We Resist: Day 908

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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Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Nancy Pelosi, Please Do Something Real and Feeling the Heat and Primarily Speaking.

Here are some more things in the news today...

The President of the United States tweeted this today: "'Billionaire Tech Investor Peter Thiel believes Google should be investigated for treason. He accuses Google of working with the Chinese Government.' @foxandfriends A great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone! The Trump Administration will take a look!" Trump has previously accused Google, among others, of news- and election-rigging against him, so now announcing his administration "will take a look" at investigating them for treason is extremely chilling.

Caitlyn Byrd at the Post and Courier: Mark Sanford, SC Republican, Former U.S. Rep, Considers Presidential Run Against Trump. "Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina congressman ousted from office after [Donald] Trump urged voters to reject him, is considering a run for president. Sanford, in an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Post and Courier, confirmed he will take the next month to formulate whether he will mount a potential run against Trump as a way of pushing a national debate about America's mounting debt, deficit, and government spending. He would run as a Republican." Oh for fuck's sake.

Danielle McLean at ThinkProgress: Democrats Sue over a Florida Law That Puts Trump's Name Ahead of Rivals on the 2020 Ballot. "The Democratic Party and civil rights groups in Florida are suing over a number of state laws meant to suppress the votes of people of color and give Republicans an edge in the state, which has had numerous whisker-close elections in its recent past. This latest legal challenge, filed by Florida voters and several Democratic groups last year at U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, seeks to end a nearly 70-year-old law mandating that candidates belonging to the governor's political party be listed first on the ballot. A four-day federal court trial began in the case on Monday."

[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism] Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett at the Washington Post: Justice Department Will Not Charge Police in Connection with Eric Garner's Death.

The Justice Department will not bring federal charges against any police officers involved in the death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old Black man whose recorded takedown in New York in 2014 helped coin a rallying cry for those concerned about law enforcement's treatment of minorities, two people familiar with the matter said.

For Garner's supporters, the decision is a disappointing — albeit long expected — end to a case that had languished for years as various components of the Justice Department disagreed about what to do.

At a news conference Tuesday, Gwen Carr said the Justice Department had "failed us," and called on the New York City police commissioner to fire the officer who was caught on video wrapping his arm around Garner’s neck before he died.

"Five years ago, my son said, 'I can't breathe' 11 times, and today we can't breathe, because they have let us down," Carr said.

Rage. Seethe. Sob.

New York City officer in Eric Garner's chokehold death won't face federal charges

The Civil rights division thought charges could be filed but of course Barr decided not to. This is what happens with a corrupt AG installed by a corrupt regime https://t.co/6cGcx1uIEN

— Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) July 16, 2019

[CN: War on agency; anti-choicery] AP at the Guardian: Trump Administration to Ban Abortion Referrals at Taxpayer-Funded Clinics. "Taxpayer-funded family planning clinics must stop referring women for abortions immediately, the Trump administration has announced, declaring it will begin enforcing a new regulation hailed by religious conservatives and denounced by medical organizations and women's rights groups. The head of a national umbrella group representing the clinics said the Republican administration is following 'an ideological agenda' that could disrupt basic health care for many low-income women." FUCKING GODDAMMIT.

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[Content Note: Nativism; abuse. Covers entire section.]

Ginger Thompson at ProPublica: A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It's Really Like to Guard Migrant Children. "Referring back to the grim conditions inside the Border Patrol holding centers, [the Border Patrol agent] said: 'Somewhere down the line people just accepted what's going on as normal. That includes the people responsible for fixing the problems.' ...Most of his colleagues, he said, fall into one of two camps. There are the 'law-and-order types' who see the immigrants in their custody, as, first and foremost, criminals. Then, he said, there are those who are 'just tired of all the chaos' of a broken immigration system and 'see no end in sight.'"

House report: the Trump admin stole at least 18 babies under the age of two—"including nine infants under the age of one"—from families at the border, separating some for as long as six months. https://t.co/vc2072udha #FamiliesBelongTogether

— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) July 15, 2019

The government-inflicted trauma is undeniable: "Now more than a year and a half old, the baby still can’t walk on his own, and has not spoken." Another baby, just eight-months-old, was separated from his family for six months. #FamiliesBelongTogether

— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) July 15, 2019

Kate Morrissey of the San Diego Union-Tribune at Stars and Stripes: Customs and Border Protection Denies Marine Corps Veteran Entry for Scheduled Citizenship Interview. "A deported Marine Corps veteran who has been unable to come back to the U.S. for more than a decade was denied entry to the country Monday morning when he asked to be let in for a scheduled citizenship interview. Roman Sabal, 58, originally from Belize, came to the San Ysidro Port of Entry around 7:30 on Monday morning with an attorney to ask for 'parole' to attend his naturalization interview scheduled for a little before noon in downtown San Diego. Border officials have the authority to temporarily allow people into the country on parole for 'humanitarian or significant public benefit' reasons." He was denied entry.

