In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today.

[Content Note: Sexual violence; assault; torture; harassment; exhortations to self-harm] Via @LoriAdorable, Amanda Brooks, an escort and advocate, has documented the case of a client viciously harming one of her colleagues, and now documents, in extraordinary and sobering detail, the campaign of harassment and threats he and his hired PI (and supporters, or sockpuppets masquerading as supporters) have unleashed on she and her colleague in retribution. "He wants to make our lives miserable and I assume if he can't dig enough dirt, he will either make it up or simply harass us in other ways—such as posting YouTube videos, RipOffReport claims, spurious lawsuits and try to bring down our websites. Oh, and apparently he would like us to kill ourselves and save his lazy ass the trouble." The thing is that these guys think they will be able to get away with this horrendous campaign of violence and subsequent intimidation because they are waging it against women in the sex trade and that "no one" will care. If you've got a space in which you write, raise the flags and let these shitheads know we care and we're watching.

[CN: Clergy abuse] Today in Whoops Your Progressive Pope News: "The Vatican Sex Abuse Hearing in One Word: Troubling."

There is a major profile of President Obama in the New Yorker's latest issue. It is very interesting, and you should definitely read the whole thing. I was delighted to see him call out the fact that racism "no doubt" has played a role in the drop in his approval ratings. Also: I am not the right person to comment on his more problematic respectability politics comments, where he straight-up talks about "pathologies" in the black community, and I've yet to find a good response to this specific piece, but here is Trudy on the subject after one of his speeches last year, to start to contextualize some of this stuff.

[CN: Homophobia] The homophobic Bachelor has apologized for saying gay people are "more pervert in a sense" and there shouldn't be a gay Bachelor because it would be bad for kids to watch. It sounds like a great apology written by someone who makes a lot of money in PR! By the way, I love the idea that kids watching a man choose a female mate from the human equivalent of a pet shelter is somehow terrific for kids to watch, but two people of the same sex would just make it awful.

There have been two expressway shootings near me in the last week. Thank Maude the drivers and passengers have survived. Fucking terrifying.

Iran has halted its uranium enrichment program as part of the deal struck late last year. Wow.

[CN: Environmental disaster; injury] Since the bans on drinking water have been lifted in West Virginia, "hospital admissions and calls to the poison control center have doubled. Emergency room visits have nearly tripled." Fuck.

Grosssssss: "Bush Veterans Eye Office as the Former President's Image Rebounds."

Something something Chris Christie bully unethical criminal.

Via Shaker Kevin Wolf, here is one of my favorite actresses, Anna Deavere Smith, performing excerpts from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."