Hosted by a Cookie Monster cupcake.
Open Thread
Hosted by Sarah Jane Smith.
This week's open threads have been hosted by the women of classic Doctor Who.
Saturday YouTubery
I found this earlier this week and have watched it at least twice a day since.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Daily Dose of Cute
Various scenes of cuteness around Shakes Manor (and one clip from the dog park). Starring Sophie, Olivia, Matilda, and Dudley—with special guest star Sam. Set to Dustin O'Halloran's "Opus 36."
An Observation
From the fuckery of garbage nightmare governors in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, and elsewhere, to the brazen and relentless attack on reproductive rights, to the total abdication of every last shred of concern for US workers, and beyond, I literally cannot believe what is going on in US politics right now.
Even given my professional-grade cynicism, the GOP is managing to shock (and awe) me.
The Overton Window: Chapter Forty-One
Oh my fucking god! Chapter forty-one! Finally! Something happens! Woo hoo!
As I recall, the last time something happened was back in chapter twelve with the mêlée at the teabagger bar. There was a gunshot and Hollis got tazed (where is Hollis anyway?) and Noah got bonked on the head. He's sort of been groggy since. I think we all have, really. So, now, nearly thirty chapters later, something else happens. Good thing too, as we're about forty pages from the end.
Their model bomb wasn't that heavy, maybe eighty or one hundred pounds, but it was unwieldy to carry between them. When they came within sight of the men they were here to meet—and like last time, there were only four of them, not the expected five—one of them motioned to a spot on the ground to show where they should leave their burden. When they got to that spot, they put it down.
"When they got to that spot, they put it down." Yes, more quality exposition. And model bomb? It's still a model bomb? At this point no one is confused about the functionality of the nuke, are they? It's too fucking late to introduce some other plot device into this story. So let's stop pretending this thing is a mystery.
The men have automatic weapons and one has "brand-new-looking satchel at his feet, a bag of the sort that might be holding their twenty thousand dollars for the exchange." What they don't have is names. Or even descriptions. There's some exposition about their demeanor coming up, but they are hardly even characters. Just props. Cardboard cutouts just guiding the story along its course.
The armed man to the left held his gun like he'd been born with it in his hands. The other one didn't seem at all at ease, either with his weapon or his assigned enforcer's role. His hands were deep in his pockets and his rifle hung haphazardly by its sling over his shoulder, as though it had been put there against his will and he had no desire to deal with it.
Good clichés, both of those.
Upon their arrival Kearns had made a bit of small talk with each member of the group, and soon all agreed it was time to do the deal they'd come to do.
"Here's your money," said the man on the end. He'd introduced himself as Randy at their meeting the previous night.
Who is writing this? A child? No offense to children. I love children. I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside, give them a sense of pride to make it easier. Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be. And maybe they won't grow up to be conservative douchebags or hack ghostwriters.
And hey, at least one of the guys has a name now. Which Kearns learned last night but wasn't mentioned then because later saying "he'd introduced himself as Randy at their meeting the previous night" just reads so much better. Randy has the two other guys load up the bomb into their cargo truck. Danny peeks inside as they do.
Down the center, on a welded-together, waist-high metal rack, was what appeared to be a long, silvery torpedo. Not really, though; the nose was too blunt and flat and its far end was tapered and ringed by large aerodynamic fins. It looked like something from a war museum, an overbuilt piece of heavy-duty air-dropped ordnance from a bygone era of the Cold War.
That wasn't all. Tucked back in the corner, away from the light, some thing was wrapped up and bound in a black plastic tarp on the floor. It could have been a lot of things, but to Danny's current frame of mind, what it looked like most was an occupied body bag.
From a bygone era of the Cold War? I thought the Cold War was a bygone era. Why can't the author just say what he means, instead of trying to fluff everything up? At least avoid using confusing and vague notions to describe things. If the bomb looks like it's from the Fifties, just say the bomb looks like it's from the Fifties, not "from a long since-passed epoch in humankind's seeming eternal history of civilization" or whatever.
A loud ringtone from the phone on the belt of the man named Randy broke the silence. He held up a polite index finger, as if to say, Sorry, I've got to take this, turned, took a half step away, and answered.
Ringtones. Yes. Everyone says that now. "Pardon me, but your phone is ringtoning. Did you hear your phone ringtone? Give me a call, I'll be listening for the ringtone." Very natural. And thanks for explaining that the ringtoning came "from the phone on the belt of the man named Randy." I guess it was too much to just say "Randy's phone rang" or whatever. Quality exposition.
