Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker GoldFishy: "What musical act would you really love to see in person?"
Virtually every band or singer I've ever loved, I've managed to see live at least once (provided they were alive and still touring). The one glaring exception, for no reason other than it's just never worked out, is R.E.M.
Monday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by Greek yogurt.
Recommended Reading:
Beth Elderkin at io9: N.K Jemisin Makes Hugo Awards History with Latest Best Novel Win
Alicia Kay with Tarana Burke at Ms.: [Content Note: Rape culture] Tarana Burke Is Taking the #MeToo Movement Back to School
Stephen Burgen at the Guardian: Fears for Environment in Spain as Pigs Outnumber People
Josie Totah at Time: My Name Is Josie Totah — and I'm Ready to Be Free
Kayleigh Donaldson at Pajiba: [CN: Fat hatred; appropriation] No, Debby Ryan, the Fat Suit in Insatiable Is Not Okay
Katie Kilkenny at the Hollywood Reporter: [CN: Sexual harassment; misogyny] Rosamund Pike Was Asked to Strip for Die Another Day Audition
Charline Jao at the Mary Sue: [CN: References to misogynist objectification] "Fuck That Guy": Michael Shannon, King of Movie Villains, Will Never Play Donald Trump
Julie Muncy at io9: Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder Might Be Married, and It's All Dracula's Fault
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Trump Publicly Engages in Racism. Again.
[Content Note: Nativism; racism.]
This is one of many reasons why we don't need a goddamned recording of Donald Trump using a racial slur to know that he is racist:
“You’re not nervous are you?” Trump says, calling a Hispanic-looking immigration official to the podium.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) August 20, 2018
“Speaks perfect English,” Trump says of the agent, who arrested someone for trying to illegally smuggle 78 immigrants into the US. pic.twitter.com/AlZZjRb1CI
The immigration official who Trump cited for speaking “perfect English” was US Border Patrol agent Adrian Anzaldua.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) August 20, 2018
Here's the video. Trump talking about a border patrol agent: "Come here. You're not nervous, right? Speaks perfect English." (via Fox) pic.twitter.com/pJh1T30PvY
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 20, 2018
Transcript: Adrian, come here, I want to ask you a question. So, how did you— Come here, come here. You're not nervous, are you? [laughter] Speaks perfect English. Come here.Dear god. That was at an event honoring members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, known as the CBP — which Trump repeatedly misstated as "CBC" during the event.
One year ago, when we were having the same fucking conversation about whether Donald Trump is really racist, I wrote:
Someone does not live a life careening from housing discrimination against Black applicants, to public musings on eugenics and the superiority of one's own genes, to a crusade against exonerated men of color, to a birther campaign against the nation's first Black president, to a presidential announcement address steeped in racism and nativism, to a campaign slogan that's dogwhistled white supremacy, to anti-Semitic tweets and sloganeering, to an attack on a judge because of his ethnicity, to an entire campaign exploiting racial and xenophobic fears, to a presidential agenda centered around toxic attacks on immigrants and Muslims and demonizing cities with significant Black and/or immigrant populations, to defending Confederate monuments, and everything that has come before and in between, if one is merely obtuse.So of course he is engaging in nativism during a ceremony to honor agents who are faithfully executing his nativist agenda.
Trump's record on race is not one of accidental gaffes. It is one of a lifetime commitment to white supremacy.
That he is a racist is not a question. He is.
The only question is: What are we going to do about it? Step One is never again giving this man the benefit of the doubt that he is anything but the white supremacist he manifestly is.
The Back to School Thread
Today is the first day of school in a number of places around the U.S., so here is a thread for all things back-to-school related.
Parents who are seeing kids off to school for the first time, or to a new school; teachers who are excited to go back or dreading going back; students at any level of their education... Anxiety, excitement, complaints about the cost of supplies or tuition, joy about seeing a child thrive... Have at it!
For anyone who is headed into a classroom, whether as an instructor or a student, I wish all of you well. Hope the year is good for you. ♥
Daily Dose of Cute
humans roll out freshly laundered runners for the spindly-legged elder.
In his older age, Dudley has gotten really unstable on hardwood and tile floors, so we now have a patchwork of runners throughout the house to make it safer for him to traverse the uncarpeted bits. It's not only less stressful for him as he gallops about the place, but it helps keep a lid on muddy paws, so win-win!
