As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
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 624
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: Fourteen Years and Kavanaugh Is So Gross and We Shouldn't Have Given Them an Inch.
Again, the political news is understandably consumed by Kavanaugh. Here are a few other things in the news today...
Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and David Barstow at the New York Times: New York Regulators Examine the Trump Family's Tax Schemes.
New York City officials said on Thursday that they had joined state regulators in examining whether [Donald] Trump and his family underpaid taxes on his father's real estate empire over several decades.Earlier today, in a conversation with the other mods regarding the possibility that Brett Kavanaugh could face state criminal charges after he's seated as a Supreme Court justice, I said: "There's going to be a very long period of time where blue state governments are going to try to hold members of the Trump Regime accountable. And they're going to fail over and over and over. And it's going to be verrrrrrrrry depressing."
The announcement came in response to an investigation published this week in The New York Times that showed how Mr. Trump had participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents.
"We are now just starting to pore through the information," said Dean Fuleihan, the city's first deputy mayor.
One type of tax that the city will examine is the real estate transfer tax. Officials said the extremely low valuations the Trump family placed on buildings that passed from Fred C. Trump to his children through trusts could have resulted in underpaid transfer taxes.
The Times reported that through several aggressive and potentially illegal maneuvers, the Trumps claimed that 25 apartment complexes transferred to Donald Trump and his siblings from their father were worth just $41.4 million. The Trumps sold those buildings within a decade for more than 16 times that amount.
...Mr. Fuleihan said city and state agencies are cooperating on the effort. The State Department of Taxation and Finance announced on Wednesday that it was "pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation."
Josh Marshall at TPM: White House Begins the China Counter-Narrative. "Vice President Pence [gave a speech yesterday] at the Hudson Institute. Normally that wouldn't get a lot of attention, especially with so much else going on. But this is a bigger deal than it might appear. [Based on the content of the speech], it is crystal clear that the White House is trying to delegitimize the on-going Mueller probe by setting up China is the real meddler in U.S. internal affairs and democratic practice. Most importantly, they are claiming that China is working against Donald Trump in 2018 and 2020. This is a big, big deal and I expect they will be expanding on it in the coming weeks and likely going into 2020."
[Content Note: Nazism; discussion of WWII Nazis] Christopher R. Browning at the New York Review of Books: The Suffocation of Democracy. This is a very solid, if incomplete, piece — and the section about Mitch McConnell is particularly good: "If the U.S. has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the U.S. has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more."
Interpol's president, Meng Hongwei, has been missing since Sept. 29. https://t.co/QeT6SvlSN9
— NPR (@NPR) October 5, 2018
[CN: Nativism] Khushbu Shah at the Guardian: Living in Fear 'Every Single Day' as Immigration Raids Wreak Havoc. "'Where is Juan?' 'Oh, [ICE] found him.' 'Where is Pedro?' 'Oh, he's in prison.' 'Where is Francisco'? 'Without a license.' So, there are so many [other] things, and we're affected by all of it,' Ramirez said, ticking off the conversations on his fingers in the shop in recent months. And even with his U.S. citizenship, Ramirez fears for his livelihood in America. You heard they're taking away citizenship from people, right, he asked, referencing USCIS's announcement this summer they are establishing an office to identify and denaturalize Americans suspected of cheating the system."
[CN: White supremacy] Spencer Ackerman at the Daily Beast: Russia Is Exploiting American White Supremacy Over and Over Again.
Nearly two years after [Russia's Internet Research Association (IRA)] helped Donald Trump win the presidency, it's become a cliche to describe the goal of the Russian propaganda campaign as "sow[ing] discord in the U.S. political system," as one of special prosecutor Robert Mueller's court documents put it. True as that assessment may be superficially, it also reflects a conspicuous dodge, the latest in a series of evasions as old as the United States itself. The January 2017 U.S. intelligence assessment, Mueller's indictments and the broader discourse they have inspired neglect to grapple with the underlying message of the Russian propaganda — without which it is impossible to understand why the messaging found such broad purchase.Yessenia Funes at Earther: Thousands of North Carolina Students Are Still Missing School Weeks After Hurricane Florence. "Many schools remain closed due to a lack of access, as roads are impassable due to floodwaters or lingering damage. In some cases, schools themselves are too badly damaged for students to return. Across North Carolina, closures continue to affect more than 50,000 students. While some return to school Monday, the wait continues indefinitely for plenty of others. These kids have not only lost seemingly endless days of school, but they also might've lost their homes and the sense of stability that accompanies their daily trips on the school bus. Two schools in hard-hit eastern North Carolina's Onslow and Pender counties are currently closed for classes and functioning as shelters for now-homeless families."
