Shakesville: animal rescue

Showing posts with label animal rescue. Show all posts

Showing posts with label animal rescue. Show all posts

Here Is Something Nice

Mark Freeley was walking his dogs, Storm and Sara, along the beach near the Long Island Sound when Storm ran off and jumped into the water after detecting a deer fawn in need of help. He swam to the struggling baby and grabbed her by the neck, dragging her to shore, where Storm proceeded to nudge and paw the panting deer, trying to help her recover.

image of a large white dog lying beside a deer fawn on a rocky beach

Freeley then wisely contacted an animal rescue team to help.

When Frank Floridia and Erica Kutzing of the Strong Island Animal Rescue League tried to get close to the deer, however, the skittish animal ran into the water again — this time, swimming even further out than before.

Floridia jumped into the water to save it.

"It was a do-or-die situation," the rescuer told the New York Daily News. "I really didn't have much of a choice. If I didn't go in the water, the deer would've died."

Thankfully, Floridia managed to bring the deer back to land. He and Kutzing then transported it to the Star Foundation, a Long Island nonprofit animal rescue organization.

In a Facebook update, the Strong Island Animal Rescue League reported the deer "will receive fluids, feedings, and when old enough she will be released back into the wild. She has a few superficial wounds from her exciting day but will survive."

Rescuer Kutzing says of the heroic dog who started this remarkable rescue: "I think we could all learn something from Storm. If we just learn to treat each other nicely and look out for each other, despite our differences, the world would be a better place."

And how. Good dog.

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Oh my heart: "I got to vote for a woman for president!"

I've got two new pieces at Shareblue: "The worst leaks about Clinton are better than the best tweets by Trump" and "Hillary Clinton's new ad about children is why she should be president."

What is even going on? "The FBI has launched an internal investigation into one of its own Twitter accounts. The account at issue, @FBIRecordsVault, had been dormant for more than a year. Then on October 30 at 4 a.m., the account released a flood of documents, including one describing Donald Trump's father Fred Trump as a 'philanthropist.' But it wasn't until two days later, when the account tweeted documents regarding President Clinton's controversial pardon of Marc Rich that the account began to attract significant attention. The account has not been active since that tweet. ThinkProgress has learned that the FBI's Inspection Division will undertake an investigation of the account."

[Content Note: Refugee crisis; death] Oh dear: "At least 240 people are feared to have drowned in the southern Mediterranean, bringing the annual total to 4,220—the highest in the Mediterranean on record. About 100 people drowned when an inflatable dinghy capsized shortly after leaving the Libyan coast on Wednesday, some of the 29 survivors told the UN refugee agency. A further 140 are thought to have drowned in a second incident in another rubber boat early on Thursday morning. Only two people appear to have survived the second tragedy." Heartbreaking. We have to do better than this for refugees. We must.

[CN: White supremacy; antisemitism; violent rhetoric] David Duke, currently running for the US Senate in Louisiana, spent a debate there last night railing against Jewish people and engaging in violent rhetoric against Hillary Clinton: "In defending some unsavory remarks about Jews, Duke said 'I'm not opposed to all Jews... There is a problem in America with a very strong, powerful, tribal group that dominates our media and dominates our international banking.' He also accused such groups of controlling the reins of American foreign policy, citing the civil war in Syria while attempting to draw parallels between those groups and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. 'The lady should be getting the electric chair, being charged with treason,' Duke said." Good lord.

Meanwhile: Six people were arrested protesting Duke's appearance.

Mysterious! Who could it be? "[A leaked casting notice obtained by Fox News] says that it's looking to hire people for an 'up-and-coming conservative media network currently in development,' although it doesn't specify who is doing the developing. More specifically, the casting notice says that it wants on-air hosts and reporters who are 'knowledgeable about conservative viewpoints, current events and the presidential election,' and who also look 'upscale and intelligent' and are 'outspoken and energetic.' The audition also specifies that the network's content will be streamed over the web, which suggests it might not be a traditional cable news network."

Hello, ma'am! "Wonder Woman Is Here to Save the World in New Trailer."

Blub: "Senior Dog Shows Up to Family's Home and REFUSES to Leave Until She's Adopted."

What have you been reading?

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Violence; death; guns; racism; domestic violence. Video may autoplay at second link.] Two police officers in Des Moines, Iowa, were ambushed and fatally shot yesterday. My sincerest condolences to their family, friends, and colleagues. Immediately, a number of people presumed it was an attack by a Black activist, but it turned out to be a white man with a history of racist confrontations and domestic violence.

YES: "President Obama criticized the decision by his F.B.I. director to alert Congress on Friday about the discovery of new emails related to the Hillary Clinton server case, implying that it violated investigative norms and trafficked in innuendo. 'We don't operate on incomplete information,' Mr. Obama said in an interview with NowThis News, broadcast Wednesday. 'We don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made.'"

[CN: Racism] "Barack Obama has suggested the Dakota Access pipeline could be rerouted around sacred Native American lands in comments that are the president's first on the controversial oil project since police arrested hundreds of indigenous protesters during violent clashes. ...Asked about the high-profile demonstrations against the $3.8bn pipeline, Obama told news website NowThis: 'We're monitoring this closely and I think as a general rule, my view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans, and I think that right now the army corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline.'" Good.

[CN: White male privilege; classism; racism; patriarchy] Stacey Patton for Dame Magazine: "Why I Have No Sympathy for Angry White Men."

[CN: Bigotry] Ana Marie Cox for MTV: "Me of Little Faith: How the Threat of a Trump Presidency Threatens My Faith in God."

[CN: Misogyny] Eric Boehlert for MediaMatters: "How the Media's Email Obsession Obliterated Clinton Policy Coverage."

[CN: Voter disenfranchisement; carcerality] Chelsea Manning for the Guardian: "I can't vote. If you can, you must."

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] "Hillary Clinton is nothing if not prepared. And part of her preparation for the three presidential debates this year involved anticipating the actions of her 'aggressive' and unpredictable opponent—and mastering her 'listening woman' face. ...'It is something that I really was conscious of because this is the first time a woman had ever been on a debate stage in a general election,' she says. ...Clinton credits her campaign staff with getting into Trump's head and helping her shadowbox her opponent. 'I had a team of people who were relentless, totally in the head of what Trump might do,' she says."

LOVE: "Emergency Doctor Uses CPR on Stray Cat to Save Her Life; Adopts Her Afterwards."

What have you been reading?

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?

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

This is an excellent piece by Alison Rose, who has long been a Shaker and a guest writer here and is now my colleague at Shareblue yay! "2016 offers a stark choice for LGBTQ voters." Go read it!

In related news: "60 Cities Earn Perfect LGBTQ Protections Survey Score (But 8 Score Zero)." BOO THOSE EIGHT CITIES! BOOOOOO!

Love this piece by Ashley Weatherford: "Hillary Clinton's Campaign Has More Black Women Than Any Presidential Campaign in History." P.S. I adore Zerlina Maxwell. She is amazing.

The New York Times reports that 70 Nobel Laureates have endorsed Hillary Clinton. Whoa!

[Content Note: War on agency; racism] THIS OLD CHESTNUT: "Attorneys for the state of Kansas cited the infamous Dred Scott decision in a court filing this week in support of their argument that the Kansas Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion. The state's filing, which was submitted to the Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday, was a response to an amicus brief filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in a case that will determine whether or not the Kansas Constitution guarantees a right to abortion under its equal rights provision." Fuck.

[CN: War on agency] Meanwhile, Sharona Coutts reports at Rewire on "Texas' Publicly Funded Fake Abortion Clinics: Under its 'Alternatives to Abortion' program, the state gave more than $2 million in 2015 to these fake clinics. This year, the amount is likely to be significantly higher, given that the program's budget has doubled." Double fuck.

Aziz Ansari really wants you to vote, okay? Sheesh!

Donald Trump is bringing President Obama's half-brother Malik Obama to the debate as his guest. Is he aware that he's not running against Barack Obama? Or Bill Clinton? Someone tell Donald Trump he's running against Hillary Clinton.

