On Monday, resident Trump and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein flew together on
Air Force One. And while Trump said he had no plans of firing
Rosenstein, he also reiterated his position there was no collusion with
Russia. Joe Scarborough weighs in.
One of the few pleasant surprises to come out of the extraordinary
fuckery of the "battle" over Brett Kavanaugh (if by "battle," you mean,
"a pre-determined outcome where everyone pretended the fix wasn't in,
especially Susan fucking Collins") was when Alaska Senator Lisa
Murkowski, a Republican, actually voted against Kavanaugh. And one major
reason for Murkowski opposing her own party was the plea from Native
women survivors of sexual assault and violence.
"Alaska Native women continue to suffer the highest rate of forcible
sexual assault and have reported rates of domestic violence up to 10
times higher than in the rest of the United States," according to the Indian Law Resource Center. And some of these women showed up in DC to lobby Murkowski, who, to her credit, met with many of them over the course of the week.
But the pressure on Murkowski ran deep in the Alaskan Native community,
whose support was at least partially responsible for her electoral
victories in 2010 (especially) and 2016.
In an open letter to Murkowski, Natalie Landreth, a senior attorney with the Native American Rights Fund in Alaska, reminded
the Senator, "This is the same community who had wristbands with your
name on them so they could remember how to spell it when they had to
write it in," referring to Murkowski's 2010 run as an independent
candidate. As Melissa Merrick-Brady, a Native American survivor of
sexual assault, wrote,
"It pains me to think that our country’s leadership might allow such a
figure to ascend to the highest judicial office in this land, allowing
him to opine on whether I should be protected from violence." One of
Merrick-Brady's senators in North Dakota, Heidi Heitkamp, did vote
against Kavanaugh.
The Bering Sea Elders Group issued
a statement saying, in part, "Violence against our Native women and
children in Alaska is not part of our culture, but is unfortunately an
epidemic in Alaska...A person’s actions, beliefs, and ways of being show
you who they are, and it is our way to know a person, their actions,
their beliefs, and their way of being before elevating them to an
important position in the community."
It wasn't just issues of sexual violence that drove the Native groups in
Alaska to lobby Murkowski. Kavanaugh had issued decisions that opposed
tribal sovereignty on a host of issues. The BSEG, for instance,
continued their statement, saying
that Kavanaugh "has demonstrated he does not understand the inherent
status, rights, and roles of federally recognized Tribes and puts at
risk the 229 federally
recognized Tribes in Alaska."
Kavanaugh was opposed by the Alaska Federation of Natives because of his view of the Indian Commerce Clause. He was opposed
by the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
because of concerns about voting rights and tribal control of rivers. He
was opposed by
the the Republican governor and the Democratic (and Tlingit) lieutenant
governor of Alaska because of fears of the Supreme Court gutting the
Affordable Care Act and the Indian Child Welfare Act. That last fear is
closer to reality since a district court struck down the law that said that Indian children without parents should be placed within their tribe.
But the movement in DC was led by Native women, who protested outside Murkowski's office and the office of Alaska's other senator, Dan Sullivan. The protesters there were arrested by Capitol police (although Sullivan denies calling them), and Sullivan proudly voted for Kavanaugh.
Murkowski, though, listened, and in her heartfelt speech from the Senate
floor, she recognized the treatment of Native women in her state: "The
levels of sexual assault that we see within our Native American and our
Alaska Native communities, the rates are incredibly devastating. It is
not something that we say we’ll get to tomorrow. We’ve heard those
voices. We’ve heard those voices, and I hope that we have all learned
something, that we owe it to the victims of sexual assault to do more
and to do better and to do it now with them." She listened. For once.
She listened to Native voices.
This has been a week of tantrums. The last 10 days have been a picture of what it looks and feels like when white men in positions of power feel themselves threatened by a loss of the authority they feel entitled to.