ICE told one trans woman that if she didn't participate in a photo op with media, she wouldn't receive food.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗳𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴.https://t.co/91z69k0u3I

— National Center for Transgender Equality (@TransEquality) July 15, 2019

This is hell on earth.

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I'll wrap it up with some good news...

[CN: Death penalty] Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg at the Appeal: Philadelphia D.A. Asks Court to Declare Death Penalty System Unconstitutional.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner — who vowed as a candidate not to seek the death penalty — has asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to declare that the sentence, as applied, violates the state's Constitution.

"Because of the arbitrary manner in which it has been applied, the death penalty violates our state Constitution's prohibition against cruel punishments," states a brief filed by Krasner's office tonight in the case Jermont Cox v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"It really is not about the worst offenders," Krasner told The Appeal. "It really is about poverty. It really is about race."

The new brief is part of a broader push that started last August, when lawyers representing Cox and another death row prisoner, Kevin Marinelli, asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on Pennsylvania's use of the death penalty.

"Pennsylvania administers a system of capital punishment that is replete with error, a national outlier in its design, and a mirror for the inequities and prejudices that plague American society," lawyers for Cox and Marinelli wrote to the court in February.

Fingers crossed that another state will soon outlaw the death penalty.

What have you been reading that we need to resist today?

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news...

[Content Note: Misogyny] This is the third or fourth piece/tweetstorm I've now seen on this subject: "One GOP woman wonders why the men in her party won't defend her." I get no joy or schadenfreude in reading these things: It hurts to be let down by people you trusted, even if an outsider may feel you shouldn't have trusted them in the first place. But I do hope that the women who are coming to the realization that the GOP is not a safe place for women will recalibrate their judgments toward those of us who have long said the party was institutionally sexist, and have some more respect for the fact that we haven't just been trying to "score points" by calling out the GOP's misogyny.

[CN: Police brutality; racism] Wow: "The Justice Department has replaced the New York team of agents and lawyers investigating the death of Eric Garner, officials said, a highly unusual shake-up that could jump-start the long-stalled case and put the government back on track to seek criminal charges."

Welp: "Video surfaces of Trump heaping praise on both Clintons." In 2008, Hillary Clinton was "a great woman." Now she's "a nasty woman." Interesting.

This guy: "Khizr Khan, whose speech at the party's convention in June came at the high-water mark in Trump's poll ratings, will speak to veterans in Norfolk, Virginia, home of the world's largest naval base and some 150,000 military workers."

[CN: Misogyny; assault] "I just voted for Hillary Clinton. I cried." Just go read the whole thing.

[CN: Racism; classism] I really loved the Black Jeopardy sketch on SNL last weekend, and Jamelle Bouie does an excellent job of deconstructing why it was so terrific.

Damn: "The largest auto-scandal settlement in U.S. history was just approved. Up to $10 billion in VW buybacks starts soon."

"A rare Eastern Black Rhino was born September 12 at the Great Plains Zoo. The male calf is the third Rhino born at the Zoo and was the first Eastern Black Rhino, born as part of the Association of Zoos & Aquarium's (AZA) endangered species breeding program, since 2014." Naturally, the pix are ADORBZ.

What have you been reading?

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Extreme weather; death] More dire warnings about the blizzard bearing down on the US East Coast: "National weather experts are warning of a potentially '[debilitating] winter storm' bearing down on the eastern US from Friday through Sunday that began forming quickly late Wednesday, with deadly results. Washington DC is in the bull's eye of the approaching tempest, but storm conditions ranging from hail and severe thunder to several feet of snow are forecast from Florida to New England. ...By Thursday afternoon, one man had died in Maryland after being hit by a snow plow, one man was killed when his car slid off the road in snow in north-eastern Tennessee, and two women died in North Carolina in car accidents on icy roads. The storm is prompting warnings beyond routine winter snowfall because of the prospect of sustained winds making lengthy blizzard conditions especially dangerous and because it is unusual for a storm to bring a foot of snow or more to such a large area, according to the National Weather Service. Its meteorologists expect the snowstorm to affect up to 50 million people and its various effects to be felt across a third of the US."

