I am tired about having to write about men who abuse women. I am tired of having to think about them, and listen to them speak, and transcribe their words, and look at their sinister fucking faces. My body just aches all the time now, and I know that part of it is because I'm sat in their filth all day, every day.
I remain stressed the fuck out about a future I have dedicated my life to preventing that now feels inexorable.
I'm also grateful to be looking forward to a visit with an old friend, whom I have known so long that we can be fully present and vulnerable together, our best and worst selves, without judgment, because we have seen it all and still love each other mightily. To be so known and yet so loved is a profound comfort.
And I am, as always, glad for this community, in this moment. Anyone who wants to join me in another enormous virtual group hug is welcome.
How are you?
Discussion Thread: How Are You?
Hurricane Florence, Part 5
[Content Note: Death and displacement. Previously: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4.]
The flooding from Hurricane Florence has been catastrophic in the Carolinas. Seventeen people have died, thousands are displaced from their homes, and three-quarters of a million people are currently without electricity. And it's not yet over. In fact, the worst is still to come.
Martin Pengelly, Adam Gabbatt, Oliver Laughland, and Khushbu Shah at the Guardian report:
"The storm has never been more dangerous than it is now," [North Carolina] Governor Roy Cooper said. "Many rivers are still rising, and are not expected to crest until later today or tomorrow."The flooding in Wilmington is so severe that the entire city of 120,000 people is now effectively cut off entirely from the rest of the state and supplies will have to be airlifted: "Woody White, the New Hanover county commission chair, said officials were planning for food and water to be flown into the coastal city. 'Our roads are flooded,' he said. 'There is no access to Wilmington.'"
...After blowing ashore as a hurricane with 90mph winds, Florence lingered over the Carolinas. By Sunday it had weakened to a tropical depression. Winds were down to 35mph. But in North Carolina, rivers were swelling.
The evacuation zone included part of Fayetteville. "This is not a talking point," said its mayor, Mitch Colvin, on Saturday. "This is not a script, but we are saying this because we are concerned with you. The worst is yet to come. If you are refusing to leave during this mandatory evacuation, you need to do things like notify your legal next of kin. The loss of life is very, very possible."
Forecasts said rivers would crest on Sunday and Monday at record or near-record levels: the Little, the Cape Fear, the Lumber, the Neuse, the Waccamaw, and the Pee Dee were all projected to burst their banks.
At CNN, Dakin Andone has a comprehensive report recounting how the storm has played out. There are images of the devastation at the link, so please be advised if you would like to avoid that sort of imagery.
I want to again link this piece by Aimée Lutkin at Lifehacker: How to Help Hurricane Florence Victims.
And here are a few other compilations of suggestions on how to direct your resources, if you are able and keen to help hurricane victims:
Kelly Phillips Erb at Forbes: Helping Out After Hurricane Florence: Where, What, and How to Donate.
Melissa Locker at Fast Company: How to Help Hurricane Florence Victims: 10 Things You Can Do Right Now.
Nicole Spector at NBC News: Hurricane Florence: How to Help the Victims of the Storm.
Karen Zraick at the New York Times: Tropical Depression Florence: How to Help.
Christopher Dawson at CNN: How to Help Those Impacted by Hurricane Florence.
Please feel welcome and encouraged to share other ways to help in comments.
Brett Kavanaugh, Consent, and Listening to Survivors
[Content Note: Sexual assault; rape culture.]
On Friday, I wrote about the anonymous allegation that had been made against Brett Kavanaugh that he attempted to rape someone in high school. The story was that Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein had gotten a letter from the woman who had been assaulted by Kavanaugh but had not made it public, and the implication was that she concealed it because she didn't want it used against him, for some inexplicable reason.
A lot of people decided to immediately go after Feinstein, based on zero actual evidence of this nefarious plot — and despite all evidence to the contrary, given that Feinstein has generally been a reliable advocate for survivors. (For example.)
I was not convinced it went down the way far too many people reflexively believed that it did, not only because it seemed out of character for Feinstein to me, but also — and primarily — because I hadn't heard from the woman herself, and I had no idea what her actual wishes were regarding coming forward in a formal way.