We watched Brett Kavanaughcry, lash out, bully and deflect in the face of sexual assault allegations because he wasn’t getting what he felt like he deserved. We watched Sen. Lindsey Graham put on an indignant performance of morality at the hearing on behalf of his friend, disfiguring his face like a gremlin and claiming that listening to a woman’s story, was “the most unethical sham since [he’s] been in politics.” We watched thousands of people at rallies cheer on a president who continues to produce a less ethnically aware and inclusive America.
The past few days (years, really) may symbolize a battle lost for people who are hoping to dismantle white supremacy (and its commitment to patriarchy) and move toward a reality where the rights of women and nonbinary folks, people of color and people at the intersections matter. It seems that the more angry and petulant that powerful white men become, the more they get what they want.
But at the end of the day, all of the tantrums we’re seeing should be viewed as evidence that powerful white men can feel their power slipping away and are going to extremes to hold on to it. We who envision a more just America have the powers that be shook, and we may soon have them on the run if we can channel our anger and grief into action.
All of the tantrums we’re seeing should be viewed as
evidence that powerful white men can feel their power slipping away and
are going to extremes to hold on to it.
We’ve seen this same clinging to power before, in 2016, when white people overwhelmingly voted to electa man accused of sexual assault (among other things) to the presidency of the United States.
When the vision of white-male-dominated America is thwarted or threatened in any way, the backlash is nothing short of desperate and infantile. They’ll do whatever it takes to maintain control over their way of life, even if it means putting unqualified and equally petulant people in positions of power. CNN’s Van Jones called this phenomenon “whitelash.”
And while the majority of white people would not claim that we ought to return to those times, they look back on the formation of the U.S. with nostalgia for days when things were more simple and easy, especially if you were a white man.
NICHOLAS KAMM via Getty Images
The rallying cry “Make America Great Again” relies on that racist, sexist nostalgic vision that calls on people to pursue a mythological unity that is simply white domination in disguise. This vision manifests as Trump’s America, as a utopia that calls back to the better days of more protected and less challenged white supremacy.
And before someone slams in like the Kool-Aid man with a “not all white people,” sure, some white folks aren’t actively supporting the most openly white supremacist administration of my lifetime. Let me stand and applaud you. But the bar is too low. White supremacy requires no active support, only complacency or tacit approval through apathy.
It is easy to implicate people in power of upholding the structures of white supremacy without recognizing that progressives and conservatives alike passively and actively seek the normalizing of white supremacy. Those at the Trump rallies more actively support their white supremacy, but white liberals reap the benefits while also being able to claim a level of “wokeness” because they can identify structures and white people that they are not like.
Sens. Jeff Flake and Susan Collins are primary examples of people who, though they may critique and disparage Trump as a leader, are still willing to dive in the deep end of partisan politics while claiming to be moderate.
The lesson is that no matter how well intentioned someone is or how much integrity they have had in the past, people are pulled to powers that uphold business as usual. Their votes were not surprising, merely disappointing. Whiteness and patriarchy work together. In the end, they are so closely tied, that to refuse to dismantle one is to continue to perpetuate the other.
The social norms are being threatened and the
privileged will cry and kick and scream and go to the extreme end to
maintain dominance.
Despite complacency and outright support for the status quo, there is a growing number of people in this country actively trying to change things and relieve white supremacy of its power. While some on the right have been emboldened in Trump’s America to show their true supremacist colors, others are feeling empowered to stand up for their rights and dismantle the societal structures that have kept privileged white men in power for so long while keeping women, people of color and others without power disenfranchised.
It seems, as we approach the midterm elections, that we will once again have an opportunity to practice what freedom fighters before us have done: voting, resisting and using our interpersonal relationships to rally each other to systemic and social changes. Good intentions and right politics have never changed the world, voting and action has.
In this political season, it is more important than ever that those who are fighting for a more just and free world choose the revolutionary work of educating ourselves and each other, taking care of ourselves and each other, and then doing what we can to honor our ancestors and get out to the do the work of politics, systemic change and truth-telling. If they did it with extraordinarily less freedom than we did, then maybe we can choose to hope, day to day, that progress yields progress and that history never looks back fondly on those who seek to conserve oppression and hatred.
