Showing posts with label contraception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contraception. Show all posts

We Resist: Day 721

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, January 10, 2019
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

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.

* * *

Late yesterday and earlier today by me: Trump Storms Out When Pelosi Tells Him "No" and Elizabeth Warren AND Hillary Clinton Sexism Watch, Part Whatever in an Endless F#@king Series and Kamala Harris Reportedly Close to Announcing 2020 Presidential Run and The Shutdown Drags on Because Trump Is a Ghoul.

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

Donald Trump spent some time shouting into microphones in front of cameras before he departed for his photo op at the southern border, and naturally he was a ginormous shitwheel, as per usual.

Reporter (off-camera): Given how the meeting went yesterday, are you now going to decide to declare a national emergency? Is that you're only option left?

Trump (on-camera): I have the absolute right to declare a national emergency. The lawyers have so advised me. I'm not prepared to do that yet, but if I have to, I will. I have no doubt about it. I will. I have the absolute right to declare — this was passed by Congress, so when you say, "Was it passed by Congress?", it was. Other presidents have used it, some fairly often. I have the absolute right to declare a national emergency. I haven't done it yet. I may do it. If this doesn't work out, probably I will do it. I would almost say definitely.

[reporters shout questions]

Trump: This is a national emergency.

Reporter (off-camera): If this is a national emergency, why haven't you declared it?

Trump: Because I would like to do the deal through Congress, and because it makes sense to do it through Congress. But the easy route, for me, would have been: Call a national emergency and do it. And I will tell you: This is a tremendous crisis at the border. Look at President Obama's statements from the past; numerous statements where he calls it a crisis. This is a crisis. [Counts on his fingers] You have human trafficking; you have drugs; you have criminals coming in; you have gangs, MS-13, we're taking 'em out by the thousand and bringing 'em back! This is a crisis. And they don't come in at the checkpoint, which they do also, but they go in between the checkpoints, where you don't have any barriers.
He is such an ignorant, lying sack of shit. And of course there was lots more, the absolute nadir of which might have been this rambling mess:

When, during the campaign, I would say, "Mexico's going to pay for it," obviously I never said this, and I never meant they're gonna write out a check.
JFC.

Speaking of the wall... Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley at NBC News: Test of Steel Prototype for Border Wall Showed It Could Be Sawed Through. "Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for a steel slat design for his border wall, which he described as 'absolutely critical to border security' in his Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday. But Department of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a report by DHS. A photo exclusively obtained by NBC News shows the results of the test after experts from the Marine Corps were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools."

image of steel bars with a giant hole sawed out
Yes, that is the actual image. For fuck's sake.

* * *

Katelyn Polantz and Evan Perez at CNN: Manafort Intended for Polling Data to Go to 2 Ukrainian Oligarchs Who Owed Him Millions. "Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, two Ukrainian oligarchs who had paid Paul Manafort for years for his political work in their country, were the intended recipients of the American polling data that Manafort shared with Konstantin Kilimnik during the 2016 presidential campaign, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday." Gee, what could Ukrainian oligarchs with ties to Vladimir Putin want with U.S. polling data? I WONDER.

Christal Hayes at USA Today: Trump's Team Had over 100 Contacts with Russian-Linked Officials, According to Think Tank Analysis. "Members of [Donald] Trump's campaign and transition team had more than 100 contacts with Russian-linked officials, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress think tank and its Moscow Project. CAP, a liberal think tank, used publicly available court documents and reporting to tally up the number of contacts with Russian-linked officials, which includes those with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and others tied to Russian intelligence, banks and politicians." Sounds about right.

Tarini Parti at BuzzFeed: Here's Trump Allies' Plan to Meddle in the 2020 Democratic Primary. "America First Policies and its affiliated super PAC have made significant investments in the opposition group America Rising, funding their efforts to dig into the top Democratic contenders — along with some second-tier candidates — and prep opposition research books on all of them, according to five sources involved or familiar with the plans. Those close to Trump say the work from America Rising will be used against Democrats in the primary to hammer candidates they think will be most challenging for Trump to beat, weakening the overall field and the eventual Democratic nominee."

* * *

[Content Note: Sexual harassment and assault] Alex Thompson at Politico: Top Bernie Sanders 2016 Adviser Accused of Forcibly Kissing Subordinate. "The woman did not formally report the incident at the time because the campaign was over. But over the past several months, Becker, who is not on Sanders' payroll, has been calling potential staffers and traveling to early primary states to prepare for another presidential run — activities that Sanders' top aides did not endorse, but did not disavow, either. Among those whom Becker contacted was the woman who says he assaulted her. The entreaty prompted her to step forward to tell senior Sanders advisers... 'There was lots of bros protecting bros, to the point that now there is a conversation among female alumni of not working on this campaign again,' said one former campaign staffer."

Frank Dale at ThinkProgress: Sen. Klobuchar Says William Barr Refused to Meet with Her 'Because of the Shutdown'.
William Barr, [Donald] Trump's pick for attorney general who has a history of echoing Trump's rhetoric, is scheduled for a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

Cabinet nominees typically meet with senators from both parties who will be part of their confirmation process.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will oversee Barr's attempt to become attorney general for the second time, said on Wednesday that Democrats are being prevented from meeting with the nominee in advance of his confirmation hearing.

"I have always met with major cabinet members under both the Obama administration as well as the Trump administration," Klobuchar told MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes. "I have met with the head of the Botanical Gardens — who's not on the cabinet, of course. I have met with the nominee for the Patent Office, Chris. But we can't have a meeting with the nominee for one of the most important cabinet positions while this Mueller investigation is going on before the hearing. And I just think that's wrong."
Especially since Barr somehow found the time yesterday to meet with Republican Senators Chuck Grassley, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Ben Sasse. Huh!

[CN: White supremacy] Staff at the Daily Beast: Rep. Steve King: How Did 'White Supremacist' Become an Offensive Term? "In a Thursday interview with The New York Times, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) decried the demonization of the term 'white supremacist,' and wondered why it had become deemed to be offensive in the first place. King first claimed that he supported immigrants who came to America legally and assimilated into the culture — because, he said, maintaining a white European 'culture of America' is more important than maintaining racial homogeneity. 'White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?' King added." This fucking guy.

[CN: Bullying] Clare Lombardo at NPR: Virginia Study Finds Increased School Bullying in Areas That Voted for Trump. "In the 2017 responses, Huang and Cornell found higher rates of bullying and certain types of teasing in areas where voters favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Seventh- and eighth-graders in areas that favored Trump reported bullying rates in spring 2017 that were 18 percent higher than students living in areas that went for Clinton. They were also 9 percent more likely to report that kids at their schools were teased because of their race or ethnicity. In the 2015 data, there were 'no meaningful differences' in those findings across communities, the researchers wrote."

(That's further evidence that Trump's campaign of stochastic terrorism is working, of course. These bullies are violently enacting the hatred that Trump transmits.)

[CN: Anti-choicery] Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: Trump's Rollback of Birth Control Mandate Could Go into Effect Next Week Unless Courts Block It. "The administration chipped away at the mandate by significantly broadening an employer's ability to seek an exemption and choose not provide employees contraceptive coverage. In November 2018, officials released finalized regulations (effective Jan. 14) that permit any employer and college or university with religious beliefs to object to the mandate. The regulations also allow any employer (except publicly traded corporations) to object because of moral convictions. Two multi-state lawsuits, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, are trying to block the regulations before residents reap the consequences." FINGERS CROSSED.