The cynical brilliance of Vladimir Putin's propaganda campaign is that it exploited America's foundational commitment to white supremacy. The term itself is so raw and so hideous that it inspires an allergy to its usage within mainstream political discourse. But no other term — racism, white privilege, etc. — better captures the dynamic at issue. White supremacy is exactly what it says on the label: a social structure by which whites, a pseudoscientific grouping with a definition that changes over time as is convenient, dominate America's complex and often informal hierarchies of power.
...Russian propaganda expertly grasped that even the most meager challenges to white supremacy prompt a politically powerful and useful white resistance, and that this dynamic is a persistent feature of American life. All Russia — or any foreign power, or no foreign power at all — needs to do is breathe on the embers until they ignite.
David Smith with U.S. Teachers at the Guardian: 'My Classroom Has Asbestos and Bats': A Message for Betsy DeVos. "'My first classroom had asbestos and bats. I caught Legionnaires' disease from infected water supply at school. I developed asthma and COPD as a result and have never been the same.' — Lori Nelson, 57, MN. ...'Hunger is a daily concern. I basically bring a picnic basket of food each day. If they are hungry, they cannot learn.' — Alyssa Arney, 46, San Francisco, CA. ...'We have no resources. Parents send in items at the beginning of the year when they are able to, but teachers provide the rest. All the books in my classroom library were purchased by me. ...I teach in a high-poverty school. I am constantly buying basics like pencils. Students regularly break those pencils because they are so overwhelmed and frustrated with the environment in schools.' — Anonymous, PA."
Rebekah Entralgo at ThinkProgress: Workers Across the Midwest Arrested at Rallies for Higher Wages, Right to Unionize. "Chicago fast food workers rallied outside McDonald's headquarters Thursday afternoon in support of union rights and a $15 minimum wage for all fast food workers. Police detained a number of protesters, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) a congresswoman representing Chicago's North Side. ...'After 20 years of hard work, I make $9.65 an hour,' Jennifer Berry, an employee at McDonald's told the Milwaukee Biz Times. 'I am barely able to afford my rent, much less transportation to get to and from work, and groceries. Every month is a struggle just to get by.'"
Fiona Harvey at the Guardian: Why the Next Three Months Are Crucial for the Future of the Planet. "This week, scientists are gathering in South Korea to draw together the last five years of advances in climate science to answer key questions for policymakers. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) celebrates its 30th birthday this year with what is likely to be a landmark report to be released on Monday 8 October. What is expected to emerge will be the strongest warning yet that these unusual occurrences will add up to a pattern that can only be overcome with drastic action."
And finally, this is not a resistance item, but I'm posting it anyway because I'm feeling petty AF... Andy Towle at Towleroad: Trump Boards Air Force One with Toilet Paper on His Shoe. "Donald Trump boarded Air Force One on Thursday with toilet paper stuck to the bottom of his shoe." Video at the link of the fucking jerk humiliating himself. Point and laugh. He hates that.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
We Shouldn't Have Given Them an Inch
Today, I just keep thinking of all the times I was scolded & harassed by conservatives & liberals alike for being too unyielding in my criticism of Republicans as irredeemably hostile to agency and consent; to the times I was called hyperbolic for calling them a party of abusers.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 5, 2018
I just keep thinking of all the times, over the last 14 years, that I have been told that I should be more tolerant, when I was arguing that to indulge abusers was to empower their abuse.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 5, 2018
I have been writing about politics, and resisting Republicans, at Shakesville for 14 years today. And if I had a dime for every time a misogynistic slur was unleashed at me because I refused to extend Republicans good faith they never earned, I would be a very wealthy woman.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 5, 2018
Wealthy enough to buy my own Supreme Court justice, perhaps. Cough.
Kavanaugh Is So Gross
It's really something that the ever-conservative but increasingly disgusting Wall Street Journal gave space to Brett Kavanaugh to write a defense of himself. Under the laughable headline "I Am an Independent, Impartial Judge," Kavanaugh used that opportunity to write one of the most pathetic things I have ever had the mispleasure of reading.
It is, of course, deeply dishonest: He was chosen specifically because he is not and will not be an independent and impartial judge. And it is also just revoltingly self-pitying.
After all those meetings and after my initial hearing concluded, I was subjected to wrongful and sometimes vicious allegations. My time in high school and college, more than 30 years ago, has been ridiculously distorted. My wife and daughters have faced vile and violent threats.FUCK OFF.
Against that backdrop, I testified before the Judiciary Committee last Thursday to defend my family, my good name, and my lifetime of public service. My hearing testimony was forceful and passionate. That is because I forcefully and passionately denied the allegation against me. At times, my testimony — both in my opening statement and in response to questions — reflected my overwhelming frustration at being wrongly accused, without corroboration, of horrible conduct completely contrary to my record and character. My statement and answers also reflected my deep distress at the unfairness of how this allegation has been handled.