The social norms are being threatened and the privileged will cry and kick and scream and go to the extreme end to maintain dominance. But the more people they push to the margins, the stronger the marginalized become. If anything, the tantrums and whitelash from the privileged few are proving that maybe they’re too weak and immature to handle the upcoming fight and maybe the rule of patriarchal white supremacy is finally on its way to an end.
Brandi Miller is a campus minister and justice program director from the Pacific Northwest.
The elite learn early that they’re special — and that they won’t face consequences.
Brett Kavanaugh is not telling the whole truth. When
President George W. Bush nominated him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit in 2006, he told senators that he’d
had nothing to do with the war on terror’s detention policies; that was not true.
Kavanaugh also claimed under oath, that year and again this month, that
he didn’t know that Democratic Party memos a GOP staffer showed him in
2003 were illegally obtained; his emails from that period reveal that
these statements were probably false.
And it cannot be possible that the Supreme Court nominee was both a
well-behaved virgin who never lost control as a young man, as he told Fox News and the Senate Judiciary Committee this past week, and an often-drunk member of the “Keg City Club” and a “Renate Alumnius ,” as he seems to have bragged to many people and written into his high school yearbook.
Then there are the sexual misconduct allegations against him, which he denies.
How
could a man who appears to value honor and the integrity of the legal
system explain this apparent mendacity? How could a man brought up in
some of our nation’s most storied institutions — Georgetown Prep, Yale
College, Yale Law School — dissemble with such ease?
The answer lies in
the privilege such institutions instill in their members, a privilege
that suggests the rules that govern American society are for the common
man, not the exceptional one.
Poor Donald Trump just can't people to believe his total B.S. Even the
United Nations is laughing at him now. Sam Seder and the Majority Report
crew discuss this.
U.S. resident Donald Trump's speech at the United Nations General
Assembly drew laughs from those in attendance, as he once again touted
his 'America First' strategy.
Welcome to The National, the flagship nightly newscast of CBC News
US resident Donald Trump has made the delegates at the UN general assembly laugh - seemingly without attempting to do so.
Mr Trump told the assembly he was sharing the "extraordinary progress" of his administration, two years after taking office.
CNN's Don Lemon responds to resident Donald Trump's speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
During a speech at the UN general assembly this week, Donald Trump decided that it was a smart idea to brag about all of his “accomplishments” since becoming President. What the President didn’t realize is that the rest of the planet isn’t addicted to Fox News, and they knew he was lying.
So in the middle of his braggadocios speech, the entire assembly erupted in laughter. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains how Trump has made the US the laughingstock of the entire world.
Activists confronted Senator Ted Cruz and his wife at a restaurant in
Washington in response to the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and
sexual misconduct allegations, chanting "we believe survivors."
In 1991, The Senate Judiciary Committee pushed for the FBI to
investigate Anita Hill's claims against Clarence Thomas. But now,
Chairman Grassley is refusing the request by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford
for an independent FBI investigation into her allegation against Brett
Kavanaugh.
Trump has started questioning Dr. Ford's accusation against Brett
Kavanaugh and Mitch McConnell told an audience that he has the votes to
confirm Kavanaugh. Lawrence says that indicates Republicans do not plan
to treat Dr. Ford's hearing fairly.
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford wants Senate Judiciary members and not
staffers to conduct her hearing with the Committee. Lawrence says that
is because the staffers are too biased and partial to properly question
her.
res. Trump attacked Dr. Ford by asking why she didn’t report her
alleged assault by Brett Kavanaugh when she was 15? Thousands of women
answered that question on twitter today. Lawrence shares their stories.
Reddit has banned a forum dedicated to the QAnon conspiracy theory, saying users repeatedly violated its content policies.
"As
of September 12, r/greatawakening has been banned due to repeated
violations of the terms of our content policy,” a Reddit spokesperson
said in a statement to The Hill. “We are very clear in our site terms of
service that posting content that incites violence, disseminates
personal information, or harasses will get users and communities banned
from Reddit."
QAnon followers believe in a vague and far-reaching conspiracy theory that posits a “deep state” plot against resident Trump and a vast pedophile ring among elites.
