KJ

• RealPressSecBot is a Twitter Bot that puts the president's tweets into traditional presidential statement form. A nice way to highlight how ridiculous and awful and not-normal this all is.


• Paste Magazine has an in-depth look at how Trump's communications team uses SEO (search engine optimization) to game Google results and ensure that fake and misleading news take over the top results. If you're already familiar with SEO and how it works, there won't be much new here, but if not it's an eye-opener. I'm not 100% convinced by the author's conclusion that the Democrats need to fight fire with fire, but we need to at least be aware of the tactic. When read with my librarian hat on, what this article really does is make the case for stepping up our information literacy education. Teaching people to think critically about the stories they see on the internet, how to tell reliable from unreliable sources, and look for cues toward author biases (and to be wary of information that upholds your own biases!) is so important in today's world, but it's not enough of a priority for too many educators. It contributes a lot to our increasing polarization, too.


• The Weather Channel is not playing around with the Paris Accord. Although the site has since moved on to breaking news, on the day that Trump announced the pending withdrawal of the US from this important international agreement, every story on the front page of the site was about the havoc wreaked by global climate change.


• One of the better news stories in recent weeks is Hillary Clinton's re-entry into public life. Naturally, there's been a lot of moaning and handwringing about she should just shut up and go away -- but not until after she takes total and personal responsibility for her loss and perhaps puts on a hairshirt or two. Gee, people are demanding that a woman apologize, shut up, and sit down? That's never happened before. Anyway, I've seen a number of good stories about the problems with this phenomenon. First, Ezra Klein talks about the rush to blame Clinton and Clinton alone for her loss, and why this is both simplistic and dangerous. Second, The Week goes into the history of past presidential losers and what they did in the immediate aftermath of the election (hint: it wasn't sit down, shut up, and go away, and it certainly wasn't take sole and total blame for not winning).


• FiveThirtyEight reports on the decreased African-American voter turnout in 2016 as compared to 2008 and 2012. As the tweet where I saw this study first mentioned pointed out, some of this is down to voter suppression, but they also wondered: where are all the thinkpieces about improving turnout in this demographic? (As opposed to the cottage industry that's sprung up around "winning back" the white working class.) Where, indeed.


• And also according to FiveThirtyEight, Democrats can take back the House in 2018 without enticing a single Trump voter to switch sides -- the margin among independents and third-party voters is more than enough to flip the seats the party needs. So it doesn't even matter, and it's time to start turning our focus back to the real base.


• So we all had a little fun with the Twitter typo that took the world by storm. Sure, we all knew that Trump meant to type "coverage", then presumably got distracted before he could correct and delete it. It wasn't exactly earth-shattering in comparison to many of the other things he's done. But it was fun to engage creatively with a meme that was ultimately harmless, as an antidote to the high stakes that we have to engage with every day. Laughter can be cathartic. And it's not like we forget about the serious things that are still going on. A few links:
  
  • BoredPanda collects some of the best memes and Twitter responses here.
  
  
  • Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch explains why covfefe looks so strange to English speakers and why we have no consensus on how to pronounce it.
  
  
  • Merriam-Webster gives up.
  
  
  • And then Sean Spicer tried to pretend that it was something intentional, because of course he did. I don't really feel sorry for Spicey because I'm sure he took that job willingly, but I have to imagine this isn't quite how he pictured his life.


• Although Rob Quist didn't win the special House election in Montana, he came within single digits, and this article explains why that's a good sign for Democrats going forward. Sure, it would be great to pull off an upset, and yes, it's a bit frustrating that the Democrats are putting all their eggs in the Georgia 6th basket, rather than fighting harder in races like this one and in Kansas that have turned out to be surprisingly close. But a good trend is a good trend, and winning a seat here and there is much less important than building momentum for the midterms next year. So take heart, friends. The lines are still all moving in the right direction.


• Also, it's not all moral victories and closing margins: on May 23rd, statehouse seats in New Hampshire and New York flipped Democratic, and in New York it was a district that Trump won by twenty-three points.


• I don't want to talk about the Kathy Griffin business in any detail (she probably went too far, her first apology was appropriate, but she should've left it at that; there are many ways to feel about the photo itself and I'm not going to say any of them are wrong), but I did want to share this article about the hypocrisy of conservatives getting up in arms about this when they winked, nodded, and laughed at equally-if-not-more horrific images of Barack Obama for eight years. It's the circular firing squad of the Left in action again, and I grow weary of it.


• Here's a good piece from Slate on the problem with "I don't see color" etc. as a way to deal with race, gender, or other marginalized groups in hiring.