Randy, the one still on the phone, looked back over his shoulder.
He was listening intently, not talking; his eyes went first to Stuart Kearns, and then over to Danny, and then he turned back around, with his back to them, as he'd been before. A few more seconds passed, and still facing away, Randy's free hand came up slowly and touched the shoulder of the man to his right, the mouthy guy who looked like he just couldn't wait for the lead to start flying.
And that was it.
Here's where something happens. Something happens! Oh, the excitement!
When you've practiced enough it gets to look like one fluid motion, but there are four distinct parts to a quick draw, at least to the one that Molly had taught him. In the beginning the count is slow and you stop between the steps so your teacher can make sure you've got them right. After a few months and several thousand repeats, though, it starts to go so fast that if you blink, you might miss it.
Danny's right hand swept back to clear his clothing and found the pistol grip just where he'd left it; he pulled the weapon free and brought it forward, the barrel coming parallel to the ground and his left hand joining the solid grasp; he extended toward center-mass of his target with the iron sight rising level to his eye; and at the end of the forward movement, as it all came together at his ideal firing position, without a pause he squeezed the trigger to its stop.
The boom of their first two shots was almost simultaneous, though Kearns had a much easier draw from his pocket. They'd chosen the same primary target, the man to whom Randy had given his too-obvious go-ahead, the guy who would have cut them in half with a hail of bullets if they'd given him half a chance to shoot first. As Kearns took off to his left, still firing, their designated executioner was crumpling backward, likely dead on his feet, but surely out of commission.
Kearns runs, fires, as does Bailey. "Danny dropped to the ground in a shallow gully he heard a tire explode and the windows shatter in their van just behind him." Woo! Just like the movies. Especially the bit where the "jagged line of bullet impacts stitched across the sand toward him." Does that really happen? I know it does on TV, but I'd think in real life that would mean your aim was way off.
By the end of things, "three of the men were lying motionless on the ground, and one was unaccounted for." (And no, I'm not sure if The Man Named Randy is one of the dead.) Whoever is alive starts up the cargo van, and speeds off. Kearns jumps in back and Bailey gives chase.
As the truck dropped into gear and started to roll Danny got to his feet and ran for it. The faster he ran the faster it went, and it had nearly accelerated to the point of no return when he caught up to the tailgate, stumbled forward to get a grasp on to Stuart Kearns' extended hand, and felt himself pulled up and in.
Oh my! Wasn't that exciting? What will happen next? I can't wait!
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Matilda, Olivia, and Sophie, because James Franco CAT.
Recommended Reading:
Andy: Navy Trying to Do an End-Run Around DADT Repeal?
Melissa: Review: Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La Frontera [TW for violence, exploitation, and racism]
Jolene: Interview on Arab Feminism with Professor Rabab al-Mahdi [TW for misogyny, xenophobia, exceptionalism, homophobia, violence, and body policing]
Richard: The Ugly Face of Islamophobia in Orange County, California [TW for xenophobia, violence, harassment]
Melissa: Emily Blunt and Matt Damon Are Cool
Frances: Queen Latifah as Ursula
Heads up San Francisco Shakers! Little Light: Upcoming Event: Girl Talk, A Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue
Leave your links in comments...
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
[Trigger warning for racism.]
Actual Headline: Are whites racially oppressed?
(Note: It's not that the article itself is so terrible, although it's not great at teasing out central issues like privilege and projection. This is really a "worst thing" just because of the manifest absurdity of the idea of whites being racially oppressed.)
I could spend the next six hours talking about what complete bullshit this entire premise is, but instead I'm just going to make a few quick observations and then turn it over to you to discuss in comments.
— Sheer numbers will turn white people into a technical minority in the US long before white people actually lose the benefits that institutional racism grants them.
— The dispossession of poor whites is a legitimate class issue, which the GOP has endeavored to mendaciously reframe as a race issue, so that they might then summarily exploit white insecurity to support their classist agenda. This is the very crux of how the GOP has successfully convinced so many poor whites to vote against their own interests; exploiting this insecurity is the heart of the Southern Strategy.
— See also: The decimation of unions.
— Not only do working class and poor whites consistently pick the wrong allies, they misidentify their villains. Our president is black, but the standard-issue skin tone of the ruling elite, in the Beltway and on Wall Street, is still decidedly white.
— In my experience, there are two main reasons why (some) white people are afraid of becoming the minority: 1. They're afraid of losing their unearned privilege, and might have to find out exactly what it means to actually not have anything handed to you and actually never be given any meaningful help from your government and actually have nothing but proverbial bootstraps to navigate a world that disadvantages you; 2. They're afraid that the new majority will treat them like shit.
