When Donald Trump got the Republican nomination in 2016, despite the fact that he had not a day of public service experience, we were assured that he would surround himself with all the best advisors.
And when his temperament during the general election revealed a man unfit for the presidency, we were assured that he would surround himself with moderating influences who would provide a check on his vulgarity and impulsivity.
And when he proved to be precisely the erratic, dangerous, corrupt puppet as president that anyone with any sense anticipated he would be, we were assured that people were being put in place to control him.
This cadre of minders were sometimes referred to in terms deeply unflattering to their charge: They were the president's "keepers," as though he was a rabid ape constantly threatening to break free of his enclosure and wreak havoc on the local villagers.
Though insulting, it was probably more honest than the way of which they were spoken more frequently — as patriots, who were assuming a place in the sadistic regime of an odious man not for personal glory or reward, but because they were putting themselves on the line between the nation and its treasonous leader's worst excesses.
How noble.
Or so we are meant to believe. And there is certainly no shortage of obsequious commendation for Jim Mattis in the wake of the announcement of his imminent departure as Defense Secretary. It comes from every quarter, upholding the narrative that he has done his duty, with attendant hand-wringing about the danger Trump will present without Mattis standing guard.
Does no one see the flaw here?
Getting the hell out of Dodge at the very moment the powerful sociopath you're meant to be babysitting is at his most dangerous critically undermines the argument that you weren't there to put your stamp of credibility on his malice, but to serve as a moderating influence against his worst instincts.
If your argument for accepting a job with a detestable regime is patriotism, then you can't abandon ship when it gets uncomfortable for you personally.
And if you leave with a letter saying you must resign on principle, what are we to make of your tolerance for all the other things, all the despicable cruelties that were perpetrated during your tenure, which did not prompt your principled resignation?
Either you're a patriot who stands on the line no matter what, or you're an ideologue who was serving an agenda. You don't get to take the job on one premise, and justify staying on that premise, and then leave on another altogether. Not without losing all credibility, anyway.
That the (mostly) men who accepted roles in the Trump Regime did so out of some national loyalty, and not in a cynical bid to further their careers no matter the cost, is a damnable lie. It always has been.
Let that be apparent at long last in the reverberating splash of Mattis jumping ship. He is no patriot. He's just another opportunist who has calculated that the cost of his current opportunity now outweighs the benefits.
The actual patriotic move would have been to never lend one's reputation to a traitor in the first place.
The Damnable Lie of Trump's Erstwhile Minders
Trump's Unsettling Morning Tweets
[Content Note: Nativism.]
Donald Trump has been tweet-ranting all morning about a government shutdown over his border wall, and he seems even more manic than usual:
Senator Mitch McConnell should fight for the Wall and Border Security as hard as he fought for anything. He will need Democrat votes, but as shown in the House, good things happen. If enough Dems don't vote, it will be a Democrat Shutdown! House Republicans were great yesterday!The fact that his last two tweets both contain the phrase "nuclear option" is really troubling to me. He's ostensibly just tweeting about the Senate using the "nuclear option" (i.e. the Senate parliamentary procedure that ends a filibuster with a simple 51-vote majority, instead of the otherwise required 60 votes) to pass legislation to fund his border wall, but it feels more ominous to me than that.
The Democrats are trying to belittle the concept of a Wall, calling it old fashioned. The fact is there is nothing else's that will work, and that has been true for thousands of years. It's like the wheel, there is nothing better. I know tech better than anyone, & technology.....
.....on a Border is only effective in conjunction with a Wall. Properly designed and built Walls work, and the Democrats are lying when they say they don't. In Israel the Wall is 99.9% successful. Will not be any different on our Southern Border! Hundreds of $Billions saved!
No matter what happens today in the Senate, Republican House Members should be very proud of themselves. They flew back to Washington from all parts of the World in order to vote for Border Security and the Wall. Not one Democrat voted yes, and we won big. I am very proud of you!
The Democrats, whose votes we need in the Senate, will probably vote against Border Security and the Wall even though they know it is DESPERATELY NEEDED. If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time. People don't want Open Borders and Crime!
House Republican Vote, 217-185.
Shutdown today if Democrats do not vote for Border Security!
Even President Ronald Reagan tried for 8 years to build a Border Wall, or Fence, and was unable to do so. Others also have tried. We will get it done, one way or the other!
Mitch, use the Nuclear Option and get it done! Our Country is counting on you!
Thank you @SteveDaines for being willing to go with the so-called nuclear option in order to win on DESPERATELY NEEDED Border Security! Have my total support.
At best, this is the President of the United States publicly ranting about shutting down the entire government if Congress won't give him money to build a monument to his white supremacist nativism. It's a threat. That's ominous enough, without punctuating it by urging McConnell to use the "nuclear option."
On many occasions, I have noted that a cornered Trump is a dangerous Trump, and that I am just hoping every day we get through this safely. Never have I felt that more pointedly than over the last 24 hours.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Drazil: "If you could hold public office, any office, without all the fuss of campaigning, what position would you choose and what would be your first official act (or two)?"