Also: In addition to needing his runners in place to reenter the house, he also requires Zelda to go through the door first. If he stays out longer than she does, which is very rare, I have to send her back out so he can follow her in. "Go get Dudley!" I tell her, and she runs back out, positions herself in front of him, and runs back in with him directly behind. She is such a good girl, and they are so darn 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 578
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: Good Morning! Or Whatever Time of Day It Is in Your Part of the World! and Pope Francis Says Words; Takes No Action.
Here are some more things in the news today...
[Content Note: Nativism; abuse] When, following weeks of criticism for family separations, Donald Trump signed an executive order to "keep the families together" without rescinding his aggressively cruel "zero tolerance" policy at the southern border, I warned that it was a move that exploited our concern for undocumented immigrant families in order to lay the groundwork for family detention camps. I hoped that I was wrong, but.
Emma Platoff at the Texas Tribune: Judge Says Reunited Migrant Families Can Now Face a Choice: Stay Locked up Together, or Separate Again.
A federal judge says the government can now leave it up to immigrant parents: Keep your children locked up with you in an immigration detention center, or send them miles or states away to be cared for in a government-contracted shelter.This is so bad. And because Trump was immediately granted the benefit of the doubt and misleadingly favorable headlines when he signed that executive order, sans the scrutiny that made it obvious that this was the plan all along, most of the public, if they are paying attention to this issue at all, believe that Trump "fixed" the problem — and don't understand at all that families may now be detained together in indefinite detention camps within this nation's borders.
For months, the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy split parents and children who crossed the border illegally, inspiring a national backlash and, in June, a federal court order that migrant families must be kept together, and that families who were already separated must be reunited.
But keeping all those families together presented a problem for the federal government: It can't, under a longstanding legal constraint called the Flores settlement, detain children in immigration detention centers for longer than 20 days — far less than the months or years it can take to process an asylum case.
More than three weeks after the government's deadline for reuniting thousands of families split at the border, it has begun to butt up against that 20-day restriction. And for now, the government is not permitted to deport reunited families — also the result of a court order this week.
The Thursday court order gives the government some measure of a solution to that dilemma: U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw has agreed that families can waive that 20-day right and other Flores guarantees, keeping their children with them in immigration detention centers. Or they themselves can choose to re-separate. That means the government won't be forced to violate the Flores settlement as they wait for permission to deport some migrant families.
The Department of Justice did not return a request for comment Friday. But last month, Justice Department lawyer Scott Stewart said the government's goal is ensuring that migrant parents who would otherwise have been detained can't "bootstrap a right to release" just because they're reunited with their children.
* * *
"In the past" is exactly why it won't matter to Trump supporters even if a recording surfaces of Trump using a racial slur. https://t.co/JXXe6Rgixl
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 20, 2018
S.V. Date at the Huffington Post: Trump Says He Has 'Obliterated' ISIS; the Terror Group Seems Not to Have Noticed. "While [Donald] Trump claims he has 'eradicated,' 'wiped out,' and even 'absolutely obliterated' ISIS, there is one group that has ignored the president's words: the terrorists themselves. According to recent estimates by the United Nations and the U.S. Defense Department's inspector general, the self-described Islamic State has between 20,000 and 31,100 fighters ― figures nearly identical to CIA estimates of the terror group's strength in 2014 when it was near its zenith. ...'Despite the damage to bureaucratic structures of the so-called 'caliphate,' the collective discipline of ISIL is intact,' according to a July 27 report commissioned by the U.N. Security Council."
[CN: Homophobia] Andy Towle at Towleroad: Trump SCOTUS Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Praises Scalia's Dissent on Marriage Equality Ruling. "Not that one needs much convincing that Trump's SCOTUS nominee would turn back the clock on marriage equality, but...a new video posted by Senate Democrats [shows Brett Kavanaugh praising] Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent on the Obergefell marriage equality ruling."
Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Half of Sick Americans Are Uninsured or Have Affordability Problems Despite Health Coverage. "Nearly one in two sick Americans cannot afford health care, even those with health insurance, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. ...'We still have an uninsured problem in the U.S., but we have a far broader health care affordability problem that hits sick people especially hard,' writes Kaiser Family Foundation Drew Altman in his Axios column published Monday. Indeed, nearly half of all people in poor or fair health — or 46.4 percent — are either uninsured or have affordability problems despite having health insurance. 'It's not surprising that people who are sicker and need more care would have more problems paying for it. But arguably an insurance system should work best for people who need it the most,' Altman added."