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

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We Resist: Day 280

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, October 26, 2017
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: U.S. Immigration Policy Is Breathtaking Malice and Georgia Election Server's Data Destroyed After Suit Filed.

Chris McGreal at the Guardian: Trump to Declare Health Emergency over Opioids But No New Funds to Help. "Donald Trump is to order his health secretary to declare a public health emergency in response to the US's escalating opioid epidemic. But while the announcement that the president intends to 'mobilise his entire administration' to combat the crisis will be seen as an important symbolic moment, there will be no new funds to deal with an epidemic claiming 100 lives or more a day. ...The White House said it is having a 'conversation with Congress' about new funding." So, a big media splash and lots of headlines with no real action to effectively help people? That sounds about right.

[Content Note: Misogynoir; threats] Nicole Lafond at TPM: Rep. Frederica Wilson Away from Washington Amid Ongoing Threats. "Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) did not return to Washington this week after receiving a barrage of threats, according to her D.C. office spokesperson. 'We have received a lot of threats and rude phone calls since [Donald] Trump started this feud with her,' Wilson's spokeswoman Joyce Jones told TPM Thursday. Because of her absence, Wilson has missed at least 20 votes in the House since Monday, a move the congresswoman doesn't take lightly, Jones said. 'Voting is extremely important to her. That's how she expresses the views of her constituents and she wouldn't miss votes if not for extraordinary circumstances,' she said." And now we see another way that Trump and his deplorables have to stymie democracy.

[CN: War on agency]


Goddammit. Rage seethe boil. This shit isn't fucking cute. Lives hang in the balance. People die because they don't want to be or cannot safely be pregnant.

Christine Grimaldi at Rewire: One Way to Resist Trump's Bureaucratic War on Birth Control. "People who identify with the resistance can't expect to have the same direct effect on unelected bureaucrats, some plucked straight from extremist anti-choice groups and anti-LGBTQ hate groups, as they did on their elected officials. But resisters can still make a difference, a big one, by submitting comments registering their displeasure with the Trump administration's bombshell counter-regulations, which provide religious and moral cover for any employer or university to opt out of contraceptive coverage in their health insurance offerings."

* * *

[CN: Sexual assault] Dave McKenna at Deadspin: Second Woman: George H.W. Bush Groped Me.
Rumors about Bush groping actresses in this manner have been circulating for a while. More than a year ago, a tipster passed word about the Heather Lind incident to Deadspin. We were told that Bush had, during a photo opp, groped her and told her that his favorite magician was "David Cop-a-Feel" while fondling her.

(Reached for comment, Bush spokesperson Jim McGrath provided the following statement: "At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures. To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke — and on occasion, he has patted women's rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely.")

In reporting out the tip, I found two actresses—Lind and Grolnick—who had accused Bush of groping, and also two Twitter users who, on April 4, 2014, made reference to the "David Cop-a-Feel" joke.

* * *

Alex Finley at Politico: The Recruitables: Why Trump's Team Was Easy Prey for Putin. "By now, it should be clear to anyone following the news that Russian intelligence made a formidable effort to approach the Trump campaign and assess the potential to manipulate its members. As a former officer of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, I can tell you that Russian security services would have been derelict not to evaluate the possibility of turning someone close to Trump. ...Generally, an intelligence officer looks for a person's vulnerabilities and explores ways to exploit them. It usually comes down to four things, which — in true government style — the CIA has encompassed in an acronym, MICE: Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego. Want to get someone to betray his country? Figure out which of these four motivators drives the person and exploit the hell out of it."

"Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego." Oh look — it's Trump's actual four-word résumé!

This is a very good piece, but I want to make two quick points for you to consider as you read it: 1. Finley doesn't mention or even allude to the fact that people in Trump's orbit could have themselves been reaching out to the Russians. That is definitely something that is under investigation, and I don't think it's accurate to portray Team Trump as just being targeted and not potentially as more active players in any potential collusion. 2. Finley also fails to mention it makes a huge difference that all of the people with bolded names in that piece have ZERO previous government experience. That, too, made them ripe for the picking. (If they were indeed "picked.")

Relatedly, Rep. Maxine Waters, who continues to be fucking amazing on the daily, has made clear that she's been targeted by Russian interlopers: "Since much of the public discussion of Russia's interference in our democratic process thus far has focused on Russia's influence in the presidential election, I think it is important for the American people and my colleagues in Congress to understand that Members of Congress and their efforts to communicate with their constituents may also be vulnerable to this type of foreign disruption."


* * *

Goddamit:


Whitefish Energy is, as you may recall, the utility company which was awarded a $300 million recovery contract in Puerto Rico, despite having "a reported staff of only two full-time employees," but also happens to be "primarily financed by a private-equity firm founded and run by a man who contributed large sums of money" to Trump.

Grifting pieces of shit.

* * *

Shut up, Joe Biden.


You know what I really dislike about Biden? As far as I can tell, Hillary Clinton has never been anything but nice to that old shitbird. And he is repeatedly mean to her in public, except when she's standing beside him. That not only makes him a real fucking jerk; it also makes him untrustworthy as hell.

[CN: Harassment] Jason Johnson at the Root: Hey, I Can Play This Game Too, Guys. "Journalist Lee Fang (also from The Intercept) sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the university for my emails. While it's common for professors and academics to receive FOIA requests, let's be clear: Fang was not reaching out to me as an academic. He wanted to know what I was doing as a journalist, and as journalistic standards go, this is about as out-of-bounds, despicable, and cowardly as you can get. FOIA requests are a tactic used to expose vast corruption, dirty cops, and human rights abuses, not to snoop after other journalists who say things you don't like."

[CN: Threats; harassment; mass shooting] Sam Levin at the Guardian: Online Conspiracy Theorists Harass Vegas Victims.
Braden Matejka survived a bullet to the head in the Las Vegas massacre. Then, the death threats started coming.

"You are a lying piece of shit and I hope someone truly shoots you in the head," a commenter wrote to Matejka on Facebook, one week after a gunman killed 58 people and injured hundreds more. "Your soul is disgusting and dark! You will pay for the consequences!" said another. A Facebook meme quickly spread with a photo of him after the shooting, captioned: "I'm a lying cunt!"

The 30-year-old victim – who narrowly escaped death in the worst mass shooting in modern US history – has faced a torrent of online abuse and harassment, forcing him to shut down his social media accounts and disappear from the internet. The bullying, taunting, and graphic threats have also spread to his family and friends.

...Conspiracy theorists – some of whom claim that the government staged the shooting on 1 October or that the tragedy was a hoax – have targeted survivors and victims' loved ones, spamming every social media platform with misinformation and abuse. On Facebook and YouTube in particular, users have published viral posts and videos calling people like Braden "crisis actors," alleging they were hired to pose as victims.

While fringe conspiracies have often emerged after national tragedies and major historical events, social media has dramatically expanded the scope and scale of the problem, making it easy for false claims to reach massive audiences and giving trolls easy access to targets online.
I am so fucking angry about this behavior I can't even convey my rage in complete sentences. It's just hot fury and the sound of my teeth grinding.

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

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We Resist: Day 260

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, October 06, 2017
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a black bar with the word RESIST in white text

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures 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.

* * *

Here are some things in the news today:

Earlier today by me: Trump Suggests a Foreign Policy "Storm" Is Coming and The 2016 Election Result Simply Never Should Have Been Certified.

