In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

O Canada! "Canadians have started voting in fiercely-contested parliamentary elections that could give them their first new leader in nearly 10 years. Incumbent Conservative PM Stephen Harper is fighting for a rare fourth term but the frontrunner is Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, son of late prime minister Pierre Trudeau. The left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) could also play a decisive role. Opinion polls have suggested many people are still undecided. ...An opinion poll released on Sunday showed the Liberals on 37.3%, seven points ahead of the Conservatives at 30.5%. The NDP had 22.1% according to the Nanos survey taken on October 15 to 17. The margin of error was 2.2%."

[Content Note: War on agency] This is a must-read piece by Irin Carmon: "Shuttered: The End of Abortion Access in Red America. 'How are we going to give voice to the women that don't make it here?' [Dr. Bhavik Kumar] asked. 'Because those are the women, in my opinion, that are going to be the more marginalized women—the women that perhaps can't afford to get here, can't afford it, the procedure, if they were to get here. Women of lower socioeconomic status. Women of color. Women that live in South Texas. What happens to those women? Where do they go?' Because, Kumar added, 'We know that there are always going to be women with unwanted pregnancies.'"

[CN: War on agency; anti-choice terrorism] In related news: "Abortion Rights Group Says Clinic Vandalism Should Be Investigated as Domestic Terrorism." Yes. Yes it should.

[CN: Police brutality; rendition; racism] Another must-read piece by Spencer Ackerman on Chicago's Homan Square: "Police 'disappeared' more than 7,000 people at an off-the-books interrogation warehouse in Chicago, nearly twice as many detentions as previously disclosed, the Guardian can now reveal. From August 2004 to June 2015, nearly 6,000 of those held at the facility were black, which represents more than twice the proportion of the city's population. But only 68 of those held were allowed access to attorneys or a public notice of their whereabouts, internal police records show. The new disclosures, the result of an ongoing Guardian transparency lawsuit and investigation, provide the most detailed, full-scale portrait yet of the truth about Homan Square."

[CN: Sexual violence; video may autoplay at link] To a frightening number of men and boys, rape is just a game, a bit of entertainment, something to be filmed so they can relive the excitement over and over again: "Five individuals—four men and a teenage boy—have been arrested in connection with the gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl at a Sydney house party earlier in the year, New South Wales Police have said. The incident was filmed on a GoPro-style camera, which was later seized by authorities in relation to an anti-graffiti operation. The sexual assault was discovered by police when viewing footage from the device. ...'It was quite obvious to investigators when viewing this footage that the child was either unconscious or semi-conscious during these assaults,' Detective Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans, from the Child Abuse Squad said." Fucking hell. I hope she has the support she needs. And fuck off, CNN, for ending with this shit: "The teen did not report the rape at the time of the incident." Fuck. Off.

[CN: Fat hatred] Oh good. I can't wait for the fat-hating fuckery that will come out of this deal: "Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey has acquired a 10% stake in Weight Watchers International, sending the dieting company's stock soaring Monday after a prolonged slump." Yay! Let's all make money off of exploiting fat people after telling them to hate themselves! Wheeeeee!

[CN: Antifeminism] OFFS: Emily Blunt is the latest straight, white, thin, cis actress to opine about feminism and its nefarious divisiveness: "Sure I've experienced sexism," she told Radio Times. "But not that often any more. I sometimes feel that we can exacerbate the problem by talking about it more. I think you can keep talking about it and create more and more of a stamp of divide. I think we need to do more—and stop talking about it." Blink. Blink.

NEW ADELE! I repeat: NEW ADELE! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Are you a fan of Absolutely Fabulous? Then you might be excited to see the first image of the AbFab movie currently being filmed!

[CN: Moving GIF at link] And finally! What do you get a gorilla for her 44th birthday? Two kittens! ♥