I was very emotional last Thursday, more so than I have ever been. I might have been too emotional at times. I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said. I hope everyone can understand that I was there as a son, husband, and dad. I testified with five people foremost in my mind: my mom, my dad, my wife, and most of all my daughters.
This treacle Kavanaugh is using to petition for martyrdom is itself the strongest argument against his contention that he is a measured jurist. On the one hand, he wants us to believe that he is an "independent, impartial judge," but, on the other, he wants us to know that he lost his shit because he was being reasonably questioned about a serious allegation made against him.
And no matter how many times he invokes his daughters as a human shield, we all know damn well that Kavanaugh testified with one person foremost in his mind — and that's Brett Kavanaugh.
* * *
The cloture vote to end debate on Kavanaugh's nomination is now underway in the Senate. C-SPAN's livestream is here.
UPDATE: The vote is not yet finished, but they just reached 51 yes votes on cloture, care of Ron Johnson. Democratic turd Joe Manchin voted with Republicans. So now debate will end on Kavanaugh and they will move onto the confirmation vote, presumably tomorrow.
Fourteen Years
Fourteen years ago today, I launched this blog as Shakespeare's Sister.
That reference, from Virginia Woolf's essay "A Room of One's Own," was also my pseudonym, and, for a long time even after I disclosed my real name, I was still known as Shakespeare's Sister, or Shakes. So when more and more people arrived, and this became a community, we became Shakesville.
Woolf's essay concludes thus:
[Shakespeare's sister] lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh. This opportunity, as I think, is now coming within your power to give her. For my belief is that if we live another century or so—I am talking of the common life which is the real life and not of the little separate lives which we live as individuals—and have five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own; if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think; if we escape a little from the common sitting room and see human beings not always in their relation to each other but in relation to reality; and the sky, too, and the trees or whatever it may be in themselves; if we look past Milton's bogey, for no human being should shut out the view; if we face the fact, for it is a fact, that there is no arm to cling to, but that we go alone and that our relation is to the world of reality and not only to the world of men and women, then the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeare's sister will put on the body which she has laid down. Drawing her life from the lives of the unknown who were her forerunners, as her brother did before her, she will be born. As for her coming without that preparation, without that effort on our part, without that determination that when she is born again she shall find it possible to live and write her poetry, that we cannot expect, for that would be impossible. But I maintain that she would come if we worked for her, and that so to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worth while.I haven't been called Shakes in a very long while, but I have been Shakespeare's Sister for 14 years, and I am still.
I am also the heir of Shakespeare's Sisters before me, who carved out rooms of their own, tiny pieces of space and time, in which they formed the habit of freedom and mustered the courage to write exactly what they thought. I heard their whispers, their haunting encouragements, telling me to put on their bodies laid down and become born. And on October 5, 2004, I was.
It is because they worked for me, all of Shakespeare's Sisters who went before, because they worked for me in poverty and obscurity, that I could be born. I took up their legacy with breathless gratitude and compelling need, and I created a room of my own, built of 1s and 0s. Here I began to honor them, as best I could, drawing my life from their unknown lives, being born and born again every day, as Shakespeare's Sister, beneficiary of a legacy I only deserve if I endeavor to enrich it with my own contributions, no matter whether infinitesimal or grand, as long as they are honest and true.
It is here that I work for the Shakespeare's Sisters who will come after, so that they can put on my body and be born. It is here I write exactly what I think, with whatever gumption I can muster. It is here that I fight, for myself and others, working my teaspoon.
I fight because I have to. My obligation. My muse.
I fight and I expect more. Because I don't know how to expect anything else.
That is the context of this room. It was built by a woman. A feminist woman who fights and who dreams long and lustfully of a better world; who wants it like the cracked earth of the desert wants rain. Shakespeare's Sister, carrying the weight of all of Shakespeare's Sisters with her, as she clumsily stumbles toward making long, greedy use of the opportunity they provided her, sucking up every last drop of the chance she's been given to do what others could not and pay forward with interest the chance to another sister of Shakespeare who may just now be warily peering into this room and thinking there's something I like in there…
I want her to be born, too. More than I want just about anything else. I want her to know the feeling of putting on their bodies, our bodies, laid down, putting them on and finding home.
Especially now. In this time of refusing to listen to women. In this time of telling us that we don't matter, that our lives are worth less, that our bodies are not our own, that our voices won't be heard. In this time of trying to silence us.
I am Shakespeare's Sister, and I am born, and I scream so that you can be born, too.