I cannot even fathom holding public office, so I'm just going to answer this one with the biggest and best fantasy I can conjure, lol: I would choose the vice-presidency, and I would spill all the secrets on Donald Trump, and, the moment he was forced out or left office in disgrace, I would resign and start picking out my dress to attend the inauguration of President Nancy Pelosi.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis Is Leaving, Too
Donald Trump just announced on Twitter that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is also leaving the administration by early next year: "General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years. During Jim's tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting equipment. General Mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations. A new Secretary of Defense will be named shortly. I greatly thank Jim for his service!"
Another one of Trump's generals bites the dust.
Particularly alarming is the fact that this announcement immediately followed reports that Trump is likely to make a big move in Afghanistan. CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted: "Officials throughout the Trump administration are bracing themselves for the president to make a similar announcement as he did about Syria except this time about U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan — though they caution the president has not yet made a final decision."
It's just a spectacularly bad decision to be making major military decisions while there's a vacancy at the very top of the Defense Department.
Naturally, that vacancy is itself indicative of absolute chaos: Either Mattis resigned in protest over Trump's unilateral decision-making that flouts the advice of expert advisors, or Trump shit-canned Mattis because he won't sign off on Trump's unilateral decision-making that flouts all sage recommendations.
And the question that is troubling me greatly at the moment is this: Why does Trump urgently want all the troops home?
Discussion Thread: How Are You?
I am freaked out by a lot of the news today (and every day, but today seems especially bad), and I am glad to have smart and decent people with whom to process this stuff, publicly and privately.
I am completely annoyed with my garbage collection company, which keeps changing days for our pickups and overcharging us, and I'm pissed that we don't have a better option, because privatization of public services doesn't give companies any incentive to do well or retain customers; they're content just being trash (pun intended) and passing around disgruntled customers all of whom get equally shitty service no matter where they go, and meanwhile being a garbage collector, which used to be a good municipal job with benefits and a pension that paid a liveable wage, is now just another crappy job where workers are exploited, overworked, and underpaid.
I'm very frustrated with the hospital at which I've had to get a bunch of medical tests this year, which sends me bills but can't locate my record in their system to allow me to pay those bills, and yet threatens to send me to collections even though I am trying to pay my goddamn bills and it's their fault that I can't.
I continue to loathe the Trump Regime with the fiery power of ten thousand suns.
I am grateful for my husband, for our home, for my friends, for all the times they make me laugh, and for Sophie, Dudley, and Zelda.
I am also, as always, glad for this community. Anyone who wants to join me in another enormous virtual group hug is welcome.
How are you?
Obama Administration Treasury Officials Emailed with Kremlin Through Back Channels During 2016 Election
Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold at BuzzFeed: Russian Agents Sought Secret U.S. Treasury Records on Clinton Backers During 2016 Campaign.
U.S. Treasury Department officials used a Gmail back channel with the Russian government as the Kremlin sought sensitive financial information on its enemies in America and across the globe, according to documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News.There is much more at the link.
The extraordinary unofficial line of communication arose in the final year of the Obama administration — in the midst of what multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have said was a secret campaign by the Kremlin to interfere in the U.S. election. Russian agents ostensibly trying to track ISIS instead pressed their American counterparts for private financial documents on at least two dozen dissidents, academics, private investigators, and American citizens.
...Russia's financial crimes agency, whose second-in-command is a former KGB officer and schoolmate of President Vladimir Putin, also asked the Americans for documents on executives from two prominent Jewish groups, the Anti-Defamation League and the National Council of Jewish Women, as well as Kremlin opponents living abroad in London and Kiev.
In an astonishing departure from protocol, documents show that at the same time the requests were being made, Treasury officials were using their government email accounts to send messages back and forth with a network of private Hotmail and Gmail accounts set up by the Russians, rather than communicating through the secure network usually used to exchange information with other countries.
...[D]ocuments reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal that Russia's attempts to extract information about Western targets triggered alarms inside the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, a powerful unit of the Treasury Department with exclusive access to the most comprehensive and sophisticated financial database in the world.
Officials at FinCEN said they reported the use of the back channel to Treasury's counterterrorism unit and security office, and requested an investigation.
...The FinCEN officials reported the incidents in July and August 2016, and claim that there was no substantive investigation of the matter. These sources said that other senior officials continued to use the back channel even after they were told to stop by the Treasury's office for security.
This report is absolutely extraordinary. Not only were employees of Obama's Treasury department aiding the Kremlin in its campaign to subvert the 2016 election, but they were sharing information on Russian dissidents with a regime whose leader is known for ordering the assassination of his critics.
And they kept doing it even after they were told to stop, which, in addition to suggesting these were people who were either profoundly compromised or eager co-conspirators, makes one wonder why they even had a second chance to keep passing information to Russia, as opposed to being immediately removed from their positions.
I have a lot of thoughts on this disturbing revelation, many of which I'm not keen to share publicly at the moment, but I'll note four things:
1. "Russian agents ostensibly trying to track ISIS instead pressed their American counterparts for private financial documents" — Yet again, "working with Russia to defeat ISIS" appears. I really do not understand why I am the only person who noticed and has been screaming about the "work with Russia to defeat ISIS" planks in every candidacy but Hillary Clinton's during the 2016 election, because that is the trail of breadcrumbs to collusion with Russia. It indicates that every campaign but Clinton's had been infiltrated by the Kremlin, and now we discover at least one cabinet in Obama's administration was, too, under the same pretenses.