• Finally, in something that is almost certainly just a coincidence and not a sign from God or whatever, a giant sinkhole recently opened up in front of Mar-a-Lago. It couldn't happen to a nicer bit of pavement.

• Lest we think the Democrats are perfect, in the last couple of weeks I feel like they've been ramping up their chase of the Great White Male vote, with everyone from Bernie Sanders (of course) to Nancy Pelosi (oh hell no) stating that lack of support for abortion rights ought not to be a disqualifying factor for Democrats to support a candidate for office. *rubs forehead* Look, I get that being loud and proud pro-choice isn't going to fly in every single district or community, and people can have whatever personal beliefs they want. But when it comes down to votes and proposing legislation, Democrats had better not get all wishy-washy. Single-issue anti-abortion voters left the Democratic party a generation ago; trying to lure them back is only going to alienate the current party base, which is women and people of color, particularly women of color. As I suggested above, I don't really expect anything better from Bernie right now, but from Nancy Pelosi it's like a knife in the heart. At least Tom Perez got with the program, recently stating that reproductive rights are a non-negotiable issue for the DNC (note, annoying auto-play Bernie video at that link) -- but only after a lot of pressure, mostly from women.


• Speaking of annoying auto-play Bernie, he has been everywhere lately, and I am tired of it. This article does a good job of summing up why.


• It took awhile, but United Airlines finally made what feels to me like an adequate response to the incident in April when a passenger was forcibly removed from an airplane. New policies announced include changes to their rules for when flights can be overbooked, and last-minute changes to move crew, greater employee discretion in offering incentives, and an absolute ban on removing someone who has been seated on a plane unless there's a clear security issue. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better, as long as they follow through. (I still hope the guy sues for all he can get, though.)


• Another day, another Trump appointee who wants to destroy the agency they've been tapped to run: Teresa Manning, who has been nominated to run the Department of Health and Human Services office that manages family planning, believes that contraception doesn't work. Perfect.


• The House Oversight Committee finally started doing its job and is investigating Michael Flynn for real. In a statement released on April 25th, Jason Chaffetz said, "I see no data to support the notion that Gen. Flynn complied with the law." So-- that means he broke the law, then? As in, committed a crime? How about that.


• Probably the stupidest "controversy" of the past few weeks is the handwringing over Barack and Michelle Obama getting paid to make speeches now that they are private citizens. Let me repeat that: as influential as they might be, they are PRIVATE CITIZENS. They don't hold public office, and Barack never will again (and I'd be surprised if Michelle went that route), so why the fuss? Oh right, because money is dirty, unless it's going to white dudes, in which case it's fine.


• One recent bright spot was Bill O'Reilly losing his Fox News gig, due to advertiser pressure over the sexual harassment allegations that have dogged him for years. But I'd be surprised if that were be the end of it, and in fact Sean Hannity is facing new allegations already. Vox has a good video on Fox's culture of sexism that goes way beyond just O'Reilly and Roger Ailes.


• Also good news: Morgantown, WV, recently swept a progressive city council into office. I also recommend this follow-up article on how they did it.


• Here's a report on automatic voter registration in Oregon and how it dramatically increased turnout. A model for more states to follow.


• The media has often tried to paint Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, as a moderating influence on the president, and this urge has only ramped up with the recent release of Ivanka's new book. Don't fall for it.

• Montana's probably-failed vote by mail bill is mostly notable for the state Republican party's opposition letter, in which they straight-up said that they opposed it because it made it too easy for Democrats to vote. They aren't even pretending to make it about voter fraud anymore, are they?


• This New Yorker article builds a compelling and terrifying case for how the White House halted the US House investigation into the Russian election shenanigans with the active help of US Rep Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Democrats are making louder and louder calls for an independent investigation like the 9/11 Commission; it's pretty obvious that we're never getting to the bottom of this otherwise.


• This Twitter thread is a good explanation of how the GOP broke the ACA by refusing to fund the risk corridor (in which the federal government would help insurers with the cost of covering higher-risk patients). It also links to an article explaining what the risk corridor is and how it was supposed to work, as well as detailing the problems with it now. It's hard not to think that the GOP purposefully made the ACA worse to drive public opinion toward getting rid of it.


• Of course, we all know how well that worked out. We need to keep wary -- there's no doubt that Paul Ryan will try to kill the ACA again. But for now, we all live to fight another day.


• The other big story last week was the Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination. The Democrats are, as usual, weighing whether to fight or cave. Myself, I don't particularly care about Gorsuch or his politics; the person who deserves the first committee hearing and up-or-down vote is Merrick Garland. That Supreme Court seat is stolen, and I will never feel differently, and I am perhaps angrier at the Democratic party for letting the GOP get away with it than I am about anything else they've ever done, up to and including the loss of the 2016 presidential election. The Democrats need to consider that rolling over on Gorsuch will demoralize their unusually energized base. Can they afford to do that, when a victory in 2018 depends so heavily on voter turnout? Time will tell, but I still hope the Democrats stand their ground on this one.