Yeah, well, Fraidy Whites, if you're scared of being treated exactly as you treat other people, maybe it's time to reassess your behavior.
Or, you know, whine about how you're oppressed like a bunch of pathetic babies with no agency. Whatever.
— I note, with bitter amusement, by the way, that this is yet another prime example of conservative projection, as Fraidy Whites are behaving precisely as they accuse actual racial minorities of behaving: Whining about being oppressed without cause, their complaint fueled primarily by resentment. And the Fraidy Whites would be the first people to tell you how "lazy" people of color are, but here they are shaking in their boots at the very prospect of having to achieve exclusively on the basis of hard work, without the undeserved boost that their white skin gives them.
GOPoop
That should be their new name. Some bits and pieces from the recent week:
Did you know that Bootstraps™ are actually bezoars? The GOP seems to think so, as they're nearly eliminating funding for poison control:
Eliminating nearly all the money for poison control centers would save $27 million — not even a rounding error when it comes to the deficit. Yet it is so foolish that it perfectly illustrates the thoughtlessness of the House Republican bill to cut $61 billion from the budget over the next seven months.Who needs poison control centers, right? /snort
The nation’s network of 57 poison control centers takes four million calls a year about people who may have been exposed to a toxic substance. In three-quarters of all cases, the centers are able to provide treatment advice that does not require a visit to a hospital or a doctor, saving tens of millions of dollars in medical costs.
[...]
The centers, which collect poison reports, can also act as an early warning system for pandemics or large toxic exposures, allowing a quick response.
The federal government pays about 20 percent of the cost of the centers, with states, cities and philanthropy picking up the rest. Many strapped state and local governments have cut back their financing, and experts say that the virtual elimination of federal money would force many centers to close and sharply damage the effectiveness of the national network.
The elimination of poison control funding is really, really fantastic when you also take in the news that the GOP has decided to drastically slash the EPA and gut programs that regulate air and water pollution and the enforcement of environmental laws:
The Environmental Protection Agency and global warming programs government-wide stand to lose big in the battle over the federal budget.Hey, who needs updated water and sewage systems, right? /snort Certainly not the GOPoop!
The House already passed its bill to fund the federal government for the rest of this year, and it doesn't just cut EPA programs — it also steamrolls the Obama administration's environmental policy.
The House bill would slash the EPA budget by nearly a third — more than any other agency. It would stop the agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it would gut many other programs that prevent air and water pollution and enforce environmental laws.
Senate Democrats say the bill drafted by House Republicans would hobble the EPA.
"They have essentially unleashed war against the EPA, and in doing so, they are going to hurt the American people. And we have to stop it," says Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who heads the Senate Environment Committee.
[...]
It was one of a cascade of amendments to block EPA initiatives such as restoring the Chesapeake Bay and Florida Everglades, and cleaning up coal ash waste and mountaintop coal mining.
House Republicans also took aim at climate change programs across the government. Many new House Republicans deny what scientists widely accept: Climate change will have catastrophic consequences, and people are a significant cause of it because they burn fossil fuels.
[...]
Some of the biggest EPA reductions would come in projects to update water treatment and sewage systems. Rep. Donna Edwards, a Democrat from Maryland, tried but failed to talk colleagues out of these cuts.
"Just last month out in my district, in a cold winter morning not far from Capitol Hill, a 54-inch water main broke, created massive destruction, overturned cars, destroyed businesses and left residents like me without safe drinking water for days," Edwards said.
And just to show how much they hate the environment (and Nancy Pelosi), the GOP has decided to bring back Styrofoam:
Four years after our nation's esteemed governing body decided to stop using one of the most destructive, ungreen materials in existence, our lawmakers have decided it's time to cancel the program that supported biodegradable packaging, and to bring Styrofoam back.An anonymous congressional staffer sent in pictures, which you can check out here. They also canceled the composting program, so it all heads to landfills.
Congress switched to biodegradable packaging, along with a number of other green initiatives like composting, as part of its Green the Capital program. But the program was lead by Nancy Pelosi, whom, you may have heard, is unliked in certain conservative circles. So John Boehner -- the new Speaker of the House -- and company dismantled her program, largely as a political jab.
They literally are a total garbage nightmare.
Quote of the Day
[Trigger warning for violence, exploitation, and misogyny.]