2. I suspect the odds are very long indeed that Hillary Clinton didn't know, or at least suspect, any of that. The question is how long she has known or suspected. Is the fact that people around Obama and/or people in high levels of the federal government were compromised by Russia partly (or wholly) why she decided to use her own server at State? If so, this has been going on way longer than we knew. (And her decision to use that private server looks smarter by the goddamn day.)
3. Where was then-Secretary of State John Kerry while all of this was happening? If he is truly keen to mount another presidential run in 2020, he's got some pretty big questions to answer.
4. I am very concerned that this disclosure is prelude to Republicans' launching a "Democrats colluded!" offensive that will be used to try to obfuscate the ongoing collusion of the sitting president.
None of this is good. And I am very concerned.
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 700
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: Putin Is Pleased with Trump's Syria Withdrawal and North Korea Has No Plans to Denuclearize (Of Course) and Trump's Acting and Nominated AG Both Criticized Mueller Probe.
Here are some more things in the news today...
Donald Trump just gave Vladimir Putin two early Christmas presents:
— Ryan Knight 🇺🇸 (@ProudResister) December 20, 2018
1) Pulled troops out of Syria.
2) Lifted sanctions on companies owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
TREASON’S GREETINGS.
Dan De Luce, Josh Lederman, and Courtney Kube at NBC News: Trump's Withdrawal from Syria Is Victory for Iran and Russia, Experts Say. "Although Russian and Iranian forces had already turned the tide of the civil war in favor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the presence of U.S. troops has served as an obstacle to their ambitions and a source of leverage for Washington in any potential political settlement of the conflict. Just within the last week, senior U.S. officials had argued that the American military mission was needed to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS militants and to serve as a bulwark against Iran. But with Trump's move to pull out the U.S. troops, Russia and particularly Iran — which sent thousands of proxies and its own elite forces into Syria — stand to emerge as the dominant players."
Joby Warrick and Souad Mekhennet at the Washington Post: The Islamic State Remains a Deadly Insurgent Force, Analysts Say, Despite Trump's Claim It Has Been Defeated. "In some regions, the Islamist militants appear to be gaining ground, reconstituting themselves as a brutal insurgency bent on killing local leaders and police officers and terrorizing populations, officials and analysts say. ...For many security experts, the depiction of the Islamic State as 'defeated' — as [Donald] Trump declared in a Twitter post Wednesday — is not only inaccurate, but is also dangerously misleading. Despite its setbacks, the group maintains a formidable presence in Syria and Iraq, commanding cadres of fanatical, highly trained fighters believed to number in the thousands, including many who went into hiding after the fall of the group's self-declared caliphate."
Caitlin Oprysko at Politico: Trump Defends Surprise Syria Withdrawal Despite Withering GOP Criticism. "'Getting out of Syria was no surprise. I've been campaigning on it for years, and six months ago, when I very publicly wanted to do it, I agreed to stay longer,' Trump wrote in one tweet. 'Russia, Iran, Syria & others are the local enemy of ISIS. We were doing there [sic] work. Time to come home & rebuild. #MAGA.' ...Although the president claimed Thursday that his decision to pull U.S. troops from Syria should come as 'no surprise,' several of his administration's top national security officials appeared to be caught off-guard by the move. Congressional Republicans, including some close allies of the president, panned the notion that the Islamic State had been defeated." BUT WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO ABOUT IT, THO? Presumably nothing. As usual.
Hopefully Senate Democrats will use whatever power they've got in their minority position to do whatever they can.
Yes, Congress, action is required when the POTUS is a Russian asset and sociopathic kleptocrat whose policies are designed to placate the oligarchs who helped bring him to power https://t.co/EQbzyuy9Ql
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) December 19, 2018
Over in the House, Nancy Pelosi is on it, and she isn't pulling any punches.
Pelosi goes there on President Trump's surprise announcement of a US military withdrawal from Syria pic.twitter.com/te84T0v5Gd
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) December 19, 2018
In other collusion news...
Why are Russian diplomats still visiting Butina if she is supposedly cooperating? Something doesn’t add up! Unless she was instructed on what info she is allowed to provide to Americans pic.twitter.com/Pcn0oYfwRB
— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) December 20, 2018
Great question.
* * *
[Content Note: Class warfare; food insecurity] Staff at the AP/Guardian: Trump Administration Puts Squeeze on Food Stamps Recipients. "The Trump administration is setting out to do what this year's farm bill did not: Tighten work requirements for millions of Americans who receive federal food assistance. The agriculture department on Thursday proposed a rule that would restrict the ability of states to exempt work-eligible adults from having to obtain steady employment to receive food stamps." This is classist, disablist trash that will leave millions of people hungry because they are simply unable to meet these bullshit work requirements. MALICE IS THE AGENDA. Nothing could make that more clear than this abominable cruelty.
[CN: War on agency] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: States Are Already Pre-Filing 'Fetal Heartbeat' Bans for the New Year.