And having spent a damn lot of years of working with and listening to survivors, I suspected that it did not go the way that people were keen to presume, because of their own various agendas, none of which had anything to do with actually caring about the human being who alleged that she had been harmed by Kavanaugh.
In a private conversation with colleagues on Friday, I wrote: "My guess — and it is entirely a guess, but based on many interactions I've had with survivors over the last 14 years — is that the woman reached out in good faith, and then when Feinstein told her what it would require for them to use the information, and what the Republicans would do in retaliation, she backed off. I don't see why else Democrats were meeting with her attorney."
Because that was my guess, I wrote the piece I did, urging people to consider that we hadn't heard from the woman, whose name we now know is Christine Blasey Ford, and urging caution about making assumptions about what happened.
Well, unfortunately, because this issue was made public without her consent, Ford has been obliged to publicly share her story about what happened then, and what happened now, and my guess was not far off, it seems.
Emma Brown at the Washington Post reports [please note there are descriptions of assault at the link]:
She contacted The Post through a tip line in early July, when it had become clear that Kavanaugh was on the shortlist of possible nominees to replace retiring justice Anthony M. Kennedy but before Trump announced his name publicly. A registered Democrat who has made small contributions to political organizations, she contacted her congresswoman, Democrat Anna G. Eshoo, around the same time. In late July, she sent a letter via Eshoo's office to Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.Emphases mine.
In the letter, which was read to The Post, Ford described the incident and said she expected her story to be kept confidential. She signed the letter as Christine Blasey, the name she uses professionally.
Though Ford had contacted The Post, she declined to speak on the record for weeks as she grappled with concerns about what going public would mean for her and her family — and what she said was her duty as a citizen to tell the story.
She engaged Debra Katz, a Washington lawyer known for her work on sexual harassment cases. On the advice of Katz, who said she believed Ford would be attacked as a liar if she came forward, Ford took a polygraph test administered by a former FBI agent in early August. The results, which Katz provided to The Post, concluded that Ford was being truthful when she said a statement summarizing her allegations was accurate.
By late August, Ford had decided not to come forward, calculating that doing so would upend her life and probably would not affect Kavanaugh's confirmation. "Why suffer through the annihilation if it's not going to matter?" she said.
Her story leaked anyway. On Wednesday, the Intercept reported that Feinstein had a letter describing an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school and that Feinstein was refusing to share it with her Democratic colleagues.
...As the story snowballed, Ford said, she heard people repeating inaccuracies about her and, with the visits from reporters, felt her privacy being chipped away. Her calculation changed.
"These are all the ills that I was trying to avoid," she said, explaining her decision to come forward. "Now I feel like my civic responsibility is outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation."
Katz said she believes Feinstein honored Ford's request to keep her allegation confidential, but "regrettably others did not."
"Victims must have the right to decide whether to come forward, especially in a political environment that is as ruthless as this one," Katz said. "She will now face vicious attacks by those who support this nominee."
I am absolutely furious and deeply sad that Ford's story was made public without her consent, by an outlet whose editors don't give a single fuck about Ford, but were eager to dunk on Senator Feinstein. Fuck the Intercept forever, for not caring about Ford's consent any more than Brett Kavanaugh did.
And I am equally rageful and grieving that Ford ultimately made the entirely understandable calculation to not come forward, because she knew that it probably wouldn't have mattered — which is the consequence of being governed by a Republican majority whose members are as eager to tolerate sex predators in their ranks as they are to legislatively undermine women's consent and agency at every turn.
It doesn't say anything good about the GOP that their response to credible allegations against Kavanaugh is not to say, "No problem. We'll find you a candidate whom no one alleges to be an attempted rapist." That's because 1. They don't really GAF and 2. They might not have any.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 17, 2018
The thing is, men who make careers out of denying women their agency tend not to give a drip about our consent in interpersonal situations, either.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 17, 2018
See, for example: The current Republican president.
And now the Republican Party and their deplorable base will commence tearing Ford alive in the press, not only to try to discredit her, but also as a warning shot across the bow to any other women who Kavanaugh has harmed, who might consider coming forward to tell their stories.