• Here's an article on "blue lies" -- lies that are meant to reassure a group while being obviously false to people outside that group -- and how they might explain the rise of Trump. I think it explains a lot of other political phenomena, too; Bernie Bros come to mind, and climate change deniers.


• Men Just Don't Trust Women, and This Is a Problem: A thoughtful article by Damon Young looks at the ways in which men don't trust women to speak their emotional truth, and how this wreaks havoc not just in relationships, but throughout public life.


• In news that surprises no one, the cuts in the White House budget bring the most pain to the people they purportedly "help" by cutting taxes. Newsflash, GOP: most of the people helped by government social programs aren't the ones who make enough money to be paying a lot of taxes.


• This article on liberal transphobia was a hard read, but an important one, especially in the wake of the controversy sparked by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her comments about trans women. It's not always an easy issue for cis women to confront, but we need to get better at it. I also recommend Raquel Willis's response to Adichie. I want to make it clear that I admire so much of Adichie's work and think she is an important voice for the feminist community to support, but she got it very wrong here, especially in her attempts to respond to the criticism.


• For the "actors who were born to play their characters" file, Chris Evans lays out his feelings about the Trump presidency in an Esquire interview. Also, in case you missed it, it's worth checking out his Twitter fight with David Duke.

• If it was intentional, it sure seems to have worked -- mainstream media spent last night and today falling all over themselves to congratulate the president for his ability to read words off a teleprompter without melting down. Way to set a high bar, folks. At least some articles, like this commentary from NBC, pointed out his lack of substance and a fair number of the "alternative facts" contained in the speech.


• Meanwhile, the known rabble-rousers at USA Today posted an editorial calling for Congressional Democrats to get serious about potential impeachment.


• This week in "I Miss Jon Stewart": Stewart's appearance on Late Night with Stephen Colbert on Monday, 2/27, in which he compared the media's relationship with Trump to a bad breakup and advised them to move on. Nice analogy. I wonder how long they'll wait before taking it to heart?


• A special election for three seats in the Connecticut state senate was a wash, with all three seats remaining in the hands of their original party, but both Democratic-held seats were won easily, while the race for the GOP-held seat was more competitive than it had ever been. Democrats also held a state senate seat in Delaware, won narrowly in 2014, by over 10 points on the strength of 33% turnout -- which is huge for a special election. There's plenty more of these coming, so keep your eye out. Here's an article about some upcoming US House races in Montana and Georgia -- the Georgia seat, especially, could be key to gathering momentum for the midterms.


• I would say the dominos are falling when Darrell Issa -- terrible GOP rep from Southern CA, who led some of the worst investigations of Obama and Hillary Clinton, and was largely responsible for the California recall election that brought us the Governator, and who came very close to losing his seat in a district that Clinton won in 2016 -- is calling for a special prosecutor to look into the Russia shenanigans, but he walked it back just a day or so later, so.... *shrug* Talk is cheap, folks.


• My main feeling about the election of a DNC chair is to be glad its over, so now the party can buckle down and get to work. But what really elevated the whole thing to a non-event to me was Tom Perez, immediately and without rancor, naming Keith Ellison vice chair to unanimous approval. This way, we get both of their voices in party leadership, and Ellison gets to keep his seat in Congress (although nothing prohibited him from staying on, he had promised to resign if he'd won). As far as I'm concerned, this is a win-win. As for the people who tried to turn this into a proxy battle to re-litigate the primary, meh. If you're leaving the party over this, you were looking for an excuse to go. See ya bye bye now.


• One of the big stories last week was members of Congress ducking constituent town halls during their recent recess (mostly Republicans, but not exclusively -- I don't think Pelosi or Kamala Harris had one, and I know Feinstein didn't). Lots of folks are calling them out, but none better than Gabrielle Giffords.


• Another thing you might have heard about was the Department of Education pulling guidance to schools that explicitly protected the rights of trans students. Bad as this news is, no laws have actually changed here, just the federal government's mandate to interpret them a certain way. The National Center for Transgender Equality provides a FAQ explaining what it all means.

• More proof that California is not remotely fucking around: Governor Jerry Brown's State of the State address. He's previously had some strong words on taking action against climate change, but he laid down the law on a bunch of other issues too: immigration, healthcare, etc. California has 10% of the nation's population and the world's sixth largest economy; that's a lot of weight to throw around, and I fully support doing it. I have friends who keep making noises about a "Calexit", but I think that's both mean-spirited and short sighted. We need to be leading the charge against Trumpism, not running in the other direction.