[Content Note: White supremacy; misogyny] Joseph Bernstein at BuzzFeed: Here's How Breitbart and Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas into the Mainstream.
For more than a year, Yiannopoulos led [conservative news site Breitbart] in a coy dance around the movement's nastier edges, writing stories that minimized the role of neo-Nazis and white nationalists while giving its politer voices "a fair hearing." In March, Breitbart editor Alex Marlow insisted "we're not a hate site." Breitbart's media relations staff repeatedly threatened to sue outlets that described Yiannopoulos as racist. And after the violent white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, Breitbart published an article explaining that when Bannon said the site welcomed the alt-right, he was merely referring to "computer gamers and blue-collar voters who hated the GOP brand."

These new emails and documents, however, clearly show that Breitbart does more than tolerate the most hate-filled, racist voices of the alt-right. It thrives on them, fueling and being fueled by some of the most toxic beliefs on the political spectrum — and clearing the way for them to enter the American mainstream.
There is much, much more at the link, and I highly recommend reading the entire thing. A few quick observations:

1. This strongly tracks with the story published yesterday in the Stranger, which I excerpted in yesterday's We Resist thread, in which David Lewis reported that white supremacists were strategizing to "move into positions of power where they can hire other racists and keep non-whites from getting into the company." See, for example, in the BuzzFeed piece "Mitchell Sunderland, a senior staff writer at Broadly, Vice's women's channel." White supremacists insinuating themselves at ostensibly feminist outlets must be the bestest joke (to them) ever, especially since women's warnings about these assholes were ignored.

2. To that point, many of the dudes mentioned in this piece as infamous white supremacists were first known (to women) as anti-feminists, because they got their start harassing women online. Women have been raising red flags about these Nazi fucks for years, but we were dismissed, discounted, admonished to "just ignore them," told that our harassment was just the cost of being a woman online.

3. I can't emphasize this enough: This is a pattern akin to violent men who have a history of domestic violence. It always starts with hurting women. Abusing us is like the canary in the coal mine. It's a test, to see what they can get away with, and a largely invisible testing ground to perfect their crafts of abuse and gaslighting.

Listen to women.

* * *

[Content Note: War on agency] Robert Pear at the New York Times: Trump Administration Set to Roll Back Birth Control Mandate. "The Trump administration is poised to roll back the federal requirement for employers to include birth control coverage in their health insurance plans, vastly expanding exemptions for those that cite moral or religious objections. The new rules, which could be issued as soon as Friday, fulfill a campaign promise by [Donald] Trump and are sure to touch off a round of lawsuits on the issue. More than 55 million women have access to birth control without co-payments because of the contraceptive coverage mandate, according to a study commissioned by the Obama administration. Under the new regulations, hundreds of thousands of women could lose birth control benefits they now receive at no cost under the Affordable Care Act."

I'm just going to keep reposting this tweet forever and ever.


[CN: War on agency] Ellie Langford at Rewire: Don't Be Fooled: The Goal of the 20-Week Ban Is to Stop Abortion for Good.
The bill Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed Tuesday would ban abortion after 20 weeks. Medical professionals, women, and families alike know that this type of restriction is one of the cruelest pieces of legislation around. A ban on abortion after 20 weeks will disproportionately hurt those facing some of the most complex situations imaginable. People seek this care later in pregnancy for a variety of reasons, including medical problems, difficulty accessing services, and the fear that comes with rape, incest, and abuse. Furthermore, abortions performed later in pregnancy are rare and represent only 1.5 percent of total abortion procedures in this country—a tiny portion. Taking away those options when they are most needed is the wrong thing to do.

Despite how damaging this legislation would be if signed into law—and despite how many other pressing issues desperately need to be addressed—the anti-choice GOP went ahead and scheduled the vote anyway. The reason why is simple: This legislation is meant to placate a fringe base that's angry their party has barely gotten anything done. But it's also a priority of aggressive anti-choice activists who view the bill as one step on the pathway to a total ban on abortion.
Rage. Seethe. Boil.

[CN: Guns] Addy Baird at ThinkProgress: How the NRA and the Far-Right Are Quietly Mobilizing to Kill Gun Safety Reform After Vegas. "Thursday's statement is likely part of a wider strategy on the part of some conservatives: As long as the NRA is talking about bump stocks, they don't have to talk about assault rifles. ...Gun advocates have certainly been doing their best to draw attention to other issues by offering distracting, if easily debunked, alternative talking points." I will never understand this shit.


Juliet Eilperin at the Washington Post: As ACA Enrollment Nears, Administration Keeps Cutting Federal Support of the Law. "Supporters of the Affordable Care Act see the president's opposition even to changes sought by conservative states as part of a broader campaign by his administration to undermine the 2010 health-care law. In addition to trying to cut funding for the ACA, the Trump administration also is hampering state efforts to control premiums. ...And with the fifth enrollment season set to begin Nov. 1, advocates say the Health and Human Services Department has done more to suppress the number of people signing up than to boost it. HHS has slashed grants to groups that help consumers get insurance coverage, for example. It also has cut the enrollment period in half, reduced the advertising budget by 90 percent, and announced an outage schedule that would make the HealthCare.gov website less available than last year." Scumbags.

* * *

Betsy Woodruff at the Daily Beast: Exclusive: Senate 'Russia Probe' Is Not Investigating Russia. "Nearly a year after Election Day, a host of investigators are working on probes specifically digging into how Russia meddled in the presidential election, who — if anyone — they colluded with in the U.S., and what they are still doing now. The Senate Intelligence Committee is investigating, the House Intelligence Committee is investigating, and the Justice Department is investigating too, through special counsel Bob Mueller. But Grassley's committee is not part of that. The Grassley staffer told The Daily Beast that the Judiciary Committee's investigators are focused on the FBI."

As I've been saying, the GOP majority was never going to allow Congressional investigations to do anything but carry water for Trump and his cronies. There are no patriots to be found among the Republican caucus — not anymore. This, among other reasons, is why I continually urge caution in getting one's hopes up regarding accountability for Trump.

Trust that Bob Mueller is getting an enormous amount of pressure from these stooges to soft-pedal whatever he finds, especially with regard to Trump. This is why I am nervous about the appearance of Manafort being made a fall guy. I don't think Mueller is corrupt, but I know he's a human being under intense scrutiny and pressure. It may look easier, at some point, to settle for Manafort.

I hope that is not and is never the case. But I don't trust the Republicans not to be using every bit of their power to try to make that happen.

* * *

Jenna Johnson at the Washington Post: FEMA Removes Statistics About Drinking Water Access and Electricity in Puerto Rico from Website. "As of Wednesday, half of Puerto Ricans had access to drinking water and 5 percent of the island had electricity, according to statistics published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on its Web page documenting the federal response to Hurricane Maria. By Thursday morning, both of those key metrics were no longer on the Web page." Instead, it's only stats like "64 percent of wastewater treatment plants are working on generator power," that "illustrate [Donald] Trump's assertions that the island is quickly making tremendous strides toward full recovery."

Taegan Goddard at Political Wire: Trump Nominates Coal Lobbyist to Be No. 2 at EPA. "'Trump nominated Andrew Wheeler, a coal lobbyist with links to outspoken deniers of established science on climate change, to help lead the Environmental Protection Agency,' the New York Times reports. 'The nomination comes at a critical moment for the E.P.A. as the agency prepares to repeal a sweeping climate change regulation known as the Clean Power Plan.'" Obviously.