Fetal heartbeat bills aim to outlaw abortion when a "heartbeat" is detected and, in recent days, it's the ban Republican state lawmakers have been coalescing around — a trend signaling the anti-abortion movement is ready for a complete ban if the Supreme Court is.[CN: Gun violence; death] Melissa Healy at the LA Times: More Than 15% of Childhood Deaths in America Are Due to Guns, Study Says. "More than 3,000 children and adolescents died of a gunshot wound in the United States in 2016, a new tally of childhood deaths finds. These episodes accounted for 15.4% of all Americans between the ages of 1 and 19 who died in 2016, and a quarter of those killed by injury rather than disease. ...'Children in America are dying or being killed at rates that are shameful,' [Dr. Edward W. Campion, executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine] wrote in an editorial published alongside the new report."
There was a rise in state legislatures considering fetal heartbeat bills in 2018, and it's certain to continue in the new year. The Ohio legislature just sent its heartbeat ban to the governor, who'll likely veto it; however, the incoming governor promised he'd sign such a ban into law when he takes office next year. Iowa was the first state in 2018 to effectively ban abortions up to six weeks, considered to be "the most restrictive" ban nationwide, and now tied up in court. State lawmakers elsewhere are already planning to introduce similar measures in 2019, with pre-files in South Carolina, Kentucky, and Missouri.
Lawmakers in Texas and South Dakota, meanwhile, are teeing up bills next year that try to humanize a fetus by affording it rights and requiring pregnant people to listen to the heartbeat, respectively.
The heartbeat ban, itself, is a misnomer. While a fetus' heart begins to form as early as six weeks of pregnancy, or around the time a "heartbeat" can be detected, it's still not a fully developed organ. Cardiac activity also isn't a credible measure of viability, as there's still a high chance of miscarriage and pregnancy complications. What these heartbeat bans do is outlaw abortions early during the first-trimester, before many people know they are pregnant.
It appears the objective with these measures is to make abortion more and more inaccessible.
[CN: Nativism] Yeganeh Torbati for Reuters/USNWR: U.S. to Send Some Migrants Back to Mexico as Immigration Cases Proceed. "The United States will soon begin returning individuals who illegally cross the U.S. southern border back to Mexico to wait there while their immigration cases proceed, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said on Thursday. ...'Aliens trying to game the system to get into our country illegally will no longer be able to disappear into the United States, where many skip their court dates,' Nielsen said in a statement. 'Instead, they will wait for an immigration court decision while they are in Mexico.'" 1. It is a straight-up lie that many undocumented immigrants skip their court dates. 2. As I noted just yesterday, asylum-seekers from the caravan have been killed in Mexico while waiting their chance to enter the U.S. Nielsen knows she will be sending some people to their deaths, and she doesn't fucking care.
[CN: HIV stigma] Savas Abadsidis at Towleroad: Trump Fires HIV-Positive Airmen Right Before Christmas. "In a bold move pernicious even for the Trump administration, two U.S. Air Force service members have been discharged for their HIV status. According to an exclusive in today's Washington Post, 'two U.S. airmen filed suit on Wednesday against Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, arguing that the Pentagon's decision last month to discharge them from the military owing to their HIV status violates the Constitution's equal protection clause and federal law. They have asked the court to strike down the decision.' Lambda Legal quickly issued a statement in support that said, in conjunction with OutServe-SLDN and with the law firm Winston & Strawn, they filed a lawsuit on behalf of two HIV-positive members of the United States Air Force who were given discharge orders just days before the holiday season." Goddammit.
[CN: Carcerality; murder; wrongful conviction] Pamela Colloff at ProPublica: Bloodstain Analysis Convinced a Jury She Stabbed Her 10-Year-Old Son; Now, Even Freedom Can't Give Her Back Her Life. "Four years later, Julie Rea was acquitted at a retrial, after a legal team assembled by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law in Chicago mounted a vigorous defense that challenged the state's forensic testimony. They also presented new evidence that a serial killer of children — a lifelong drifter who was on Texas death row for a nearly identical crime — had confessed to killing Joel. Rea was formally exonerated in 2010. Today, she belongs to a growing community of victims: Americans who were wrongly convicted with the help of forensic disciplines allowed into courtrooms despite little to no proof of their reliability. Of the 362 people who have been exonerated based on DNA tests in the United States, faulty forensics contributed to almost half of the underlying convictions."
Luke Barnes at ThinkProgress: The Terrifying Consequences of a 'No-Deal' Brexit. "[A 'No Deal' scenario, in which the UK abruptly withdraws from the EU without any deal agreed] would mean that border checks would have to be re-imposed, the UK would lose its access to the EU single market, and EU citizens in the UK (and vice-versa) would be left in legal limbo. ...Time-sensitive supply chains, including for food and medicine, could be severely disrupted by massive backlogs in ports since goods would no longer be transferred seamlessly from the EU into the UK. The UK would also no longer be governed by EU aviation standards, which could effectively ground flights until they renegotiated. ...In the worse case scenario, the government would need to 'explore how we would deal with a rise in homelessness and other potential societal impacts like a rise in suicide rates or an increase in food banks use.'" Truly frightening.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Fundraising Reminder
In case you missed it, last Wednesday I posted Shakesville's End-of-Year Fundraiser. There is more information at the link, but the basic gist is this: If you value my work here and/or on Twitter, please remember that Shakesville is run exclusively on donations. I need your support, if you are able to chip in.
Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated and/or set up (or increased) a subscription. I am so appreciative. ♥
This will be one of a couple reminders I run this week for the end-of-year fundraiser, which has become a critical fundraiser for me, and then we'll go back to every other month reminders.