Question of the Day
[I have to wrap up a little early today, but I'll be back first thing tomorrow!]
When people come to you for help, what do they usually want help with?
Usually it's for help understanding politics or the mechanisms of how something related to government works. A very close second is for help with writing and/or copyediting. I have helped write or edit a lot of résumés and cover letters over the years!
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 623
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: After Sham FBI Investigation, GOP Moves Ahead with Kavanaugh Nomination and GOOD NEWS: Judge Blocks Trump's Mass Deportation Attempt and Submitted Without Further Comment.
Virtually the entire political media is consumed today with documenting which Republican Senators have confirmed they will vote yes on Kavanaugh, as if this hasn't been a foregone conclusion from Day One. So I will dispatch with any more coverage of that depressing subject and move on to some other stuff in the news today...
John Bolton: Pres. Trump has decided U.S. "will withdraw from the optional protocol and dispute resolution to the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations."
— ABC News (@ABC) October 3, 2018
Bolton says the move is in connection with case "brought by the so-called state of Palestine" challenging embassy move. pic.twitter.com/9spQojmQen
That, on the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. is canceling a diplomatic treaty with Iran. So everything is terrific, as usual.
On Monday, I wrote about a U.S. destroyer having an "unsafe" encounter with a Chinese warship in the South China Sea last weekend. Which is the backdrop for this item, care of Barbara Starr at CNN: U.S. Navy Proposing Major Show of Force to Warn China.
The U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet has drawn up a classified proposal to carry out a global show of force as a warning to China and to demonstrate the U.S. is prepared to deter and counter their military actions, according to several U.S. defense officials.Oh.
The draft proposal from the Navy is recommending the U.S. Pacific Fleet conduct a series of operations during a single week in November.
The goal is to carry out a highly focused and concentrated set of exercises involving U.S. warships, combat aircraft, and troops to demonstrate that the U.S. can counter potential adversaries quickly on several fronts.
The plan suggests sailing ships and flying aircraft near China's territorial waters in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait in freedom of navigation operations to demonstrate the right of free passage in international waters. The proposal means U.S. ships and aircraft would operate close to Chinese forces.
The defense officials emphasized that there is no intention to engage in combat with the Chinese.
[Content Note: Moving GIF at link] Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley at Bloomberg: The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies. "Nested on the servers' motherboards, the testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn't part of the boards' original design. Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. authorities, sending a shudder through the intelligence community. Elemental's servers could be found in Department of Defense data centers, the CIA's drone operations, and the onboard networks of Navy warships. And Elemental was just one of hundreds of Supermicro customers. During the ensuing top-secret probe, which remains open more than three years later, investigators determined that the chips allowed the attackers to create a stealth doorway into any network that included the altered machines. Multiple people familiar with the matter say investigators found that the chips had been inserted at factories run by manufacturing subcontractors in China."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] AP at CBS News: How North Korea's Ever-Bolder Cyberattacks Target Banks. "U.S. security firm FireEye raised the alarm Wednesday over a North Korean group that the company says has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars by infiltrating the computer systems of banks around the world since 2014. Those hackers used highly sophisticated and destructive attacks that have spanned at least 11 countries. FireEye says the group is still operating and poses 'an active global threat.' ...[C]ybersecurity experts tell The Associated Press that they also see continued signs that North Korea's authoritarian government, which has a long track record of criminality to raise cash, is conducting malign activity online. That activity includes targeting financial institutions and cryptocurrency-related organizations, as well as spying on its adversaries."
* * *
A couple of significant pieces related to Russia today at the Daily Beast:
Betsy Woodruff and Erin Banco: Erik Prince's Russian Connection Trawled Trumpland for 'Boss' Putin.
Betsy Woodruff and Jamie Ross: Russia's Global Hacking Op Busted, Seven Agents Indicted.
And this quick hit: Over 80% of Twitter Accounts Linked to 2016 Fake News Are 'Still Active'.
* * *
Yessenia Funes at Earther: Trump's Plan to Scrap Mercury Regulations Won't Save Coal But It Will Cost Lives. "Trump wants to either scrap the mercury standards completely or re-write them after changing the way the EPA does its cost-benefit analysis. Which of the two the EPA is planning remains speculative as the agency hasn't released a formal public comment and has not responded to a comment request from Earther, either. ...And the effects could reverberate far beyond mercury if the Trump administration decides to adopt a narrower rule that ignores co-benefits. Other rules under the Clean Air Act, like Obama's defeated Clean Power Plan, look at co-benefits, too. If this becomes the norm, other rules that include co-benefits in their analysis may also be deemed not 'appropriate and necessary.'"
Mark Hand at ThinkProgress: Donald Trump Accused of 'Waging a War on Children' Through EPA Regulatory Rollbacks.