Josh Dawsey, Emily Stephenson, and Andrea Peterson at Politico: John Kelly's Personal Cellphone Was Compromised, White House Believes. "White House officials believe that chief of staff John Kelly's personal cellphone was compromised, potentially as long ago as December, according to three U.S. government officials. The discovery raises concerns that hackers or foreign governments may have had access to data on Kelly's phone while he was secretary of Homeland Security and after he joined the West Wing." Sure.

Mike Allen and Jonathan Swan at Axios: CIA Director Pompeo Considered to Replace Tillerson. "Trump advisers and allies are floating the idea of replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, age 53 — someone who's already around the table in the Situation Room, and could make the switch without chaos. We're told that Trump is quite comfortable with Pompeo, asking his advice on topics from immigration to the inner workings of Congress. Pompeo personally delivers the President's Daily Brief, making him one of the few people Trump spends a great deal of time with on a daily basis. Pompeo is one of the few in the administration who knows how to convey tough news to the president, and how to push back without turning DJT off. (SecDef Mattis is good at that, too.) Trump doesn't see Pompeo as a showboat." Okay.

Noor Al-Sibai at Raw Story: Taxpayers Spent More Than $800,000 on Treasury Sec. Mnuchin's military Flights. "Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned less than a week ago after costing taxpayers over $1 million in private and military flights. Now, according to the Treasury Department's inspector general, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin may catch up to him with the more than $800,000 he's spent on seven military flights." Cool.

Sounds like everything's going great in the Trump administration, as per usual. Just a super group of white dudes serving the country well.

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

Open Wide...
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This Presidency Is Terrible

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, May 31, 2017
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Exhibits 1,204,983 and 1,204,984:


Neither is definite yet. But I have no faith we will not get the worst possible outcomes in both cases. I don't know what else to say that I haven't already said dozens of time before. This presidency is terrible. Trump is cruel, and cruelty is a central feature of his presidency. It is difficult to bear.

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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, August 31, 2016
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Here are a couple of links of interest from the news today:

This is so, so good: "How Hillary Clinton Adopted the Wonkiest Tech Policy Ever."

Here's another way of reporting the same numbers: "ABC/WAPO POLL: Hillary's Popularity Soars Among Democrats, Minorities."

The Guttmacher is a national treasure: "Declines in Teen Pregnancy Risk Entirely Driven by Improved Contraceptive Use."

[Content Note: Bullying; low self-esteem; worries about appearance and weight] Terrible: "Girls in Britain are becoming more miserable, suggests the Children's Society's annual report. Among 10 to 15-year-old girls, the charity's report says 14% are unhappy with their lives as a whole, and 34% with their appearance. Researchers were told of girls feeling ugly or worthless. The figures for England, Wales and Scotland for 2013-14 represent a sharp rise in unhappiness on five years before. By contrast the study found that boys' sense of happiness remained stable."

[CN: Homophobia] Brilliant: "There are many options available for dealing with mouthy anti-LGBT street preacher trolls: ignore them, laugh at them, shout them down, drown them out… Last week, a student at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Miami, went for the latter option by following a hate preacher around campus with her bagpipes."

What have you been reading?

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Hillary Clinton's Planned Parenthood Address

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Friday, June 10, 2016
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I have more to say on this extraordinary speech at BNR.

Transcript:

Thank you. Hello. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all. I have to say, pink never looked so good.

I want to thank my friend, and your courageous leader, Cecile Richards. Cecile really is the definition of grace under pressure. She has proven that time and time again over the course of her career, particularly over the last few years. She really is like another great American, her mother, Ann Richards, who was a friend of mine, and I just wish Ann were here to see this election. She'd have Donald Trump tweeting double time.

We reached a milestone together this week. Thanks to you, and people all over our country, for the first time, a woman will be a major party's nominee for President of the United States.

And yesterday, I had the great honor of being endorsed by President Obama and Vice President Biden. And by Senator Elizabeth Warren.

So it's been a big week. And there's nowhere I'd rather end it than right here, with the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

I'm grateful to the entire Planned Parenthood family. You made this campaign your own. Whether you knocked on doors in Iowa or rallied in California, this victory belongs to all of you.

It belongs to the one thousand young activists who came together in Pittsburgh last month to get organized.

It belongs to the staff, the donors, and to the providers. Providers like Dr. Amna Dermish in Texas, who called out Donald Trump when he said women should be punished for having abortions. And the open letter she wrote defending her patients' right to make their own health decisions should be required reading for every politician in America.

I am deeply conscious of the reality that this victory belongs to generations of brave women and men who fought for the radical idea that women should determine our own lives and futures.

And it belongs to the women and men who continue to fight for that idea today, even in the face of threats and violence.

When a man who never should have had a gun killed three people at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, leaders in this room voted unanimously to keep health centers across America open the next day.

The CEO, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains made a promise to patients in Colorado and beyond when she said: 'Our doors – and our hearts – stay open.'

That is really what Planned Parenthood is all about.

So today, I want to say something you don't hear often enough: thank you.

Thank you for being there for women, no matter their race, sexual orientation, or immigration status.

Thank you for being there for Natarsha McQueen in Brooklyn, who told me how Planned Parenthood caught her breast cancer when she was just 33 years old, and saved her life.

Thank you for being there for college students getting STD testing. The young people who have the tough questions that they're afraid to ask their parents. The sexual assault survivors who turn to Planned Parenthood for compassionate care. The transgender teens who come for an appointment and find the first place where they can truly be themselves.

Thank you for being there for your communities – whether that means taking on hostile politicians in Louisiana or handing out clean drinking water in Flint, Michigan.

And thank you for being there for every woman in every state who has to miss work; drive hundreds of miles sometimes; endure cruel, medically unnecessary waiting periods; walk past angry protesters to exercise her constitutional right to safe and legal abortion.

I've been proud to stand with Planned Parenthood for a long time. And as president, I will always have your back.

Because I know for a century, Planned Parenthood has worked to make sure that the women, men, young people who count on you can lead their best lives – healthy, safe and free to follow their dreams.

Just think when Planned Parenthood was founded, women couldn't vote or serve on juries in most states. It was illegal even to provide information about birth control, let alone prescribe it.

But people marched and organized. They protested unjust laws and, in some cases, even went to prison. And slowly but surely, America changed for the better.
51 years ago this week, thanks to a Planned Parenthood employee named Estelle Griswold, the Supreme Court legalized birth control for married couples across America. When I used to teach law, and I would point to this case, a look of total bewilderment would come across my students' faces. And not long after that, Roe v. Wade guaranteed the right to safe, legal abortion.

So young women were no longer dying in emergency rooms and back alleys from botched, illegal abortions. And this is a fact that is not often heard, but I hope you will repeat it: America's maternal mortality rate dropped dramatically.

And it turns out, being able to plan their families not only saved women's lives, it also transformed them – because it meant that women were able to get educations, build careers, enter new fields, and rise as far as their talent and hard work would take them – all the opportunities that follow when women are able to stay healthy and choose whether and when to become mothers.

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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, May 17, 2016
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Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Terrorism; death; injury] The Islamic State continues to violently and viciously terrorize Iraqi civilians: "A wave of bombings struck outdoor markets and a restaurant in Shiite-dominated neighborhoods of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 69 people, officials said—the latest in deadly militant attacks far from the front lines in the country’s north and west where Iraqi forces are battling the Islamic State group. In an online statement, IS claimed responsibility only for the deadliest bombing of the day, which took place in Baghdad's northeastern Shaab neighborhood and where at least 34 people were killed and 75 others were wounded. ...Tuesday's bombings were just the latest in a wave of attacks in Baghdad and surrounding areas that has left more than 200 dead over the past week." Goddammit. I take up space in solidarity with the people of Iraq. I feel so utterly helpless, but my thoughts are with them.