[CN: Sexual assault; video autoplays at link] Planned Parenthood has a powerful new video in which survivors tell their stories and pledge to help defeat Trump.

"Okapi Calf Arrives in Time for World Okapi Day." Awwwwwww!

What have you been reading?

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Sexual assault] A fifteenth woman has come forward to speak out about being sexually assaulted by Donald Trump: "It was a story Cathy Heller had told many friends and family members over the years, but is only now telling in public. Some 20 years ago, she claims, when she met Donald Trump for the first and only time, he grabbed her, went for a kiss, and grew angry with her as she twisted away. 'Oh, come on,' she alleges that he barked, before holding her firmly in place and planting his lips on hers. It is exactly what Trump claimed, in the most recent presidential debate, that he did not do. And so Heller has added her voice to a chorus of women now accusing Trump of unwanted behavior. 'He can't claim we're all liars,' Heller said."

[CN: Sexual assault] Excellent point: "MGM, NBC, and The Apprentice producer Mark Burnett have been using what may be shaky legal arguments to protect Donald Trump from the release of tapes many say further reveal racist and misogynistic attitudes of the GOP's presidential nominee. Now it turns out they will relaunch the show in January with a new host, former California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has also been accused of allegedly groping women on 'movie sets, in studios, and in other settings.'"

[CN: Misogyny] GOOD GRIEF: "Pennsylvania Man Wonders What Will Happen to America If Hillary Clinton Has Her Period." Maude save us.

My Shareblue colleague Peter Daou explains how "Clinton's emails, leaks and transcripts are a disaster—for her opponents."

"To the First Lady, with Love: Four thank-you notes to Michelle Obama, who has spent the past eight years quietly and confidently changing the course of American history."

[CN: Animal endangerment] "Can the rare, tiny Key deer survive a flesh-eating worm?" Oh dear, I hope so! A really good article about the efforts to help save the Key deer, which is what we owe them, given we're the ones who almost wiped them out.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Whoa: "Killer Whale using bait to hunt birds."

What have you been reading?

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism] READ THIS: "To be Black in America is to be afraid."

Hillary Clinton wrote an op-ed for the New York Times on her plans to address poverty: "My Plan for Helping America's Poor."

[CN: Racist slur] At a Trump campaign event in Cleveland Heights billed as a "town hall meeting on African American concerns," Don King used the n-word while introducing Donald Trump. While I'm not about to police whatever words King wants to use, seeing Trump chortling away about it in the background is deeply disturbing.

[CN: Video autoplay at link; hostility to consent] Joss Whedon and a bunch of celebrities put together a video about the importance of voting in this election, with a pretty clear message about for whom to vote. Two big problems: One, I don't find the joke (even though he's clearly in on it) about Mark Ruffalo getting naked funny, since the joke is still premised on the appearance of non-consent. Two, I don't really think this works to convey the seriousness of this election. Too clever by half.

GOOD: "Congressional Democrats Campaign to Prove Hyde Amendment's Undue Burden."

[CN: Domestic violence; death] Another family annihilator "is in custody after a quadruple homicide left his four children dead and their mother in critical condition from an apparent stabbing." (But let's continue to not have a public conversation about toxic masculinity.) My condolences to the woman who was harmed herself and has lost all four of her children. I don't even know how one could begin to process the scope of that sort of violence and loss. I ache for her.

"On Wednesday morning, 31 countries officially ratified the Paris climate agreement, pushing it over one of the required thresholds needed for the agreement to enter into force. Sixty parties, representing 48 percent of the world's emissions, have now officially joined. For the Paris agreement to enter into force, at least 55 nations, representing at least 55 percent of global emissions, must formally ratify. That means that the agreement needs just 7 percent more greenhouse gas emissions before the agreement can enter into force."

"Clever Dog Saves the Life of a Newborn Puppy Abandoned on a Garbage Pile." Awwww good dog!

What have you been reading?

In the News

Here are a couple of links of interest from the news today:

Did you know that Tim Kaine gave the keynote at the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner over the weekend? Probably not, since the corporate media didn't care to cover it! But I covered it at Shareblue, and the complete video is there if you would like to see it. (Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate a complete transcript.)

[Content Note: Classism] Here's a real thing that Donald Trump said that the media also doesn't seem to care about: "The problem we have right now—we have a society that sits back and says we don't have to do anything. Eventually, the 50 percent cannot carry—and it's unfair to them—but cannot carry the other 50 percent." Does that sound familiar?

President Obama's approval ratings continue to climb, and this might have a little something to do with it: "In 2015, household income grew at the fastest rate on record, the poverty rate fell faster than at any point since 1968, and the uninsured rate continued to fall."

[CN: War on agency] "Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ignored abortion rights at the anti-choice Values Voter Summit over the weekend, even as his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, doubled down on ending legal abortion in the United States." Sounds about right. Leave it to the expert on the ticket!

[CN: Environmental damage] Damn: "It's a bleak revelation—a new study reveals that about a tenth of the Earth's wilderness has been lost since the 1990s. Over the last 20 years, a total area half the size of the Amazon and twice the size of Alaska has been depleted. The researchers behind the study, published in the journal Current Biology, say they hope that the sobering revelation that rich natural habitats like the Amazon have been decimated in a relatively short amount of time will act as a wakeup call to global leaders to emphasize conservation efforts in their environmental protection policies."

Breaking News: Stress can affect fertility. Not exactly surprising, given that stress affects one's entire body.

This red panda cub is ridiculously adorable, lol.

What have you been reading?

In the News

Here are a couple of links of interest from the news today:

ICYMI: Shareblue has launched #DemandFairDebates. Because holy Maude do we need fair debates.

If you haven't seen it yet, this video [autoplays at link] about a woman named Janelle, with whom Hillary Clinton became friends, after Janelle, in the midst of chemo, attended one of her campaign events, is so moving. Grab the tissues!

[Content Note: Racism; voter suppression] "North Carolina Republicans Are Apparently Hell-Bent on Suppressing the Black Vote." Read everything Imani Gandy writes.

[CN: Classism; racism; water contamination] "Pittsburgh water: expensive, rust-colored, corrosive, and high in lead."

[CN: Carcerality] "The true cost of mass incarceration exceeds $1 trillion." The true financial cost, that is. "According to researchers Carrie Pettus-Davis and Michael McLaughlin, the incarcerated population misses out on $70.5 billion in lost wages. While previous studies show that former prisoners less likely to be hired, and make significantly less money than their colleagues when they do secure jobs, Pettus-Davis and McLaughlin concluded that reduced wages add up to $230 billion in lost earnings. Families who have loved ones in prison also shoulder the financial load. The amount of time it takes people to visit their family members, instead of working, results in $1 billion of lost revenue, researchers found."

[CN: Sexual violence] "Toby Willis, father of 12 children with a show on TLC, arrested for child rape." TLC's really batting 1000.

"The planetary collision that formed the Moon may have been way more violent than we thought."

[CN: Moving GIFs at link] Awwwwwwww: "This Baby Pigeon and Bunny Tore up a Small Wall So They Could Be Together."

What have you been reading?

In the News

Here are a couple of links of interest from the news today:

Looks like the media have finally been shamed into pretending like they give a flying flunderton about the Trump University pay-for-play story. Neat!

The Dallas Morning News has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president—which is really saying something! "We don't come to this decision easily. This newspaper has not recommended a Democrat for the nation's highest office since before World War II—if you're counting, that's more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections."

Cool headline, Politico! "New trove of Clinton Benghazi emails proves thin." Aww, can you hear their disappointment? If not, maybe the first paragraph will help raise the volume: "A set of about 30 Benghazi-related messages found by the FBI during their investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email system turns out to contain little fodder for critics or supporters of the Democratic presidential nominee."

[Content Note: Violence; death] RIP Darren Seals. The Ferguson activist has been killed at age 29. My condolences to his family, friends, fellow activists, and community.