Child Health Day, celebrated on Monday, was meant to highlight efforts taken by the nation to protect children's health. As it turned out, Child Health Day, which kicked off Children's Health Month, served as a moment for the nation to come to terms with how the Trump administration has prioritized the removal of industry regulations over health protections for children.Oliver Milman at the Guardian: Scientists Say Halting Deforestation 'Just as Urgent' as Reducing Emissions. "The role of forests in combating climate change risks being overlooked by the world's governments, according to a group of scientists that has warned halting deforestation is 'just as urgent' as eliminating the use of fossil fuels. Razing the world's forests would release more than 3 trillion tons of carbon dioxide, more than the amount locked in identified global reserves of oil, coal, and gas. ...'We must protect and maintain healthy forests to avoid dangerous climate change and to ensure the world's forests continue to provide services critical for the well-being of the planet and ourselves,' the statement reads."
Since [Donald] Trump took office in January 2017, his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken numerous actions that do not bode well for the future health of American children.
And in the past week alone, the administration has introduce plans to rollback back key pollution rules, removed the head of the EPA's children's health office, and was shown to have scrubbed any mention of the impact of climate change on children from a draft document.
..."Every day we see more evidence that this administration is actively working against the health and safety of the most vulnerable Americans — our children," Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said Wednesday in a statement. "Tragically, it's not an exaggeration to say that the Trump administration is waging a war on children."
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Submitted Without Further Comment
Imagine being the kind of asshole who says it was "a very thorough investigation" when the key eyewitness, i.e. Christine Blasey Ford, was not even interviewed. https://t.co/Fsy6wIlhYF
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 4, 2018
GOOD NEWS: Judge Blocks Trump's Mass Deportation Attempt
[Content Note: Nativism.]
In January, the Trump Regime announced that it was ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan, effectively ordering more three hundred thousand U.S. residents to get the fuck out of the country, with no regard for their families, for their communities, for their safety — and with no concern for what it says about this nation that we are willing to expel a quarter of a million people just like that.
Late yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen blocked the move to end TPS:
In a 43-page order, San Francisco-based U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen concluded the TPS recipients from those countries, along with their children, will "indisputably" suffer irreparable harm and hardship as a result of the decision to sunset their enrollment.Obviously, the Trump Regime is not going to give up, just because some judge appointed by Obama told them they were out of line. Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley issued a statement saying the decision "usurps the role of the executive branch" — i.e. reiterated that this authoritarian regime views itself as above the law — and will continue to fight the courts to win this battle in their war on immigrants.
Chen, an appointee of President Barack Obama, wrote that TPS recipients with U.S.-born children could face a difficult choice: Bring their children with them — "tearing them away from the only country and community they have known" — or leave them behind in the U.S.
"The balance of hardships thus tips sharply in favor of TPS beneficiaries and their families," Chen continued.
...In his order Wednesday, Chen added that the plaintiffs — TPS enrollees and their children — "raised serious questions" about whether the administration's decision to terminate the status was based on racial animus against non-white immigrants. The plaintiffs cited numerous actions and statements from [Donald] Trump as evidence of bias against Latino and Haitian immigrants.
In addition, Chen said plaintiffs "established without dispute that local and national economies will be hurt if hundreds of thousands of TPS beneficiaries are uprooted and removed."
So this is good news for now, and the fight continues.
After Sham FBI Investigation, GOP Moves Ahead with Kavanaugh Nomination
[Content Note: Rape culture.]
The FBI has completed its background report on its investigation of allegations against Brett Kavanaugh and handed over said report to the White House, despite having failed to interview dozens of potential witnesses to Kavanaugh's alleged sexual assaults, including Christine Blasey Ford.
If it wasn't already evident that the investigation was a sham with no purpose other than providing Republicans with the ability to say the allegations had not been corroborated, the fact that the investigation into a sexual assault allegation didn't include an interview with the primary eyewitness should leave no doubt.
It's only because of sinister rape culture narratives about women being vengeful liars who routinely invent allegations of sexual assault that it isn't considered absurd in the extreme that an alleged crime could be investigated without even talking to the victim.
Naturally, the White House immediately announced that it "has found no corroboration of the allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after examining interview reports from the FBI's latest probe into the judge's background."
Raj Shah, spokesman for the White House, said in a statement early Thursday morning: "The White House has received the Federal Bureau of Investigation's supplemental background investigation into Judge Kavanaugh, and it is being transmitted to the Senate."And Republican Senate leadership naturally agrees: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already "filed cloture on the Kavanaugh nomination, setting up a Friday cloture vote and a final confirmation vote 30 hours later."
