurant; making sexual comments about female journalists; and calling up women in the campaign press corps late at night to make unwanted romantic advances."
Further, Trump blocked news organizations from his campaign events, revoking the press credentials of established institutions like the Washington Post, because he didn't like their coverage.
This was all before he started screaming "Fake news!" and elevating his war on the press to dangerous levels, as part of a demonstrable pattern Aphra Behn comprehensively documented.
Earlier this week, outgoing UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said that Trump's campaign against the media is "getting very close to incitement to violence" and has become reminiscent of hostility toward the press preceding the two world wars.
Already, we have come to a point where a majority of Republicans now believe that the press is an "enemy of the people."
A majority of Republicans (51%) now regards the media as the enemy of the American people pic.twitter.com/hgWaTOxAf8
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) August 14, 2018
The press is not above criticism. But Donald Trump's war on the free press is not "criticism." It is a sustained campaign to discredit reputable media institutions; to elevate propagandists; to intimidate individual reporters; to silence critics; and to make himself the arbiter of what constitutes "the truth."
This is a chapter right out of the authoritarian's playbook. It is an assault on the U.S. democracy.
Today, more than 300 news organizations in the U.S. and abroad are publishing editorials fighting back against Trump's attacks on the media and defending freedom of the press.
Erin Durkin at the Guardian reports:
The publications are participating in a push organized by the Boston Globe to run coordinated editorials denouncing what the paper called a "dirty war against the free press."The Boston Globe will continue to lead the charge, compiling and sharing many of the editorials being published today. I hope they will consider removing their coverage from behind the paywall, at least for today, but, if you can't view it at their site, you can follow along on Twitter.
As of Wednesday morning, 343 publications had pledged to participate, said Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy managing editor overseeing the opinion page.
The Guardian has also joined the effort and has published an editorial alongside outlets around the United States.
"Donald Trump is not the first U.S. president to attack the press or to feel unfairly treated by it. But he is the first who appears to have a calculated and consistent policy of undermining, delegitimising and even endangering the press's work," the Guardian's editorial says.
...The hundreds of newspapers and sites participating include the New York Times, Chicago Sun Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Miami Herald. A host of smaller papers from cities and towns around the country are also joining in.
See the @GlobeOpinion editorial, and hundreds of editorials from around the country, here: https://t.co/Il3WQL5pzW
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) August 16, 2018
Please feel welcome and encouraged to share recommendations in comments, in addition to your own thoughts about Trump's heinous war on a free press.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Mama_Skywalker: "Did you have a favorite summer project as a kid? I just made pasta with the twins and they liked it."
When I think of childhood summer projects, the thing that comes to mind is learning how to do something. One summer, it was learning to ride a horse. Another summer, it was learning to ride a bike without training wheels. Other summers, it was swimming and roller skating and tubing and skateboarding.
Lots of skinned knees and bumps and bruises, lol.
Because I'm not cut out for outdoors activities, some of these "stuck" more than others: The horseback riding, because the horse is doing most of the work; the roller skating, because I could do it inside at the local rink; the swimming, because I stay cool, even outdoors. But I loved all of them.
Wednesday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by a bit of sunshine.
Recommended Reading:
Sara Williams at Ms.: [Content Note: Unsafe abortion; death] Daring to Remember: What Nursing School Taught Me About Abortion
Yessenia Funes at Earther: [CN: Environmental racism] The Dakota Access Pipeline Wants to Ship Even More Oil Across Tribal Lands
Brian Kahn at Earther: [CN: Animal harm] Climate Change Is Cooking the Oceans
Simon Critchley at the New York Times: Revelation of a Liverpool Soccer Fan
Megh Wright at Vulture: Hannah Gadsby to Bless Us with Wisdom in New Memoir Ten Steps to Nanette
Laura Sirikul at the Nerds of Color: The Meg Director Jon Turtletaub Says There's No Excuse for a Non-Diverse Cast
Dorothy Snarker at Dorothy Surrenders: Love, Decency
Rochelle Johnson at Beauticurve: Summer Fruits
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
TV Corner: Making It
So, is anyone else watching the crafting competition Making It on NBC? It's a six-episode summer series, hosted by Parks and Recreation pals Amy Poehler, who is admittedly not an expert crafter, and Nick Offerman, a master craftsman who is well-known for his glorious woodworking, including the making of his own canoes. (Really.)