Let's make it happen, Congress: "Yesterday, after months-long delay, the Senate Armed Services Committee held the confirmation hearing for Eric Fanning. Fanning has been acting secretary of the Army for months since the GOP has held up his confirmation. Fanning stepped aside from his post earlier this month after Republican senators complained that Fanning's serving as acting secretary without being confirmed. ...The timing for a vote on Fanning's confirmation is still unknown."

[CN: Racism; disablism; police brutality] "A white Atlanta-area police officer who shot a naked, mentally ill black veteran who was unarmed has been indicted on felony murder and other charges. The decision came on Thursday after DeKalb County prosecutors presented their case against Officer Robert Olsen, who fatally shot Anthony Hill on 9 March 2015 while responding to a call of a naked man behaving erratically outside a suburban Atlanta apartment complex. The family of the 27-year-old Hill says the US air force veteran struggled with mental health problems." You know what I'm going to say: Real justice will look like no more people being shot and killed by police.

[CN: Police brutality; video autoplays at link] Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, the black man who was killed by police after being detained for allegedly selling loose cigarettes, has endorsed Hillary Clinton, writing in an email that she is the "only candidate right now who's talking about how we can be strategic in trying to" address police brutality.

(It's interesting to me that Carr is endorsing Clinton because of her emphasis on strategy, which resonates with me. Just last night, Bernie Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver was on MSNBC saying that "presidential races are about who has the vision." And the strategy to back it up.)

[CN: White supremacy] WOW: "Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling has claimed the current campaign to boycott the 2016 Academy Awards over claims of a diversity deficit is racist to white people. Rampling, 69, is up for the best actress prize for her role in the British drama 45 Years... Asked for her take on the current furore over all-white lists of nominees on French Radio network Europe 1 on Friday morning, the British actor did not mince her words. 'It is racist to whites,' she said. 'One can never really know, but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list,' added Rampling." Holy shit. And Michael Caine showed his ass, too: "Speaking on the Today Show on Radio 4 on Friday, Rampling's fellow sixties icon Michael Caine advised black actors to 'be patient,' and said it had taken him 'years to get an Oscar, years.' Added Caine, 82: 'There's loads of black actors. In the end you can't vote for an actor because he's black. You can't say: I'm going to vote for him, he's not very good, but he's black, I'll vote for him.'" Someone show these two relics the door.

[CN: White supremacy] Meanwhile, here's Viola Davis, on the same subject, being awesome as usual: "The problem is not with the Oscars, the problem is with the Hollywood movie-making system. How many black films are being produced every year? How are they being distributed? The films that are being made, are the big-time producers thinking outside of the box in terms of how to cast the role? Can you cast a black woman in that role? Can you cast a black man in that role? ...You can change the Academy, but if there are no black films being produced, what is there to vote for?"

[CN: White supremacist nationalism] Donald Trump (again) retweeted something posted by a Nazi sympathizing white nationalist. And he really doesn't have any fucking excuse, since the account handle is "@WhiteGenocideTM." This fucking guy.

Yesterday I mentioned that there is a once-in-a-decade alignment of five planets in the morning sky. Andrew Fazekas explains how to see the the five planets align, and notes: "If you look at the right time, the moon will also be a part of the cosmic parade."

Whoa: "A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows off a cluster of brilliant stars that look like diamonds in the sky. The cluster Trumpler 14, which lies around 8,000 light years away from Earth in the Carina Nebula, features some of the brightest stars in our galaxy. The brightest star in the image—supergiant HD 93129Aa—is two and a half million times brighter than the sun, and 80 times as massive."

And finally! "7 Pictures of Scotland Looking Like Siberia as Husky Dogs Train for the Aviemore Sled Dog Rally." Awesome.