He added that senators "have been given ample time to review this seventh background investigation." Mr. Shah continued: "With this additional information, the White House is fully confident the Senate will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court."
If Senate Republicans do confirm Brett Kavanaugh, it will be in spite of his poor temperament and overt partisanship; in spite of multiple allegations of sexual assault; in spite of assertions that he lied under oath to the Senate during his nomination hearings; in spite of multiple religious organizations, including the National Council of Churches and the Benedictine Sisters of Baltimore, protesting his confirmation; in spite of more than 1,000 law professors signing a letter stating that the Senate should not confirm him; and in spite of only 33 percent of Americans supporting Kavanaugh's confirmation.
If they confirm him, despite all of that, Republicans will be communicating more loudly than ever previously that they are totally fucking done with even the appearance of democratic leadership.
I'll just quickly observe once again that the Republican Party continues to behave as though they will never have to be accountable to voters ever again. And they're doing it 34 days before the midterms.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 3, 2018
And like deplorable cultists cheered Donald Trump as he publicly mocked Christine Blasey Ford, they will cheer when Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, after countless survivors told our stories and pleaded with Republicans not to empower an abuser.
This has been a protracted display of dominance; their revenge on uppity women. Yes, they want Kavanaugh because he will be their lackey on the Supreme Court, but they also want to see through his nomination despite all the reasons to replace him because to confirm him now will be a magnificent act of malice.
And, as I am obliged to observe with terrifying frequency, malice is the animating centerpiece of the Republican agenda. Or, as Adam Serwer put it at the Atlantic: The Cruelty Is the Point.
Whether Kavanaugh will be a good jurist, or even as corrupt a jurist as they expect him to be, is wholly beside the point now. Now, the objective is exclusively about winning while delivering as much pain as possible to their opponents.
Malice animates them. They are sadists. Harm is the point.
No wonder they fancy Kavanaugh.
Question of the Day
When was the last time you threw a frisbee? ("Never" is a perfectly cromulent answer, of course!)
The last time I threw a frisbee was probably around five years ago, when I got a free promotional frisbee from I can't even remember where, and I threw it in the backyard for the dogs, hoping maybe they would be interested in a frisbee in a way they were not in anything else I'd used to try to engage either or both of them in a game of fetch.
No joy, lol. They were as disinterested in retrieving a frisbee as they were in everything else. Ha!
[Got a suggestion for a Question of the Day? Let me know here!]
Wednesday Links!
This list o' links brought to you by butterflies.
Recommended Reading:
Lauren Yapalater at BuzzFeed: IDK What to Do with All the Feelings I Have About Tom Hardy Shaking Hands with a Security Dog at the Venom Premiere
Brian Kahn at Earther: A Volcano Just Erupted in Tsunami-Rattled Indonesia
Kia Morgan-Smith at the Grio: [Content Note: Police brutality; racism; death] Why Won't Dallas Officials Release 911 Call from Police Shooting of Botham Jean in His Apartment?
Ayana Byrd at Colorlines: Indigenous Activists Win Two Legal Battles to Protect Their Land
Tessa Solomon at Bust: Donna Strickland Is the First Woman in 55 Years to Win a Nobel Prize in Physics
Tori Preston at Pajiba: [CN: Moving GIFs at link] Brooklyn Nine-Nine Is Losing a Familiar Face Next Season
Rokas L at Bored Panda: Dog Meets Her "Twin" on the Way to the Market; Owners Adopt Him Immediately
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
* * *
I've got a stew cooking away in the crockpot. It's the first time I've made it; if it turns out well, I'll try to remember to share the recipe in comments!
What I'm Watching
This is a thread to share all the good things you're watching at the moment, or have recently watched. Serialized shows on broadcast or streaming; films; digital shorts; stand-up; documentaries; performances — whatever! Tell us what you're watching and enjoying these days.
Three things in particular about which I'm really excited this week...
1. The return of The Good Place. Oh Maude, how I love this show! And I am so damn excited for Season 3, in which our ragtag group of former ne'er-do-wells mumble mumble mumble no spoilers, which should make for an exciting season!
Everyone on this show is so, so great — and I highly recommend checking out [CN: video may autoplay] Jameela Jamil on Late Night with Seth Meyers, telling Seth about the time she accidentally tried to curl her hair with her roommate's vibrator. I love me a funny feminist lady who will say "dildo" on her first-ever U.S. late night chat show appearance!
2. Paul Feig's new film A Simple Favor. I finally saw this last weekend, and I liked it a whole lot! (Even though I figured it out very early in the film, I still found it very fun.) I think Paul Feig may have invented a new genre: Absurdist noir. And I am here for it! I mean, let's be honest — Feig + funny ladies, and I'm here for it.