The show follows a similar formula to other creative competitions which have become a television staple. If you've watched Project Runway or Face Off or Kids Baking Championship, you know the drill: Eight contestants — or "Makers" — with expertise in various types of craftspersonship compete each week for the chance to win the title of master crafter and a $100,000 prize.
The episodes are broken into two rounds: In the first challenge, the Faster Craft, the makers have to craft something inventive in a short amount of time. Whoever wins gets a patch! Like a Girl Scout patch, featuring a cute emblem representing the specific challenge. In the second challenge, the Master Craft, the makers have to craft a themed collection, typically two large pieces, on a given topic. Whoever wins gets a patch! Whoever loses, as determined by judges Simon Doonan and Dayna Isom Johnson, gets eliminated.
It's all pretty familiar — except that there's no manufactured drama among the contestants. There's no sabotage and no shit-talking. There are no "talking heads" segments in which competitors are obliged to cattily comment on their opponents' work or personality.
It's all very positive and fun! I mean, it's eight adults who are getting the coolest vacation ever where they get to hang out with Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman and make elaborate crafts for a couple of weeks and have a chance at winning a bundle of cash! PLUS CUTE PATCHES! Of course they're having the time of their lives, and the show lets us see that and have some fun with them for an hour a week.
It's all brightly colored crafting and glitter and stories about finding one's family of choice and falling in love and Amy Poehler eating sugar and Nick Offerman searching for meat and everyone being really nice to each other in a big barn in a beautiful outdoor setting.
And even when someone gets eliminated, we get to see them hanging out with Amy and Nick in a house they pretend to live in. Highly adorable.
Making It is basically the absolute opposite of cruel people destroying stuff we value, which makes it the perfect show that we all need right now: Kind people building lovely things.
It's one of my favorite hours of the week.
This Is Very Bad
For some time, Donald Trump has been threatening to yank the security clearances of anyone from previous administrations who publicly criticize him. To do so would be such an irrefutable authoritarian escalation that even Speaker Paul Ryan was obliged to comment that surely Trump was just "trolling people."
He was not.
Today, Trump revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump Regime.
Just yesterday, in fact, Brennan tweeted at Trump: "It's astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, and probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, and honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation."
We have now crossed yet another line from which there will not be easy return, especially because the majority party in Congress abets Trump's tyranny.
Donald Trump revokes former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance because Brennan is a critic of Trump.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 15, 2018
And Republicans keep silent about this authoritarian behavior because Trump is and has never been an anomaly of the Republican Party, but its inevitable final boss.
This is very bad. And I regret to observe that it's a stark signal things are only going to continue to get worse.
Daily Dose of Cute
We Resist: Day 573
One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures (plus the occasional non-Republican who obliges us to resist their nonsense, too, like we don't have enough to worry about) is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.
So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.
Stay engaged. Stay vigilant. Resist.
* * *
Earlier today by me: Today, We Celebrate 80 Years of Badassery and Election Thread and Hundreds of Priests and Thousands of Victims: Catholic Church Abuse and Cover-Up Detailed in Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report.
Here are some more things in the news today...
[Content Note: Racism; misogynoir. Covers whole section.]
There is a long history of racists referring to Black people as dogs & other animals. Whether it’s dehumanizing us, or comparing Black women’s fertility to dog breeding—or Black women having abortions to killing puppies as Rep. King did—or inciting violence against us using dogs. https://t.co/sPkLKE5hk2
— Renee Bracey Sherman (@RBraceySherman) August 14, 2018
Susan B. Glasser at the New Yorker: Dog Days: Trump and His Toxic Twitter Insults of Omarosa. "And so, once again, we are left with a public debate over just how low Trump has sunk: until now, Trump has used the Twitter insult 'dog' to demean primarily white men. What did he mean by applying it to an African-American woman? Was he being racist, sexist, some toxic combination of the two? Or merely horrible? ...The White House response is to [pathetically] point out, as the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, did Tuesday, that Trump is 'equal opportunity' in his insults."
That is exactly the wrong way to talk about Trump's insult, by indulging the ludicrous pretense that all words carry the same meaning no matter at whom they are directed based on the intent of the person who deploys them. That's not how it works.
Calling a white man a "dog" doesn't have the same meaning, irrespective of Trump's intent (and, seriously, fuck anyone who is still giving Donald Trump the benefit of good will regarding his intentions at this point). No matter how Trump intended it, the impact is what matters — and the impact cannot be ripped from its context: a culture in which women are demeaned as "bitches" and people of color are routinely dehumanized as animals, including by the same man who called Omarosa a dog.