This is what will happen to you if you dare.
I am sorry that Ford was put into this position without her consent, and I take up space in solidarity with her. I will do the same if there are any other women who will risk the gauntlet to tell their truth.
And I will listen to them. Not just to their stories, but to what they want and need from their fellow countrypeople.
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 horses.
Recommended Reading:
Aimée Lutkin at Lifehacker: How to Help Hurricane Florence Victims
Heather Timmons at Quartz: [Content Note: Nativism; hurricanes] The U.S. Usually Tells Immigrants They Are Safe from Arrest Before a Hurricane Hits; Not This Time
Katelyn Burns at Rewire.News: Planned Parenthood Names Dr. Leana Wen Its President
Kaiser at Celebitchy: [CN: Body shaming; harassment] Jameela Jamil Was Body-Shamed by a D-Bag While She Was Working out at the Gym
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the Guardian: When Athletes Retire, We Face the Most Difficult Question: Who Are We?
Kenrya Rankin at Colorlines: Cynthia Erivo to Play Harriet Tubman in New Biopic
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
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 603
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: Hurricane Florence, Part 4 and Strange Series of Deadly Explosions in Massachusetts and Manafort Deal Includes Cooperation and On the Allegations Against Kavanaugh and Whether They Were Concealed by Senate Democrats.
With my apologies, I'm posting this without additional content today, because I simply haven't had time to do it. Between getting up to speed on the abundance of news today and writing all the earlier content, I have totally lost the hours that doing this compilation takes every day.
To be honest, it's 2:00 in the afternoon and I haven't even had a bite to eat yet today, so I really need to go do that!
As always, share what you've been reading that we need to resist today in comments.
On the Allegations Against Kavanaugh and Whether They Were Concealed by Senate Democrats
[Content Note: Sexual assault.]
Today, there was a report by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer at the New Yorker about a woman who contacted ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Senator Dianne Feinstein alleging that Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape her while they were in high school.
The implication, and understandable supposition, is that Feinstein sat on the report because she didn't think a decades-old accusation should be introduced into the hearing, because it constitutes a personal rather than a legal objection to Kavanaugh's nomination — which, if true, would be incredibly awful.
As we await further information, I have a concern about the piece — which is that it's missing what I feel is a crucial piece of information.
In one place, the piece reads: "After the interactions with Eshoo's and Feinstein's offices, the woman decided not to speak about the matter publicly. She had repeatedly reported the allegation to members of Congress and, watching Kavanaugh move toward what looked like an increasingly assured confirmation, she decided to end her effort to come forward, a source close to the woman said. Feinstein's office did not respond to requests for comment."
In another place, the piece quotes Feinstein saying: "That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities."
Now, maybe Feinstein is lying about the woman requesting confidentiality and declining to come forward, but, if I were reporting on this, I would not have felt comfortable with the unresolved contradiction of "a source close to the woman" saying she was planning to come forward and Feinstein saying that she declined to come forward.
And the reason is that it's critically important to know what the woman sought and requested in order to understand the situation.
This is something I have learned as someone who's written about rape culture for 14 years, and it's something I've discussed with reporters who break stories about rape cases: Sometimes survivors contact you and they legitimately aren't sure what they want when they reach out. More times than not, they actually don't want to go public with their stories, especially when you are honest with them about what it will mean for their lives.
Many times, more than anything else, they want someone to give a shit. They want someone to believe them. They want to be heard and to be validated.
Sometimes they say, "Do with this information what you will, but leave me out of it." You can't do anything with that information under those circumstances. Making a formal second-hand allegation based on the statement of someone who won't even go on the record anonymously isn't responsible, even if you believe them.
[ETA. Note that, for example, writing about an "open secret" regarding a chronic abuser is meaningfully different than formally entering into the Congressional record an allegation of a specific charge made by someone who does not want to participate, even given assurances of anonymity.]
So, if Feinstein is telling the truth about the level of participation the woman offered to Senate Democrats, there might really be nothing she could have done with the information, and there was no reason to pass it on and break a confidentiality request.