Speaking of which, I have never had much of an opinion of Blake Lively, but she came alive for me in this film. Fuck, she's funny! It's amazing what a director who looks at women for more than their appearance means for those women's performances.
Also: THE COSTUMES AHHHHHHHHHHH.
3. The current season of Better Call Saul. The whole season is fucking amazing, but THIS LADY RIGHT HERE OMGGGGGGG. Rhea Seehorn's character, Kim Wexler, remains one of my favorite characters in the entire Breaking Bad universe — and beyond. I love her; I love the way the writers write her; I love the way Seehorn plays her.
There isn't a weak spot in the entire cast, though: Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael McKean, Michael Mando... Everyone is great. The writers love their characters, and the actors love their characters, and it shows.
Also: Still the best cinematography on television. Absolutely stunning. What a show.
Anyway! What are you watching these days?
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 622
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: Trump Mocks Christine Blasey Ford at Rally to Uproarious Laughter from Deplorable Crowd and Gross Human Rights Violations at Immigration Jail and Trump Regime Terminates Iran Treaty.
Here are some more things in the news today...
I have really been trying to be selective in terms of the news regarding the Kavanaugh nomination that I share, for both my own well-being and yours. This item, however, is something of which we all need to be aware. [Content Note: Rape culture; victim-blaming; slut-shaming] Elise Viebeck at the Washington Post: Republicans on Senate Panel Release Explicit Statement about Kavanaugh Accuser's Sex Life.
In an unprecedented move, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday released an explicit statement that purports to describe the sexual preferences of a woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of misconduct.It is absolutely outrageous that Republicans would release a letter like this from anyone with whom Swetnick had a relationship, as though every woman who has survived sexual assault tells every man with whom she's subsequently involved, but the fact that they released this horseshit based on the experiences of a man who claims to have dated her for a "couple of weeks" is enraging.
The statement, which was circulated to the hundreds of journalists on the Judiciary Committee's press list, was from Dennis Ketterer, a former Democratic congressional candidate and television meteorologist who said he was involved in a brief relationship with Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick in 1993.
Swetnick said last week in an affidavit that Kavanaugh was present at a house party in 1982 where she alleges she was the victim of a gang rape, a claim he vehemently denies.
In his statement, Ketterer said Swetnick once told him that she sometimes enjoyed group sex with multiple men and had first engaged in it during high school. Ketterer said the remark "derailed" their relationship, which he described as involving "physical contact" but no intercourse.
Ketterer said Swetnick "never said anything about being sexually assaulted, raped, gang-raped, or having sex against her will" and "never mentioned Brett Kavanaugh in any capacity." He described their relationship as lasting for a "couple of weeks."
Remember this shit, too, when dipshits demand to know why it is that women don't report. FUCK EVERYTHING.
And while we're on the subject of Senate Republicans being rape apologist, victim-blaming shitwheels...
Remember when people were pinning hopes on Lindsey Graham that he was going to "stop Trump" w/ John McCain, and I was like: Uh, I guess you're new here, but Lindsey Graham is trash. And then people shouted at me that I was a dumb cunt who didn't appreciate allies when I saw them? https://t.co/LqrgL2Cg9L
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 3, 2018
Breathtaking. Meanwhile...
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Heidi Przybyla at NBC News: FBI Has Not Contacted Dozens of Potential Sources in Kavanaugh Investigation. "More than 40 people with potential information into the sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh have not been contacted by the FBI, according to multiple sources that include friends of both the nominee and his accusers. The bureau is expected to wrap up its expanded background investigation as early as Wednesday into two allegations against Kavanaugh — one from Christine Blasey Ford and the other from Deborah Ramirez. But sources close to the investigation, as well as a number of people who know those involved, say the FBI has not contacted dozens of potential corroborators or character witnesses."
A sham investigation. And it should have been obvious that it would be, from the moment that asshole Jeff Flake called for it.
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[CN: Rape culture; trauma; misogyny] Mara Gordon at NPR: Sexual Assault and Harassment May Have Lasting Health Repercussions for Women.
The trauma of sexual assault or harassment is not only hard to forget; it may also leave lasting effects on a woman's health. This finding of a study published Wednesday adds support to a growing body of evidence suggesting the link.Right now, the way that we're addressing this issue is by tasking (predominantly) women who are themselves frequently survivors of sexual assault and/or harassment with trying to solve the problem, exposing themselves to more abuse, and thus making ourselves sicker and sicker as we try to encourage our culture to get well. That isn't working. It's also aggressively cruel.
In the study of roughly 300 middle-aged women, an experience of sexual assault was associated with anxiety, depression, and poor sleep. A history of workplace sexual harassment was also associated with poor sleep, and with an increased risk of developing high blood pressure.