Today, there are Democratic primaries in Kentucky and Oregon. "The Kentucky Democratic primary will award 60 delegates to go to the party's convention in Philadelphia while Oregon's primary will award 74. Kentucky's primary is closed, meaning only registered Democratic voters can participate. In Oregon, voters cast ballots entirely by mail."

Here's a cool headline: "Poll: Trump narrows Clinton's lead nationally to 3 points." That is actually not a narrow lead for a US presidential election! They are generally very close! Even closer than that! In fact: "We searched through all of the data to determine what the true state of the race is, and a single narrative has emerged—not only is the general election race not closing, it has widened in Hillary's favor in recent months. From December to February, by all accounts, this race was actually a close one. If the media are reporting now that the race is very close, it makes me wonder what they thought about the race over that time period." Spoiler Alert: They thought that she would win easily. "If this does not make sense to you, you are not alone. Somehow, when the race is separated by 5-7 points, it is a neck-and-neck horse-race but when the race was only separated by two points, it was a runaway. Let me propose a different idea—that now that the Republican nominee has been decided, a horse-race is a more compelling story to generate interest than a blowout of the type that is forecast under current polling levels." Huh.

[CN: Transphobia] Donald Trump is totally incoherent, as usual: "Trump gave an interview to the Washington Post on Monday saying he would rescind President Obama's sweeping directive to U.S. schools on transgender rights but said that trans people need to be protected." So how is he going to protect them? Magic? Fuck this guy.

Ian Millhiser on how "LGBT Rights Just Won an Unexpected Victory Despite Clarence Thomas." Yay!

In other SCOTUS news: "Supreme Court Punts on Birth Control Benefit Challenges." As always, the inimitable Jessica Mason Pieklo has the lowdown at the link.

[CN: Police brutality] Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has announced he will disband Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority and create a Civilian Police Investigation Agency. "Lori Lightfoot, who led the task force investigation, told the Chicago Tribune that while Emanuel's announcement is an important step, 'the devil will be in the details. How it will be different [from IPRA] is a fundamentally important question.'" Indeed.

[CN: Wildfire] Fuck: "Around 12,000 people have been urged to leave Canada's oil sands camps near the fire-hit town of Fort McMurray as a resurgent wildfire heads towards them. A regional official told the BBC that 8,000 people were given precautionary evacuation orders late on Monday, in addition to some 4,000 who had already been advised to leave. More than 80,000 people fled the fire that hit Fort McMurray two weeks ago. Air pollution in the Alberta city is still at dangerously high levels. A reading on Monday found the level to be 38—far exceeding the provincial index's most dangerous level of 10. The vast fire had moved away from Fort McMurray but in recent days it has started to threaten the area again."

[CN: Animal endangerment] Sadface: "The vaquita [the world's smallest porpoise] is the most endangered marine mammal on Earth, and according to a panel of scientists that's been tracking the animal's dwindling numbers, it's now teetering dangerously close to extinction. In a statement released on Friday, the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita announced that only 60 vaquitas are left in the wild. This represents a decline of more than 92 percent since 1997. Without a dramatic improvement in conservation efforts, this porpoise will be wiped off the face of the planet by 2022. 'We are watching this precious native species disappear before our eyes,' said panel chairman Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho."

Twitter will reportedly "soon stop counting photos and links as part of its 140-character limit for messages, according to a person familiar with the matter. The change could happen in the next two weeks, said the person who asked not to be named because the decision isn't yet public. Links currently take up 23 characters, even after Twitter automatically shortens them. The company declined to comment." That seems like an uncharacteristically good idea from Twitter, who are usually intent on making changes that significantly worsen the user experience.

[CN: Rape culture] Hey, Adrien Brody, why don't you shut the fuck up? (Short version: Brody doesn't want to concern himself with the indiscretions, ahem, of famous men like Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, and Bill Cosby.)

And finally! Dog and cat are BFFs and nap buddies. Awwwww!

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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, March 30, 2016
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Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: War on agency; reproductive coercion] This is a must-read piece by Sharona Coutts at Rewire: "A Rewire investigation has found that at the center of the drama that unfolded in AJ's life was a document produced by Life Dynamics, the prominent anti-choice group that is based in Denton, Texas, which receives the majority of its funding from the fracking billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks. The Wilks brothers are also the main backers of Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. The document is a bogus 'notice' that tricks women into believing they have signed away their legal rights to receive an abortion. Providers throughout the country have told Rewire that this document has been used for years to deceive and intimidate both patients and providers by threatening them with legal action should they go through with obtaining or providing an abortion. In AJ's case, the tactic did not work. But her story is an illustration of the intrusive and dishonest techniques used by anti-choice activists to deprive women of their constitutional rights." Fucking hell.

[CN: Racism; police brutality] Goddammit: "A Minneapolis county attorney has decided not to press charges against two officers involved in the shooting of unarmed black man Jamar Clark in November 2015. Clark, 24, was shot by police in November following an altercation with two officers just yards from the precinct headquarters, and died a day later from his injuries. Police said that he was shot during a struggle, but some eyewitnesses said he was already in handcuffs. Family members later described the shooting as 'execution-style.' However, county attorney Michael Freeman said that the evidence did not suggest Clark was handcuffed at the time of his shooting, and that he was reaching for one of the officers' gun at the time. He also said that Clark told the officers: 'I am ready to die.'"

[CN: Policing] "The 74's Matt Barnum examined public records for the nation's ten largest school districts to uncover one important statistic: the ratio of counselors to security personnel. What he found sheds light on where the districts—each of which counts students of color as the majority—choose to invest their time and funds. Of the largest five districts, three have more officers than counselors. They are New York City, Chicago, and Miami-Dade. When the scope is widened to the top ten, four fall into the same category." Emphasis mine.

Last night at the Republican townhall, all three remaining candidates "stepped back from their earlier pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee during Tuesday night's CNN town hall." Welp!

[CN: Sexual assault; racism] Yesterday at a Trump rally in Wisconsin, a 15-year-old girl "was groped and then pepper sprayed in the face after pushing away her assailant... A vibrant orange spray of oleoresin capsicum blasted the girl in the face after she shoved a man who was packed among dozens of pro-Trump supporters shouting 'All Lives Matters' outside the Janesville event Tuesday. Janesville cops believe the pepper sprayer was a bearded man with glasses wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat seen in video footage. ...No suspect information was immediately available as of early Tuesday, but authorities were seeking two men, one sought for the alleged sexual assault and the other accused of spraying the girl's face." That would be on the same day Trump was using rape apologia to defend his campaign manager on charges of gendered violence. Not incidentally.

Meanwhile, Trump is on the cover of People magazine, and insists "I'm a much nicer person than people would think." Yeah, I doubt that.

[CN: Misogyny] Another one by me at Blue Nation Review: "Zombie Frame: The False Narrative of Hillary's 'Enthusiasm Gap' Just Won't Die." To continue stating this false narrative is not only unfair to Clinton, but does a grave disservice to her supporters, whose enthusiastic support is being invisibilized. Many of these voters are from communities most likely to be disenfranchised at the polls, and now the media is adding insult to injury by rhetorical disenfranchising them. It really, really needs to stop.