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

After nearly two years of negotiations, a deal has been struck with Iran: "Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States said they had reached a historic accord on Tuesday to significantly limit Tehran's nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions. The agreement culminates 20 months of negotiations on a nuclear deal with Iran that President Obama had long sought as the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency. Whether it portends a new relationship between the United States and Iran—after decades of coups, hostage-taking, terrorism, and sanctions—remains a bigger question. President Obama, in an early morning appearance at the White House that was broadcast live in Iran, began what promised to be an arduous effort to sell the deal to Congress and the American public, saying the agreement was 'not built on trust, it is built on verification.' But Mr. Obama made it abundantly clear that he would fight to preserve the deal in its entirety, saying, 'I will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal.'" Wow.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has released a statement announcing that the Department of Defense will "create a working group to study over the next six months the policy and readiness implications of welcoming transgender persons to serve openly. Led by (Acting) Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Brad Carson, and composed of military and civilian personnel representing all the military services and the Joint Staff, this working group will report to Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work. At my direction, the working group will start with the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified." Emphasis mine. Right on!

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gave her first major economic speech in this election yesterday, and she "dedicated more than 1,000 words to burdens disproportionately carried by women—a rarity in the context of policy addresses from front-running presidential candidates. She called fair pay, flexible scheduling, paid family leave, and earned sick days 'essential to our competitiveness and growth.' ...And she mentioned the disparity that makes all this even tougher for female workers nationwide: American women, on average, make 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. Women of color, Clinton added, make even less. The number, compared to white men's earnings, dwindles to 64 cents for black women, the National Women's Law Center reports, and 56 cents for Hispanic women. 'Another key ingredient of strong growth that often goes overlooked and undervalued: Breaking down barriers so more Americans can participate more fully in the workforce, especially women,' she said. 'We are in a global competition and we can't afford to leave talent on the sidelines.'" Boom.

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism] "New York City has agreed to pay $5.9m to the family of Eric Garner, the 43-year-old man who died on Staten Island last July after being placed in an illegal chokehold by a police officer. ...The city's medical examiner ruled the death a homicide but Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who placed Garner in a chokehold during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes, was not indicted." I guess that's something. But no amount of money will ever bring Garner back.

[CN: Sexual assault] Last week, court documents from 2005 were released containing testimony from Bill Cosby in which he admitted obtaining quaaludes with the intent of using them to rape women. "Cosby, 77, made the admission during testimony in a civil case brought by a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, who alleged that Cosby tricked her into taking drugs before he sexually assaulted her. The case was settled for an undisclosed sum in 2006 but the documents in the case were unsealed on Monday after the Associated Press went to court." And yet there are still people defending him. I would say that's unbelievable, but I have been covering the rape culture for too long to regard that as anything but frustratingly, rage-makingly believable.

[CN: Misogynoir] Congratulations to Serena Williams, who won Wimbledon once again: "Williams at 33 became the oldest slam champion of the modern era by beating her excellent opponent, 12 years her junior, 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and 23 minutes, thrilling Centre Court with a coronation final that briefly looked like turning into an insurrection. Instead, Williams came through as the holder of all four majors for the first time since she had that honour in 2003, putting her within sight of Steffi Graf's 22 majors, as well as Margaret Court's all-time mark of 24. If she retains the US Open she will have become only the fourth woman to claim a calendar-year grand slam." The coverage of Williams' victory has been appalling, rife with coded and blunt racism and misogyny, and body policing that exists at the intersection of the two. I won't link to any of it, because fuck that. What I will say is that Williams is one of the greatest athletes, if not the greatest athlete, of our time, and anyone who cannot bask with awe at her incredible talent because their gaze is clouded with bigotry is a sad and pathetic person.

[CN: War on agency] Last week, Imani Gandy wrote a terrific piece on the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision: "Anthony Kennedy's Dignity Jurisprudence Is Great for Same-Sex Marriage, But Not for Abortion Rights." Great stuff there.

[CN: Airplane crash] Wow, this is one tough girl: "A US teenager who survived a plane crash in the craggy, thickly forested mountains of north-central Washington state emerged from the wilderness after hiking 'for a couple of days' and was picked up by a motorist who drove her to safety... [T]here was no sign of the aircraft or its occupants until Autumn Veatch, 16, followed a trail to Highway 20, near the east entrance to North Cascades national park. A motorist picked her up on Monday afternoon and drove her 30 miles east to a general store in Mazama, where employees called 911. ...Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said she had been 'walking for a couple of days'. He declined to comment on the status of the other two people who had been on the plane." I'm sorry that it seems as though her step-grandparents perished in the crash.