Their theories are spurred by a poster or a group of posters that goes by the pseudonym “Q."
The
persona first posted on 4chan last year, claiming to be a high-ranking
security official in the Trump administration, and has led to groups
being created on Reddit as well as Facebook that boast thousands of
members.
Q has pushed the unsubstantiated theory Trump was
persuaded to run for president by military leaders and that together
Trump and the officials are planning the arrests of "deep state" members
in what Q and its followers call “The Storm.”
Q’s devotees
generally support President Trump. They’ve given Q’s posts a life of
their own, spinning off additional theories about who is behind Q and
what Q’s messages — which they call “crumbs” — mean.
The movement
initially began on the fringes of the Internet, on less trafficked
places like 4chan, but through Q theorists' ramped-up presence on Reddit
and Facebook, the conspiracy theories have gained a cult following
that’s spilled over into the real world.
Noticeable numbers of Trump supporters have shown up to his rallies clad in Q gear.
Reddit’s move to get rid of the critical Q group comes one day after it banned r/milliondollarextreme, according to BuzzFeed News,
a subreddit for the sketch comedy group Million Dollar Extreme that is
popular with the alt-right. The subreddit was one of the most popular on
the site, sharing white supremacist and white nationalist content.
Over the past year, Reddit has taken more general steps to clean up its platform amid abuse and problematic content.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is apparently so afraid of getting a
primary challenge from the right in 2020 that she's willing to lose all
of the moderates, the independents, and the Democratic women who have
supported her in the past. In order to save her own career, she's
seemingly willing to sell out generations of women, of people of color,
of LGBTQ people with a vote to put a young, hyper-partisan extremist
Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. How far right has she swung? She's
giving exclusive interviews to outlets like Newsmax, which hosts a white supremacist radio show host on it's multimedia channel.
That interview, by the way, is so that she can blow off the efforts
of two political action committees in her state—the Maine People’s
Alliance and Mainers for Accountable Leadership—who've teamed up with
healthcare activist Ady Barkan to crowdfund a warchest for her 2020
Democratic opponent, whoever that might be. Collins and her press
secretary sniff that this is just like bribery and she is so far above
that that it won't make any difference and that she will "will make up
her mind based on the merits of the nomination."
Which is utterly laughable. On the merits, this guy has lied to the Senate. This one got glossed over with the stolen emails and everything else, but in a confirmation hearing in 2004
he actually told Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that "my background has not
been in partisan politics." This is the guy who almost single-handedly
created the Vince Foster was murdered by Hillary Clinton conspiracy
theory when he was working for Ken Starr, and who "argued internally for
the most-intrusive possible investigation and questioning of President
Clinton vis-a-vis the Lewinsky affair, and adopted a maximal view of
Clinton's legal liability and vulnerability to impeachment." He was part
of George W. Bush's legal team that bullied Bush into the White House
in Bush v. Gore. When Republicans decided to politicize the
most horrible thing one man had ever endured—Michael Schiavo's decision
to remove his brain dead wife Teri's life support—Kavanaugh woke Bush up in the middle of the night to intervene by signing "emergency" legislation.
He even lied to the Senate about being a partisan. It's a stain on
the Senate that they let him get away with it then, in 2004 when he was
Bush's right-hand man. And caught red-handed this time around as having
trafficked in stolen documents in order to advance Bush's partisan
agenda, Kavanaugh didn't even have the decency to apologize to Sens.
Durbin and Patrick Leahy whose emails were pilfered, or to the committee
for having misled them in the past.
It's a testament to just how unprincipled Collins has become, how
desperate to hold on to her Senate seat, that she is willing to
sacrifice everything up to and including her own dignity for Donald
Trump.
As if she's not going to get a challenge from the right in 2020
anyway.
The people of Maine need to call her on it. Directly. Every day. At
her office numbers: (207) 622-8414, (207) 945-0417, (207) 283-1101,
(207) 493-7873, (207) 784-6969, (207) 780-3575, (202) 224-2523. And
since she's ignoring calls, she needs to see them in person.