• Protest Works: Jamelle Bouie on the power of the 1/21/17 Women's March and why it proves we need to stay on the offensive.


• Fortunately, it looks like there are a lot more protests in the works: The Scientist March (no date set yet, but they seem to be moving quickly), the Tax March on April 15th, a National Pride March on June 11th (I might even try to get to DC for that one). I think a big protest every two months, with rapid response gatherings in response to specific things like the immigration rallies yesterday and the GOP gathering in Philadelphia today, sounds about right. I hope we can keep it up.


• As these protests, marches, and rallies come together, I hope that we can be mindful of the many legit criticisms of the Women's March around intersectionality. This is one example, on race issues, but there are many, many others. We can celebrate the good aspects of the march while still listening to the critiques, learning from them, and trying to do better next time.


• From 2016 but always relevant: Why Rep. John Lewis is not to be trifled with.


• One of my favorite pieces of resistance (much as I hate that it needs to be done) are the "rogue" Twitter accounts being created by government employees to get around the limits that the new administration has been placing on the spread of information. Unofficial accounts for the National Park Service and individual parks, NASA, the EPA, the USDA, and over a dozen others have started popping up. StollmeyerEU is maintaining an updated list here. Who knew that, when the revolution came, that the National Park Service would be leading the way? (Well, maybe this lady.)

• A quick rundown of the attempt of Congressional Republicans to defang House ethics rules and the almost immediate reversal. The two main takeaways: public outcry sometimes works, but we have to keep watching them like hawks.


• I found this Tweetstorm on this history of reconstruction from arthur_effect (Arthur Chu) to be both informative and thought-provoking, in terms of what might happen next in this national backlash to progress on civil rights issues.


• Another on the "Third Reconstruction," from Rev. William Barber, the leader of North Carolina's Moral Monday movement. Moral Monday is an excellent model for liberal resistance, and I hope more of us can adopt it.


• Very good takedown of the idea that Hillary Clinton lost "working Americans". It largely boils down to the media's limited definitions of "working" and "Americans" (i.e. white men in very specific kinds of jobs).


• From Brookings, a blueprint for what path the media should follow to cover the incoming administration.

• Here's a pretty fascinating look at how different state boundaries would have affected the Electoral College results. Based on such things as commute patterns, phone call patterns, states of equal population, etc. A good reminder of how arbitrary the Electoral College is as a way of deciding anything.


• The always-excellent Jamelle Bouie writes about Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns and how they might serve as a blueprint for Democrats to strengthen their economic message without sacrificing social justice issues.


• Good piece on what it really means to empathize with conservatives, and what that means for moving forward.


• This article on fake news and media credibility is a little harder on the mainstream media than I would be, but it's a thought-provoking perspective nonetheless.


• Speaking of fake news, here's an interview with the creator of a browser plug-in that detects and flags dubious sources, called (appropriately) BS Detector. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I'm curious. Could be a valuable tool if it works, although I worry that the people who most need it are the least likely to install it.

We’re in this for the long haul. It’s a marathon not a sprint. It’s also a relay race not a singles event.

• I'm a Coastal Elite from the Midwest: The Real Bubble is Rural America -- this flips the script from the usual media narrative, in a way that rings very true to me as someone who grew up in the small town Midwest (mostly Iowa) and then has spent the rest of their life on one of the coasts. This doesn't absolve us from reaching out to the bubble and learning more about the people inside it, but like empathy, it's gotta go both ways.



• California takes a stand against Trumpism in a strongly worded statement of action. My friend S talked to people who work for California legislators, and she was assured that this is not just a feel-good statement: they are actually moving forward with all of this. I love everyone in this bar.



• Don't Mourn, Fight Like Hell: another call to action, this one from Mother Jones. There's a bit of musing on how we got here, but the focus is on what to do next, which I appreciate.



• Thoughtful and caring advice on dealing with the Trump supporters in your life.



• Relatedly, readingtheend shares practical advice for white people calling out racism, based on her experience living in a red state and years of practice being the child of social workers.



• Stop saying 'This isn't my America.' Sorry, it is. Important reminder that this backlash to progress isn't new, and there were plenty of other manifestations of it, if you were paying attention.



• Some clear evidence that voter suppression laws played a real part in flipping swing states Trumpward.



• Never forget: like Al Gore before her, Hillary Clinton has won the popular vote. This doesn't mean anything in a practical sense (attempts to convince the electoral college otherwise aside -- and although I understand the impulse, I don't think this is a good idea; no election would ever go unchallenged again), but it does make me feel a little less despair about my fellow Americans and what they believe.

iamkj