[CN: Misogyny] Tell 'em, Senator! "Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) spoke out about FIFA's pay inequity on the Senate floor on Monday, putting forth a formal resolution to demand that the international soccer governance board fix the fact that women's World Cup champions earned just $2 million while the men's world cup team winners earned $35 million. The men's USA team was actually eliminated in the second round, and earned $8 million for doing so. He said that the common argument against pay equity in FIFA—disparities in revenue—should be no excuse. 'Revenue should not be and cannot be used for discrimination. …In fact, they ought to ask how many people watched that women's soccer people. Most people would give anything to have that viewership,' he said. Indeed, the women's World Cup final drew a record-breaking 20 million viewers. Leahy continued: 'The 2014 women that took part in the tournament are role models, not just to girls but to men and boys across the world. They should be awarded for their grit, their performance and teamwork rather than devalued for their gender.'" Yes!

Good news for fat fashionistas: "Torrid is now carrying a Size 6, AND is cutting all of their old sizes MUCH larger. ...If you compare the old Size Chart and the new Size Chart side by side every single size measurement has gotten at least one inch bigger! And they're including Size 6 online, which goes up even higher! ...This is GREAT news for those of us that have not been able to buy Torrid's fun clothes in the past. The larger sizing and the new Size 6 are truly extending their size range AND a lot of their clothes seem to come in the new Size 6." Yay!

Wowowowow: "NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is at Pluto. After a decade-long journey through our solar system, New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto Tuesday, about 7,750 miles above the surface—roughly the same distance from New York to Mumbai, India—making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so far from Earth." You can view the extraordinary image of Pluto taken by New Horizons here.

Cool: "Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider have announced the discovery of a new particle called the pentaquark. It was first predicted to exist in the 1960s but, much like the Higgs boson particle before it, the pentaquark eluded science for decades until its detection at the LHC. The discovery, which amounts to a new form of matter, was made by the Hadron Collider's LHCb experiment."

Neat: "A cluster of submerged volcanoes, thought to be about 50 million years old, have been discovered around 250km off the coast of Sydney by a team of Australian scientists who were looking for lobster larvae. ...The four extinct volcanoes in the cluster are calderas, which form after a volcano erupts and the land around them collapses, forming a crater with the largest 1.5km across the rim and it rises 700 metres from the sea floor. ...Australian National University's Richard Arculus, who is a world-leading expert on volcanoes, said these types of volcanoes are windows into the seafloor."

And finally! "Bob the dog is a golden retriever who lives in Brazil and chills with multiple birds and one fat little hamster." Amazing.

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Quote of the Day

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism.]

"The failure to indict the officer responsible for the death of Eric Garner has left many wondering if black lives even matter. Sadly, today's decision will only leave many asking that same question again."—New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman, after New York Supreme Court Justice William E. Garnett ruled to maintain the secrecy of the grand jury testimony in the case of Eric Garner, the black man from Staten Island who was killed by New York City police officers after being detained and put in a chokehold.

A petition from the the New York Civil Liberties Union and others had called for the release of the grand jury transcripts, including testimony by Daniel Pantaleo, the New York police officer involved in the incident. It was brought by NYCLU; the Legal Aid Society; Letitia James, the city's public advocate; the New York Post; and the NAACP.

...Garnett said in the ruling that he did not believe the civil rights lawyers had established a compelling enough reason for warrant a disclosure of the grand jury minutes.

"What would they use the minutes for? The only answer which the court heard was the possibility of effecting legislative change," he wrote. "That proffered need is purely speculative and does not satisfy the requirements of the law."

...The civil liberties attorneys argued that disclosure was in the public interest and would help restore public trust in the criminal justice system, which the secrecy around the case had eroded.

Accountability schmaccountability.

The primary argument in favor of secrecy is protecting "the anonymity prosecutors promise jurors and witnesses who take part in the grand jury processes."

But if black lives are really to matter, protecting privacy in cases of deadly police aggression simply cannot trump protecting the lives of black people.

(And, as a side note, redactions can always be made, and would have been, to protect the privacy of those who were not being investigated. It is the height of mendacity to pretend that protecting anonymity is an all-or-nothing proposition.)

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Tonight, President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address. It should be an interesting one, because both houses of Congress, which serve as the primary audience, now have a majority of Republicans. Talk about a tough room! Obama will reportedly "declare a full-on economic 'resurgence,' even as many Americans say it still hasn't affected them. 'America's resurgence is real. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise,' Obama said in Detroit Jan. 7, previewing his SOTU message."