Trump didn't utter the insult into a vacuum.
As Chair of the African-American Studies Department at Princeton University Eddie S. Glaude Jr. told Michael D. Shear and Eileen Sullivan at the New York Times: "It's important to understand the legacy, the history of the attack on black intelligence as a way of justifying our dehumanization."
Trust that a eugenics aficionado like Donald Trump understands that legacy very well. He's counting on the fact that the rest of us don't.
Me, almost exactly one year ago today, when we were having the same fucking conversation about whether Donald Trump is *really* racist. pic.twitter.com/lcl7uCQu0P
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 15, 2018
That was August 17 of last year. We are living in a cuckoo clock.
* * *
Niels Lesniewski at Roll Call: Trump Won't Follow Congressional Directives on Russia and Crimea.
Donald Trump objects to an effort by Congress to prevent his administration from recognizing Crimea as part of Russia.This is a very big deal and a significant concern. And it's barely a blip on the radar. This is not normal. It is profoundly alarming. And it's an indication of how significantly Trump has eroded the boundary of what is tolerable from a sitting U.S. president in less than two years that it doesn't even seem to matter, except to a bunch of nerds like me with no power to do a damn thing about it beyond make it visible and record it for posterity.
...Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a formal declaration issued last month that the United States continued to recognize Crimea as part of Ukraine.
"As we did in the Welles Declaration in 1940, the United States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin's claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law," Pompeo said in his July 25 statement. "In concert with allies, partners, and the international community, the United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored."
But, as is often the case with defense authorization bills regardless of who is in the White House, Trump issued a signing statement Monday night saying that his administration wouldn't be bound by the will on Congress on provisions that he believes interfere with executive branch powers — including decisions about the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Stephanie Murray at Politico: Kremlin Confirms Bolton Meeting with Russian Officials Next Week. "White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders first told reporters at her Tuesday press briefing that Bolton would meet with Russian officials next week in Geneva. The national security adviser plans to sit down with representatives from several countries in the coming week, Sanders said. The planned meeting with Russian officials is the first since [Donald] Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Helsinki, Finland, earlier this summer. 'Ambassador Bolton will meet with officials in Israel and Ukraine as well as with his Russian counterpart in Geneva as a follow-up to the Helsinki summit to discuss a range of important national security issues,' Sanders said." Oh.
Emma Loop and Jason Leopold at BuzzFeed: Senate Intel Wants to Follow the Money in the Russia Probe, But Treasury Isn't Making That Easy. "In its investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election, the Senate Intelligence Committee has spent more than a year trying to follow the money. But its efforts, unparalleled on Capitol Hill, have been hampered by a surprising force: the US Treasury Department, which has delayed turning over crucial financial records and refused to provide an expert to help make sense of the complex money trail. Even some of the department's own personnel have questioned whether Treasury is intentionally hamstringing the investigation."
* * *
Philip Bump at the Washington Post: Trump's Remarkable Admission on the Central Qualification for White House Staffers. "What is the one quality Manigault Newman possessed that was sufficient for Trump to argue she keep her job [even after Kelly complained about her]? She praised Trump. That was it. Maybe there were other things, too, but it is hard to see what they might have been. Trump's disinterest in shades of nuance means he is making an explicitly negative case about Manigault Newman's tenure, perhaps obscuring useful things she actually did. Her tenure in the White House, though, offered few public examples of her work product, beneficial or not, and Trump's tweets on Monday morning certainly did not include any suggestion she was valuable as an employee in any other way. The sole reason Trump wanted to keep her in her position, according to Trump, is she praised him."
Barbara Starr at CNN: Pentagon Spokeswoman Under Investigation for Misusing Staff, Retaliating Against Complaints. "One of Defense Secretary James Mattis' most senior civilian advisers is being investigated by the Defense Department Office of Inspector General for allegedly retaliating against staff members after she used some of them to conduct her personal errands and business matters, according to four sources familiar with the probe. Dana White, the Trump administration political appointee who serves as the Pentagon's chief spokeswoman, has been under investigation for several weeks after multiple complaints were filed against her. White is alleged to have misused support staff, asking them, among other things, to fetch her drycleaning, run to the pharmacy for her and work on her mortgage paperwork. Staffers also charge that she inappropriately transferred personnel after they filed complaints about her."
