[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
Friday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by question marks.
Recommended Reading:
Molly Ringwald at the New Yorker: [Content Note: Rape culture; racism; homophobia] What About The Breakfast Club?
Vivian Kane at the Mary Sue: [CN: Domestic violence] Jordan Peele Is Making a Lorena Bobbitt Docuseries and It's About Damn Time
Lisa Needham at Dame: [CN: Nativism] Trump Is Now Going After Legal Immigrants and Children
Charles Pierce at Esquire: What's Happening in Oklahoma Is Remarkable Evidence of the Power of Public Education
Anisa Khalifa at Reappropriate: [CN: Colonialism; white supremacy; colorism] On Being a Brown Asian: Expanding the Boundaries of Asian America
Catherine Lizette Gonzalez at Colorlines: Uncommon Bonds Explores What It Takes for Women to Have Real Friendships Across Race
Maddie Stone at Earther: China Is Definitely Winning the World's Clean Energy Race
Rae Paoletta at Inverse: The Milky Way Is Hiding a Mind-Blowing Number of Black Holes in Its Center
Rochelle Johnson at Beauticurve: Fun Spring/Summer Look from My Fave
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Department of Homeland Security to Start Tracking Journalists, Bloggers, and Others
This is very, very, very, very, very, very, very not fucking good:
Department of Homeland Security to compile a media database because everything is really that terrible, folks https://t.co/K4BisBsxkp
— Jessica Mason Pieklo (@Hegemommy) April 6, 2018
From the article at Forbes by Michelle Fabio:
[T]he United States government, traditionally one of the bastions of press freedom, is about to compile a list of professional journalists and "top media influencers," which would seem to include bloggers and podcasters, and monitor what they're putting out to the public.MAKE YOUR CALLS.
...As part of its "media monitoring," the DHS seeks to track more than 290,000 global news sources as well as social media in over 100 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, and Russian, for instant translation into English. The successful contracting company will have "24/7 access to a password protected, media influencer database, including journalists, editors, correspondents, social media influencers, bloggers etc." in order to "identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event."
"Any and all media coverage," as you might imagine, is quite broad and includes "online, print, broadcast, cable, radio, trade and industry publications, local sources, national/international outlets, traditional news sources, and social media."
The database will be browsable by "location, beat, and type of influencer," and for each influencer, the chosen contractor should "present contact details and any other information that could be relevant, including publications this influencer writes for, and an overview of the previous coverage published by the media influencer."
One aspect of the media coverage to be gathered is its "sentiment."
...The real question, of course, is what the government plans to do with the information it compiles, and there's been no comment on that beyond what is in the posting, which, by the way, has interest from at least seven companies. Will those on the DHS media database be questioned more harshly coming in and out of the country? Will they have trouble getting visas to go to certain countries for their own reporting or personal vacations? Worse?
...If you think the idea of the U.S. government's compiling and monitoring a list of media professionals and "top media influencers" is a potential threat to democracy, now would be the perfect time to call your local and congressional representatives to let them know how much you value a free press and the freedom of speech, just in case they've forgotten.
It gets more frightening to do this job every day. That is not an exaggeration. I feel an increasing lack of safety that I never felt even during the Bush administration. The truth is, I am a vocal feminist dissident, who is married to an immigrant, and I am scared.
Still. I thought about what it might mean even to post this and register my criticism of it, and a chill ran through me, and then I posted it anyway.
#365feministselfie: Week 14
I am again participating in the #365feministselfie project, now in its fifth year, and promised a thread for others to share selfies and/or talk about the project, visibility generally, self-apprecation, and related topics. So here is a thread for Week 14!
A few of my selfies over the last two weeks:
(Aren't you so excited to get to see how the magic of Shakesville happens, lol? IT'S THRILLING STUFF!)
Please feel welcome and encouraged to share your own selfies in comments, or share your thoughts on the project, or solicit encouragement or advice, or do whatever else feels best for you to participate, if you are inclined to do so!
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
We Resist: Day 442
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: Listen to Madeleine Albright and A Reminder That Sanctions Are Worthless Unless They're Enforced.
Here are some more things in the news today...
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; disablism; death] Adam Gabbatt at the Guardian: 'Saheed Is No Gunman': Hundreds Protest in New York Against Police Shooting.
Hundreds of people have marched through the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Crown Heights to protest against police for shooting an unarmed black man.Everyone except the police.
Saheed Vassell, 34, was shot and killed by police on Wednesday afternoon. The New York police department said it had received calls that a man was wielding a gun, but it turned out to be part of a welding torch.
People blocked the corner of Utica Avenue and Montgomery Street, where Vassell was shot, chanting: "No justice, no peace."
...Vassell would regularly hang out at the corner where he was shot, residents said, and was known to suffer from mental illness.
"I gave him a dollar the day before he was shot," said Mavis Mayfield. "Everybody in the neighborhood knew him."
As I said yesterday: There was a time when police intimately knew the communities they policed, and losing that is one of many factors that contributes to police killings, perhaps especially of disabled people.