In other Clinton news: "Beyoncé Gets a Surprise Visit from Hillary Clinton While Filming New Music Video." OMG!

In news we all know, but here are the numbers: "It's Really Hard to Get Bernie Sanders 988 More Delegates."

[NB: Not all men have penises. Not all people with penises are men.] "Finally! Reversible male birth control! All guys have to do is get an injection in their peni— yeah, this is never happening. The option, however, will soon be available for men who want to bear some of the responsibility of internal birth control methods. ...[A]fter years of development, Vasalgel emerged as a viable male birth control that, once injected into the penis, blocks sperm from leaving through the vas deferens. The gel essentially creates a temporary, painless vasectomy."

[CN: Misogyny; abuse] This article about what it was like for Meryl Streep working on Kramer vs. Kramer is fucking incredible. Dustin Hoffman seems like a real piece of work. And by "real piece of work," I mean abusive shithead.

RIP Patty Duke: "Patty Duke, who won a supporting actress Oscar playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, starred in 1960s sitcom The Patty Duke Show, and served as president of SAG, died Tuesday. She was 69. Her manager, Mitchell Stubbs, confirmed that she died early Tuesday of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. 'She was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a mental health advocate, and a cultural icon. She will be greatly missed,' Stubbs said."

"On March 17, Gerrit Kernbauer, an amateur astronomer in Mödling, Austria, was taking video of Jupiter using a 20 cm telescope. This is a common technique to capture thousands of frames of an object, so that the best parts of each frame can be teased out to create a high-resolution image, removing the distorting effects of the atmosphere. But he got more than he expected. At 00:18:33 UTC he captured what looks very much like the impact of a small comet or asteroid into Jupiter!" Ouch!

And finally! I love this: "What Are Cats Trying to Tell Us? Science Will Explain."

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SCOTUS: Zubik v. Burwell

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, March 30, 2016
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[Content Note: War on agency.]

Rather than handing down a ruling on the birth control case Zubik v. Burwell yesterday, the Supreme Court instead handed down a very curious order requesting further briefing. Ian Millhiser explains:

Last week, at oral arguments in this case, the Court appeared likely to split 4-4 in this case — potentially creating a chaotic situation where a woman's right to birth control coverage could depend upon which state she lived in and which regional appeals court considered her employer's obligations under the law. Tuesday's order appears to be an effort to warn off that circumstance.

The order instructs the parties in Zubik and a bevy of related cases to "file supplemental briefs that address whether and how contraceptive coverage may be obtained by petitioners' employees through petitioners' insurance companies, but in a way that does not require any involvement of petitioners beyond their own decision to provide health insurance without contraceptive coverage to their employees" ("petitioners" in this case, refers to the employers who object to birth control).

...[The alternative solution proposed by the Court] would require a religious objector to "inform their insurance company that they do not want their health plan to include contraceptive coverage" at the time when they initially contract with the insurance company. If that seems like a mighty fine hair to split, that's because it is. It's not entirely clear why an employer who is upset by the government's form would suddenly feel better because they are allowed to notify their insurance company of their objection in a different way.

If the Court is, in fact, willing to accept this solution, however, that could be a win for the government — and for women seeking access to birth control.

...The catch, however, is that it may not be possible for the federal government to put such a solution in place, at least without a change to federal law. Employer benefits are governed by complex federal statutes such as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The Obama administration found authorization for its current rules in the existing ERISA statute, but it is not entirely clear that current law will enable them to move forward with the idiosyncratic solution described in the Supreme Court's Tuesday order. Indeed, it is likely that one reason that the Court asked for additional briefing in this case was to determine whether the government has the authority to implement the justices' preferred solution under ERISA.
All of this, of course, could be avoided if we could all just agree that if you have a religious objection to birth control, don't use it yourself, but your personal belief is irrelevant in determining what sort of coverage you are required to provide to your employees who may not share those beliefs.

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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, March 24, 2016
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Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: War crimes] "Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been convicted of genocide and war crimes during the 1992-95 war, and sentenced to 40 years in jail. UN judges in The Hague found him guilty of 10 of 11 charges, including genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Karadzic, 70, is the most senior political figure to face judgement over the violent collapse of Yugoslavia. His case is being seen as one of the most important war crimes trials since World War Two."

[CN: War on agency] Jessica Mason Pieklo again has a must-read piece on the latest from Zubik v. Burwell at the Supreme Court: "Oral Arguments in the Birth Control Benefit Case Show a Court Concerned with Appearances over Facts: As we've seen time and time again, for the conservatives on the Roberts Court, women's autonomy is, at most, an afterthought."

[CN: Human rights violations] Jamil Smith on why President Obama needed to go to Cuba: "The reason Obama's visit ends up mattering is visibility. Having our lens trained not just on Cuba but on its people may be the true tipping point that helps further a human-rights campaign there, a process no one pretends a three-day presidential visit will solve. ...[T]he idea that Obama's visit there alone legitimizes the Castro regime seems overblown, especially in lieu of any better alternatives. A presidential visit is less a gesture than a diplomatic tool; the applause heard throughout Cuba wherever Obama went is a sign that it was well received by the people. And besides, the U.S. cannot limit its diplomatic sorties to countries that abuse human rights but also have things we need (like oil). The American public and the next administration should continue progressing in relations with Cuba well after Obama's presidency is over, but due to both his symbolic and tangible powers as president, we needed Obama to get this process started. It isn't a historic moment if he's not there, and without that moment, Cuban citizens and their struggles for liberty aren't back in the spotlight."

[CN: Homophobia] Fuck fuck FUCK: "Nebraska lawmakers yesterday voted 26-18 to shelve a bill (LB586) that would ban workplace discrimination against LGBT employees. The devastating blow for gay rights in Nebraska happened on Wednesday, the same day the North Carolina Senate voted to ban all cities in the state from enacting LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances. The NC ban also voids all current LGBT rights ordinances on the books in North Carolina, such as the recently passed measure in Charlotte. Nebraska Senator Adam Morfeld (above), who introduced the bill, has said that although his measure also lacked enough support to pass last year, he will continue to introduce it as long as he is in office."

[CN: War on agency; harassment] Rage seethe boil: "The federal investigation into the unfounded claim that Planned Parenthood profits off of fetal tissue donations has taken an even darker turn. A House committee led by anti-abortion Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is on the verge of issuing 17 subpoenas to medical companies to gather the names of medical researchers, graduate students, laboratory technicians, and administrative staff who are in any way involved in fetal tissue research. ...This new focus—that many say threaten the lives and livelihood of anyone involved in research that uses fetal tissue—openly exhibits the GOP's wild mission to find someone to hold accountable for a baseless accusation made in a few discredited attack videos. The attack has spiraled so far into broad areas of the medical industry, it's almost hard to remember it's solely rooted in lawmaker's beliefs about abortion. The researchers and technicians in question fear this attack could effectively halt critical research that depends on fetal tissue samples—including researching cures for the Zika virus, Parkinson's disease, HIV, and many other fatal conditions. Of course, many also fear that making the researchers' names public could seriously endanger their lives." Pro-life my fat fucking ass.

Neat! "The bright spots of Ceres continue to be a source of fascination for astronomers, professional and amateur alike. Now, NASA has provided the most detailed images yet of the strange structures."

[CN: Descriptions of violence, racism, and misogynist exploitation] This review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is incredible. I can't wait to never watch that film!