Okay, well, on that note: Here is a story about the recovery as it has played out in Elkhart, Indiana, just down the road from me. Read it, and then note how the story never explains why, if everyone who wants to work in the recovering RV industry can, Ed Neufeldt is working three shitty jobs instead of having one good job again at an RV place. Why is that? Why is the owner of an RV place saying he can't find enough good workers, but Neufeldt is still making less than he was on unemployment? "Don't let anybody tell you otherwise," says our President, except there are plenty of people who are saying otherwise, because their lived experience is otherwise.

[Content Note: Fat hatred; disordered eating; abuse] Former Biggest Loser contestant Kai Hibbard speaks out (again) about the aggressively unhealthy and profoundly abusive methods used to coerce extreme weight loss on the reality show. "The whole fucking show is a fat-shaming disaster that I'm embarrassed to have participated in."

[CN: Fire; police brutality] A memorial to Eric Garner, who was killed by police, "caught fire" yesterday. "Authorities say the fire was not intentionally set and that criminality is not suspected." Huh. Imagine that. What a coincidence that the same thing happened to a Michael Brown memorial in Ferguson.

[CN: Environmental disaster] Holy shit: "Bridger Pipeline LLC said on Monday it has shut the 42,000 barrel per day Poplar pipeline system after a weekend breach that sent as much as 1,200 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River near Glendive, Montana."

[CN: Death] Fuck: "An old bridge on Interstate 75 [in Cincinnati] was undergoing demolition late Monday when it collapsed, killing a construction worker and shutting down a stretch of the interstate for what could be days. ...The city said it would launch an investigation of what caused the collapse. According to an Enquirer review of federal bridge inspection data, the bridge did not appear to have any structural problems."

[CN: Misogyny] After 44 years of running pictures of topless women on Page Three, the UK paper The Sun is supposedly discontinuing the practice. But don't worry—they'll still be available online! Because of course they will.

[CN: Misogyny] Your progressive Pope: "Pope Francis also said that women should be included because they're able to 'see things with different eyes' than men. 'Women are able to ask questions that men can't understand,' he said." So far, so good—and then: "The pope made the comments after [sharing that, before he spoke] a young girl who had been a street child before getting help from an organization that helps abandoned children asked why God allowed bad things—like falling into [sex work] and drugs—to happen to her and children like her. 'She is the only one who has put a question for which there is no answer,' the pope said. 'She was not even able to express it in words but rather in tears.'" Good fucking grief. Yes, why children fall into are forced into sex work and drugs is just a mystery lost to the sands of time. God works in mysterious ways! It has nothing to do at all with human policies and human decisions and shitty human priorities. This fucking guy.

[CN: Homophobia] So, Billy Crystal said that explicit gay sex in entertainment grossed him out, then tried to say he meant explicit sex of any kind, but the context doesn't really support that explanation. Shut up, Billy Crystal.

Kirby vacuum salesman Al Archie totally makes the day at 14-year-old Dylan Johnson's birthday party. And Jodie Greene is pretty much the coolest mom everrrrrrrrr.

And finally! Take a look at this cat paradise! WOW.

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"Breathe Easy." F@#k You.

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism.]

Eric Garner's last words were "I can't breathe." He said it over and over as police put him in the choke hold that would kill him. It has become a protest refrain, chanted by demonstrators in streets and emblazoned on signs and t-shirts, the literal words of a dying man and a figurative description of the feeling of communities oppressed by state-sanctioned violence, for which there is no accountability.

In South Bend, Indiana, a store owned by Mishawaka Police Corporal Jason Barthel has begun selling t-shirts featuring a police badge and text reading: "Breathe Easy: Don't Break the Law."

Not only does this insensitive and contemptible shirt appropriate the rallying cry of people protesting police violence, but it does so to make a mockery of their pain, and to implicitly victim-blame anyone who is subjected to police brutality. The clear message is: If you break the law, you won't be able to breathe easy. Or at all.

It's a justification for murderous police brutality against the black community, while simultaneously eliding that many of the black people recently killed by police haven't actually broken any laws, and implicitly asserting that being killed in the street is a legitimate consequence of lawbreaking.

Naturally, however, that wasn't the police officer's intent. Of course it wasn't.

The controversial twist on the "I can't Breathe" campaign — one intended to protest Eric Garner's death by a police officer — is meant to spread a message that "police are there for you," according to the South Bend store owned by Mishawaka Police Corporal Jason Barthel.