Or maybe Feinstein totally shit the bed! The point is, I can't know that if I don't even know the basic facts about the guidelines set by the woman making the allegation.
I have absolutely zero investment in defending anyone, irrespective of political affiliation, who conspires to conceal allegations for any reason, against the wishes of the person making the allegations.
My central concern is always the person making the allegations. Which is why I would like to hear from her, even if anonymously, what she was seeking and whether she was willing and able to press forward.
I am worried that whoever leaked this information did not have her best interests at heart, and may be thrusting her into public view and put her at risk of doxing and worse.
Did they have her consent to leak this information? Was she fully prepared to move forward or not?
Was this leak about holding Feinstein accountable for a legitimate failure, or about one of her colleagues being pissed off at her because she wouldn't use something "explosive" against Kavanaugh?
I just want to get clear on this before I go any further. Because I have no idea what the woman making the allegations actually wanted in the end, and that matters to me.
Manafort Deal Includes Cooperation
The details are still very sketchy at the moment, but Paul Manafort has reportedly agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation: "Federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told the court that Manafort has agreed to cooperate apparently in exchange for the government dropping the remaining charges against him."
Agreeing to cooperate sounds good. Dropping all the remaining charges against him doesn't.
What concerns me at the moment is that George Papadopoulos agreed to cooperate with Mueller's investigation, too, and then got 14 days in jail after offering nothing of any substance.
Another thought I just had: Maybe it isn't the current president who has promised Manafort a pardon. Maybe it's the man who believes he is the future president — the current vice-president who was hand-picked by Paul Manafort.
Strange Series of Deadly Explosions in Massachusetts
[Content Note: Death; injury; explosions.]
MSP Fusion Center has current updated tally of responses to fires/explosions/investigations of gas odor at 70. Spread over wide swath of south #Lawrence and northern part of #NorthAndover with several others across Merrimack River in north Lawrence. pic.twitter.com/a7kBYaWFrJ
— Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) September 13, 2018
Yesterday in Massachusetts, there was a very strange and troubling series of explosions in three communities, leaving one person dead, 20 injured, and many people displaced from their homes after officials called for widespread evacuations. Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon said there were so many fires "you can't even see the sky."
Lisa Creamer and Benjamin Swasey at WBUR report:
At least one person died and thousand of residents in three Merrimack Valley communities were urged to evacuate from their homes after a series of gas explosions ignited fires in the area.It may be too early to speculate on a cause, but I will tell you what I fear that it was: I fear that it was the first significant cyberattack on our utility grid.
The affected communities are Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover.
Leonel Rondon, 18, of Lawrence, died after a chimney from a house explosion fell on the car he was in on Chickering Road, the Essex County district attorney's office said in a statement late Thursday.
About 20 other people, including at least one firefighter, were injured and being treated at local hospitals as a result of the explosions or fires.
...As of late Thursday, it remained unclear what exactly caused the blasts. The state fire marshal's office had said the fires followed a high pressure gas main explosion. State emergency management officials said that "possible gas line over-pressurization" could be the source of the explosions. However, state police officials said in a tweet Thursday evening that it is "far too early to speculate on [a] cause."
We know that Russia has been planning an attack on U.S. utilities, and that hackers have already reached "the control rooms of U.S. electric utilities." We know that Russia has been using Ukraine as a testing ground for cyberattacks, including on utility companies. And we know that Russian diplomats, presumed to be Russian intelligence agents, have been "waging a quiet effort to map the United States' telecommunications infrastructure, perhaps preparing for an opportunity to disrupt it."
We also know, coincidentally, that Russia is currently staging its "biggest military maneuvers since the fall of the Soviet Union" in Siberia and in the Bering Sea, which separates Russia from Alaska. NATO is concerned enough to be closely monitoring the drills, which involve "300,000 troops, over 1,000 military aircraft, and two naval fleets," and during which Vladimir Putin delivered a speech to soldiers, vowing "to strengthen the Russian army and supply it with new generation weapons and equipment."