Trump's Acting and Nominated AG Both Criticized Mueller Probe
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at first link.]
Despite the fact that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker once penned an op-ed for CNN entitled "Mueller's Investigation of Trump Is Going Too Far," ethics officials at the Justice Department "have advised him he does not need to recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation," reports Laura Jarrett at CNN.
The source added Whitaker has been in ongoing discussions with ethics officials since taking the job in early November following the ouster of Jeff Sessions, who had stepped aside from overseeing the investigation due to his role as a Trump campaign surrogate during the 2016 election.Presumably, the conclusion by officials in the department Whitaker is currently overseeing that he is under no obligation to recuse himself from overseeing an investigation that he criticized will be used by Donald Trump to formally remove oversight of Mueller's probe from Rosenstein and give it to Whitaker.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein oversaw the investigation following Sessions' recusal and his office is still managing the investigation on a day-to-day basis, as CNN has previously reported.
When, exactly, ethics officials signed off on Whitaker's role was not immediately clear, but as of last month, he had not stepped aside from participating in significant developments in the Russia investigation. He was informed ahead of time that Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen would plead guilty to lying to Congress about the proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.
Whitaker is expected to inform senators, many of whom have raised ethics concerns given his past criticism of Mueller's investigation, about this development later Thursday, the source said.
Meanwhile, Sadie Gurman and Aruna Viswanatha at the Wall Street Journal report that Trump's nominee for Attorney General, Bill Barr, "sent an unsolicited memo earlier this year to the Justice Department that excoriated special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into potential obstruction of justice by Mr. Trump, saying it is based on a 'fatally misconceived' theory that would cause lasting damage to the presidency and the executive branch."
At TPM, Tierney Sneed's got a copy of the nearly 19-page memo (!) in which Barr argues, among other things, that Mueller "should not be permitted to demand that the President submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction."
So, to recap: The acting AG criticized the Mueller probe before he was elevated to the position, and has now been told he need not recuse himself from overseeing it. The nominated AG criticized the Mueller probe before he was nominated, and, we can assume, will also be told he need not recuse himself from overseeing it if he is confirmed.
Let us remember that both of these men are in the positions they are because Donald Trump was endlessly infuriated that ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from overseeing Mueller's probe.
It's almost like (it is exactly like) criticizing Mueller's investigation was Whitaker's and Barr's application for the position and their #1 qualification.
Trump is choosing the nation's top law enforcer on the basis of their demonstrated contempt for the law and willingness to protect him from consequences for lawbreaking.
This is what authoritarianism looks like.
North Korea Has No Plans to Denuclearize (Of Course)
Donald Trump has spent a lot of time bragging on Twitter about how he solved the problem of North Korea, but, like everything else he says, it was undiluted bullshit. All he did, as he was warned, was legitimize Kim Jong Un's regime, at least in the North Korean leader's own eyes. And now Kim feels empowered to brazenly tell the world, including and especially the U.S. and Donald Trump, to fuck off.
Kim Tong-Hyung at the AP reports:
North Korea said Thursday it will never unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons unless the United States first removes what Pyongyang called a nuclear threat. The surprisingly blunt statement jars with Seoul's rosier presentation of the North Korean position and could rattle the fragile trilateral diplomacy to defuse a nuclear crisis that last year had many fearing war.And the most significant barrier to any sort of reasonable outcome remains the fact that both North Korea and the United States are led by indecent authoritarian assholes who arrived in their positions via nepotism rather than merit and surround themselves with sycophants who assure them they're brilliant despite their obvious limitations as leaders and vast collections of profound character flaws.
...The North's comments may also be seen as proof of what outside skeptics have long said: that Kim will never voluntarily relinquish an arsenal he sees as a stronger guarantee of survival than whatever security assurances the United States might provide. The statement suggests North Korea will eventually demand the United States withdraw or significantly reduce the 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea, a major sticking point in any disarmament deal.
...North Korea for decades has been pushing a concept of denuclearization that bears no resemblance to the American definition, with Pyongyang vowing to pursue nuclear development until the United States removes its troops and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan. In Thursday's statement, the North made clear it's sticking to its traditional stance on denuclearization. It accused Washington of twisting what had been agreed on in Singapore and driving post-summit talks into an impasse.
"The United States must now recognize the accurate meaning of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and especially, must study geography," the statement said.
"When we talk about the Korean Peninsula, it includes the territory of our republic and also the entire region of (South Korea) where the United States has placed its invasive force, including nuclear weapons. When we talk about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, it means the removal of all sources of nuclear threat, not only from the South and North but also from areas neighboring the Korean Peninsula," the statement said.
...The statement could jeopardize a second Trump-Kim summit as the United States may have difficulty negotiating further if the North ties the future of its nukes to the U.S. military presence in the South, analysts said.
And lest anyone imagine that the situation might improve if Trump were removed from office, Mike Pence seemingly wants a war with North Korea even more than his boss does.
Putin Is Pleased with Trump's Syria Withdrawal
The collusion has always been happening right out in the open — and it still is. Donald Trump, despite his infamous protestations, is a puppet of Vladimir Putin and continues to make decisions that suit the Kremlin, including and especially his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.