Female World War II pilot Elaine Harmon has finally been laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

In some good news: Giant pandas and most humpback whales are no longer considered endangered species. Pandas have been downgraded to "vulnerable," and nine of the 14 humpback whale species have made a full recovery. "Five of the iconic species' populations will remain on the list because of their low numbers and continuing threats." And, of course, further measures are needed not only to help the rest recover, but also prevent loss of the populations which have once again begun to thrive.

What have you been reading?

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Police force; sexual assault; racism; video may autoplay at link] AP: "Federal report blasts Baltimore police over bias, force." Federal report confirms what Black people have been saying about their lived experiences for decades, but has been ignored because we don't regard marginalized people as authorities on their own lives. Don't get me wrong: This report is necessary so that meaningful changes can be implemented. Still. It is horrifying and infuriating that it took so long for officials to listen. The Washington Post has excerpts from the report, and they are deeply troubling and rage-making and difficult, but important, to read.

[CN: Police brutality; death] Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of Michael Brown being killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri. I highly recommend this October 2015 piece by Sarah Kendzior: "Ferguson in Focus." And, at Colorlines, Akiba Solomon has a Q&A with Marc Lamont Hill on "Michael Brown, Imperfect Victims, and Getting Past Survival Mode."

[CN: Racial wealth gap] Goddamn: "The wealth gap between blacks and whites in America will take hundreds of years to close—if ever. If current trends persist, it will take 228 years for black families to accumulate the same amount of wealth as whites, according to a report released this week from the Corporation for Economic Development and the Institute for Policy Studies. For Latino families, it will take 84 years. Over the past 30 years, the average household wealth of white families has grown 85% to $656,000, while that of blacks has climbed just 27% to $85,000 and Latinos 69% to $98,000. 'We're seeing wealth concentrating in fewer and fewer hands and those hands are overwhelmingly white,' said Josh Hoxie, who leads the project on opportunity and taxation at the Institute for Policy Studies."

[CN: Police shooting; death] How the hell did this happen? "A 73-year old woman was killed during a police community seminar on Tuesday in Punta Gorda, Florida, during a routine training exercise. Mary Knowlton was taking part in a police-hosted informational meeting by the Punta Gorda police academy, when she was fatally shot during an exercise that was supposed to simulate a hypothetical crisis situation. The 'shoot/don't shoot' scenario—a demonstration that was part of a two-hour-long citizens' police academy event—is intended give guidance about how police determine when to use lethal force in a potentially deadly, real-world confrontation. ...It is not clear why a loaded weapon was used in the exercise, given that such demonstrations are often conducted with fake or unloaded weapons." Incompetence? Carelessness? Indifference?

[CN: Street harassment] "You can now call into a hotline and talk to someone about your experience with street harassment, in the same way as you might call a national hotline to turn to someone for support after a sexual assault. The organization Stop Street Harassment has partnered with Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) and Defend Yourself to create the first-ever national street harassment hotline. The phone hotline launched last month and the online hotline, which you can find on the SSH website, launched on Wednesday. The new tool is evidence of how much the conversation around street harassment has recently changed—from one that accepts harassment as a fact of life (mostly for women) to one that challenges the assumption that harassment is simply an inevitable and harmless part of life."

[CN: Homophobia] Seethe: "Female athletes at the Olympic games in Rio are being taunted by crowds chanting 'bicha,' a homophobic slur comparable to 'faggot.' According to the LA Times, journalists said it was the first time they heard 'bicha' being used at a women's game in Brazil. During the opening games of the soccer tournament on August 3rd, fans on the sidelines chanted the slur—often used during men's soccer in Brazil—directed at Australian keeper Lydia Williams, Canadian goalie Stephanie Labbe, and other players."

Submitted without comment: "Bernie Sanders now has one thing in common with the millionaires and billionaires and other 1 percenters he so frequently attacked on the campaign trail: he now owns his very own summer home. Vermont magazine Seven Days reported Tuesday that the 74-year-old senator and his wife, Jane Sanders, have purchased a four-bedroom house on the shore of Lake Champlain for roughly $600,000. Jane told Seven Days that they had recently sold a house in Maine that had belonged to her family since the 1900s, and used the proceeds to purchase the new property, which is located in North Hero (population 803, as of the 2010 census). With this purchase, Sanders now owns at least three houses, the others being in Burlington, VT, and Capitol Hill in D.C."

Whoa: "Surviving in the wilderness of space takes more than a sleeping bag and a packet of wet wipes, and so to explore how humanity can stay alive in the cold dark beyond, NASA is canvassing designs for new deep space habitats. The agency's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program ask private companies to build ground-based prototypes of various modules, meeting a number of criteria from basic life support to fire safety tech and radiation mitigation. ...NASA is hoping these habitats will eventually be part of its crewed mission to Mars in the 2030s, an ambition that has occupied the space agency for the last six years."

And finally! This is wonderful: "A missing Kansas City dog was recently reunited with her family largely thanks to herself. ...Tabitha was safe and being cared for by a family who believed she didn't have a home. As fate would have it, the woman caring for her had the news on when this story aired, and Tabitha heard it. She started going bonkers, responding to Kelly's description of how she called for Tabitha. The woman knew instantly because of the dog's reaction and her photos that this was definitely Tabitha. The temporary caregiver contacted the Schaefers and a reunion was soon underway." ♥

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Hey, Republicans—are you listening? "On the heels of his campaign's worst week yet, Donald Trump suggested that it is his temperament that 'has gotten me here' and said he has no plans to change it. 'I think that my temperament has gotten me here,' Trump said in a Tuesday morning interview on Fox Business Network. 'I've always had a good temperament and it's gotten me here. We beat a lot of people in the primaries and now we have one person left, and we're actually doing pretty well there, but we'll see how it all comes out. ...I certainly don't think it's appropriate to start changing all of a sudden when you've been winning,' he said. 'I mean I've beaten many people, and now we're down to one. And we'll see how it all works out, but I think it's going to work out well.'" He's not changing; he's not pivoting; he's not rebooting. Trump is Trump.

And, at the moment, Trump is losing badly: "Let's say this plainly: The polls are not 'skewed.' They weren’t in 2012, and they aren't now. ...Right now, Clinton is leading in almost every single national poll. She leads in both our polls-plus and polls-only forecasts. That doesn't mean she will win. The polls have been off before, but no one knows by how much beforehand, or in which direction they'll miss. For all their imperfection, the polls are a far better indicator than the conspiracy theories made up to convince people that Trump is ahead."

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] "Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said Monday night that she will attend all three general election presidential debates and challenged her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, to do the same. 'Secretary Clinton looks forward to participating in all three presidential debates scheduled by the independent debate commission,' John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, said in a statement." Ball's in your court, Trump!

The three presidential debates are scheduled for Monday September 26, Sunday October 9, and Wednesday October 19. The vice-presidential debate has been scheduled for Tuesday October 4.

[CN: Terrorism] "The parents of two Americans killed in the 2012 terrorist attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court Monday against Hillary Clinton. In the suit, Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, the parents of Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, claim that Clinton's use of a private e-mail server contributed to the attacks. They also accuse her of defaming them in public statements." As always, Clinton's response, via campaign spokesperson Nick Merrill, was very good: "While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton."

[CN: Police brutality] Wow: "Police departments will be required to give the US justice department full details of deadly incidents involving their officers each quarter, under a new government system for counting killings by police that was influenced by the Guardian. Announcing a new program for documenting all 'arrest-related deaths,' federal officials said they would actively work to confirm fatal cases seen in media reports and other open sources rather than wait for departments to report them voluntarily."

[CN: Racism] "In a recent study comparing pain treatment between white and black patients in the ER, [researchers surveying] national hospitals found that black patients with back or abdominal pain were consistently less likely to be given or prescribed opioid-based pain medication than white patients with identical symptoms. For each case, the University of California San Francisco researchers noted, 'pain severity' was the leading factor determining whether or not a patient received pain medication. This determination is entirely up to the doctors, said one of the study's authors, Renee Hsia. 'Whether or not someone 'needs' opioids is a very subjective decision—there isn't an objective test,' she said. Her team's conclusion points to a few gaps in the medical system, including implicit biases among ER doctors and a dangerous inability to assess patient pain."