"The idea of an orbital missile shield keeps on resurfacing because people want it to work, not necessarily because it can work," Victoria Samson, a space expert with the Secure World Foundation in Colorado, said. https://t.co/tJ8M0wJWhg
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 20, 2018
Mark Hand at ThinkProgress: Zinke Caught Red-Handed Trying to Sell off Public Lands. "Environmental groups caught the Department of the Interior trying to sell off part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, despite a pledge by Secretary Ryan Zinke never to put public lands up for sale. After massive backlash from environmental groups and the public, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) late Friday canceled all plans to sell off the land. ...'We believe the Department only walked it back because those who are closely reading the management plans brought this to light,' Nicole Croft, executive director of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, said in a statement in response to the Interior Department changing its mind. Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners is a nonprofit group that works to protect the landscape and wildlife habitats the of the national monument." Huzzah!
* * *
"Rising temperatures in the Arctic have slowed the circulation of the jet stream and other giant planetary winds, says the paper, which means high and low pressure fronts are getting stuck and weather is less able to moderate itself." https://t.co/NbdcsBcXWE
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 20, 2018
[CN: Police misconduct; self-harm] Breanna Edwards at the Root: Family, Protesters Demand Answers Following Death of 15-Year-Old Black Teen Who Police Say Killed Himself Following Foot Chase. "More than 100 people gathered in Chicago on Sunday evening to protest the death of Steven Rosenthal, a 15-year-old boy who police say shot himself in the stairwell of his West Side home, following a brief chase with officers. Police say that officers tried to question the teen after seeing him with the weapon just before 7 p.m. on Friday. The teen ran, officers gave chase, and a short time later, Rosenthal had sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the head, the Chicago Tribune reports. The medical examiner's office ruled the death a suicide. However, Rosenthal's family members are not so convinced, rejecting the notion that the teen would have killed himself, and blaming officers instead, whom they accused of shooting the teen." It's also possible, of course, that Rosenthal accidentally shot himself while trying to flee police chasing him through the stairwell.
Officials are defending closing almost all of the polling places in a majority black county in Georgia, saying the locations aren't compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
— Sam Levine (@srl) August 17, 2018
The ACLU and local residents think their justification is absurd https://t.co/sLR1K8sxlF
Remember that, in case Stacey Abrams loses her bid for the governorship of Georgia and people try to argue it's because she didn't pander sufficiently to straight white cis men.
* * *
[CN: Sexual assault; rape culture. Covers entire section.]
Staff and agencies at the Guardian: Asia Argento Accused of Paying off Actor Who Says She Sexually Assaulted Him at Age 17. "One of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment recently settled a complaint filed against her by a young actor and musician who said she sexually assaulted him when he was 17, the New York Times reported. Asia Argento, 42, settled the notice of intent to sue filed by Jimmy Bennett, who is now 22, for $380,000 shortly after she said last October that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her, the Times reported. Argento and Bennett co-starred in a 2004 film The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, in which Argento played Bennett's mother. Bennett says in the notice that he [was assaulted by] Argento in a California hotel in 2013. The age of consent in California is 18."
Lisa Ryan at the Cut: The Asia Argento Assault Allegations Shouldn't Undermine #MeToo. "Since the story came out, some have insinuated that the accusation undermines the #MeToo movement. ...It's imperative that we do not let this be used as an excuse to derail the #MeToo cause. Asia Argento is both a survivor and perpetrator of sexual assault — but that doesn't mean her accusations against Weinstein should be dismissed. At the same time, Argento's advocacy also does not mean that she should not be held accountable for her actions. If anything, the new allegation shows the pervasiveness of sexual violence and the need for a comprehensive approach to addressing it."
Correct. That said, as I noted on Friday, it's probably a wise idea to elevate as movement leaders only people who have a long, demonstrated record of integrity. For a whole lot of reasons.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
What I'm Reading Now
A thread for sharing what we're currently reading: Fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, historical fiction, biographies, romance, fanfic, comic books, graphic novels, longform journalism, research papers, stuff for pleasure, stuff for work, whatever.
I just started Trade Me by Courtney Milan. I read Hold Me last year, and loved it. (Yes, I know I read them out of order! Whoooooops!) So I'm finally getting around to another book in the Cyclone series, and I'm very excited about it!
What are you reading now?
Pope Francis Says Words; Takes No Action
[Content Note: Sex abuse by clergy.]
Last week, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office issued an extensive, gruesome grand jury report, detailing decades of abuse by Catholic clergy and subsequent cover-ups by the Catholic Church in the state.