And Putin isn't being quiet about how pleased he is. Andrew E. Kramer at the New York Times reports:
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday welcomed [Donald] Trump's announcement of a withdrawal of American troops from Syria, calling it "the right decision."One wonders about the timing of Trump's "surprising" announcement, given its proximity to their secret meeting at the G20, upon which Putin insisted after Trump tried to back out of meeting.
Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he was ordering the withdrawal because the United States military had achieved its goal of defeating the Islamic State militant group in Syria. But the move caught many by surprise, including some of his military and diplomatic advisers. It has also drawn criticism, even among Republicans, for abandoning Kurdish allies in the fight against the Islamic State and for aiding the geopolitical ambitions of Iran and Russia in the Middle East.
Speaking at his annual news conference, which typically runs for several hours, Mr. Putin said he broadly agreed that the Islamic State had been defeated in Syria. "Donald's right, and I agree with him," Mr. Putin said.
This has long been a goal of Putin's, no matter who became president, so long as it wasn't Hillary Clinton, whose campaign never bit on the "work with Russia to defeat ISIS in Syria" policy that was curiously embraced by every other campaign in 2016, and Trump ultimately got it done.
Which, in some way, should not make this any surprise at all. As Karen DeYoung reports at the Washington Post:
The administration official who spoke to reporters insisted that no one should be surprised at Trump's decision because the president has been saying the same thing ever since the campaign. Asked about contradictions with statements from Trump's own advisers in recent weeks and months, the official challenged "the notion that anyone within the administration was caught unaware."But they did. Because Trump really has been threatening to withdraw from Syria as soon as he "defeated ISIS," which he has been claiming for some time now. And, if anyone besides me gave a fuck about how "work with Russia to defeat ISIS in Syria" had played such a perplexing, startling role in the 2016 election, it wouldn't be a surprise that this happened, except perhaps the surprise that it's taken as long as it has.
"It was the president's decision to make, and he made it," said the official, who indicated that Trump was never really behind the longer-term strategy announced in his name in September. "The president's statements on this topic have been 100 percent consistent."
Senior lawmakers of both parties said they had no warning the decision was coming.
It's devastating. But it's not surprising.
And it was never going to matter how many generals and "moderating influences" with which Trump surrounded himself, because the only influence that matters to the traitorous puppet occupying the Oval Office is Vladimir Putin.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker DesertRose: "Do you re-read books? If so, which one(s) have you re-read the most?"
I do! I'm pretty sure I've read Beautiful Joe the most. I've also read The Secret Garden a lot.
Wednesday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by zippers.
Recommended Reading:
Rafia Zakaria at Longreads: [Content Note: Murder; misogyny; toxic masculinity] They Wanted Her Body
Kyle Swenson at the Washington Post: [CN: Sexual assault; murder] She Swiped Her Co-Worker's Coke Can; Police Say It Cracked a 28-Year-Old Murder Case
Jonathan Lambert at Nautilus: What a Newfound Kingdom Means for the Tree of Life
Staff at Phys.org: Rare Relic Is One of Only Three Fossil Clouds Known in the Universe
Zack Ford at ThinkProgress: [CN: Transphobia] This Trans Researcher Is Working to Understand the Mental Health Impacts of Transphobia
Ella Cerón at the Cut: [CN: Domestic violence; misogyny; threats] What Happened After Amber Heard Spoke Out About Johnny Depp
Ragen Chastain at Dances with Fat: [CN: Fat hatred] Are You Accidentally Ruining the Holidays for Fat Friends and Family?
Candice Dyer at Atlanta Magazine: [CN: Animal harm] Atlanta's Patron Saint of Pit Bulls
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
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.
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As you know, I have so many hilarious text conversations with Deeky W. Gashlycrumb every day of our lives, and I am so grateful for each of them. He is a good egg and a good friend, and he brings lots of good things to my life, including lots of laughter. ♥
Coincidentally, after I had already composed the above paragraph, Deeks texted me the below screenshot of an old text conversation, so we could laugh at it all over again, which I am now sharing with you, with his permission:
Deeky: Poll: Hitchcock or Skully?First of all, I need to tell you, friends, that this was not an unexpected turn. It was an entirely expected turn based on literally every other conversation we've ever had.
[Hitchcock and Scully are two characters on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.]
Liss: Both. At once.
Deeky: Okay, this took an unexpected turn.
Liss: Hahahahaha
Deeky: Lololol
Liss: [GIF of Hitchcock and Scully high-fiving]
Secondly, are you even looking at the picture of me that Deeky is using (and has been using FOR YEARS) as my contact photo in his phone?! Hahahahaha he is a monster! I never would have sent him FULLY ONE MILLION selfies of me making terrible faces if I'd known he was going to pick NOT EVEN THE WORST ONE to use like that!
(I am definitely not mad that he's using that photo.) (I am laughing so hard my face is cracking.) (GOOD THINGS!)
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!
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I was jonesing on something chocolatey the other night, so I made this chocolate chip cookie cake from a recipe I found at The Spruce Eats. I made it without the chocolate frosting, though, because that would have made it far too sweet for me. It was delicious!
Is delicious, I should say, because we're still eating it. A tiny sliver goes a long way. And 20 seconds in the microwave restores the just-out-of-the-oven gooey scrumptiousness. Mmm.