..."For those upset, please understand when we use the slogan 'Breathe Easy' we are referring to knowing the police are there for you!" South Bend Uniform posted on their Facebook page in response to angry comments, some calling the design "insensitive" and "disrespectful."

"The police are here to protect and serve. 99.9% of us have the greater good in our hearts each time we strap on our uniforms and duty belts. We are all one people and this is by no means is a slam on Eric Garner or his family, God rest his soul," the company's post continues. "Let's all band together as AMERICANS regardless of our feelings and know we can and will be better! Thank you for your support."

I don't buy for a moment that this shirt wasn't explicitly designed to justify police brutality, but, even indulging Barthel's ludicrous assertion that it was merely intended to remind people that police are on their side, that means he had no expectation of how the shirt would be "misread," which itself highlights how disconnected he is from the lived experiences of victims of police violence.

In other words: Even in his best case garbage fantasy scenario, it's still fucking terrible.

Again, I don't believe that Barthel did not understand how this "controversial twist" would be received, and I don't believe that he intended it to communicate merely a helpful reminder that "the police are here to protect and serve" and that "99.9% of us [citation needed] have the greater good in our hearts." But even if he did, and he's not the giant fucking liar he appears to be, this is still a colossal failure.

The shirt is harmful, even if one accepts his pathetic explanation. Because, as we discuss regarding various social justice issues all the time, when any portion of a group of which you're a member, either by identity or chosen affiliation, fucks up, the right response is not to insist, "Most of us aren't like that!" The right response is to acknowledge why those failures have led to mistrust, and endeavoring to make yourself trustworthy. A huge part of which is condemning the fuck-ups, not trying to mask them behind, "Most of us have goodness in our hearts."

#NotAllCops. Just a small but vocal minority. Sure.

If you want us to believe that, then the large majority of police needs to get vocal. Needs to publicly and unilaterally condemn police killing. Needs to stop indulging this pretense that every black person who is being killed was committing a crime at the time. Needs to stop suggesting that committing any crime is justification for being shot by police. Needs to advocate accountability for cops who act as judge, jury, and executioner. Needs to meaningfully address issues of privilege and racism that means black people are disproportionately victimized by police violence. Needs to speak the fuck up in support of victims of police violence, and shut down clowns like Police Corporal Jason Barthel.

I don't care if your hearts are filled with good intentions. I want your heads to be filled with justice.

[H/T to Aphra_Behn.]

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Racism; police brutality.] Last night, people took to the streets of NYC in protest of no indictments for Eric Garner's death, chanting his last words: "I can't breathe."

[CN: Racism; police brutality] The officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice while he was playing with a toy gun in a public park, "had issues with handling guns during his brief tenure with a suburban police department. A Nov. 29, 2012 letter contained in Tim Loehmann's personnel file from the Independence Police Department says that during firearms qualification training...'He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,' according to the letter written by Deputy Chief Jim Polak of the Independence police. ...'I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct the deficiencies,' Polak said." Terrific hire, Cleveland.

[CN: Rape culture; sexual abuse; descriptions of assaults at link] Three more women have come forward with stories of Bill Cosby sexually abusing them. Vulture has an updated timeline of the allegations here.

[CN: Child abuse and neglect; disablism] A 15-year-old Indiana girl with psychological disabilities was discovered by relatives being kept in a locked room in her grandfather's home. She weighed only 35 pounds. She has been hospitalized and "remains in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, police said." Her shitlord guardian says she was abusive, and meanwhile is raising at least one other kid, a boy, like nothing horrific was happening in his home.

[CN: Misogyny; sexual abuse; sexuality policing] The World Health Organization has released a new document stating that "'virginity tests'—a 'two-finger test' used to determine whether or not a woman has had sex or has been sexually assaulted—has no scientific basis and should never be used." Good.

Whooooooops! "The Vatican's economy minister has said hundreds of millions of euros were found 'tucked away' in accounts of various Holy See departments without having appeared in the city-state's balance sheets." Well, sure. It's easy to lose track of millions of monies. Who hasn't done that? Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit millions of euros from the Vatican's couch cushions!

Oh shit: Africa's giraffe population "has dropped about 40 percent in just 15 years, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. ...And while animals such as elephants and rhinos garner a large share of conservation attention, why does it seem like a 'silent' extinction? Experts speculate that they're such a presence in our lives that it's easy to think the species is as abundant as can be. 'Giraffes are everywhere. Look at kids' books, which are full of giraffes. They're always in zoo collections. They're easily visible, so you don't think we have to worry about them,' said David O'Connor, research coordinator with the San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research."