Today, Pope Francis issued a letter in which he condemns the abuse and cover-up and wrote: "Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such [abuses] from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated."
Strong words from someone who was publicly accusing victims of being liars just earlier this year.
But, as we all know, Pope Francis is always there with the strong words to get the headlines and attendant commentary about how progressive he is.
Which he is indeed getting today. In abundance.
The problem is, there's no follow-through on those words; no action to back them up.
Francis did not lay out any concrete steps the Vatican would take, but he acknowledged that systemic change is needed.Oh.
I guess it'll just happen my magic if we all pray hard enough for it to happen.
As I have been saying for many years, the difference in this pontiff is not that he's actually more progressive, but that he's more media-savvy.
I take up space in solidarity with the survivors of abuse, and I hope that they will get more than cynical words from the leader of the institution that enabled their abusers and concealed their abuse.
Good Morning! Or Whatever Time of Day It Is in Your Part of the World!
Donald Trump is ranting and raving on Twitter in another attempt to obstruct justice, with plenty of spelling errors so people will continue to believe and say that he's too stupid to be overseeing the erosion of the American Democracy into an authoritarian state.
Federal investigators believe former Trump attorney Michael Cohen "committed bank and tax fraud" and "have zeroed in on well over $20 million in loans obtained by taxi businesses that he and his family own" — and, by way of reminder, Cohen's taxu business partner, Evgeny Freidman, is a Russian immigrant who is cooperating with Bob Mueller's investigation, and maybe all of this will matter someday.
[Content Note: White supremacy] A Trump speechwriter has been fired for having spoken at a "white nationalist" conference two years ago, and, let's be honest, it's only because John Kelly wanted to avoid the bad press about it, not because there are any anti-racist principles governing any decisions in Trump's White House.
Rudy Giuliani is out there still telling blatant lies about the Trump campaign and collusion with Russia, in his continuing campaign to obfuscate the truth and make sure we're talking about how Giuliani's a liar and not the collusion and corruption about which he's lying.
And the Trump Regime and Congressional Republicans continue to reshape the judiciary with great haste, eradicating as quickly as possible the last bastion of checks and balances as they consolidate power.
So here is a video of a puppy doing a somersault.
[A Great Dane puppy playing on its bed does a somersault.]
And thus the week begins.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
Friday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by walnuts.
Recommended Reading:
Carol E. Lee, Courtney Kube, and Josh Lederman at NBC News: Officials Worry Trump May Back Erik Prince Plan to Privatize War in Afghanistan
Libby Watson at Splinter: Super PACs Are Getting More Brazen Than Ever in Their Quest to Hide Their Donors
Paola Rosa-Aquino at Earther: Puerto Rico's Farmers Face a Long Road to Recovery
Clarissa Hamlin at News One: [Content Note: Racism; workplace discrimination] Hospital Faces Lawsuit over Allegedly Agreeing with Patient Refusing Care of Black Nurse
stavvers at Another Angry Woman: Top Tips for Staying on Twitter as Jack Fucks It Up
Megan Farokhmanesh at the Verge: Science Confirms That Women's Pockets Suck for Smartphones
Kaiser at Celebitchy: Jordan Peele Covers Variety: "There Has Been a Lack of Imagination in Hollywood"
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
#365feministselfie: Week 33
I am again participating in the #365feministselfie project, now in its fifth year, and promised a thread for others to share selfies and/or talk about the project, visibility generally, self-apprecation, and related topics. So here is a thread for Week 33!
A few of my selfies over the last two weeks:
is lie on the cool tile floor — or the couch! — and not move too much, lol.
for a three-hour marathon phone call with my girl Miller.
Please feel welcome and encouraged to share your own selfies in comments, or share your thoughts on the project, or solicit encouragement or advice, or do whatever else feels best for you to participate, if you are inclined to do so!
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 575
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: And Then This Happened and An Observation.
Here are some more things in the news today...
Shane Harris at the Washington Post: Signs of Trump-Putin Collaboration, Starting Years Before the Campaign?
The precise nature and location of that "intelligence exchange" have never been fully explained. But journalist Craig Unger thinks he may have found it, running out of the offices of Bayrock Group, a real estate development company that operated in Trump Tower in Manhattan in the early 2000s and partnered with the Trump Organization.NB: This is just a theory, but it is a compelling one. Related Reading: Donald Trump, Wilbur Ross, and the Russians.