"Objectification and abuse, it follows, is not only an accepted occupational hazard for certain women, but something that men like Mr. Sheen have earned the right to indulge in. (Mr. Sheen reportedly once said that he didn't pay prostitutes for the sex; he paid them "to leave.") … On reality television, gratuitous violence and explicit sexuality are not only entertainment but a means to an end. These enthusiastically documented humiliations are positioned as necessities in the service of some final prize or larger benefit—a marriage proposal, a modeling contract, $1 million. But they also make assault and abasement seem commonplace, acceptable behavior, tolerated by women and encouraged in men."—Anna Holmes, in a must-read piece for the New York Times, "The Disposable Woman."
Polymaths for $200
This hot young Hollywood icon is no mere heartthrob; he is true Renaissance Man that the New York Times describes as "a self-promoting—and often self-mocking—polymath who is a film director, screenwriter, painter, author, performance artist and actor, with several film projects under way," currently getting a master's in film from NYU and a PhD in English from Yale, and co-teaching a course on film editing at Columbia College Hollywood called "Master Class: Editing James Franco—With James Franco."
Wrong again, Wolf Blitzer. Wrong again.
[Btw, I love this bit from the article: "Still, Mr. Franco is clearly not your average graduate student. Last semester, when he and Dr. Warner needed time to discuss a paper, Mr. Franco's personal assistant helped arrange an unusual solution. 'The only time we could find time to talk was during a train ride from New York to New Haven,' said Dr. Warner, who splits his time between the two. 'So I met him on Metro-North.'" LOL! Of course. Because James Franco.]
Open Thread: WTF Wisconsin
There's a lot going on. Here's what I've been reading this morning; as always, feel free to drop your own links into comments.
CNN—Wisconsin governor tells absent senators: Return or 1,500 get laid off:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday warned 14 absent lawmakers trying to stall his controversial budget bill to return to the state Capitol immediately to vote on the measure, or layoff notices will be sent to 1,500 public employees before the weekend.Also see the Journal-Sentinel for more on this story.
"Unfortunately, if we don't have action by tomorrow we have a legal and moral obligation to start forewarning people," Walker said a Thursday night press conference.
...Meanwhile, a Dane County judge on Thursday issued an order barring demonstrators from the state Capitol after business hours. During protests, some demonstrators have been sleeping inside the building. The order from Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge John Albert gave the state Department of Administration the authority to forcibly remove anyone who refuses.
Greg Sargent in the WaPo—Police union chief says Wisconsin GOP's proposal to detain missing Dems may be unconstitutional: "The chief of a major Wisconsin police union tells me this proposal may itself be unconstitutional under state law. 'It's unclear to me on what constitutional authority Senate Republicans think law enforcement officers can take state lawmakers who have not committed a crime into custody,' James Palmer, the head of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, told me by phone moments ago."
ABC: Wisconsin Protesters Ordered Out of Capitol After Gov. Scott Walker Threatens Layoffs. [Please note a video automatically begins to play at this link.]
TPM—Rasmussen Poll: Majority of Wisconsinites Side With Unions on Collective Bargaining: "A majority of those polled said they sided with the public employee unions rather than Gov. Walker in the showdown that has deadlocked the state government for more than two weeks. And while a plurality favor a plan to make state employees pay more toward their benefit plans—something the unions have already agreed to do—a majority oppose the most contentious proposal put forward by Walker: the elimination of most collective bargaining rights for state employee unions."
Also at TPM: AWOL Wisconsin Dem Beats the System; Gets His Paycheck Mailed to Him.
David Dayen at FDL—Wisconsin Recall Efforts Off to Strong Start: "The Wisconsin recall effort is only a day old, but it's going strong. The state Democratic Party has launched a website called Recall the Republican 8 to coordinate events. They have volunteer and contribution pages. There's also a separate ActBlue page set up for the recall. A separate effort to air a powerful TV ad from the PCCC and DFA, filmed on the day of the 100,000-plus protests last Saturday, has already raised over $225,000."
Oh, Mike Huckabee, Do Shut Up
Two of my least favorite Mikes, Huckabee and Medved, both privileged white conservative men (who, it should be noted, oppose the sorts of policies that both prevent unwanted pregnancies and make single parenthood easier) got together to pontificate on the EEEEEEEEVILLLLLLS of single parenthood. Whoooooops! Did I say single parenthood? Ha ha—silly me! Of course I mean single motherhood.
[Transcript below.]
So women should DEFINITELY get married. Unless, of course, they want to marry another woman. And then they should definitely NOT get married. Okay. Got it.
Other messages I'm getting lately: Mike Huckabee is a racist. Oh wait, ha ha, I already knew that.