[CN: Racism; classism] Relatedly: "Philadelphia has plenty of primary-care providers overall, but there is far less access to care in communities with the highest concentrations of African American residents, according to a new study. While the general findings were not a surprise—highly segregated black (and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic) areas were known to have fewer medical practitioners—the difference was bigger than the researchers had expected. The effect was independent of neighborhood poverty rates, which turned out to be less significant than anticipated, although it is not clear why." I bet we can take a good guess, though!

Neat: "Trans triathlete Chris Mosier stars in a new ad for Nike's 'Unlimited' campaign, which showcases everyday and professional athletes who push themselves to the limit. ...Mosier in 2015 became the first openly transgender athlete to win a spot on a U.S. National team. He also challenged the international transgender competition policy which resulted in a completely new set of guidelines for trans athletes."

Phew! "The spectacular Perseid meteor shower, peaking Thursday night (Aug. 11–12), lights up Earth's sky every summer as Earth passes through the trail left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, a miles-wide behemoth that swings by Earth every 133 years. Swift-Tuttle, whose nucleus is 16 miles (26 kilometers) wide, is the largest solar system object to pass close to Earth repeatedly, NASA has said, and researchers once thought it was likely to hit Earth in 2126—but the last time it passed Earth, in 1992, astronomers took more precise measurements and calculated that its next pass wouldn't be so dangerous after all. 'Its orbit passes very close to the Earth's orbit, so that it has been viewed as a hazardous object over the years,' Paul Chodas, NASA's manager for the center of near-Earth object studies, told Space.com. 'Now, we know its orbit very well, well enough to say that we are safe from an impact for many thousands of years.'"

Wow: "NASA just dumped a trove of photos of Mars' dunes, craters, and mountains." The extraordinary photos were taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

And finally! OMGGGGGGGGGG: "Flight Attendant Adopts Stray Dog Who Wouldn't Stop Waiting for Her Outside Hotel." LOVE!

In the News

Here's some stuff in the news today...

All right then: "Key players in the GOP's anti-Trump movement are preparing to launch an independent presidential campaign for Evan McMullin—a CIA veteran and the chief policy director of the House Republican conference—sources close to the effort told BuzzFeed News. Veteran Republican strategist Rick Wilson, a Florida-based media consultant and outspoken Trump critic, is expected to be involved in McMullin's campaign. Sources said Wilson was in Washington on Sunday meeting with members of McMullin's prospective campaign—which includes some who were involved in a group called Better for America, which has been pushing an independent presidential bid. McMullin did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BuzzFeed News. He would make for an unlikely presidential candidate. He has never held elective office before and has spent most of his career as a CIA officer, according to his LinkedIn page. Young and unmarried, McMullin received an MBA at Wharton in 2011, and after a stint at Goldman Sachs, went to work as a policy wonk on Capitol Hill."

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] "A former Ronald Reagan political director says he's voting for Hillary Clinton, rejecting the Republican nominee for the first time in 40 years. Frank Lavin, who was Reagan's political director from 1987 to 1989, became the latest GOP official—following Reps. Scott Rigell and Richard Hanna and operatives like former Jeb Bush aide Sally Bradshaw and ex-Chris Christie communications aide Maria Comella—to announce he won't back Donald Trump. ...'It might not be entirely clear that Hillary Clinton deserves to win the presidency, but it is thunderingly clear that Donald Trump deserves to lose,' Lavin wrote in an op-ed for CNN."

[CN: Misogyny] Welp: "Let me be as candid and transparent as possible: I was a very strong supporter of Bernie Sanders, and until the past four weeks, I held out great hope that he would become our next president. Over the past month, I have done a great deal of reflecting and asked myself: Where does this seemingly irrational antipathy toward Hillary Clinton come from? Why have I participated in it? After doing some research and looking hard at systemic misogyny, I have had to confront myself with the truth that I bought into a narrative about Clinton that has been produced, packaged and perpetuated mostly by the GOP, with the help of many Democrats and independents. This narrative is a 30-year-old vilification of a woman who is bright, independent, wealthy and powerful—a woman who asks for what she wants and needs. How dare you, Ms. Clinton. How dare you have a mind of your own. How dare you be bright and powerful. Don’t you know these rights are exclusively for white, Christian, heterosexual men?"

Oh, look: Nicholas Kristof is being helpful again. "Clinton's Fibs vs. Trump's Huge Lies."

[CN: Sexual assault; rape culture] My god: "Two more women allege assaults by Bill Cosby; total now 60." Sixty. I'm not surprised; I have been writing about rape culture far too long to be surprised, and I am all too aware that rape is not, as it is often misrepresented, a "mistake," but a cruel and deliberate act that its perpetrators keep repeating unless and until they are stopped. But I am definitely angry. This is what happens when survivors are disbelieved and a rapist is left to continue abusing people. Sixty.

[CN: Islamophobia] Right on: "Ibtihaj Muhammad will make history on Monday as the first American to ever compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab. Whether she wins a medal in Rio or not, Muhammad has already made quite an impact. Ever since making the Olympic team, Muhammad has been using her platform to advocate for the acceptance of Muslims in America, something that is particularly crucial considering the GOP nominee for president has called for a blanket ban on Muslims entering the country. When asked about Donald Trump in a recent CNN interview, Muhammad did not shy away from addressing his divisive rhetoric. 'I think his words are very dangerous,' she said. 'When these types of comments are made, no one thinks about how they really affect people. I'm African-American. I don't have another home to go to. My family was born here. I was born here. I've grown up in Jersey. All my family's from Jersey. It's like, well, where do we go?'"

[CN: Domestic violence; death; self-harm] I've now read several stories about this awful family annihilator case in Pennsylvania, which each open with some variation on the parents having "struggled to find medication after their young daughter received a heart transplant." While financial strain, including healthcare access, can be a crucial contributing factor, it is deeply irresponsible to mask that this is a known form of domestic violence deeply attached to patriarchal definitions of men as providers. It is also irresponsible to treat this as incidental: "Neighbours told the Reading Eagle that the couple had been heard arguing and Megan Short planned to leave her husband." My condolences to those who knew the family.

[CN: Wildfire] Damn: "A fire near Silverwood Lake in San Bernardino County has grown to 4,500 acres, with only 5% containment, officials said Monday. The Pilot fire, first reported around 12 p.m. Sunday, spread quickly amid dry brush and timber, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Firefighters and bulldozers worked through the night building fire lines, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Bob Poole. 'Because the vegetation is so incredibly dry, all it takes is a little spark and it's just been chewing through it,' Poole said. 'That's been our difficulty.' Evacuations remain in place for the Summit Valley area, east of Cedar Springs Dam. There has been no structural damage to homes, said Poole, who described the area as rural." Let's hope it stays that way.

Read everything that Imani Gandy writes, including this: "Whole Woman's Health Breathes New Life Into Voting Rights Cases: It is no longer acceptable—at least in theory—for state legislators to announce that a particular restriction advances an interest in women's health and to expect courts and the public to take them at their word. The same goes for, as it turns out, voting rights."

Wow: "It's not clear why the humpbacks would risk injury and waste so much energy protecting an entirely different species. What is clear is that this was not an isolated incident. In the last 62 years, there have been 115 interactions recorded between humpback whales and killer whales, according to a study published this July in the journal Marine Mammal Science. 'This humpback whale behavior continues to happen in multiple areas throughout the world,' says [Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a whale researcher with the California Killer Whale Project], who coauthored the study."

[CN: Video autoplays at link] And finally! CORGI POOL PARTY!!!

In the News

Here are some things in the news today...