Based on his own reporting and the investigative work of a former federal prosecutor, Unger posits that through Bayrock, Trump was "indirectly providing Putin with a regular flow of intelligence on what the oligarchs were doing with their money in the U.S."
As the theory goes, Putin wanted to keep tabs on the billionaires — some of them former mobsters — who had made their post-Cold War fortunes on the backs of industries once owned by the state. The oligarchs, as well as other new-moneyed elites, were stashing their money in foreign real estate, including Trump properties, presumably beyond Putin's reach.
Trump, knowingly or otherwise, may have struck a side deal with the Kremlin, Unger argues: He would secretly rat out his customers to Putin, who would allow them to keep buying Trump properties. Trump got rich. Putin got eyes on where the oligarchs had hidden their wealth. Everybody won.
Meanwhile, over at the Manafort trial...
Nancy Gertner at the Washington Post: The Extraordinary Bias of the Judge in the Manafort Trial. "The performance of U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III in the trial of Paul Manafort on bank fraud and tax evasion charges has been decidedly unusual. During the trial, Ellis intervened regularly, and mainly against one side: the prosecution. The judge's interruptions occurred in the presence of the jury and on matters of substance, not courtroom conduct. He disparaged the prosecution's evidence, misstated its legal theories, even implied that prosecutors had disobeyed his orders when they had not."
FYI: Ellis was the judge in two Blackwater trials, and dismissed both of them, while seeming weirdly pally with Erik Prince (Seychelles backchanneler and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos). In both cases, Ellis expressed the interesting judicial perspective that a mercenary couldn't have bad intentions. Huh.
Katelyn Polantz, Dan Berman, Marshall Cohen, Liz Stark, and Kara Scannell at CNN: Manafort Jury Returns for Day Two of Deliberations; Trump Calls Trial 'Very Sad'. "After a full day Thursday, the jury hadn't yet reached a verdict on the 18 counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and hiding foreign bank accounts brought by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election. ...At the White House Friday, Trump decried the trial and Mueller probe. 'I think the whole Manafort trial is very sad... I think it's a very sad day for our country,' Trump said. 'He happens to be a very good person, and I think it's very sad what they've done to Paul Manafort.'"
Asked if he would pardon Manafort, Trump answered "I don't talk about that."
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) August 17, 2018
Wildly inappropriate. And, as Andy Towle notes at Towleroad, Trump also used the occasion to predict that "the 2018 midterms would be very good for Republicans."
Nothing to worry about there. Just the United States president who was elected because his campaign and his party and the NRA and conservative Christian groups conspired with Russia to steal the election stating with confidence that the midterm elections will yield another good result for them.
I continue to be very worried about the midterms.
* * *
Kate Riga at TPM: At White House Meeting with Vets, Trump Digressed to Fight About Apocalypse Now. "Trump started normally enough, going around the room to ask for ways he could improve veterans' services. However, when one representative brought up Agent Orange, an herbicide used during the Vietnam War which has left lasting health problems for soldiers poisoned with it, Trump got off track. He asked if Agent Orange was 'that stuff from that movie.' Though he did not name the film, per the Daily Beast, attendees soon realized he was talking about the Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now. When the representatives caught on and tried to tell Trump that the film depicts the use of napalm, not Agent Orange, he dug in his heels. 'No, I think it's that stuff from that movie,' he reportedly kept saying. He then made everyone in the room voice their opinion on if he was right or not."
LOL WHUT. "If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be." https://t.co/gr9exTJ875
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 16, 2018
I have so many problems with that framing that I hardly know where to begin. This guy is reportedly thinking of running for president. If he believes we could pray Donald Trump into being a decent leader, I'm gonna take a hard pass.
[Content Note: Nativism; carcerality; self-harm] Priyanka Bhatt and Azadeh Shahshahani at Colorlines: It's Time for Atlanta to Stop Colluding with ICE. "Over the last year, dozens of detained immigrants shared harrowing stories of fleeing persecution and violence only to find themselves locked away and subjected to more inhumane treatment at [the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC)]. 'It was so horrible, I almost hurt myself. If I had a blade I would've cut myself,' one man said after being held in solitary confinement at ACDC for 48 hours. These stories are documented in a report from Project South and Georgia Detention Watch that was released last week. Titled 'Inside Atlanta's Immigrant Cages,' it is the result of interviewing 38 detained immigrants, speaking with a number of local immigration attorneys, touring the ACDC facility, and inspecting scores of documents obtained from the city."