We also know, coincidentally, that Energy Secretary Rick Perry arrived in Russia on September 11, and that Russia state media has announced he's meeting with sanctioned Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom while he's there.
And we also know, coincidentally, that Special Counsel Bob Mueller struck a plea deal with Paul Manafort late yesterday, and it is still unclear as of this writing whether he was given the deal without any promise of cooperation with the Russia probe. Spencer S. Hsu and Devlin Barrett at the Washington Post note: "People familiar with the plea discussions have previously said that Manafort has no intention of cooperating with Mueller, so it's possible any prospective agreement could allow him to admit guilt without providing information to investigators."
So, those are the things I'm thinking about at the moment, and why I fear that the explosions in Massachusetts represented the first significant cyberattack on our utility grid.
I also fear that, even if that is indeed the case, we may never get confirmation of it from officials, who feel obliged to conceal it out of some misplaced belief in maintaining public safety by lying to us. (And/or because they are themselves compromised.)
It's frankly very concerning to me, as well, how little national coverage this story has gotten, even despite coverage of the hurricane.
Anyway. Here we are.
My condolences to the family and friends of Leonel Rondon. I'm so sorry for your loss. My thoughts remain with the people who were injured; I hope they have access to the resources they need to recover. I also hope that people whose homes were damaged or destroyed will be treated well by their insurance companies, and get back to something resembling regular life with as few barriers as possible.
Hurricane Florence, Part 4
[Previously: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3.]
Hurricane Florence made landfall this morning near Wilmington, North Carolina. It arrived as a Category 1 storm, bringing winds of 105mph, "making it the second strongest wind ever measured there." Power has been knocked out for nearly half a million people already, and storm surges has turned many streets into rivers.
And it's only 9:30 in the morning on the eastern seaboard, with the Weather Channel advising: "Destructive winds, life-threatening storm surge, and heavy rainfall will continue to batter the Carolinas throughout the day."
New Bern, NC, is one of the hardest hit towns so far, with water rising so quickly that dozens of people were trapped in their attics. About 200 people have already been rescued, and 150 more are still awaiting rescue.
Naturally, the shaming of people who didn't evacuate has already begun. I have a few thoughts about that.
Instead of shaming people who didn't evacuate, consider the reasons why some people might not have evacuated despite urgent warnings. Disabled & ill people may be unable to evacuate. Incarcerated people are, in some cases, disallowed from evacuating. People w/o cars may be stuck.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 14, 2018
Working class folks may have feared losing their jobs: "She worried about losing her job if she chose to leave. The evacuation itself, including gas, lodging and meals out of town, also would be expensive." https://t.co/gpwbPmWbDu
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 14, 2018
It's not as straightforward as: Anyone who stayed behind is a dummy who didn't heed warnings and now doesn't deserve rescue. When we treat evacuations as "every person for themselves," we can't be surprised that not every person is able to evacuate.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 14, 2018
Anyone who lived through, or can read an account of, what happened in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina should understand the foolishness and cruelty of shaming people who are unable to evacuate. Frequently the people who can't are the most vulnerable.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 14, 2018
This is a time to be good to one another. We are not being governed by compassionate or decent people; we need more than ever to be compassionate and decent to each other in times of crisis.
So far, there are no reports of serious injuries or death. I desperately hope that will remain the case throughout the day, even as I know how unlikely that is.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker BlueJean: "If you could ask anybody one question, what would it be and why?"
I don't have a good answer for this one. If I have questions for anyone I know personally, I just ask them. If I have questions for anyone I don't know personally, it's typically someone in power and there's no guarantee they'll answer, or answer honestly, so I wouldn't bother asking.
I guess I'd probably ask Kate McKinnon if I could buy her a drink, and hope she had nothing better to do for the next hour.
Throwback Thursdays
[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!]
What If You Just Started by Paying Your Employees a Living Wage and Letting Them Piss as Needed, Tho?
Jeff Bezos is really starting to get on my last good nerve:
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person, on Thursday pledged $2 billion to combat homelessness and build preschools in low-income neighborhoods.I don't even know what the fuck any of that nonsense means. But I do know the "principles that have driven Amazon" include abusing employees and exploiting corporate deregulation to build a monopoly that will gut entire communities and create devastating access deserts, so.