[Content Note: Terrorism; video may autoplay at link] Well, I have long feared that IS and Boko Haram would continue to get cozier, and so they have, or maybe there's an emergent third group of horrific nightmare terrorists: "The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has reportedly announced a new leader for its West Africa branch, which is closely associated with the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram. Abu Musab al-Barnawi [is named in an interview which] does not mention the fate of Abubakar Shekau, who has led Boko Haram in recent years... Shekau pledged allegiance to the ISIS caliph, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, in 2015, and Boko Haram renamed itself as the so-called Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). But United States officials claim to have seen little evidence of operational links between Boko Haram and ISIS's main territorial base in Syria. ...According to Ryan Cummings, director of African security agency Signal Risk, it is wrong to equate Boko Haram with ISWAP, which includes other pockets of militants loyal to ISIS in West Africa. 'There could potentially be a situation where Shekau, for example, is head of Boko Haram and remains as the emir of the group, but that ISWAP is a more composite movement of which Boko Haram is just one of the factions, and they would effectively still be submissive to an [ISIS]-appointed emir,' says Cummings." Fucking hell.

[CN: Nuclear warfare] I don't even have words: "A stunning revelation on Morning Joe this morning. During an interview with former NSA director Michael Hayden, Joe Scarborough unleashed a frightening nugget of information. He quoted an unidentified foreign policy expert who told him that during a one-hour briefing, Donald asked him three times: If we have nuclear weapons, why can't we use them?"

[CN: War; injury] Damn: "Responding to Donald Trump's claim that he 'always wanted to get the Purple Heart,' Rep. Tammy Duckworth on Tuesday tweeted a picture of her injured self in a hospital with her own medal, adding: 'Nothing easy about it.' ...Duckworth was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries sustained while co-piloting a Black Hawk helicopter on Nov. 12, 2004, in Iraq, when a rocket-propelled grenade struck the lower half of her body. The blast cost her both her legs and also caused serious damage to her right arm." I don't know how Trump lives with himself. I really don't.

[CN: Abortion stigma] "Six years ago, reproductive justice advocate and North Carolina resident Kelsea McLain put herself 'through hell' because she needed an abortion. McLain said she was ashamed she forgot to take her birth control pill after spending so many years educating her peers about safe sex and reproductive health. In the story she shares at We Testify, a new storytelling and leadership initiative launched by the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) Monday, McLain explains how she battled internalized stigma...one of more than a dozen individuals who make up We Testify's first cohort."

[CN: Transphobia; ciscentrism; choice policing] Julia Serano, who's just one of the best writers working today, has written another amazing piece: "Detransition, Desistance, and Disinformation: A Guide for Understanding Transgender Children Debates." Go read the whole thing.

For the stargazers among us: "Perseid meteor shower: Why, where, and when to see it."

In one bright spot in otherwise dire Olympics news: "In 2008, 12 [out] LGBT athletes participated in Beijing. In London in 2012, that number rose to 22. Now, in Rio, there are 43. And that number is expected to grow even higher in the future." It's good to remember that there have always been LGBT athletes competing at the Olympics. The progress is not necessarily their participation, but that they feel safe to be out.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Whoa: "Cepheids [young stars which are only between 10 to 300 million years old], also referred to as pulsating stars for their ability to throb in brightness over a regular cycle, are monitored to gauge their precise brightness and the data is then compared with what is visible from Earth to work out a distance. Now, an international team of researchers from Japan, South Africa, and Italy have discovered a large area at the center of the Milky Way that is completely devoid of these pulsating stars. The lead author of the study, Noriyuki Matsunaga, from the University of Tokyo, said in a press release: 'We already found some while ago that there are Cepheids in the central heart of our Milky Way (in a region about 150 light years in radius). Now we find that outside this there is a huge Cepheid desert extending out to 8000 light years from the centre.'" Fascinating!

Do you want to see a video of some wild things that have happened on live TV this year? Well, here you go! But please be warned that there is one video of someone appearing to get hurt. The injury itself is not visibly graphic, but it definitely made my butt clench! (It may not be real? I can't tell if it's part of a gag. Either way: YIKES.)

[CN: Animal endangerment] The loris are beautiful and adorable animals, and it's understandable why we might want to cuddle them, but they are not pets!

And finally! "Glider Joey Gets Special Care at Taronga Zoo." Awwwww. Baby and mama were injured when they had a collision with a barbed wire fence, but they're both on the mend now. Yay!

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Congratulations to Dr. Carla Hayden, who has been confirmed by the US Senate as the 14th Librarian of Congress. She is the first Black person and the first woman to hold the position!

[Content Note: War on agency] Welp: "Congress is about to leave for a seven-week vacation without giving the Obama administration any of the $1.9 billion it's seeking to battle the Zika virus." The House did manage to pass a sure-to-be-vetoed "dangerous, discriminatory" piece of anti-choice legislation on their way out the door.

[CN: Misogynoir; police brutality] "Black Lives Matter activists have held demonstrations this week in Waller County, Texas, to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Sandra Bland on Wednesday. Their message: 'Sandy still speaks.' ...Mirissa Tucker, a senior at Prairie View A&M University, told Rewire that the vigil was to give voice to Bland and other victims of racism and police brutality. 'Sandy still speaks,' Tucker said. 'Sandy speaks through us at the Waller County jail.' Activists played a recording of Bland speaking through a loudspeaker during the vigil. Bland had been outspoken about issues of racism and police brutality prior to her death. 'White people, if all lives mattered, would there need to be a hashtag for Black lives mattering?' Bland asks in a video she posted on Facebook, which was played at the vigil."

WOW: "As he heads for the Republican convention in Cleveland next week, Donald Trump's campaign infrastructure remains severely underdeveloped. In some places it appears to be non-existent. ...The Huffington Post attempted to call the contact phone numbers for the Trump campaign in all 50 states. A few of the state operations had no websites or no numbers listed. Many of the other numbers didn't work. When we left voicemails, we didn't get callbacks. On only six occasions did someone actually answer the phone. And in several of those instances, the person who picked up explained that a physical office would be opened up only after the convention. 'I'm sure the headquarters will open soon,' said the individual who answered Trump's Georgia number."

[CN: Racism; Islamophobia] Unfathomable: "During a CNN town hall last night, a student named Zachary Marcone asked House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) how he can morally justify his support for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. 'I cannot and will not support Donald Trump, and it concerns me when the Republican leadership is supporting somebody who is openly racist and has said Islamophobic statements, wants to shut down our borders,' Marcone said. 'Can you tell me, how can you morally justify your support for this kind of candidate, somebody who could be very destructive for our nation.' Ryan's response? Hillary Clinton is worse, and like it or not, voters face a 'binary choice' when casting their ballot for president. Not supporting Trump 'basically means you're going to help elect Hillary Clinton, and I don't think Hillary Clinton is going to support any of the things that you stand for if you're a Republican.'" Ryan just conceded that anti-racism isn't a Republican value, and it's met with a national shrug.

Meanwhile: "The vast majority of Americans say they are afraid of at least one of the two major candidates—Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump—winning the White House, a remarkable finding that reflects an unsettled nation unhappy with its choice. Eighty-one percent of Americans say they would feel afraid following the election of one of the two polarizing politicians, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. That includes a quarter who say it doesn't matter who wins: they're scared of both." Good job to every fucking Hillary Clinton hater who has helped turn her into History's Greatest Monster in America's dark imagination.

Y'all. The video of former President George W. Bush dancing like a complete wanker at the Dallas Memorial Service makes me not miss him all over again. Laura Bush: "Calgon, take me away." Michelle Obama: "Someone take him away."

Well played, Metro. Well played.

[CN: Animal endangerment] Now this is a drone program I can get behind (provided it won't harm the birds!): "Scientists may have found the perfect weapon in the fight to save the critically endangered black-footed ferret: drones outfitted to shoot vaccine-spiked, peanut butter-flavored bait pellets. The vaccine snacks, however, aren't for the ferrets, but the burrowing rodents the animals rely on almost exclusively for food and shelter: prairie dogs. As it turns out, protecting their prey could prove key to recovering ferret populations. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies have been experimenting for several years with a vaccine to protect prairie dogs from sylvatic plague, a devastating bacterial disease that fleas transmit. Now proven effective in small populations, the agency has turned its attention to management. It is exploring alternative delivery methods, including the use of all-terrain vehicles and unmanned aircraft."