[CN: Guns; white supremacy; death] Angela Helm at the Root: 'Stand Your Ground' Is for White People: Markeis McGlockton's Lawyer Says the Statute May Be Legal But It's Not Moral. "Since the Trayvon Martin case, the controversial 'stand your ground' law has actually been amended, but not in the way most opponents would like. Last June, the Republican-led Florida legislature, backed by the NRA, actually strengthened the law, shifting the burden of proof to prosecutors, making it even more difficult to indict killers who claim self-defense. ...''Stand your ground' was already inconsistently applied,' said Michele Rayner, a civil rights and defense attorney representing the McGlockton family. 'And now it's even more inconsistently applied because you have attorneys who are in court, and all the defense has to do is make a prima facie case … meaning on its face, stand your ground is applicable. And then the burden shifts to the state.' Rayner, who has practiced criminal defense in Clearwater for six years, says that in her own practice, she's seen how black clients are rarely given the option of using 'stand your ground' — especially by law enforcement."
[CN: Class warfare] Abby Baird at ThinkProgress: Trump Administration Reportedly Poised to approve Restrictive Changes to Medicaid. "The Trump administration is preparing to approve a number of changes to Medicaid — the government health care program that provides coverage to low-income people — that could leave tens of thousands of people without coverage. As Politico first reported Friday, the administration is set to approve waivers from some states that would impose work restrictions and allow questions about illegal drug use to be included on applications for Medicaid. The report comes two days after numbers out of Arkansas showed more than 5,000 people could be in jeopardy of losing their Medicaid coverage after failing to meet the state's work requirements."
GOOD GRIEF. "Prominent US climate scientists have told the Guardian that the Trump administration is holding up research funding as their projects undergo an unprecedented political review by the high-school football teammate of the US interior secretary." https://t.co/a0tcKvOioC
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 17, 2018
Joe Romm at ThinkProgress: Fracking Is Destroying U.S. Water Supply, Warns Shocking New Study. "An alarming new study reveals fracking is quite simply destroying America's water supply. That means we are losing potable water forever in many semi-arid regions of the country, while simultaneously producing more carbon pollution that in turn is driving ever-worsening droughts in those same regions, as fracking expert Anthony Ingraffea, a professor at Cornell University, explained to ThinkProgress. The game-changing study from Duke University found that 'from 2011 to 2016, the water use per well increased up to 770 percent.' In addition, the toxic wastewater produced in the first year of production jumped up to 1440 percent."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Discussion Thread: Good Things
One of the ways we resist the demoralization and despair in which exploiters of fear like Trump thrive is to keep talking about the good things in our lives.
Because, even though it feels very much (and rightly so) like we are losing so many things we value, there are still daily moments of joy or achievement or love or empowering ferocity or other kinds of fulfillment.
Maybe you've experienced something big worth celebrating; maybe you've just had a precious moment of contentment; maybe getting out of bed this morning was a success worthy of mention.
News items worth celebrating are also welcome.
So, whatever you have to share that's good, here's a place to do it.
* * *
One of my oldest and dearest friends just arranged his flight to come visit soon, and I couldn't be more excited to see him! I haven't seen him in ages, and I CAN'T WAIT!
An Observation
A word of advice for people new to political activism: Instead of looking for shiny heroes, get down in the trenches with the dusty folks who have been there for a minute. Some of us have to be in the trenches, or else we're going to lose the war.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 17, 2018
Also: There's nothing wrong with being a worker bee. I am a worker bee. And I am proud to be one.
Also also: In an era of meddlers, tricksters, spies, and traitors, it's probably a good idea to scrutinize the history of anyone who positions themselves as a leader, especially an indispensible one. Trust the people who have done the work to make themselves trustworthy.
(If you're wondering if this is about a certain resistance leader and her meltdown shitshow, yes, it is.)
And Then This Happened
Yesterday, after hundreds of news organizations published editorials criticizing Donald Trump's attacks on the free press, Trump tweeted a bunch of bullshit about it, singling out the Boston Globe, whose editorial board spearheaded the collective pushback.
And then someone called in a bomb threat to the Globe's offices, requiring an "increased police presence" at the paper's headquarters and an FBI investigation.
Last month, I wrote a piece about the Trump Regime's reliance on stochastic terrorism: Leverage visibility and influence to dehumanize your enemies and cast them as threats, then sit back and wait for your most radical and/or unstable supporters to take violent action.
I noted that Trump would continue to disseminate "toxic bile from his Twitter account [and] let his base handle it."
And here we are.