The Bezos Day One Fund will award grants to organizations and civic groups engaged in "compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support" to young families, as well as fund a network of "Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities," Bezos said in a statement posted on Twitter.
"We'll use the same set of principles that have driven Amazon. Most important among those will be genuine, intense customer obsession," Bezos wrote. "The child will be the customer."
"The child will be the customer." Shiver.
Naturally, I am all for building more schools and giving hungry people all the food they want and need, but I am deeply suspicious of this proposal, which is a weird and unsettling hybrid of charitable giving and corporate marketing-speak. I've seen that before. It never turns out well.
And I wonder why it is that Bezos can't just give his $2 billion to the nation's "roughly 3.2 million full-time [K-12] public-school teachers [who] are experiencing some of the worst wage stagnation of any profession, earning less on average, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than they did in 1990."
Like many men with more money than sense before him, he's going to give his money to consultants with claimed expertise who get rich recommending that the wheel be reinvented, rather than giving his money to people on the ground, who know how to use that money, who are already doing the goddamned work.
He's going to hasten the privatization of public education in the United States in the process. And the vulnerable kids he's claiming he wants to help are going to get hurt the most.
Fat Fashion
This is your semi-regular thread in which fat women can share pix, make recommendations for clothes they love, ask questions of other fat women about where to locate certain plus-size items, share info about sales, talk about what jeans cut at what retailer best fits their body shapes, discuss how to accessorize neutral colored suits, share stories of going bare-armed for the first time, brag about a cool fashion moment, whatever.
* * *
I don't have any new clothes to talk about, but helloooooooo I have new glasses and my inexorable transformation into Fat Anne Bancroft is crushing its third-quarter benchmarks ahead of schedule.
I just had to update my prescription and get a new pair of glasses from the eye doctor, because my eyes are getting precipitously worse as I age (and they weren't great to start!), and then I bought this much cheaper frame from Zenni as a backup pair, as is my habit.
It is still such a luxury, for which I am immensely grateful, to have a spare pair of specs, after spending my childhood and most of my adult life constantly worried about breaking my glasses. I am entirely unable to function without them, so having a backup pair relieves me of so much anxiety.
Plus: Fashion options! I get my fairly boring, functional pair at the doc's office, and then go for something fun with the other pair. And, as I have mentioned before, accessories were the first place that I learned to have style as a fat woman, and I still love to rock a fabulous accessory.
Which I feel like my glasses are, even as they are also a necessary medical device. Form and function! YEAH.
Anyway! As always, all subjects related to fat fashion are on topic, but if you want a topic for discussion: What are some of your favorite accessories?
Have at it in comments! Please remember to make fat women of all sizes, especially women who find themselves regularly sizing out of standard plus-size lines, welcome in this conversation, and pass no judgment on fat women who want to and/or feel obliged, for any reason, to conform to beauty standards. And please make sure if you're soliciting advice, you make it clear you're seeking suggestions—and please be considerate not to offer unsolicited advice. Sometimes people just need to complain and want solidarity, not solutions.
[Note: I am not receiving anything in return for my recommendations here, nor am I affiliated in any way with any of the companies mentioned herein. Any endorsements made are on products I purchased myself, just because I like them!]
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 602
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: Hurricane Florence, Part 3 and Susan Sarandon Says Some More Despicable Sh1t and I Hate Him So Much.
Here are some more things in the news today...
GOP senators’ reaction this AM to Trump Puerto Rico tweets following a familiar pattern: Decline to comment, say they haven’t read them, or offer mild criticism and move on.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 13, 2018
Just a reminder that Donald Trump's fellow Republicans will tolerate absolutely anything, as long as they can continue their bid to consolidate power.