* * *
[CN: Drones; death] Caitlin MacNeal at TPM: Trump Apparently Irked Drone Strike Didn't Kill Terrorist's Family. "On his first full day in office, [Donald] Trump was perplexed when he watched a recorded video of a drone strike on a foreign terror suspect in which the CIA waited to strike until the suspect was alone, according to the Washington Post. The recording showed that the waited until the terror suspect walked away from the house in which his family was residing to fire, a part of the agency's push to limit civilian casualties, per the Washington Post. 'Why did you wait?' Trump asked."
[By way of reminder, Trump said during the campaign: "With the terrorists, you have to take out their families. When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families." Which is a war crime.]
Judd Legum at ThinkProgress: Trump Finally Spoke about Stormy Daniels — and He Made Things Much Worse. "Ever since Daniels burst upon the scene, Trump has made a habit of ignoring the shouted questions of reporters as well as avoiding the topic on Twitter. But on Thursday, Trump broke with this tradition and briefly answered a couple of questions about the affair while en route from West Virginia to Washington, D.C. on Air Force One. ...Professing ignorance about the agreement with Daniels helped Trump deflect the question in the moment. But it put Cohen, his longtime attorney, in legal jeopardy. It also undermines the validity of the contract Trump is current seeking to use to silence Daniels." If anything still mattered, this would be a big deal!
Kevin G. Hall, Ben Wieder, and Greg Gordon at McClatchy: Mueller Probe Tracking Down Trump Business Partners, with Cohen a Focus of Queries. "Armed with subpoenas compelling electronic records and sworn testimony, Mueller's team showed up unannounced at the home of the business associate, who was a party to multiple transactions connected to Trump's effort to expand his brand abroad, according to persons familiar with the proceedings. Investigators were particularly interested in interactions involving Michael D. Cohen, Trump's longtime personal attorney and a former Trump Organization employee. Among other things, Cohen was involved in business deals secured or sought by the Trump Organization in Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Russia." Cohen had his thumbs in lots of Trump pies.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Pierre Thomas and James Gordon Meek at ABC News: Mueller Has Evidence That Trump Supporter's Meeting with Putin Ally May Not Have Been a Chance Encounter. "Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained evidence that calls into question Congressional testimony given by Trump supporter and Blackwater founder Erik Prince last year, when he described a meeting in Seychelles with a Russian financier close to Vladimir Putin as a casual chance encounter 'over a beer,' sources told ABC News." LOLOLOL no shit! You mean it wasn't just a huge coinkydink that Betsy DeVos' professional mercenary brother bumped into a Putin ally in the Seychelles? SHOCKING.
Kate Riga at TPM: Pruitt Tried to Use Sirens to Get out of a DC Traffic Jam. "The hits just keep coming for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. CBS News reported Thursday afternoon that early in his tenure at the EPA, Pruitt tried to goad his security detail into turning on the emergency sirens to get through D.C. traffic more quickly, ultimately removing an agent from his detail upon the agent's refusal to use them. Unnamed sources told CBS that Pruitt's lead agent, Eric Weese, a 16-year employee of the EPA, told the administrator that the sirens were just for emergencies. Weese was reportedly replaced shortly thereafter."
Report after report after report about Pruitt's many abuses of power, and this is what Trump tweets today:
Do you believe that the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that I am going to replace A.G. Jeff Sessions with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege? Do people really believe this stuff? So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2018
Pruitt is "under siege," according to Trump, because the press is continually reporting on endless examples of Pruitt's shameless corruption. Which gives us a pretty clear insight into what Trump wants and expects his administration to be: A bunch of privileged men plundering the federal government for their own personal gain, with no one attempting to hold them accountable or treating their aggressive lack of ethics like it's a problem.
* * *
[CN: Death; drowning] Amy Held at NPR: CDC Epidemiologist Found Dead Weeks After Going Missing, Drowning Suspected. "Timothy Cunningham, a 35-year-old epidemiologist at the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, vanished after leaving work Feb. 12, complaining he felt unwell; some seven weeks later, his decomposed body was spotted by fishermen in a rugged area along the banks of the Atlanta area's Chattahoochee River, according to officials. ...Fulton County Medical Examiner Jan Gorniak said the cause of death is 'probably' drowning. But tests, including a toxicology screening, are still pending. ...In the days after he went missing, Cunningham's case drew intense media scrutiny and speculation about what had happened in what police called 'unusual' circumstances. ...On Thursday, [Maj. Michael O'Connor with the Atlanta Police Department] said the circumstances around Cunningham's own death may never be understood. 'Barring new information coming forward, we may never be able to tell you how he got into the river.'"
I've been following this story since Cunningham's disappearance was first reported, and it has been so strange and perplexing and troubling and sad. I grieve that he was not found alive, even though I knew there was a very slim chance of that, but I am relieved for his family that they may have some semblance of closure now that his body has been recovered. Still: There are so many unanswered questions. My condolences to them, and to all who knew him.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Facebook Sent a Doctor on a Secret Mission to Ask Hospitals to Share Patient Data.
Facebook has asked several major U.S. hospitals to share anonymized data about their patients, such as illnesses and prescription info, for a proposed research project. Facebook was intending to match it up with user data it had collected, and help the hospitals figure out which patients might need special care or treatment.Jesus fucking Jones, this company.