EXCLUSIVE: Diplomats who have children with disabilities and mental health issues say Mike Pompeo has been ignoring their pleas for help in a struggle they’ve had for more than a year against the erosion of their medical and education benefits.https://t.co/jMFtPOInhG
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) August 15, 2018
[CN: Nazism] Andy Towle at Towleroad: 'Proud' Roger Stone Shares Photo of Trump and Allies Wearing 'Space Force' Swastika-Emblazoned Uniforms. "Trump ally and confidante Roger Stone posted a photo to Instagram (since deleted) which shows Trump and his allies — Senator Devin Nunes (R-CA), Rudy Giuliani, Stone, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mike Pence, and Sean Hannity — dressed up in 'Space Force' uniforms emblazoned with swastikas. Wrote Stone: 'I love this — proud to be in this crew — but the only lies being told are by liberal scumbags.'"
"Environmental and public health groups are convinced that it’s almost impossible to overstate how bad Brett Kavanaugh would be for the environment if he gets confirmed to the Supreme Court." https://t.co/4QciFHvjC5
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 15, 2018
Kate Riga at TPM: EPA to Unveil New Plan Which Reverses Obama-Era Coal Power Plant Regulation. "The proposal would let states write their own lax regulations, or opt out of regulations altogether, for coal-burning power plants. The EPA has reportedly acknowledged that the new proposal would result in increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants, undermining President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan. The plan essentially will disregard regulations to let the plants burn more coal at a cost-efficient pace, thus encouraging businesses to use them instead of sources that don't harm the environment."
[CN: Class warfare] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Medicaid Work Requirements to Cause over 5,000 Low-Income Arkansans to Lose Health Care. "In Arkansas, residents on Medicaid need to report 80-hours-a-month of work or service online to keep their health insurance under new requirements. So far, more than 5,000 people have failed to do so, jeopardizing their continuous coverage. ...Federal officials say the requirement is 'about giving people an opportunity to work,' but the data doesn't demonstrate this so far. In fact, state data appears to confirm that most people on Medicaid are working or are too frail to work, as other analyses have also demonstrated."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Hundreds of Priests and Thousands of Victims: Catholic Church Abuse and Cover-Up Detailed in Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report
[Content Note: Sex abuse by clergy; descriptions of assault and grooming.]
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro held a press conference at which he discussed the release of a 1,356-page grand jury report "alleging decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups by Roman Catholic officials across the state." The document "is the culmination of the Pa. Attorney General Office's investigation into seven decades of allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, and Scranton. The two other Pennsylvanian Catholic dioceses of Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown were also investigated in recent years."
Video of the entire press conference is below. (I haven't yet been able to locate a complete transcript.) It is incredibly difficult viewing, as Shapiro details some of the abuses, which are nearly unfathomable in scope, and some of the mechanisms by which the subsequent cover-up was orchestrated.
The abuse Shapiro describes is so brazen. It is abuse committed by bold abusers who knew they would be protected, and that their victims would not.
Shapiro notes that the grand jury report is the "largest, most comprehensive report into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church ever produced in the United States," and further that the victims of this vast conspiracy were let down both by the church and by law enforcement — a truth made evident by the fact that some of these allegations date back seven decades. That they have been failed so hard and so long by the people meant to protect them makes Shapiro's determination to stop this malice, and hold people accountable for it, all the more moving.
There is excellent coverage at the Philadelphia Inquirer, for anyone who would like to read more (please note that there are descriptions of assaults at the links):
Jeremy Roebuck, Angela Couloumbis, and Liz Navratil: Pennsylvania Catholic Church Sex Abuse Report Names Hundreds of Priests, Accuses Leaders of Cover-Up: 'They Hid It All.'
In all, more than 300 priests were singled out — though some names remain redacted amid legal wrangling over the fairness of the investigation and the public report. Dozens of church superiors — including some now in prominent posts nationally — were also named as complicit.Craig R. McCoy: In Scathing Report, Grand Jury Says Priest Abuse Cover-Up Began at the Top. "The grand jury said the state's bishops had misused their power and enabled the victimization of children: transferring abusive priests, failing to notify police of their crimes, misleading the public about their misconduct, and, in the case of one alleged molester, even officiating at his funeral."
"All of [the victims] were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institutions above all," the report says. "Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible not only did nothing: They hid it all."