[Content Note: Displacement] Danielle McLean at ThinkProgress: FEMA Will Put 1,000 Displaced Puerto Ricans out on the Streets This Friday. "More than 1,000 Puerto Ricans, displaced by last year's hurricanes, have been living temporarily in hotels and motels throughout the country while they await more permanent housing alternatives — major repair to their own homes, for example, or help finding a new place to live. But they are now bracing for the likelihood they will become homeless this week. A federal judge in Massachusetts on August 30 allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stop funding its Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) program, which allows hurricane-displaced people to live in hotels or motels throughout Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland."
This, of course, immediately after we found out that nearly $10 million of FEMA funding had been redirected to ICE to fund Trump's nativist abuses.
And it wasn't only FEMA whose funding was diverted, either. Tal Kopan at CNN: It's Not Just FEMA: ICE Quietly Got an Extra $200 Million. "The Trump administration this summer quietly redirected $200 million from all over the Department of Homeland Security to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, despite repeated congressional warnings of ICE's 'lack of fiscal discipline' and 'unsustainable' spending. The Department of Homeland Security asked for the money, according to a document made public this week by Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley. Of the $200 million, the document says $93 million will go to immigrant detention, a 3% budget increase that will fund capacity for an additional 2,300 detainees; and $107 million for 'transportation and removal,' or deportations, a 29% budget increase."
[CN: Child abuse] Meanwhile... Caitlin Dickerson at the New York Times: Detention of Migrant Children Has Skyrocketed to Highest Levels Ever.
Even though hundreds of children separated from their families after crossing the border have been released under court order, the overall number of detained migrant children has exploded to the highest ever recorded — a significant counternarrative to the Trump administration's efforts to reduce the number of undocumented families coming to the United States.Emphases mine. So, five times the number of children are currently being detained in "federally contracted shelters," which get paid by the federal government per child being held, so there is a financial incentive to keep the children in detention rather than releasing them to live with guardians. This is an enormous grift.
Population levels at federally contracted shelters for migrant children have quietly shot up more than fivefold since last summer, according to data obtained by The New York Times, reaching a total of 12,800 this month. There were 2,400 such children in custody in May 2017.
The huge increases, which have placed the federal shelter system near capacity, are due not to an influx of children entering the country, but a reduction in the number being released to live with families and other sponsors, the data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests. Some of those who work in the migrant shelter network say the bottleneck is straining both the children and the system that cares for them.
Specifically: It's thieving from U.S. taxpayers in order to profit from the exploitation of undocumented children. Absolutely sickening.
And one of the ways extended detention is being rationalized is with the mendacious argument that detention is necessary to keep track of undocumented immigrants and ensure they show up for court hearings. That is demonstrably false.
“Detention is wholly unnecessary to ensure that refugee families attend their court hearings. On the contrary, families and children w/legal counsel overwhelmingly appear in immigration court.” #EndFamilyDetention
— Gabe #DreamActNow Ortíz (@TUSK81) September 13, 2018
Finally on this subject today... Kate Riga at TPM: Trump Mulls Paying Mexico to Deport Immigrants Passing Through to U.S. "The Trump administration is considering redirecting $20 million in foreign aid funds to Mexico to help them deport immigrants passing through the country on the way to the United States, according to a Tuesday New York Times report. The money would pay for bus and airplane fare back to the immigrants' countries of origin. Per the New York Times, this would primarily affect Central Americans traversing across Mexico to the U.S. border."
It would also be a program rife for corruption. Which, naturally, is an unspoken feature of the proposal, not a bug.
* * *
Don't know what this is yet (I bet you have a guess though and #MeToo, cough):
Senate Democrats Have Referred A Secret Letter About Brett Kavanaugh To The FBI https://t.co/wIAtiu4f3q by @LissandraVilla and @pdmcleod
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) September 13, 2018
Seung Min Kim at the Washington Post: Kavanaugh Offers Details on Nationals Tickets Purchases That Led to Debt.
The Washington Post reported in July that Kavanaugh ran up credit card debt that the White House has attributed to his purchasing pricey season tickets for himself and a group of friends. The nominee's friends have since repaid Kavanaugh — an avid fan of the Nationals baseball team — according to the White House, and the issue did not surface during his two days of public questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee.None of this makes any fucking sense. It just doesn't add up. How does someone whose entire net worth is less than a million dollars carry $60,000 (or more) worth of personal loans? Something is very hinky.