The proposal never went past the planning phases and has been put on pause after the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal raised public concerns over how Facebook and others collect and use detailed information about Facebook users.
"This work has not progressed past the planning phase, and we have not received, shared, or analyzed anyone's data," a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC.
But as recently as last month, the company was talking to several health organizations, including Stanford Medical School and American College of Cardiology, about signing the data-sharing agreement.
While the data shared would obscure personally identifiable information, such as the patient's name, Facebook proposed using a common computer science technique called "hashing" to match individuals who existed in both sets. Facebook says the data would have been used only for research conducted by the medical community.
The project could have raised new concerns about the massive amount of data Facebook collects about its users, and how this data can be used in ways users never expected.
[CN: Nativism; misogyny] Miriam Jordan at the New York Times: Thousands of Indian Women Find Their American Dreams in Jeopardy. "Ms. Jalakam and thousands of other spouses of skilled workers have been told that their special work permits — authorization that can mean the difference between struggling and thriving in their adopted homeland — are likely to be revoked. The Trump administration announced last fall that, as part of a crackdown on H-1B visas issued for skilled workers to enter the United States, it plans to rescind an Obama-era program that allowed spouses to work. The change, expected in June, would force thousands of mainly Indian women who followed their husbands to the United States to give up their jobs — even though many are highly educated workers with sought-after skills." Rage seethe boil.
[CN: Misogynoir; white supremacy; ideation of self-harm] Liz Brazile at Rewire: An Ohio Woman Demands Better Care for Black Patients After Her Involuntary Hospitalization. "Based on her past experiences, and the fact that she didn't feel like a danger to herself or others, Muhammad and her parents only expected the hospital to keep her for an overnight examination. Instead, she was involuntarily held in inpatient psychiatric care for 14 days. Muhammad alleges she was ignored as she suffered allergic reactions, was falsely accused of being disorderly, and was over-medicated and psychologically gaslighted during those two weeks at UC. She has filed a grievance with UC and complaints against two of her physicians there with the Ohio Medical Board — and she says her case reflects the broader obstacles Black patients face when they seek psychological care." Awful.
E.A. Crunden at ThinkProgress: Puerto Rico Will Close 283 Schools as Island Continues to Struggle. "Puerto Rico will close 283 schools across the island following a sharp enrollment drop as the U.S. territory continues to languish in recovery efforts almost seven months after a devastating hurricane. Education Secretary Julia Keleher announced Thursday that a portion of the island's more than 1,100 schools won't re-open next fall, citing the loss of 38,762 students. 'Half of the existing schools are at 60% of their capacity,' a statement from the island's Department of Education read. Bowing to what Keleher called the 'fiscal reality' of the island's situation, the education secretary indicated Puerto Rico will work to shift funding towards repairing those schools remaining open." Sob.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
When Your Husband Ruins Your Slumber Party Vibe
I love listening to Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard talk about their relationship, which feels so familiar to me in so many ways. I like the sweet stories; I like the stories about times that are tough; and I like the funny stories.
The following story, which Bell told on a recent visit to Ellen, is one of my favorite stories of all time (and OMG Ellen's birthday party sounds amaaaaaaazing!):
Ellen Degeneres: Hi, adorable Kristen Bell.I could not stop laughing at this, because OMG the well-meaning husband who just wants to participate, but THAT IS NOT THE VIBE, MAN.
Kristen Bell: Hiiiiii!
Ellen: You look beautiful.
Kristen: Thanks! So do you!
Ellen: You look so pretty. Tell me what's going on with you. The last time I saw you, you were at my birthday party.
Kristen: YES! Your birthday party was SO FUN!
Ellen: Wasn't it fun?
Kristen: It was so much fun! There was a very nice dance floor — AND I'd like to thank you, 'cause I had one of the best moments of my life.
Ellen: What?
Kristen: Well, you know, it was a real— I got there, and it was a real who's who; it was very exciting. And I was on the dance floor— Melissa McCarthy started the dance floor—
Ellen: Yes she did.
Kristen: —demanded that everyone dance. And you listen when she talks to you! And I was just kind of casually getting into it, and all of a sudden I see, in a little settee to the side, JLo, like, looking like JLo, right? So elegant! And then she just goes— [mimes JLo pointing at her, then pointing back at herself] And I was like— [mimes looking around to make sure JLo was pointing at her] She gets up! We start dancing together! I'm FREAKING OUT! I'm like: I'm dancing with JLo! I'm dancing with JLo! I'm like hitting her butt— [audience laughter] It's amazing! She didn't mind; it's consensual! But then— [slumps back in seat] My husband sees, and he came over, and he kinda cockblocked me.
[audience laughter, as Kristen looks totally dejected]
Ellen: No!
Kristen: Sorry, he did. But he was — I'm sure from his perspective, he was like, "My wife's dancing with JLo! That's so cool!" And he came over, and he's— [mimes his trying to dance excitedly with them] —comes up, and we were both like, "No, man. No. Nooooo."
[audience laughter, as Kristen slumps back in her seat again]
Ellen: No.