This dude in Indiana turned his old Geo Metro into a flying saucer. Well, no shit he did! What would you do with an old Geo Metro?

And finally! Great silly photos of dogs who need homes. Love.

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Today at the Intersection of Racism and Fat Hatred

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; fat hatred.]

Last night, Republican Representative Pete King, who is a nightmare, appeared on CNN's "The Situation Room" in order to defend the cop who killed Eric Garner, saying Garner died because he was fat.

NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo was not charged in the death of Eric Garner, 43, whom he put in a chokehold during a July confrontation over Garner's selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. Garner, who suffered from asthma and other health problems, later died in the hospital and the city's medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.

"You had a 350-pound person who was resisting arrest. The police were trying to bring him down as quickly as possible," King said in an appearance on CNN's "The Situation Room." "If he had not had asthma and a heart condition and was so obese, almost definitely he would not have died from this. The police had no reason to know he was in serious condition."

The confrontation between Pantaleo and Garner was also caught on video that showed Garner repeatedly telling the officer he couldn't breathe. King said police hear that kind of thing all the time.

"But if you can't breathe, you can't talk," he argued.

The Long Island congressman also dismissed the idea that any racial animus played into Garner's death.

"I have no doubt, if that were a 350-pound white guy, he would have been treated the same," King told CNN.

So, racism played no part in it a white cop killing a black man, and it's all that black man's fault for being so fat. Cool theory.

(I will just quickly observe that there are plenty of fat people for whom asthma is not a result of being fat. Sometimes, in, fact, it's precisely the other way around.)

King is certainly not the only person to float this theory. In fact, the police tried that from go: Before the medical examiner's report was even done, the official line was that Garner just had a heart attack.

They probably figured they could say a fat man had a heart attack and no one would question it. Because fatties.

And why not? This happened in a city primed by the former mayor to view fat people as dangerous and diseased.

Eric Garner did not die because he was fat. He died because a police officer who doesn't agree that Black Lives Matter put him in an illegal chokehold and because his chest was lethally compressed as multiple officers who also don't agree that Black Lives Matter piled on top of him.

But in a world where truth doesn't matter, Garner is dead because he is fat and the officer merely used a wrestling move on him.

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What Works

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism.]

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio just made a statement in which he urged protestors to demonstrate peacefully, saying that peaceful protest "is the only thing that's ever worked."

Worked how?

Why are we here, then? If peaceful protests have worked?

What "works" is accountability. What "works" is indictments. What "works" is not giving people reasons to protest in the first place.

What "works" is police not killing black people with impunity.

Essentially, what De Blasio and everyone else singing this kumbaya horseshit are saying is: "It's incumbent upon you to protest peacefully, but not incumbent on us to stop killing black people."

Fuck that. Fuck anyone who says that.

"Yeah, yeah, this keeps happening over and over and over. But you need to ask us NICELY to stop."

That is monstrous.

I swear to fuck if all you have in this moment is tone policing from a podium, you have less than nothing.

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No Indictment in Eric Garner's Death

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism.]

Eric Garner, a black man who lived in Staten Island, died after a violent encounter with the NYPD in July of this year.

Garner, who had broken up a fight according to witnesses, was stopped and accused by police of selling untaxed cigarettes on the street. When Garner verbally protested, officers moved in to arrest him, putting him in an illegal chokehold then throwing him to the ground and handcuffing him, while multiple officers piled on top of him and smashed his head into the pavement, all of which is viewable in video of the incident taken by a witness.

Garner, who has asthma, can be seen repeatedly shouting that he cannot breathe. The police ignore him, and, upon realizing something has gone terribly wrong, start shooing people away from the scene. Garner died there, in police custody; his last words were, "I can't breathe."

The police attempted to justify this use of excessive force by asserting that Garner had been illegally selling cigarettes.

At first, the police suggested that Garner had died of a heart attack. But a month later, the coroner's report unequivocally stated the cause of Eric Garner's death was compression of the neck and chest. His death was ruled a homicide.

Today, a grand jury failed to indict the NYPD officer who killed Garner, Officer Daniel Pantaleo.

On camera. Illegal chokehold. Ruled a homicide. No charges.

I am hardly the first person to ask: If even this killing does not result in an indictment, what the fuck will?

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