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 699
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.
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Earlier today by me: This Is Why Pelosi Has Earned Her Job and Facebook Allowed Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Sony, Spotify, Yahoo, and Others to Access Users' Data and Trump and Giuliani Are Lying Liars, as Usual.
Here are some more things in the news today...
Big foreign policy news today, as Donald Trump has declared: "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency."
Which was preface for the disclosure that the U.S. "is considering a total withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria."
A few problems, detailed by MSNBC's Richard Engel:
As President @realDonaldTrump announces his intention to withdraw troops from Syria, @RichardEngel reports for @NBCNews on the significance of the move for the region and America's allies in the conflict. pic.twitter.com/lROYm9PqaR
— On Assignment with Richard Engel (@OARichardEngel) December 19, 2018
This is a very significant moment. There are many allies who will see this as a great American betrayal. What is happening right now, when you look at the president's tweet, when you look at statements to NBC News by military officials, this administration — the president — is going into the holidays and taking a "mission accomplished" moment, saying the U.S. under [Donald] Trump defeated ISIS, so now it's time to withdraw a significant portion of the U.S. troops in Syria, out of the country, out of harm's way, if not all of the troops.There's a whole lot there, but I want to emphasize this: "It would also put this very close ally that has sacrificed so much for the United States in a position of probably unsustainable peril. ...Our allies will be destroyed." This, of course, would not be the first time that the U.S. has betrayed Kurdish fighters — a grim legacy left out of the recent remembrances of George H.W. Bush.
And, on a certain level, ISIS has been pushed back. It hasn't been entirely defeated, but it has been pushed back. U.S. military officials say that the fight against ISIS in Syria isn't over, and then there is the other problem about our allies that we've been fighting with in Syria.
We have had — the U.S. military has had a very close partner in a Kurdish-led force, the YPG, also known as the SDF. This is a Kurdish-led force that has been fighting hand in glove with U.S. troops for about four years now. They have lost thousands of men; thousands of women fighters have also been on the front lines; in the last four years, fighting alongside U.S. troops, they've been able to carve out a successful mini-state right on the Turkish border. With U.S. troops leaving, that mini-state would be at risk. Turkey already says it wants to invade it.
So, not only is the fight not quite over against ISIS, according to the U.S. special envoy who deals with ISIS, according to U.S. military commanders that I've been speaking with; it would also put this very close ally that has sacrificed so much for the United States in a position of probably unsustainable peril.
[Female anchor offscreen says: "And Richard, big picture here: This is another example of [Donald] Trump taking one view; his own military taking another; and this conflict, or clash, that we've seen before on other issues related to the military, in this administration."]
So, this almost happened about six months ago. That's when I went into this region in northern Syria. The troops on the ground, the Kurdish-led partners on the ground, were very concerned, because [Donald] Trump, six months ago, was making statements like, the war against ISIS was finished; it's time to leave the area; the U.S. no longer has any purpose in being there.
And the military pushed back. There were a lot of private conversations; there were a lot of people talking to the president and those around him, saying, hey, look, I know you're the commander in chief, sir, but you might want to consider this — we're not quite finished with the war on ISIS; our allies will be destroyed by the Turks. And the administration backed off.
This time, with that tweet, with the number of comments that we've seen coming out, right out of the gate this morning, it doesn't seem like the White House is willing to back off again.
Also, once again, I will observe that "working with Russia to defeat ISIS in Syria" was a possible tell about Russian influence within campaigns in 2016. And here is the final endgame of that fuckery: The U.S. will leave Syria, declaring ISIS "defeated," abandoning Syria to chaos which Vladimir Putin will further exploit.
Meanwhile: The U.S. has reportedly approved a $3.5 billion patriot missile sale to Turkey. Holy fuck.
Also: The U.S. Treasury Department is reportedly removing Russian aluminum giant Rusal from the sanctions list. Good lord.
I am so profoundly shaken and upset by all of this. I am so sorry for the Syrian people who wanted none of this. I am so worried about where refugees will find safe harbor. I am so angry at Donald Trump, and every person who has abetted him.
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Erica Werner, John Wagner, and Damian Paletta at the Washington Post: Senate to Pass Bill That Would Keep Government Open, Deny Trump Wall Funding. "The Senate prepared Wednesday to pass a short-term spending bill that would keep the government open through the New Year but deny [Donald] Trump the money he wanted for his border wall — a stark retreat for Republicans in their final days in control of Congress. ...The outcome would temporarily break an impasse that threatened to shutter large portions of the government this weekend and send hundreds of thousands of federal workers home without pay just before Christmas. Trump has signaled his support for the plan but 'can change his mind if he wants to,' said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican. A senior White House aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's position, said the plan is for Trump to sign the legislation."
Trump had better fucking sign this shit. It would be just like him to pull an unexpected reversal and refuse to sign it, throwing the entire federal government into chaos and harming federal workers right before the holidays. I hope, for once, he abandons his urge for malice and just signs the goddamn bill.
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[Content Note: Nativism; abuse. Covers entire section.]
John Stanton at BuzzFeed: Another Migrant Girl Nearly Died After She Was Detained in New Mexico by the Border Patrol. "A young girl who was in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection went into cardiac arrest in November at a hospital in El Paso where she was resuscitated, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told members of Congress on Tuesday. The incident occurred in the same CBP sector where a 7-year-old Guatemalan asylum-seeker, Jakelin Caal, fell ill [and died] earlier this month."