Kristen: No, no.
Ellen: No.
Kristen: He kinda like ruined my vibe with JLo.
Ellen: I'm so sorry to hear that.
Kristen: It's all right.
Ellen: Is he a good dancer?
Kristen: He actually is a very good dancer.
Ellen: Is he?
Kristen: Yeah, he's a really, really good dancer. His moves are fantastic. It wasn't that he was a bad dancer; it's just that he— [picture of the couple is projected in the background; audience awwwwws] —awwwww.
Ellen: Awwwww.
Kristen: It's just that, like, we had a thing.
Ellen: Right.
Kristen: Like we had a slumber party thing going on, you know, and then he came in and it was just like, "Oh, and here's my husband."
Ellen: Yeah, but then— [audience laughter; Ellen and Kristen laugh] I know what that's like. [laughter]
* * *
For a very long time, Deeky hated even the sight of Dax Shepard, and I kept telling him that Dax Shepard actually seems very nice and funny, and I would randomly send him pro-Dax propaganda.
The other day, Deeks texted me something Dax Shepard had tweeted, which was very funny...
Me: Lol I told you he's a good egg!!!
Deeks: Lol.
Me: Getting you to send me a Dax Shepard tweet approvingly is my greatest accomplishment, in a lifetime of outstanding achievements.
Deeks: Lol. You're a champion.
Me: He should hire me to do his PR.
Deeks: He should!
LOL FOREVER.
A Reminder That Sanctions Are Worthless Unless They're Enforced
Last week, I wrote a piece addressing the common confusion about why Donald Trump occasionally agrees to a policy that makes him, ever so briefly, look as though he cares about Russian aggression. Like, for instance, kicking out Russian spies. "Russia doesn't need spies in the United States when the United States president will share highly classified intel directly with Russian diplomats right in the Oval Office," I observed.
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] That's the backdrop for today's news that the Trump administration has "unveiled new actions against Russian officials, oligarchs, businesses, and agencies — freezing assets that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction."
One of those named is Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with links to former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort, who has been charged in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.What a carefully parsed statement that is technically very accurate! There is indeed no question about who is targeted, nor that it will be widely noticed. What the anonymous official studiously leaves out is whether the move will be effective — and that's because it won't.
"There is no question that this activity goes after a number of individuals and entities surrounding the Kremlin regime, and this will be noticed far and wide," a senior administration official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Regarding the breathless news that Trump has "imposed sanctions" on Russia, Sarah Kendzior explains: "'Impose' is different than 'enforce.' The sanctions that have been imposed have not been truly enforced. For example, Pompeo hosted Russian spies who are banned from US soil under sanctions, and now is going to be Secretary of State." Further: "As this article notes, oligarchs targeted by sanctions have had so much time to move their assets that the effect is minimal. The slowness is and was intentional."
One of the oligarchs targeted by this latest round of silly-sanctions is Oleg Deripaska, one of the wealthiest men in the world and a close ally of Vladimir Putin. If that name sounds familiar, that may be because Deripaska is the same Russian oligarch for whom Paul Manafort worked for at least half a decade, during which time he assisted Deripaska in advancing Putin's interests and "proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics."
Deripaska is the same guy to whom Manafort promised "private briefings" during the 2016 campaign and to whom Manafort reportedly owed somewhere between $7.8 and $19 million.
And that's the relationship that you'll see highlighted in most stories about today's sanctions. But more importantly, just last month Deripaska "bought a Cypriot passport under a controversial scheme that allows rich investors to acquire citizenship and visa-free access to the European Union." Cyprus is a favored destination of Russian oligarchs needing to hide and/or launder assets, and the vice-chair of the board of Bank of Cyprus PCL, the largest bank in Cyprus, is none other than U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
These sanctions are nothing, because they will not be enforced in any meaningful way. The point was to get headlines from media outlets inexplicably willing to indulge the pretense that the Trump administration is getting serious on Russia.
They got their headlines. Welp.
Listen to Madeleine Albright
Before Hillary Clinton was a tremendously knowledgeable, earnest, passionate Secretary of State who warned us against fascism, there was Madeleine Albright. Serving in the administration of President Bill Clinton, she was the first female U.S. Secretary of State — an immigrant daughter of a diplomat, who became a global leader in advocating democracy.
She is now 80 years old, and her work continues. For today's New York Times, she has written a must-read piece: "Will We Stop Trump Before It's Too Late?" After detailing the many troubling signs of resurgent fascism around the world, she then turns to Donald Trump, whose presidency, she writes, enhances "the possibility that fascism will be accorded a fresh chance to strut around the world stage."
If freedom is to prevail over the many challenges to it, American leadership is urgently required. This was among the indelible lessons of the 20th century. But by what he has said, done and failed to do, Mr. Trump has steadily diminished America's positive clout in global councils.Emphasis mine. There is much, much more at the link.