"Mary Lambert Skips Work to Hang Out with Real-Life Girlfriend, Rescued Puppies in Uplifting New Video." AS ADVERTISED. Love it so much.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] And finally! LOL WHUT: "The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in Colorado got a call about the bear who managed to get into a Subaru wagon without breaking any windows. The car's owner even said all the doors were closed. The bear got trapped in the car, leaving a pair of deputies to find a way to get it out. One deputy, who recorded the escapade on his cellphone, decided to open the hatch, while the other stood guard nearby with a shotgun. The bear bounded out, leaving behind some snout marks on a window, a shredded interior and questions about how the animal got into the vehicle."

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

How to Help West Virginia Flood Victims.

[Content Note: Death; exploitation] This interview with Dr. Anne Stevens, the sister of Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed at Benghazi, is so upsetting. His family has been saying for years now that he wouldn't want to be exploited this way; that he knew the risks; that they don't blame Hillary Clinton and neither would he. And the Republicans carry on, because his actual humanity isn't worth anything to them.

[CN: Homophobia] The hashtag "Heterosexual Pride Day" has been trending all day on Twitter. Here's what I have to say about that garbage:

"Heterosexual Pride Day" exemplifies the opposite of pride. It reflects a desperate, brittle insecurity about losing undeserved privilege.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 29, 2016

[CN: Carcerality; racism] Another strong argument for carceral reform/prison abolition: "Mass incarceration damages individuals and communities in ways that scholars are just starting to explore. New research that we've published with our colleague Mary Laske Bell shows that African American men who are former inmates are irrevocably harmed by time they spent behind bars. ...African Americans constitute nearly 1 million of the 2.3 million persons incarcerated and are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. One in three African American men will experience prison." Fucking hell.

Relatedly: "President Obama's administration is making a higher education much more convenient for inmates in U.S. prisons. A new plan was introduced that will provide $30 million in pell grants for up to 12,000 inmates to take college courses. 'We all agree that crime must have consequences, but the men and women who have done their time and paid their debt deserve the opportunity to break with the past and forge new lives in their homes, workplaces, and communities,' said Education Secretary John B. King Jr., according to the Washington Post. 'This belief in second chances is fundamental to who we are as Americans.' Inmates in 27 states will be able to take advantage of the pilot program which will enroll them in a variety of online courses or classes inside of prison facilities moving forward. This plan goes directly against a controversial 1994 congressional ban on federal funds being spent on prison inmates. However, a new initiative to actually prevent prisoners from becoming repeat offenders—and data that shows education lowers the likelihood of inmates returning—have turned the tide."

[CN: Torture] Donald Trump "has repeated calls for the return of waterboarding against Islamic State militants, saying: 'I like it a lot.' His comments at a rally in Ohio came hours after suicide bombers killed 41 people at an airport in Istanbul. 'You have to fight fire with fire,' said the Republican's likely nominee... 'We have to fight so viciously and violently because we're dealing with violent people,' Mr Trump said. At one point, he asked the crowd: 'What do you think about waterboarding?' They cheered as he gave his answer: 'I like it a lot. I don't think it's tough enough.'" Breathtaking. Terrifying. Indecent.

Congratulations, Misty Snow! "Utah voters picked a historic, and largely unknown, Democratic candidate to challenge Sen. Mike Lee this November. Misty K. Snow is the first transgender nominee from a major party to run for a U.S. Senate seat and she is among the first transgender people to run for Congress. Misty Plowright, a transgender woman, claimed the Democratic nomination in Colorado's conservative 5th House District on Tuesday."

And congratulations, Misty Plowright! "Misty Plowright won in Colorado's 5th congressional district, which Politico reports is 'the most conservative in the state,' and will challenge Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.)." Misty Plowright is also transgender.

[CN: Anti-atheism] Ian Millhiser on Justice Alito's Bizarre and Offensive Attack on Atheists. Spoiler Alert! Alito thinks religion is the only way to morals and ethics. Because of course he does.

Senate Democrats had to kill a Zika bill because their Republican colleagues fucked around with it so much that it became pointless. And now funding to combat Zika will be delayed even further. For fuck's sake.

In other Senate news: "A rescue package for cash-strapped Puerto Rico is likely to clear the final hurdle this week after the bill passed a test vote in the US Senate on Wednesday, by 68 votes to 32. An official vote is likely to take place later on Wednesday or Thursday. The bill would provide emergency debt relief to Puerto Rico, which is expected to default on a $2bn debt payment on Friday. But it was strongly opposed by Bernie Sanders and several other Senate Democrats. Sanders called the bill 'disastrous' and a victory for hedge funds. ...The Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, said he would vote for the legislation, though he criticized [Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader] for not allowing amendments to the bill. The House is out of session until 5 July, so the Senate will have to pass the House bill unchanged for it to head to the president's desk for his signature before the Friday deadline."

I love this so much: "A university professor in Ivory Coast baby seats for his student [a new mum] who was taking her exams."

"This skeleton robot salamander just wiggled its way into my heart." Seconded!

And finally! "American Bulldog Who Used to Fear Men Now Has 2 Daddies Who Adore Her." BLUB FOREVERRRRRRR.

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

"Scotland's first minister has said a second independence referendum is 'highly likely' after the UK voted to leave the EU. Nicola Sturgeon said it was "democratically unacceptable" that Scotland faced the prospect of being taken out of the EU against its will. She said the Scottish government would begin preparing legislation to enable another independence vote. Scotland voted in favour of the UK staying in the EU by 62% to 38%."

Disqualifying fuckery: "Donald Trump said Friday that the collapse of the British pound is good news for his Scottish golf course, which he was visiting. 'When the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry, frankly,' he said during a press conference at the course. 'For traveling and for other things, I think it very well could turn out to be a positive.'" This is part of a pattern: Recall Trump saying he was "excited" about the housing market crash in 2007, because he'd make big money off of it.

JFC: "That confusion over what Brexit might mean for the country's economy appears to have been reflected across the United Kingdom on Thursday. Google reported sharp upticks in searches not only related to the ballot measure but also about basic questions concerning the implications of the vote. At about 1 a.m. Eastern time, about eight hours after the polls closed, Google reported that searches for 'what happens if we leave the EU' had more than tripled." That, right there, is the power of fearmongering, xenophobia, and nationalism. People voted for something they didn't even truly understand, and which will have devastating consequences.

[Content Note: Flooding; death] "Some of the worst flooding in West Virginia 'in 100 years' has left at least six people dead, including one child. Tens of thousands of residents were left without power and many roads were impassable following Thursday's pounding rain, officials said. The hardest hit counties include Greenbrier, Nicholas, Fayette, Kanawha and Webster. In Greenbrier, a flaming house could be seen floating down a creek. 'Just high water everywhere. People can't get out; they can't get in,' one resident told CBS News." Damn.

[CN: Racism; gun violence; death] "As almost 170 members of Congress held the House floor on Wednesday and through the night into Thursday, Lucy McBath stood beside them. McBath's son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed for playing loud music in his car at a Jacksonville, Florida gas station in 2012. In the years since, she has become an advocate for gun reform and this week, she stood outside the Capitol during the entirety of the sit-in, speaking, singing, chanting, and joining other gun safety advocates in supporting the lawmakers inside the chamber. ...The 'No Bill No Break' sit-in was not successful in demanding that the House hold debate before leaving for its July 4th break—Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) dismissed the chamber until after the holiday. And while the Senate's 15-hour filibuster led to a vote on four gun-related measures, all four failed. But McBath said the overwhelming support both inside and outside the Capitol this week was a success in and of itself." Blub.

"The White House has announced the designation of the Stonewall National Monument, where the Stonewall riots took place. Said President Obama in a video making the announcement: 'I'm designating the Stonewall National Monument as the newest addition to America's national parks system. Stonewall will be our first national monument to tell the story of the struggle for LGBT rights. I believe our national parks should reflect the full story of our country–the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us. That we are stronger together. That out of many, we are one.'"