"These are experiences that [a woman] could have had long ago ... and it can have this long arm of influence throughout a woman's life," says Rebecca Thurston, lead author of the study, and a research psychologist and director of the Women's Behavioral Health Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh.
..."These [traumatic experiences] are clearly critical things that happen to people early on, that have these really long lasting effects," says Susan Mason, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota who studies the effects of trauma. "These really shape people's life trajectories."
..."Sexual assault and sexual abuse are much more common than people think," Thurston says. These are "key toxic stressors for women."
While researchers weren't surprised that sexual assault and harassment seemed to be related to the development of mood disorders and poor sleep, they were impressed by the strength of the association.
"These should be urgent public health priorities," Mason says. "How do we address the fundamental ways that our social structure affects health?"
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[CN: War on agency] Summer Ballentine at the AP: Missouri Down to 1 Abortion Clinic Amid Legal Battle. "Missouri is down to one clinic providing abortions Wednesday, after the only other clinic in the state that performs the procedure failed to adhere to new state requirements. Federal appeals court judges ruled last month that Missouri can enforce a requirement that doctors must have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals before they can perform abortions. The judges issued a mandate Monday for that rule to officially take effect. ...Women seeking abortions [must now] go to Planned Parenthood's St. Louis clinic — which is now the only facility in Missouri where abortions can be performed — or travel to neighboring states." That is the very definition of an undue burden.
"The family applied for FEMA assistance but were denied. Like many families in Puerto Rico, they couldn’t find the necessary papers needed to prove the home was theirs: It was passed down through the family through generations." https://t.co/GFn0f6l2Wi
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 3, 2018
[CN: Class warfare] Tami Luhby at CNN Money: Getting Health Insurance Through Work Now Costs Nearly $20,000. "Employers and workers together are spending close to $20,000 for family health insurance coverage in 2018, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation report. Although premiums have increased fairly modestly in recent years, the growth has far outpaced workers' raises over time. The average family premium has increased 55% since 2008, twice as fast as workers' wages and three times as fast as inflation, Kaiser's Employer Health Benefits Survey found. Companies pick up most of the tab, shelling out $14,100 a year, on average. Still, workers have to pay an average of $5,550, up 65% from a decade ago. For single coverage, total premiums have reached $6,900, on average, up 47% from 2008. Workers contribute roughly $1,200 a year. Deductibles also continue to burn a deeper hole in workers' pockets. The average deductible now stands at $1,350, up 212% since 2008. That's eight times faster than wage growth."
[CN: Toxic water] Kat Lonsdorf at NPR: 'You Just Don't Touch That Tap Water Unless Absolutely Necessary'. "Aleigha Sloan can't remember ever drinking a glass of water from the tap at her home. That is 'absolutely dangerous,' the 17-year-old says, wrinkling her nose and making a face at the thought. 'You just don't touch that tap water unless absolutely necessary. I mean, like showers and things — you have to do what you have to do. But other than that, no,' she says. 'I don't know anybody that does.' ...Americans across the country, from Maynard's home in rural Appalachia to urban areas like Flint, Mich., or Compton, Calif., are facing a lack of clean, reliable drinking water. At the heart of the problem is a water system in crisis: aging, crumbling infrastructure and a lack of funds to pay for upgrading it."
If Trump really wanted to "Make America Great Again," he could start with a plan to make sure every resident of this nation had reliable access to clean drinking water. That he never even mentions this subject is a pretty good indicator that he has no interest in improving anything for the lives of average Americans, in case literally everything else he does hadn't already tipped his hand.
What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
Trump Regime Terminates Iran Treaty
The AP reports:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that the U.S. is canceling a 1955 treaty with Iran establishing economic relations and consular rights between the two nations.So, to recap: The U.N. orders the U.S. to lift sanctions on Iran just on the import of humanitarian goods, and the U.S. retaliates by terminating a treaty that normalized relations — precisely the sort of treaty that underwrites good diplomacy, in the hope of avoiding shit like sanctions, especially on humanitarian goods, because that punishes the people of a nation who may profoundly disagree with their government's actions.
The move follows a ruling by the United Nations' highest court ordering the United States to lift sanctions on Iran that affect imports of humanitarian goods.
Iran alleges that the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration after its withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran violated the so-called Treaty of Amity.
Pompeo told reporters Wednesday that the termination of the treaty was decades overdue. He said that Iran was abusing the International Court of Justice for political and propaganda purposes.
Here is yet another place in which there was such a vast divide separating Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that one's eye would see the horizon before the opposite border of the cavern between them.
Sob.
The Republicans are really scrambling to break as much shit as possible before November. Just in case Uncle Vlad doesn't come through, I guess.
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