Instead of mobilizing international coalitions to take on world problems, he touts the doctrine of "every nation for itself" and has led America into isolated positions on trade, climate change, and Middle East peace. Instead of engaging in creative diplomacy, he has insulted United States neighbors and allies, walked away from key international agreements, mocked multilateral organizations, and stripped the State Department of its resources and role. Instead of standing up for the values of a free society, his oft-vented scorn for democracy's building blocks has strengthened the hands of dictators. No longer need they fear United States criticism regarding human rights or civil liberties. On the contrary, they can and do point to Trump's own words to justify their repressive actions.
At one time or another, Trump has attacked the judiciary, ridiculed the media, defended torture, condoned police brutality, urged supporters to rough up hecklers, and — jokingly or not — equated mere policy disagreements with treason. He tried to undermine faith in America's electoral process through a bogus advisory commission on voter integrity. He routinely vilifies federal law enforcement institutions. He libels immigrants and the countries from which they come. His words are so often at odds with the truth that they can appear ignorant, yet are in fact calculated to exacerbate religious, social, and racial divisions. Overseas, rather than stand up to bullies, Mr. Trump appears to like bullies, and they are delighted to have him represent the American brand. If one were to draft a script chronicling fascism's resurrection, the abdication of America's moral leadership would make a credible first scene.
This is the urgent warning we need, from another woman to whom we should be listening.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Carpe Librarium: "Are you good at snappy comebacks, or do you tend to think them up only after the moment has passed? Was there a moment where you came up with the perfect response at the perfect time?"
I've always been pretty good at snappy comebacks, and I've only gotten better in the time I've had to navigate public trolling.
Here's a witty retort I shared on Twitter last weekend:
"Can't you get your uterus removed to stop you being so hysterical?"
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 31, 2018
"I contend that if men want me to stop being 'hysterical,' then they should remove themselves."
Luckily I was with two men who posed that question facetiously and who laughed very hard at my retort.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 31, 2018
I'm guessing many of you can guess which two scoundrels were affectionately giving me shit and burst out laughing at my snappy comeback, lol.
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 picked up this top on clearance at Woman Within for $12, and it was a great find. I love the sleeve length, which is fairly unusual — right at the elbow, in between the typical short sleeve length and 3/4 sleeve length.
It's not my favorite cut — the "generous cut" gets a little too blocky around the middle on my body shape for my preference — but I like the fabric and pattern.
And it's very casual, but also easy to dress up a bit: I throw on my black moto jacket over it (which also helps offset that aforementioned blockiness) with a nice black ankle boot, and it looks quite stylish.
Versatile and cheap — my favorite!
Anyway! As always, all subjects related to fat fashion are on topic, but if you want a topic for discussion: What's the last great bargain you found while clothes shopping?
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.
Quote of the Day
Over the past year I have repeatedly asked Facebook for its stance on bulk harvesting and research use of its users' data. Last February I asked the company if it had comment on the mass harvesting of data by commercial enterprises for political purposes and whether it had any policies prohibiting the use of personality quizzes or other apps that bulk harvested profiles. In June I asked it, in light of all of the ways Facebook itself was conducting research on its users, whether it might consider offering users the right to opt-out of having their personal data exploited by Facebook for research. In September, in the aftermath of the controversial 'gaydar' study that claimed to be able to estimate someone's sexual orientation from their photo and used a large volume of harvested Facebook data, I asked whether the work's mass harvesting of profile photos was of concern to the company. Just last month I asked whether Facebook was planning to request that large holders of data harvested from the platform delete their archives or whether it planned to request that bulk Facebook datasets available for download be restricted to university researches and exclude commercial researchers. Not to mention countless other requests for comment about various Facebook research use of private user data. In every case the company's response was silence.— Kalev Leetaru at Forbes, in a must-read piece entitled "Why Are We Just Finding Out Now That All Two Billion Facebook Users May Have Been Harvested?"
Leetaru notes that the big story is not Facebook's acknowledgement that "likely the entirety of Facebook's two billion public profiles (and quite a few private profiles) are archived in repositories all over the world by academics, companies, and criminal actors, not to mention countless governments...but rather why the company took until yesterday to confirm it."
Meanwhile, Alex Hern at the Guardian reports that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn't planning on stepping down anytime soon, saying: "I still think that I'm going to do the best job to help run it going forward."
He's also apparently not going to hold anyone else accountable, either: "I'm not looking to throw anyone else under the bus for mistakes that we've made here."
Mistakes. Oh.
BRB Jumping into Christmas Tree
"What I'm sensing now is that we have to pivot back to people who have a deep-rooted knowledge of American history and politics and experience in policy and how laws get made," says Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who also says he didn't vote in 2016. SCREAM. https://t.co/m9WUAs84u4
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelly has this funny way of sleeping with her back legs tucked up under her so tightly that she looks like she doesn't have any back legs at all. I don't know how that can possibly be comfortable, but she assures me that it is!
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 441
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: Trade Wars: So Now I'm NOT Supposed to Care About Middle America? and Trump Announces Plan to Militarize the Border and And Again.
Here are some more things in the news today...
Let's start out with Bernie Sanders being a racist dipshit yet again, shall we?
The Senator thought it was a great idea, apparently, to use the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to shit-talk the nation's first Black president:
"He was obviously an extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy. But beyond that reality," Sen. Sanders says, Democrats have lost a record no. of legislative seats.
— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) April 5, 2018
I just want to note how carefully Bernie Sanders avoids saying Barack Obama was a good president here. "Charismatic individual, extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy." But nothing about being a good president. Or even being president at all. https://t.co/yx8LkieHkP
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018
I'm honestly amazed he didn't throw in a comment about how "articulate" Obama is, in addition to being "charismatic."
And if throwing thinly veiled racist shade at Obama weren't enough for you, how about promising to "try to do better" representing racial minorities in Vermont, while 'splaining at them that his record is already stellar?
Sanders said he will "try to do better" in reaching out to racial justice leaders in Vermont in response to criticism that he has fallen short in representing the state's minorities during his long political career.Cool cool cool.
"Well, you know, I'm sorry to hear that and I will try to do better," the independent lawmaker said in response to a question about concerns voiced by African-American leaders in Vermont that he had done little to stay in touch with them.
"I think if anyone looks at my record here in Vermont and nationally on issues of racial justice, I think it's a pretty strong record and will continue to be," he said.
While he was being awesome, he also decided to again brush off the idea that Russian interference on his campaign's behalf made any difference — or indeed that Russian interference mattered at all.
On Russian influence on the 2016 election, Sanders said: "Their goal is to divide this country up, and to try to create antagonisms and hatred between different groups of people. My suspicion is what happened is that at the end of my campaign, when it became apparent that I wasn't going to be the Democratic nominee, what they attempted to do is to reach out to people that they felt were my supporters and to tell them not to vote, or not to vote for Clinton or to vote for Trump, and trying to say really hateful and really ugly things about Secretary Clinton."Oh.
Sanders concluded, "I don't suspect it had a major impact" on the outcome of the election.
It's funny how Sanders spent the day trashing Democrats and President Obama, and then accused the Russians of trying "to divide this country up, and to try to create antagonisms and hatred between different groups of people," and then suggested it doesn't matter. What a piece of work.
* * *
CNN: Mueller's office wants to know if wealthy Russians used US straw donors to steer $ to the Trump campaign and inaugural fund. We reported last year that the American cousin of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg gave $250K to the Trump inaugural fund. https://t.co/AayXmRjBGT pic.twitter.com/WOpXsVqmW5
— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) April 4, 2018
Trump famously spent very little money on traditional campaign strategies. So if wealthy Russians were illegally funneling money to the Trump campaign, virtually all of that money went directly to Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and lining the coffers of Trump properties. https://t.co/ElG66CUR9u
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018
[Content Note: Islamophobia] Robert Maguire at OpenSecrets: Robert Mercer Backed a Secretive Group That Worked with Facebook, Google to Target Anti-Muslim Ads at Swing Voters. "Most Americans have never heard of the far-right neoconservative nonprofit that ran the ads. It has no employees and no volunteers, and it's run out of the offices of a Washington, D.C. law firm. More importantly, most voters never saw the ads. And that was by design. The group, a social welfare organization called Secure America Now, worked hand in hand with Facebook and Google to target their message at voters in swing states who were most likely to be receptive to them. And new tax documents obtained by OpenSecrets show that the money fueling the group came mostly from just three donors, including the secretive multimillionaire donor Robert Mercer."
Remember when everyone was calling @KellyAnnePolls a hypocrite for trashing @realDonaldTrump when she worked for @tedcruz and doing a complete 180 when she joined Trump? The candidates were just disposable puppets. She was working for the Mercers all along https://t.co/f67vcSpnPF
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) March 23, 2018
Luke Harding at the Guardian: Former Trump Aide Approved 'Black Ops' to Help Ukraine President. "Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort authorised a secret media operation on behalf of Ukraine's former president, featuring 'black ops,' 'placed' articles in the Wall Street Journal and U.S. websites, and anonymous briefings against Hillary Clinton. The project was designed to boost the reputation of Ukraine's then leader, Viktor Yanukovych. It was part of a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort carried out by Manafort on behalf of Yanukovych's embattled government, emails and documents reveal."
* * *
You have to ignore the terrible headline on this solid piece by Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, because the content of the piece doesn't support it:
NEW:
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 5, 2018
More than 1 million jobs that could be vulnerable in a trade war with China are in Trump counties, new data show.
My new post, with charts:https://t.co/X8jHIpWxs9
Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay at the Daily Beast: John Kelly to Scott Pruitt: The Scandals Need to Stop. "The day after Scott Pruitt was called by [Donald] Trump, who reportedly told him to 'keep your chin up' amid a torrent of controversy, the EPA chief got another phone call from a top White House official that was noticeably less encouraging. Chief of Staff John Kelly wanted to know, after revelations had surfaced that Pruitt had been renting living space in Washington, D.C., from a pair of high-powered lobbyists — one of whom was lobbying his agency at the time — what other shoes, if any, were going to drop. ...The chief of staff then impressed upon Pruitt that, though he has the full public confidence of Trump for now, the flow of negative and damning stories needed to stop soon, as one source briefed on the contents of the call described."
And "for now" may have been a window that already closed. Kate Riga at TPM: White House Deputy Press Secretary: 'I Can't Speak to the Future of Scott Pruitt'. LOL oh.