This will probably be my favorite thing I read all day: "No buts about it, the butthole is one of the finest innovations in the past 
540 million years of animal evolution." A+

And finally! "Hospital Starts Using Therapy Dogs to Help Stressed Staff." Awwww. Good dog.

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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, March 23, 2016
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Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: War; drones; death] "At least 50 militants were killed in a U.S. air strike on an al Qaeda training camp in the mountains of southern Yemen, medics and a local official said on Wednesday. The attack took place as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) recruits queued for dinner at the camp, west of the port city of Mukalla on Yemen's south coast. The Pentagon said on Tuesday that a U.S. air strike on an AQAP training camp had killed dozens of fighters but it gave no further details. The Yemeni sources said that at least 50 people were killed and 30 wounded. The air strikes set off huge fires inside the camp, residents said. ...The United States has frequently targeted al Qaeda militants across Yemen with drone strikes, killing many prominent leaders of the group over the past few years." It's incredible to me that this isn't major news. Most USians have no idea that this not-war in Yemen is even going on.

[CN: War on agency] Today, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Zubik v. Burwell, which is the second direct challenge to the Affordable Care Act's contraception benefit. Jessica Mason Pieklo has "Everything You Need to Know for the Supreme Court Birth Control Case."

[CN: Police brutality; misogynoir] This fucking guy: "A fired Texas trooper pleaded not guilty to a charge of misdemeanor perjury stemming from his arrest last summer of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was later found dead in a county jail. Brian Encinia entered his plea on Tuesday during a brief appearance before a Waller County judge as protesters gathered outside the courthouse in Hempstead, about 50 miles northwest of Houston. One held a sign that read: 'What happened to Sandra Bland?' About 20 protesters yelled 'Tell the truth' and 'Sandra still speaks,' and at one point directed their chanting at Waller County sheriff Glenn Smith, who stood nearby speaking with reporters. ...Encinia's attorney, Larkin Eakin, said after Tuesday's arraignment that the perjury charge 'represents a fundamental misunderstanding of law enforcement procedures.' He said Encinia acted properly during the July 2015 traffic stop and subsequent arrest of Bland." Bullshit he did.

Winter isn't done with all of us yet: "Heavy snow and howling winds, gusting over 40 mph, brought traffic to a standstill this morning in Denver as a major spring storm wound up in the western Plains. The storm is forecast to unload well over 6 inches of snow in a stripe extending from Denver to Green Bay. In the storm's warm sector in the southern and central Plains, severe thunderstorms may erupt this afternoon and evening." Stay safe, everyone!

In presidential news: Jeb Bush has endorsed Ted Cruz, because of course he has. "Ted is a consistent, principled conservative." Sure. He's got consistently garbage principles.

[CN: Misogyny] And on the other side of the aisle: "Here's Bernie Sanders and a Radio Host Joking About Checking out a Topless Woman." Cool.

Here's a terrific picture of a 101-year-old lady who supports Hillary Clinton, holding two signs: One reading '101 Years Young and Voting for Hillary' and another reading 'Centenarian for Hillary." Can you even imagine?! 101 years old and getting to vote for a female presidential candidate for the first time!

RIP Malik Taylor, aka Phife Dawg, from A Tribe Called Quest. My condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, and fans.

If you're a tennis fan, at least you can keep rooting for Andy Murray! "I think there should be equal pay, 100 percent, at all combined events... One of the things Novak said was that if women are selling more seats and tickets they should make more but at a tournament like this, for example, if Serena is playing on centre court and you have a men's match with [Sergiy] Stakhovsky playing, people are coming to watch Serena. The crowds are coming to watch the women as well. The whole thing just doesn't stack up." A+

And finally! A massive two-day ASPCA adoption event resulted in all 524 homeless dogs and cats being adopted: "Owen, an older, heartworm positive dog, was one of the remaining pets. On Saturday, he had the special honor of being the last dog to leave. He was adopted by Angel K. and her 14-year-old daughter, who chose Owen as a companion for Angel's husband, a former police officer and army veteran who served five tours in Iraq. A sea of 170 ASPCA responders—singing, 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow'—parted as Angel walked Owen through. ...At 1:40 P.M. Saturday, the last available cat, Avocado, went home with Kim and Stewart K. of Sanford, in honor of the couple's twelfth wedding anniversary. 'She's our gift to each other,' said Stewart, as he and Kim posed with responders for a final photo. 'We'll make her feel at home.' The bell rang one last time." I literally just cried my face off. ♥ ♥ ♥

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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, March 21, 2016
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Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Rape; war crimes] "The International Criminal Court broke new ground Monday by adding rape to a war crimes conviction, finding the former vice president of Congo guilty of abuses—including sexual crimes—in connection with a militia intervention in the neighboring Central African Republic. It was the first time the Netherlands-based court has convicted anyone of sexual violence since it was launched in 2002, raising the possibility of future prosecutions that include accusations of rape and related abuses as elements of war. 'The judgment sends a clear message that impunity for sexual violence as a tool of war will not be tolerated,' said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International deputy regional director for West and Central Africa." This is incredibly good and very important news.

[CN: War on agency] A must-read by Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo on "The Right's Ongoing Battle Against the Birth Control Benefit: The Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in the second direct challenge to the birth control benefit in the Affordable Care Act. It's a fight that's been years in the making."

[CN: Guns] Good grief: "Supreme Court justices are nominated by the president and appointed with the advice and consent of the National Rifle Association, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). McConnell offered this unusual view of the confirmation process during an interview with Fox News Sunday. In response to a question from host Chris Wallace, who asked if Senate Republicans would consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court after the election if Hillary Clinton prevails, McConnell responded that he 'can't imagine that a Republican majority in the United States Senate would want to confirm, in a lame duck session, a nominee opposed by the National Rifle Association [and] the National Federation of Independent Businesses.'"

LOL DAMN: Senator Elizabeth Warren lets loose on Donald Trump: "Let's be honest—Donald Trump is a loser. Count all his failed businesses. See how he kept his father's empire afloat by cheating people with scams like Trump University and by using strategic corporate bankruptcy (excuse me, bankruptcies) to skip out on debt. Listen to the experts who've concluded he's so bad at business that he might have more money today if he'd put his entire inheritance into an index fund and just left it alone. Trump seems to know he's a loser. His embarrassing insecurities are on parade: petty bullying, attacks on women, cheap racism, and flagrant narcissism. But just because Trump is a loser everywhere else doesn't mean he'll lose this election. People have been underestimating his campaign for nearly a year—and it's time to wake up."

[CN: Climate change] Welp: "New polls indicate that concern for environmental issues has risen ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Americans are taking global warming more seriously now than at any period in the last eight years, according to Gallup's annual environment survey. Sixty-four percent of Americans said that they are either worried a 'great deal' or 'fair amount' about global warming. At this time in 2015, only 55 percent of Americans said they felt this way." I can't believe it's still only 64%, but at least we're moving in the right direction.

[CN: Misogyny] In women's tennis: "Before Sunday's finals at the BNP Paribas Open, current tournament director Raymond Moore told reporters that the women 'ride on the coattails of the men.' He later issued a written apology." I'm sure he's real sorry. Naturally, the "controversy" (as rank misogyny in sports is always euphemized) did not end there: "World number one Novak Djokovic says male tennis players should earn more money than their female counterparts because more people watch them play." He seems neat.