The abuse "was rampant and widespread," Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference in the state Capitol. "It touched every diocese, and it is horrifying."
David Gambacorta: Priests Ran Child P0rn Ring in Pittsburgh Diocese. "The men gave a specific gift to children they favored, something they could wear that would mark them as prime targets for abuse. [Rev. George Zirwas] 'had told me that they, the priests, would give their boys, their altar boys, or their favorite boys these crosses,' George told the grand jury. 'So he gave me a big gold cross to wear.'"
And let us not forget that, despite his (broken) promises to meaningfully address sex abuse in the Catholic Church, the chronically overestimated Pope Francis was, as recently as January of this year, accusing victims of being liars. The cover-up does indeed go right to the very top.
Pope Francis "has struggled to get a grip on the scandal that has gravely weakened the Catholic church's moral authority. Despite calling for 'decisive action' when he was elected as pontiff in 2013, he has failed to turn that into a reality." No kidding. https://t.co/1wTAi4Qbgb
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 15, 2018
I am grateful to my state's passionate Attorney General Josh Shapiro and everyone else who has played a role in this long-time-coming report for their hard work on a subject that is difficult for so many reasons, not least of which because of intimidation from the Catholic Church.
I take up space in solidarity with all of the survivors, whether they have participated in the process, didn't feel safe or ready to participate, or have never breathed a word of what was done to them.
And I implore anyone who has insisted that clergy abuse in the Catholic Church is just about "a few bad apples" to seriously reexamine your position. Because it is dangerously wrong.
Election Thread
Minnesota, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Vermont had primary races yesterday. Here's a thread to talk about any and all of the results that you found exciting or disappointing.
A couple bits of good news I saw: Christine Hallquist won the gubernatorial Democratic primary in Vermont to become the first openly transgender candidate for governor to be supported by a major party; Ilhan Omar won her primary in Minnesota and is now positioned to be one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress; and Jahana Hayes won her primary in Connecticut and, if she wins her seat in November, she'll make history as Connecticut's first Black Congresswoman. Congratulations, ladies!
In not so great news: Rep. Keith Ellison won the Democratic nomination in the Minnesota Attorney General's race, despite allegations of domestic violence. And Senator Bernie Sanders won the Democratic nomination for his Senate seat in Vermont but is poised to pull his usual bullshit of now declining to run as a Democrat and instead run as an independent. In case you're not familiar with Sanders' history, this is what he does every time, in order to block a meaningful Democratic challenger.
And once again: I'm appalled (though unsurprised) by how much not understanding basic politics I'm seeing on social media this morning, specifically in the form of people talking about how Democrats did versus Republicans. Folks, these are primaries. They determine which Democrats and which Republicans will run against each other in the general election.
There is no shame in being confused. Except when you're positioning yourself as some kind of expert and clearly don't even know what the hell the objective of a primary actually is. And there is a lot of that nonsense going around. Sigh.
Did you vote yesterday? Did your candidates win? Tell all in comments.
Today, We Celebrate 80 Years of Badassery
Happy 80th birthday, @RepMaxineWaters! ❤️🔥🌟 pic.twitter.com/GYm8tPloRM
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 15, 2018
Rep. Waters arrived in the United States Congress in 1990 with over 79% of the popular vote in her district and a distinguished career of accomplishments in the California State Assembly. She got right to work being awesome.
Below, a clip from 1995 of Rep. Waters on the House floor, talking about then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich with her special brand of fiery indignation.
Waters is recognized by the chamber and begins to speak.Twenty-three years ago, Rep. Waters was calling for accountability for unethical Republican leadership. She has been on the right side of history, and she's got the receipts.
No, we have not forgotten — we thought you had — but finally, after the filing of many complaints against Speaker Newt Gingrich and fourteen months later, the House Ethics Committee found the Speaker guilty guilty guilty on one, two, three counts of violating House rules by misusing official resources, and the Committee appointed a special outside counsel to investigate another serious charge about the Speaker's political GOPAC operation.
Well, it's about time! Believe me: The American public does not appreciate double standards. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. No one should be so big, so important, so powerful they can violate the rules of this House and the laws of this country without suffering the consequences.
Newt may be Speaker; however, he too must account for any and all wrongdoing. It's about time. Let's get on with the business of finding out who Newt Gingrich really is.
Thank you for representing We the People, Rep. Waters. Happy birthday. The world is a better place because you're in it.