[CN: Addiction stigma; carcerality; capital punishment] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Kellyanne Conway Sells Mandatory Minimums at Influential Drug Conference. "Conway — who is for some reason in charge of the White House's efforts to tackle the opioid crisis — pleaded with stakeholders at the largest annual conference on the epidemic on Wednesday to change fentanyl sentencing laws. She called for longer prison time for small-time fentanyl dealers and echoed the president's call for the death penalty "in very special circumstances" for drug traffickers." Fucking hell.
* * *
[CN: Misogyny; toxic masculinity]
I'm entirely tired of men who insist that Kevin Williamson couldn't possibly have been "serious" about wanting to hang women for getting abortions, despite the fact that he said it multiple times. https://t.co/kAKMWOYFUI
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018
And the reason that so many men can *utterly unaccountably* believe that men who espouse violence against women aren't really "serious" about it is because those men themselves all harbor a low-grade hatred of women. They think every man does, but not every man acts on it, so.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018
And feminist/womanist women tell you that men who publicly and repeatedly endorse vengeful violence against women are dangerous and serious, and you call us hysterical, and then you act fucking surprised during moments of fleeting reckoning like #MeToo.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018
Man: Plays devil's advocate and/or apologist for a man who has endorsed hanging women who have abortions.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018
Woman: I can't trust you.
Man: WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY #NotAllMen you fucking bitch.
I am too tired. Get yourselves together, men. Jesus.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018
* * *
[CN: Nativism; genital cutting] Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: Want Asylum in America? Get Ready for Hell.
Two months ago, an Ethiopian woman seeking asylum in the United States went to her interview with an American official who would decide her fate. She was expecting it to be tough. But the officer asked her a series of questions her attorney had never heard before.Fuck this administration. Goddammit.
Like many Ethiopian women, this one survived female genital mutilation when she was 7 years old — a dangerous and medically unnecessary practice deplored by human rights groups around the world.
And the asylum officer grilled her about it.
"Tell me where they cut you," the officer asked, according to the woman's lawyer, Alan Parra. "What did they use? Did it hurt? What did they cut specifically? Did they use anesthesia?"
The woman broke down crying.
This type of exchange with officers — lengthy, and filled with personal questions — is increasingly common among people seeking asylum in the United States, according to a host of immigration attorneys who spoke with The Daily Beast.
Officials with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said there haven't been any formal changes in policy or practice on interviews. But the lawyers who help their clients through these interviews insisted that the process has gotten significantly longer and harder. On top of that, the lawyer said, officers are losing their clients' paperwork.
A group of Somali men alleged they were abused while in ICE detention. Then they were deported https://t.co/Sefyr5UXhY
— Daily Kos (@dailykos) April 5, 2018
Tina Vasquez at Rewire: What Is Deferred Enforced Departure? It's Complicated. "Liberians who were first granted TPS [Temporary Protected Status] in the 1990s through 2002, later received protection under DED [Deferred Enforced Departure]. 'Those with DED now are the people who have been here the longest, the people who have legally resided in the U.S. since 2002,' [Royce Bernstein Murray, policy director at the American Immigration Council] added. Bernstein Murray further explained: 'The idea that we would send 10,000 people, which is the number of people at that time who had TPS, back to a war-torn country, was obviously absurd and would have created a bad relationship with Liberia. You can see how the different conditions in Liberia lead to different statuses.'"
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
And Again
[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism; disablism.]
Saheed Vassell, a 34-year-old Black man, has been fatally shot by police in Brooklyn who claim to have erroneously believed he was brandishing a gun:
A black man has been shot dead by police in New York after he pointed a metal pipe at them.My condolences to the man's family, friends, and community. I am so sorry.
Police had responded to emergency callers who said the man was aiming a firearm at pedestrians in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, an official said.
The man took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at police and three plainclothes officers and one uniformed officer shot 10 times, the chief of department, Terence Monahan, told a news conference.
"This was a call of a man pointing what 911 callers and people felt was a gun at people on the street," Monahan said. "When we encounter him, he turns with what appears to be a gun at officers."
...Andre Wilson, 38, told the Daily News that he had known the victim for 20 years, describing him as a quirky neighborhood character.
"All he did was just walk around the neighborhood," he said. "He speaks to himself, usually he has an orange Bible or a rosary in his hand. He never had a problem with anyone."
A couple of points:
1. Though the official police account is that there were 911 calls saying the man was aiming a firearm, the official police account in the immediate aftermath of a police shooting often turns out to be a lie. I would not take it on faith that emergency calls specifically alleging the man was aiming a firearm exist unless and until the police make public recordings of those calls.
Naturally, the police have every incentive to assert that emergency calls said the man had a gun, which simultaneously redirects responsibility for their presumption of a gun and serves as pardon: "It wasn't just us — other people thought he had a gun, too." Never mind that it isn't the job of average people to distinguish between a gun and a pipe, but it is the job of police. (Or should be.)