Oh, and he's also a liar: It is not true, as he contends, that "most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care." Single mothers do indeed have higher rates of unemployment (and underemployment) than the rest of the population, and single mothers also experience higher rates of poverty, but it is flatly false that "most," or anything even close to half, of single mothers are unemployed and totally dependent on the government to keep their children alive.
Anyway, I'm glad these two sincere gentlemen are so concerned about single mothers. I look forward to their vociferous support for woman/parent-friendly workplace policies and the funding of a comprehensive safety net for all US workers.
MEDVED: Governor, I know you probably are out on book tour right now, you probably didn't have a chance to watch the Academy Awards last night?
HUCKABEE: I'm very happy to say that I missed it because usually it's about the most boring waste of several hours that I've ever experienced.
MEDVED: Well this was a - this was a low audience. However, there was - there was one moment where a very brilliant and admirable actress named Natalie Portman won Best Actress, and she won for a movie which I loathed called Black Swan. But in any event, she got up, she was very visibly pregnant, and it's really it's a problem because she's about seven months pregnant, it's her first pregnancy, and she and the baby's father aren't married, and before two billion people, Natalie Portman says, 'Oh I want to thank my love and he's given me the most wonderful gift.' He didn't give her the most wonderful gift, which would be a wedding ring! [Huckabee laughs.] And it just seems to me that sending that kind of message is problematic.
HUCKABEE: You know Michael, one of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.' But there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie. And I think it gives a distorted image that yes, not everybody hires nannies, and caretakers, and nurses. Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock.
You know, right now, 75 percent of black kids in this country are born out of wedlock. 61 percent of Hispanic kids -- across the board, 41 percent of all live births in America are out of wedlock births. And the cost of that is simply staggering.
MEDVED: It's tremendously staggering.
Everything Looks Fine From Where They're Sitting
Chris Hayes has written a great piece called "Why Washington Doesn't Care About Jobs." An excerpt:
This disconnect between the jobs crisis in the country and the blithe dismissal thereof in Washington is the most incomprehensible aspect of the political moment. But I think there are two numbers that go a long way toward explaining it.Definitely read the whole thing.
The first is 4.2. That's the percentage of Americans with a four-year college degree who are unemployed. It's less than half the official unemployment rate of 9 percent for the labor force as a whole and one-fourth the underemployment rate (which counts those who have given up looking for work or are working part time but want full-time work) of 16.1 percent. So while the overall economy continues to suffer through the worst labor market since the Great Depression, the elite centers of power have recovered. For those of us fortunate enough to have graduated from college—and to have escaped foreclosure or an underwater mortgage—normalcy has returned.
The other number is 5.7 percent. That's the unemployment rate for the Washington/Arlington/Alexandria metro area and just so happens to be lowest among large metropolitan areas in the entire country. In 2010 the DC metro area added 57,000 jobs, more than any in the nation, and now boasts the hottest market for commercial office space. In other words: DC is booming. You can see it in the restaurants opening all over North West, the high prices that condos fetch in the real estate market and the general placid sense of bourgeois comfort that suffuses the affluent upper- and upper-middle-class pockets of the region.
What these two numbers add up to is a governing elite that is profoundly alienated from the lived experiences of the millions of Americans who are barely surviving the ravages of the Great Recession.
The fundamental problem we face in stemming the tide is that our politics is now ruled by money. Neither party has any interest in governing in a way that addresses the needs of desperate people, because desperate people have no money, and funding a robust social safety net would necessitate passing legislation that their corporate masters wouldn't like.
We are in a new Gilded Age of robber barons and paupers, and a fighting a new civil war in which we are divided by class, but, even if there were some superhero combo of FDR and Abraham Lincoln on the horizon who gives a fuck about restoring some sort of equilibrium, who gives a fuck about reuniting the Two Americas, zie couldn't get elected because who's gonna subsidize that shit?
Grim stuff.
They are looking at our raised teaspoons, and they are telling us to use them to eat cake. And that is a bad calculation. For all of us.
Question of the Day
The inevitable follow-up to yesterday's QoTD...
What is your least favorite topic of casual conversation?
I've inserted the qualifier "casual" here, because I don't want people to feel obliged to determine precisely the worst thing they've ever had to talk about, when that might be triggering. We can keep it lighter than that (although you are welcome to be more serious, too; just be sure to insert trigger warnings as necessary).
Number of the Day
Less than 2000: The number of abortion providers left in the United States.
This, and other facts, as well as some really amazing commentary on becoming an abortion provider, can be found here.
[H/T to Shaker Tamara.]