[CN: War on agency] "Data Shows Surge in Texans Traveling out of State to Get an Abortion: A Rewire analysis has found that while Texas data shows there has been a decline in the number of abortions in the state, data from other neighboring states suggests there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Texans traveling out of state to access abortion care since the passage of HB 2 in 2013." Unconscionable, the people who continually pretend that criminalizing and/or reducing access to abortion will reduce abortions, as opposed to just making pregnant people seek alternatives to safe, accessible abortion.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] "Seven months ago, Lisa Alamia woke up with a British accent after having jaw surgery. Since then, her neurologist, Toby Yaltho, has diagnosed her with Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS). ... "Lisa is speaking with reporters from around the world now and hopes her story can help science. 'We thought maybe a local newspaper...we never thought it would turn into national, international news,' she said. 'My thing is just advancing medicine, that this is just something that happened, it's not something that's fake and if other people have experienced it, come out, get help, go to a doctor.'" Fascinating. And what a cool lady that she's sharing her story and offering to help researchers find out more about this confounding syndrome.

[CN: Image of scar; cancer; bullying] "After eight-year-old Gabriel Marshall underwent surgery to remove a tumor in his brain, the large scar left in its place 'made him feel like a monster,' Gabriel's dad, Josh, tells PEOPLE. 'He was very embarrassed about the scar–he wouldn't even leave the house without something covering his head.' ...Josh wanted to make his son feel better about the procedure, especially once Gabriel's tumor–an anaplastic astrocytoma that had metastasized to his spine–was showing no signs of regrowth. So Josh decided to get a tattoo to match Gabriel's scar. 'I asked him if it would be okay if I went and got his scar tattooed on my head if that would make him feel better, and he agreed that yes it would,' Josh says. '[I wanted] to take away some of the stares or attention from him. He was very excited when I came home and showed him that I'd gotten it done. He said, 'Wow that looks so realistic.'' With his dad by his side, Gabriel learned to appreciate his scar. 'He's now very proud of his scar because he knows that that it means that he was tougher than [the tumor] that tried to hurt him,' Josh says. 'He calls it his battle scar.'" ♥

And finally! Baby giraffe! "Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens proudly announced the birth of a male Reticulated Giraffe calf. ...Veterinary staff examined the calf early, the morning after the birth, and determined that it was a healthy boy. He measured 6'4" tall and weighed-in at 187 pounds, and he is the tallest giraffe calf ever born at the Zoo! After trial introductions to his habitat the weekend after his birth, the calf and mother are now on exhibit with the rest of their herd."

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Stories related to the Pulse Shooting; next four paragraphs. If you want to skip over these, just begin after the triple asterisk.]

If this isn't the (second) best argument for not treating this guy like he's a celebrity by running his face all over the news, I don't know what is: "An official familiar with the timeline told CBS News that Mateen was active on social media before and during the rampage. ...[A]fter the gunfire began, Mateen paused. Sources told CBS News he searched for 'Pulse Orlando' and 'shooting,' perhaps to see if the massacre was trending online." For much more on this subject, see Peter Daou: "A Post-Orlando Reckoning: The Media and Republicans Have Done the Killer's Bidding."

A JetBlue flight attendant recounts what happened on a flight on which the grandmother of victim Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo was a passenger: "I had the idea to pass around a piece of paper to everyone on board and invite them to sign it for this grieving grandmother. I talked it over with Melinda and she started the process from the back of the plane. As we took beverage orders, we whispered a heads up about the plan as we went. Halfway through, Melinda called me, 'Kel, I think you should start another paper from the front. Folks are writing PARAGRAPHS.' So I did. Then we started one in the middle. Lastly, running out of time on our hour and fifteen minute flight, we handed out pieces of paper to everyone still waiting. When we gathered them together to present them to her, we didn't have just a sheet of paper covered in names, which is what I had envisioned. Instead, we had page after page after page after page of long messages offering condolences, peace, love, and support." Blub.

John McCain goes full Trump and blames President Obama for the attack. I don't even know what to say anymore about the Republican response to this. I really don't.

Anderson Cooper takes down Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi a second time after the complained about their first interview: "After the segment aired, Bondi called in to WOR 710 radio and blamed Cooper for misleading her about the interview’s objective and editing her in a bad light. One problem, Cooper had his receipts and showed them on air that night." Whoooooooops.

* * *

[CN: Wildfires] "A wildfire in Santa Barbara County that's threatening homes and closing major highways more than doubled in size overnight to 4,000 acres, federal officials said early Friday. Chewing through vegetation that hasn't burned since the 1950s and pushed by 40 mph winds, the Sherpa fire crawled toward Highway 101 between El Capitan State Beach and Gaviota, forcing the California Highway Patrol to shut down the coastal route overnight. ...The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office said mandatory evacuations for El Capitan, Refugio, Venadito, and Las Flores canyons north of Santa Barbara remained in effect, while residents of neighboring communities such as Las Llagas, Gato, Las Varas, Dos Pueblos, and Eagle canyons received evacuation warnings." Damn.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] "Sanders' Long Refusal to Endorse Clinton Hurts His Leverage." Haha no kidding.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle: "Dozens of GOP Delegates Launch New Push to Halt Donald Trump." Y'all, this election is going to continue to get uglier and uglier. There is no way the Republican Party is going to just sit on their butts and watch their nominee go down in flames. Hillary Clinton is never going to be allowed to take an easy stroll into the White House: Not by the GOP and not by the media. Something is going to upend this race. And I strongly suspect it's going to involve Trump not being the nominee anymore, followed by the installation of a "moderate" who will become the superhero of the GOP and the new BFF of the media. Get ready. The next few months are not going to be easy.

[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Relatedly: "Florida Rep. David Jolly on Friday announced he will pull out of the Republican primary to replace Sen. Marco Rubio. Jolly instead will for reelection to his seat in Congress, citing 'unfinished business' in an email to supporters Friday afternoon. He said he had been convinced to run for Senate by insiders who told him redistricting made his reelection to the House too difficult, but decided he wanted to continue doing the job he has. The move, though, comes as Rubio has in recent days signaled he might accede to pressure to run for reelection to his seat." Get out of the way, Jolly! At the moment, Rubio polls poorly next to the Democratic challenger. As do a number of Republican Senate candidates. This is the Trump Effect, and the GOP ain't gonna sit idly by.

Cool: "Oxygen has been detected in a galaxy from long, long ago and far, far away. 13.1 billion light-years away, to be exact. This galaxy—which we're observing as it was just 700 million years after the birth of the universe—shows the oldest signs of oxygen scientists have ever seen. That's a big deal: In the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, only the lightest elements—helium, lithium and hydrogen—existed. Heavier elements, such as carbon and oxygen, are necessary for the formation of life as we know it. But these elements didn't form until the first stars had aged enough to produce them by way of fusion."

Heads-up, Ghostbuster nerdz: The cast of Ghostbusters will be on The Graham Norton Show tonight!

And finally! "Human Chain Pulls Dog out of Deep Channel in Heartwarming Rescue." Precisely as advertised. ♥

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Pulse shooting] President Obama is traveling to Orlando today to meet privately with survivors and grieving families. The President "will 'make clear that the country stands with the people of Orlando, stands with the LGBT community in Orlando as they grieve,' a White House spokesman said. Few details have been released but no major speech is planned."

[Continued CN] Also having traveled to Orlando are 12 golden retrievers who are trained as comfort dogs: "They had come to offer comfort to some of the victims of the attack, the families of those killed and the emergency medical workers, as well as anyone else in the city in need of some canine affection after the deadliest shooting in American history. ...Tim Hetzner, the president of the charity, said that the dogs in Orlando were helping to provide a feeling of safety, allowing those in distress to relax their guard and express their vulnerability during a difficult time. 'We've had a lot of people here that start petting the dog, and they break out crying,' he said. The dogs and their 20 handlers have visited hospitals and churches, and attended vigils and memorial services. On Wednesday, they visited some of the hospitalized victims and met with the staff of Pulse, the gay nightclub where the shooting occurred. 'People couldn't get out of their bed, so we had to bring the dog up so they could pet the dog while laying down,' Mr. Hetzner said. 'They start smiling, and in a couple cases, they started talking as much as they could.'" Blub.