But the issue arose in written follow-up questions submitted by members of the committee, and Kavanaugh submitted his answers in writing late Wednesday.
...In explaining the debt to members of the committee, Kavanaugh noted that he is a "huge sports fan" and said that he bought four season tickets annually from the Nationals' arrival in Washington in 2005 until 2017. He also bought playoff packages in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017.
He split the tickets with a "group of old friends" through a "ticket draft" at his home, Kavanaugh said.
"Everyone in the group paid me for their tickets based on the cost of the tickets, to the dollar," Kavanaugh said in the written responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee that were made public Wednesday. "No one overpaid or underpaid me for tickets. No loans were given in either direction."
In 2016, Kavanaugh reported between $60,000 and $200,000 in debt, according to his financial disclosures, which was spread out over three credit cards and a loan. The debts were either paid off or dipped below the reporting requirements the following year.
In other Kavanaugh news...
Democrats fail in bid for U.S. Supreme Court nominee documents https://t.co/V5HYitJHRb
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) September 13, 2018
[CN: Gun violence; death] Jessica Mason Pieklo at Rewire.News: The Teens Who Testified Last Week Want Senators to See the Human Cost of Kavanaugh's Confirmation. "Judge Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court would help solidify conservative control of the federal judiciary for decades to come. And nothing reinforced that potential generational impact more than the panel of teenage witnesses who lined up to testify against Kavanaugh on the final day of his confirmation hearing. One of those witnesses was Aalayah Eastmond, who shared her experience as a survivor of the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Eastmond was in the third classroom attacked that day. She detailed for the senators who stayed to listen — and not all Republican senators did — what it was like to hide under the body of classmate Nicholas Dworet, who was killed right in front of her. She described saying what she thought were her final goodbyes to her parents, and the shock of having police pick body parts out of her hair."
Fuck every Republican Senator who refused to even listen to Eastmond. Cowards.
* * *
Pussy Riot member Pyotr Verzilov in critical condition in Moscow toxicology unit suffering from suspected poisoning. Hospital won’t allow his mother to see him. He’s a Canadian citizen (in addition to Russian), which will become significant in his case https://t.co/iWaaJlc2za
— Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) September 13, 2018
Fuck.
[CN: Gun violence; racism; police brutality] Adam Serwer at the Atlantic: The NRA's Catch-22 for Black Men Shot by Police. "But the NRA's conspicuous lack of outrage after the shootings of Philando Castile, Jason Washington, and Alton Sterling, all black men killed by police while in possession of a firearm, suggests an impossible double standard. When armed black men are shot by the police, the NRA says nothing about the rights of gun owners; when unarmed black men are shot, its spokesperson says they should have been armed. ...There's also a catch-22 here: If Jean had been armed, Guyger would have a much more plausible defense. If innocent unarmed black men like Jean are shot, it's because they lack firearms; if innocent black men who are armed like Castile or Sterling are shot, it's because they had a gun. Heads, you're dead; tails, you're also dead."
[CN: Gun violence; toxic masculinity; white, male privilege] Meagan Flynn at the Washington Post: 'This Is the New Normal': Six Dead, Including Gunman and Wife, in California Shooting Rampage. "Six people are dead after a man in Bakersfield, Calif., went on a shooting rampage on Wednesday that began at a trucking business and ended about 15 minutes later with the suspect's suicide, a local sheriff said. 'Six people lost their lives in a very short amount of time,' Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said during a Wednesday night news conference. ...Youngblood said he would consider it a mass shooting, saying the string of shootings was 'certainly' connected. The Kern County sheriff said the motive was not immediately clear but that much of his department was working on piecing the shootings together. 'Obviously there's some type of situation that caused the husband to be completely upset,' he said."
"Upset." Wow.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
I Hate Him So Much
[Content Note: Death.]
Across two tweets, Donald Trump just said:
3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000.All day every day I am incandescently angry that this man is president. Occasionally he says or does or tweets something so obscene that I briefly fear my anger will go supernova and tear a hole in the universe.
This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!