2. Based on Andre Wilson's description of the man, it sounds as though he may have been mentally ill, which would make this yet another case in which the victim of a police shooting was disabled. In 2015, a Washington Post analysis of 385 fatal police shootings in the first five months of that year found: "Ninety-two victims — nearly a quarter of those killed — were identified by police or family members as mentally ill." [ETA: See update below.]
Also:
"Andre Wilson, 38, told the Daily News that he had known the victim for 20 years, describing him as a quirky neighborhood character." So why didn't police know that? Police used to know people in the neighborhoods they policed. https://t.co/AKg5q4Szcz
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 5, 2018
Policing in the United States was never actually about keeping everyone safe, despite our many nostalgic narratives for a time that never really existed. But there was a time when police intimately knew the communities they policed, and losing that is one of many factors that contributes to police killings, perhaps especially of disabled people.
UPDATE: A report at the New York Daily News contains the information that Vassell was indeed mentally ill: His family says he was bipolar, but had been refusing treatment.
Further, although NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said at a press conference that police shot at Vassell only after they approached him and he turned to face them then "took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers," at least one witness disputes that account:
Jaccbot Hinds, 40, who witnessed the shooting said officers jumped out of their unmarked police car and fired without warning.The timeline seems to support Hinds' account: "Police can be heard on emergency radio saying they were on scene at about 4:42 p.m. and 27 seconds later, officers were calling for an ambulance. The NYPD did not give an explanation when asked about that timeline."
"They just hopped out of the car. It's almost like they did a hit. They didn't say please. They didn't say put your hands up, nothing," Hinds said.
The NYPD refused to say if the responding officers warned Vassell before firing.
Within that 27 seconds, the officers "fired 10 shots, striking Vassell multiple times."
Additionally, of the four officers on scene, only one of them was wearing a uniform. The other three were in plainclothes, which could make it difficult for anyone to quickly discern that they were being approached by police, as opposed to strangers aiming weapons at them.
Trump Announces Plan to Militarize the Border
This was always going to be the inevitable destination of Donald Trump's white supremacist nativism:
Donald Trump aims to "immediately" send members of the national guard to protect the United States' southern border with Mexico, his administration announced on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, the homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, said Trump has directed "the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to work with governors to deploy the National Guard" to the border.
Nielsen and the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, dodged questions about the sudden urgency, and whether the deployment of the national guard was tied to reports Trump had seen on Fox News about "a caravan" from Central America that was headed to the border.
Nielsen was unable to answer questions about the size of the deployment and the cost. She said the number of guardsmen called up "will be as many as needed to fill the gaps today." However, Nielsen told reporters "we do hope the deployment begins immediately."
On a conference call with reporters, a senior administration official told reporters that "we don't have a date" for the national guard to be deployed, saying: "This is the first step in a process."
She said that the function of the national guard on the border would "include everything from aerial surveillance and some of the support functions" for the border patrol.
"Probably." Oh. https://t.co/v4ICj7jYrz pic.twitter.com/2RLokGwRag
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 4, 2018
This is quite obviously a terrible idea, for a dozen or so different reasons, chiefly because someone is going to get killed. Which is another inevitable consequence of the othering and dehumanization central to Trump's white supremacist nativist campaign.
When Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about the cost of this dangerous scheme, she gave one of her patented flip retorts: "I don't think you can put a cost on American life."
That's a bullshit answer, because it's a misdirection — transparency demands that American taxpayers know how much of our money is being spent under the auspices of "protecting" us — and it's a reprehensible answer, because embedded is such vile American exceptionalism that values the life of a human who happened to be born within U.S. borders more highly than the life of a human who wants desperately to live here.
As I have written before: Would that it took at least walking across the border to become an American citizen. We'd certainly have fewer citizens who used the gift of their unearned citizenry as a justification to behave like intolerant, isolationist scoundrels.
Donald Trump's dangerous and cruel pursuit of militarized bigotry would be detestable to me no matter what his personal circumstances, but there is an entire additional layer to my rage because he is the son and husband of immigrants.
There is precious little I have in common with Donald Trump, but one of the very few things we share is both being married to immigrants. I understand intellectually how a malicious bigot like Trump can exceptionalize his white European immigrant wife, but, emotionally, I will never be able to relate to someone who is part of an immigrant family and disgorges rank hostility and abject hatred for immigrants, undocumented or otherwise.
It makes me nauseated and outraged even to contemplate how unforgivable Trump's disposition is toward immigrants at our southern border. And Melania can eat shit for abetting this nightmare, too.
Trade Wars: So Now I'm NOT Supposed to Care About Middle America?
Shaker SKM sent me the following image gleaned from the Washington Post's morning email dispatch:
There are a number of things I find problematic about this image, starting with the fact that we're all going to "feel pain" from a trade war — but even if it were only "some Americans," what a disgusting implication that your fellow countrypersons aren't worth any "worry" as long as their suffering doesn't reach you.
And then there is this: Am I seriously meant to believe that, after more than a year of being admonished that I must care deeply about the economic insecurity of rural white America which (so the garbage narrative goes) forced them to vote for a fucking bigot, now I'm supposed to not give a shit about a policy that will legitimately cause economic strife in the agriculture sector, among others?
COOL.
Any completely incoherent narrative that helps Donald Trump, I guess!
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