In case you are wondering why it was that Bernie Sanders could be arsed to participate in the Senate filibuster last night to demand a vote on gun reforms, he "was in Burlington, Vt., ahead of a simulcast speech to supporters today. (He is not expected to concede.) He'd been in Washington the night before the filibuster began, for the Democratic luncheon and a meeting with Hillary Clinton, but he was not able to return to the city. 'It just didn't work yesterday,' said Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs. 'We're keeping an eye on votes next week.'" Oh. It just didn't work out. Sure.

Here's a cool line from that same article, following a note about what Sanders tweeted: "Hillary Clinton did roughly the same thing." Yeah, roughly. Except for the fact that she's not a sitting senator, so the fact that she only tweeted her support is actually rather NOT ROUGHLY THE SAME THING AT ALL.

[CN: War on agency; abortion; sexual violence] Disappointing: "Obama Administration Punts on Helms Amendment: The administration confirmed to Rewire that the president's remarks on 'treating survivors' at the United State of Women Summit Tuesday will not translate into executive action on the Helms Amendment—the subject of a demonstration that preceded Tuesday's summit activities."

Oprah Winfrey has endorsed Hillary Clinton. "You're gonna get a female president! And you're gonna get a female president! Everybody in here is gonna get a female president!!!"

Hillary has also secured the endorsement of the AFL-CIO: "Hillary Clinton is a proven leader who shares our values," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a statement. "Throughout the campaign, she has demonstrated a strong commitment to the issues that matter to working people, and our members have taken notice."

Ohio Governor John Kasich and Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough had a terrific exchange (ahem) about whose fault Donald Trump is. Kasich says it's the media's fault, like his party and its base and the cultivation of hatred had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, Scarborough acts as though the media has no choice in whether to cover Trump. No one wants any responsibility. Cool. I guess how Donald Trump became the Republican nominee is a mystery lost to the sands of time.

Meanwhile, one of Donald Trump's campaign co-chairs and policy advisers Sam Clovis says of criticism from other prominent Republicans and the party leadership: "Either they want to get behind the presumptive nominee who will be the nominee of this party and make sure that we do everything we can to win in November or we're just asking them if they can't do that, then just shut the hell up." What a terrific team Trump has put together.

Congratulations to Jamie Shupe, who has won their legal battle to identify as neither male nor female, a historic ruling that makes them the first legally non-binary person in the US.

A woman parked in a space reserved for veterans. Someone who didn't know her left a note on her car reading: "This parking is for veterans, lady. Learn to read & have some respect." I bet you can guess how this ends! If you guessed that the person who wrote the note is a misogynistic asshole and the woman to whom it was written is a Navy veteran whose Facebook response has gone viral, give yourself a thousand points!

Wow: "Scientists have collected a second burst of gravitational waves sweeping through the Earth. The warping of space-time was sensed on Christmas Day in the US at the Advanced LIGO laboratories—the same facilities that made the historic first detection in September last year. Back then, the waves came from two huge coalescing black holes. This new set of waves, likewise, is ascribed to a black hole merger—but a smaller one. Reporting the event in the journal Physical Review Letters, the international collaboration that operates LIGO says the two objects involved had masses that were 14 and eight times that of our Sun."

[CN: Moving GIFs at link] And finally! Rescue pig and French bulldog puppy are BFFs. I MEAN.

In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Hillary Clinton just gave a speech responding to Donald Trump's heinous garbage speech yesterday. She got huge applause just for saying that candidates need to respond with decency. This is where we are. I'll have more on this later, time permitting.

[Content Note: Rape culture] More pushback on the heinous sentence handed down in the Stanford rape case: "[O]ne of the jurors who convicted Turner of sexual assault wrote a letter to [Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky]. The juror wrote of being 'absolutely shocked and appalled' at the sentence. 'After the guilty verdict I expected that this case would serve as a very strong deterrent to on-campus assaults, but with the ridiculously lenient sentence that Brock Turner received, I am afraid that it makes a mockery of the whole trial and the ability of the justice system to protect victims of assault and rape,' the juror wrote to Persky. 'Clearly there are few to no consequences for a rapist even if they are caught in the act of assaulting a defenseless, unconscious person,' the juror wrote in the letter, which was obtained by the Palo Alto Weekly."

"The White House is holding an event focusing on women's issues on Tuesday, and as part of the day-long summit it announced actions it is taking to try and reduce the gap in pay between men and women. One brand new step is calling on private sector companies to make a promise that they will look at their own internal gender wage gaps. Any company that signs up for this 'White House Equal Pay Pledge' agrees to conduct an analysis of pay by gender across its entire workforce, review its own hiring and promotion practices to reduce bias, and include equal pay in overall efforts to promote equality within its own ranks, as well as look for any other practices that can ensure women are paid equally with men. The pledge already has a number of high-profile companies signing on out the gate, from industries ranging from technology to consumer products. There are 28 signatories so far, among them Amazon, American Airlines, Dow Chemical, Gap Inc., Johnson & Johnson, L'Oréal USA, PepsiCo, and Staples." Well, let's hope this is the start of their actually doing something meaningful!

[CN: Anti-choice terrorism] Wonder when we are going to have a national conversation about this? Is it never? I bet it's never! "Eleven Months, Five Clinic Arson Attacks, One Arrest, and Countless Unanswered Questions: Arsonists have attacked five Planned Parenthood clinics around the country since last July, wreaking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, closing down the facilities, and sowing fear among staff and providers." And patients.

This is a truly weird story: "Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to committee officials and security experts who responded to the breach. The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC's system that they also were able to read all email and chat traffic, said DNC officials and the security experts. The intrusion into the DNC was one of several targeting American political organizations. The networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies, as were the computers of some GOP political action committees, U.S. officials said. But details on those cases were not available." Since Trump and Putin are besties after meeting backstage at 60 Minutes once, I presume the Russians will be giving the oppo dump to Trump. (That's a joke.) (Sort of.)

[CN: Climate change; animal harm] Fuck: "Human-caused climate change appears to have driven the Great Barrier Reef's only endemic mammal species into the history books, with the Bramble Cay melomys, a small rodent that lives on a tiny island in the eastern Torres Strait, being completely wiped-out from its only known location. It is also the first recorded extinction of a mammal anywhere in the world thought to be primarily due to human-caused climate change. An expert says this extinction is likely just the tip of the iceberg, with climate change exerting increasing pressures on species everywhere."

RIP Margaret Vinci Heldt, creator of the the beehive hairdo, who has died at age 98. "Heldt ran a salon in Chicago, where she was born, and first debuted the hairstyle for a magazine cover in 1960. According to the Chicago History Museum, Heldt attended the Columbia College of Hairdressing before opening her own salon. 'She had a zest for life, the most positive attitude,' her daughter Carlene Ziegler told Reuters. 'She was the life of the party right up to her last days.'"

Neat! "Astronomers say they have discovered the largest planet outside the solar system that orbits two suns. The newfound world, about the size of Jupiter, is 3,700 light-years from Earth. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles. It was detected by a team led by NASA and San Diego State University using the planet-hunting Kepler telescope. The discovery was announced Monday during a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego." Insert your Tatooine jokes here.

Paul Feig on Ghostbusters: "I think you'll have a good time. We made this movie with such love and excitement. We made it big, action-packed and with tonnes of special effects." Yay! I think I'll have a good time, too!

[CN: Images of snails at link] If you love snails (I do!) then you will probably love this gallery of photographs of "the magical world of snails."

And finally! Baby lemurs! "Three curious and active Red Ruffed Lemur babies born at the Nashville Zoo are a boost to this critically endangered species. The two females and one male were born on May 24, the eighth birthday of their mother, Lyra." Aww.