Cool: "There's something truly unique happening in the space around our planet this week as a pair of comets, which may be 'twin' space rocks that broke apart at some point, make two of the closest passes by Earth in modern history. To add a little to the cosmic drama, the larger of the twins is coming in much brighter than expected. So bright, in fact, that it may be possible to see it with the naked eye. ...Earth won't quite be hosting a family reunion, but the two comets will be passing by in pretty quick succession, especially on the galactic scale. First up is 252P/LINEAR, approximately 750 feet (230 meters) in size, flying by us on Monday at a distance of about 3.3 million miles (5.2 million kilometers). Then on Tuesday, the newly discovered comet P/2016 BA14 will pass us at a distance of about 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers). This will be the third-closest flyby of a comet in recorded history."

And finally! "A nocturnal 'cat burglar' has been stealing dozens of socks and men's underwear in New Zealand. In two months, six-year-old Tonkinese cat Brigit from Hamilton city brought back 11 pairs of underpants and more than 50 socks. Her owner, Sarah Nathan, has documented her feline's strange obsession on a widely shared Facebook post. ...Ms Nathan told the BBC that the trouble first began when she started discovering 'odd pieces' of underwear among her washing. 'They didn't belong to anyone in the house and one day Brigit walked into our lounge carrying a sock like a kitten,' she said, adding that Brigit's unlucky victims were probably a nearby flat 'full of blokes.' ...'Brigit doesn't hunt birds or wildlife so it seems unnecessary and our neighbours have been very good natured about it. But we are moving to the country soon so hopefully she will run out of opportunity!" LOL. Oh cats.

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Yes

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Tuesday, November 17, 2015
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[Content Note: War on agency. NB: Not only women need access to oral contraceptives.]

The Guttmacher Institute's Sneha Barot examines "Moving Oral Contraceptives to Over-the-Counter Status." I'm not even going to excerpt it. Just go read the whole thing.

I will say once again: The Guttmacher Institute is a national treasure.

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Your Progressive Pope

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, September 24, 2015
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[Content Note: War on agency; Christian Supremacy; racism.]

Maybe everyone can all take a break for two seconds from talking about how SUPERCOOL AWESOME LIBERAL Pope Francis is to talk about this shit:

Pope Francis made an unscheduled stop to visit the Little Sisters of the Poor Wednesday, a move that Vatican officials said was intended to send a message of support in the nuns' battle against Obamacare.

The religious order of Catholic sisters is suing the Obama administration over a provision of the Affordable Care Act that the administration has interpreted as requiring the sisters to purchase health insurance with birth control coverage.

...Francis met with the sisters at their Washington convent next door to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where he celebrated a canonization Mass for St. Junipero Serra. The private meeting was not on the pope's public schedule and was only disclosed afterward.

"This is a sign, obviously, of support for them," said the Vatican Press Secretary, Rev. Federico Lombardi.
Just a cool unannounced stop to signal his support for denying access to contraception during a trip centered around the canonization of "an extreme and unapologetic abuser of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Coast."

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In the News

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Wednesday, June 17, 2015
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Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Racism; anti-immigrant sentiment; class warfare] I don't even know where to begin with this story; the sheer scope of what's happening is breathtaking: "Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are facing deportation from the Dominican Republic, the latest in a series of actions by the government that have cast a light on the country's long-troubled relationship with its Haitian neighbors. Undocumented workers in the Dominican Republic had until Wednesday to register their presence in the country, in the hope of being allowed to stay. The government says nearly 240,000 migrant workers born outside the Dominican Republic have started the registration process. But there are an estimated 524,000 foreign-born migrant workers in the country—about 90 percent of whom are Haitian, according to a 2012 survey—leaving a huge population of migrants at risk of deportation. Human rights groups had hoped the government would delay the registration deadline, given the difficulties faced by many in producing documents and satisfying bureaucratic requirements. But there were no indications that the authorities would stall their plan to begin ejecting workers." This is happening right outside the US, and there has been hardly a peep about it in US media. Absolutely awful.

[CN: War on agency] It continues to be a real mystery why Republicans aren't connecting with a majority of female voters: "House Republicans released a budget proposal this week that would eliminate funding for the Title X program, a decades-old network of family planning providers offering birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing, and reproductive health treatment to millions of low-income women across the country." When they want to prevent access to abortion and access to contraception, there is little room for them to deny that they simply want to force women (and other people who can get pregnant) to have babies, irrespective of our desire to have them.

[CN: Water access] Fuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh: "The world's largest underground aquifers–a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people—are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth's surface. Twenty-one of the world's 37 largest aquifers—in locations from India and China to the United States and France—have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday. ...Scientists had long suspected that humans were taxing the world's underground water supply, but the NASA data was the first detailed assessment to demonstrate that major aquifers were indeed struggling to keep pace with demands from agriculture, growing populations, and industries such as mining. 'The situation is quite critical,' said Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and principal investigator of the University of California Irvine-led studies."

[CN: Class warfare; carcerality] Over 80% of people charged with a felony crime in the US are indigent and thus qualify for, and must rely on, representation by a public defender. But: "According to the US Department of Justice, in 2007, about 73% of county public defender offices exceeded the maximum recommended limit of cases (150 felonies or 400 misdemeanors). Too often, those who are poor receive lower quality defense than those who have the means to pay. The on-going decimation of public defense prevents defense attorneys from conducting 'core functions,' including factual investigation into the underlying charges." Public defense is a right, but it's just a worthless promise if public defenders aren't empowered to do their jobs effectively.

[CN: Racism; appropriation] This is a great article in which Stacey Patton interviews other female academics about Rachel Dolezal's fraud. Two quotes I liked in particular: Kinitra D. Brooks, an assistant professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio: "I have three words for Rachel Dolezal: How dare you? As black feminists, we have to work so hard just to be accepted and to have our critical theories considered valid. Her falsity can color what so many have previously argued as the supposed illegitimacy of black feminist scholarship." And Jennifer Griffiths, an associate professor of English at the New York Institute of Technology: "As a white woman professor who has focused on race issues in my scholarship and teaching, I feel like she avoided the hard, ongoing process of addressing her white privilege as part of work toward racial equality. Dolezal took it to a whole new level of arrogance about the ability to know someone else's experience, and to me, that's a kind of violation and betrayal that undermines any good intention."

[CN: Transphobia; gender policing] Bangkok University is letting its trans students wear whichever one of its binary-designed student uniforms that they prefer. This is a pretty nifty solution while the tradition of requiring uniforms is maintained. It would be pretty cool if they'd also let anyone who identifies as female wear trousers.

[CN: Injury; abuse; violence against people and animals] This is a truly bizarre story about a military doctor who has been abusing trainees, raising red flags for years, but somehow still "earning at least $10.5 million in federal contracts since 2007 through his company." Fucking hell.

Philae news! "European scientists are planning a risky manoeuvre to get their Rosetta spacecraft closer to the comet it is orbiting, so it can communicate with its robotic lander on the surface and start experiments that could unlock some of the universe's secrets. The lander, called Philae, surprised scientists at the weekend by waking up and sending a signal to Earth. ...With the comet moving closer to the sun, scientists hope Philae will be able to generate enough power to resume its pre-programmed experiments. But in order to receive the data, Rosetta will have to get closer to the comet." *bites nails*

We need bees. We need them big time. We need to protect them.

And finally! Chelsea the Golden Retriever jumped in to save her family during an accidental encounter with a mama moose protecting her two calves. Who's a good doggy?! YOU ARE, CHELSEA!

Open Wide...
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