Speaking of Jakelin Caal, I hope every person who felt compelled to sneer that her father is responsible for her death, because he took her on a journey through the desert in search of a better life, reads this. Elisabeth Malkin at the New York Times: In Home Village of Girl Who Died in U.S. Custody, Poverty Drives Migration. "Ms. Maquin has a simple explanation for why her husband joined a growing number of villagers and made the dangerous journey north: the absolute lack of alternatives in this lush but remote part of the country. Indigenous communities like theirs have endured centuries of poverty, exclusion, and repression by economic and political elites. ...Mr. Caal, like so many other migrants, may well have heard — from others who made the trip, or from the smuggler he paid to take him to the border — that he would have a better chance of remaining in the United States if he arrived with a child."
Julia Ainsley and Jacob Soboroff at NBC News: Advocates: Trump Admin Lying When It Says It Can't Process Any More Asylum Seekers. "Immigration advocates at the southern U.S. border say the Trump administration is lying when it says it's at 'capacity' and can't process any more asylum seekers at the ports of entry where migrants can legally claim asylum. On Twitter Monday night, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said 'the processing system at CBP and our partner agencies has hit capacity.' ...But Kara Lynum, a lawyer with American Immigration Lawyers Association who was held outside the Otay Mesa border station with the 15 Honduran immigrants Monday, said the station was not full."
Tom Phillips at the Guardian: Mexico Investigates After Teens from Migrant Caravan Killed Near U.S. Border. "Two teenage members of the migrant caravan have reportedly been murdered in Tijuana, a stark reminder of the dangers facing the tens of thousands of young Central Americans who try to reach the United States each year. The Honduran victims, aged 16 and 17, reportedly hailed from the violence-stricken city of San Pedro Sula, where the caravan set out from in mid-October before cutting north-west through Mexico towards the U.S. border." That's the cost of the Trump Regime's lies about being unable to process asylum-seekers.
Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Members of Congress Caged at the Border While Standing with Asylum Seekers. "Two members of Congress, along with 15 asylum seekers and leaders from immigrant activist group Families Belong Together, were caged together overnight at the Otay Mesa port of entry near San Diego. The group intended to observe how detained migrants are treated when attempting to claim asylum. In a statement to ThinkProgress, Families Belong Together said the incident amounted to the Trump administration making a 'mockery of our long-held democratic values and our legal process.' ...According to [Democratic Reps. Nanette Barragan and Jimmy Gomez, who both represent the greater Los Angeles area], CBP agents routinely gave them a hard time, making snide comments and jokes at the expense of the asylum seekers." Seethe.
"A mother who was unable to obtain a travel ban waiver to visit her dying son in California has been granted a visa by the State Department [which] granted the waiver after the family's story spread through social media and appeared in news reports." https://t.co/naEBFSVhF2
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 19, 2018
I'm so, so glad that Shaima Swileh is going to get to see her son, but this is no solution — granting exceptions to people whose tragic stories go viral. The Muslim ban must be lifted.
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In good resistance news... Elham Khatami at ThinkProgress: Nevada Just Became the First State with a Women-Majority Legislature. "Nevada made history on Wednesday as the country's first woman-majority state legislature, after Las Vegas county officials appointed two women to fill recently-vacated seats in the state Assembly. The appointment of the two women — Democrats Beatrice Duran and Rochelle Nguyen, who is also the first Asian American woman to serve in her district — brings the total number of female-held seats in the Assembly to 23, or 55 percent of the 42-seat chamber. Women hold nine of the 21 seats in the Nevada state Senate, meaning 34 of the 63 total seats in the legislature are women-held. According to Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), Nevada is the first state not only to have a female-majority legislature, but to even reach the 50 percent threshold of overall female representation."
And back to shitty news... [CN: Sexual harassment; racism; homophobia] Kate Riga at TPM: Ex-News Chiefs Booted for Sexual Harassment, Racism Team Up to Create New Outlet. "Ousted NPR and Fox News chiefs, booted due to sexual harassment allegations and accusations of racism and homophobia, respectively, have been recruited by former Fox News executive Ken LaCorte to head a new 'fair and balanced' digital news outlet. According to a Tuesday Politico report, Michael Oreskes formerly of NPR and John Moody formerly of Fox News will play a key role in assigning 'importance' to stories to avoid creating a partisan silo on the new site, LaCorte News. LaCorte told Politico that he is wholly unconcerned about the men's pasts, considering their ouster an overreaction."
Staff at the Feminist Newswire: Trump Administration Rescinds Anti-discriminatory School Discipline Policies. "Today the Trump Administration announced it would rescind parts of the Obama administration's 'Rethink Discipline' school policies; policies that ensured that minority students were not unfairly targeted for harsher punishments or disciplinary practices. The Trump Administration argued that the policies' efforts to reduce discriminatory punishments contributed to the increase of violence in schools. The Trump Administration created the School Safety Commission, led by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, after the Parkland shooting. Instead of focusing on gun violence and gun control, the Commission targeted Obama era school discipline policies that protect minority students from discriminatory discipline practices, even though the Parkland shooter was a white male."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
