Following is a primer for men who are genuinely interested in learning about how to be a more feminist-friendly dude. Most of the information in this piece is, as always, generally applicable in terms of being decent to the people around you, but this has been written to be most accessible for men in keeping with the objective of the series, which is responding to commonly emailed questions from privileged men (here, generally meaning straight cis men) seeking advice on how to interact with the women in their lives.
[Content Note: Misogynist tropes and slurs; intersection of misogyny and disablism.]
Here is a question I get by email (and see posed online) not infrequently: What does it take to really be a nice guy (as opposed to a Nice Guy)?
Well, it takes being nice, for a start. But it also takes making a habit of liking women.
What I Don't Mean by Liking Women: Being sexually attracted to women. Liking women monolithically and treating them as above criticism and/or putting them on a pedestal which is dehumanizing. Liking them with expectations. Liking them with ulterior motives, even if it's just the cookies men who don't hate women tend to get.
What I Do Mean by Liking Women: Regarding women generally with good faith, and not as a collection of grim stereotypes. Treating women as individuals. Respecting diversity in expressions of womanhood. Never obliging a woman to speak for all women, or treating her as an exception to her gender. Building friendships with women.
And primarily: Thinking of women as likable.
We live in a profoundly misogynist culture. Everyone is taught to hate women. Women are socialized to hate each other (and ourselves), to think of ourselves and one another as less than.
Even most feminist women have to make a habit of liking women, of rewriting that entrainment to reflexively see other women in negative terms, and replacing it with a spirit of sisterhood. A lot of women exceptionalize the women in their lives in the same way men do. My group of female friends having fun at this bar is awesome; that other group of female friends having fun at this bar is a bunch of skanks. That is the way we are all socialized to view women—their individual value determined by proximity and affiliation, rather than merit.
The point is: Even feminist women have to make a habit of liking women. So do you.
One of the most basic and insidious and intractable pieces of systemic misogyny is that women are simply unlikeable, as a rule. Difficult. Catty. Competitive. Vain. Bitches be crazy.
And the only way to break that down, and to form a new habit, is to think instead about the things you like about women you've known: Maybe it's kindness, or loyalty, or creativity, or competency, or truthfulness, or empathy, or whatever. It's taking time to explore, consciously and purposefully, what you have liked about women, what you do like about women, what makes women likable.
It's taking time to explore, consciously and purposefully, what it means that we live in a culture in which Good Guys are THE BEST! and even Bad Guys are roguishly likeable, but Good Girls are pathetic and contemptible, indicting everyone else's imperfections with their intolerable mere existence, and Bad Girls are only good for one thing. Most men are axiomatically afforded the assumption of likability; women have to earn it person by person.
It's taking time to explore, consciously and purposefully, what the difference really is between flippantly saying, "Oh, sure, I like women," and really finding women likeable. There are a lot of men who can respect women, and still cannot bring themselves to like us.
This isn't an easy subject, because it's hard to write and talk about these sorts of nuances, and because everyone except the most shamelessly vile misogynists fancy themselves a person who doesn't hate women. But there is a difference between not hating women and thinking of them as likable. I have crossed that bridge. And once you are on the other side, you realize how cavernous the space between the shores really is.
Thinking of women as likeable in a misogynist culture is truly a radical act.
Wanting to fuck women is not. Objectifying women is not. Hurting women is not. Marginalizing women is not.
But liking them is.
If you want to be a nice guy, first be a radical guy.
[Related Reading: An Observation.]
Feminism 101: Helpful Hints for Dudes, Part 8
Quote of the Day
"This is a great victory for the free speech rights of all North Carolinians, regardless of their point of view on reproductive freedom. The government cannot create an avenue of expression for one side of a contentious political issue while denying an equal opportunity to citizens with the opposite view."—Chris Brook, legal director of the ACLU's North Carolina Legal Foundation, after U.S. District Court Judge James Fox, age 84, ruled "that North Carolina cannot issue 'Choose Life' license plates without offering a choice of plates with alternate viewpoints."
Republicans in the state legislature have repeatedly refused to approve pro-choice license plates. And further proving the anti-choice side's intellectual mettle:
The ruling sparked a litany of criticism and opposing arguments from pro-life advocates. One legal analyst, who served as a consultant for defendants of the "Choose Life" plate, posed a question about whether the ruling meant the state now will have to offer a "Kill The Sea Turtles" license plate to counter the "Save The Sea Turtles" one.Good grief.
Luckily, Brook had something to say about that, too: "For there to be unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination there must be dueling viewpoints. Until there is a group devoted to turtle destruction, there aren't exactly the same concerns in that example as the current controversy."
Ha ha but no one hates sea turtles the way rightwingers hate women's agency.
Don't worry, sea turtles! As long as there is a functioning uterus in the United States of America, you are safe!
(Not really—but no one wants to brag on a license plate about their garbage policies endangering sea turtles like they do their garbage policies turning people with uteri into state-owned incubators.)
In The News
Fuck the news, here's your Saturnalia gift guide instead:
Remote controlled flying zombie shark! Remote controlled flying zombie shark!
A Rule Is to Break: A Child's Guide to Anarchy. I'm getting this for all my friends with kids!
From the Warner Archives: Korg: 70,000 B.C.: The Complete Series.
Modernist Cuisine at Home by Nathan Myhrvold, because I have shit to cook!
The coolest book this year. Maybe this decade. Building Stories by Chris Ware.
Parklive: Deluxe 5 Disc Book Set. Because Britpop Rules.
A real human skeleton with a full compliment of teeth. Because, why not?
Candwich: The official Sandwich in a Can. Official? Okay.
Steaks. From Omaha.
Uranium 238. For all your Uranium 238 needs. Obviously.
Lightweight vinyl Inflatable Cthulhu Beard. Spring is just around the corner!
Glenn Beck brand jeans! (For men only.) Or.
A glow in the dark dildo? A glow in the dark dildo.
The Tin Drum director's cut DVD. 163 minutes. 163 minutes!
You want a lifesize Paul Ryan standee, don't you? I do!
Song Reader, the new album from Beck. Available only in sheet music format.
I want to meet the person who invented this. The person who decided the world needed this product. Let me shake your hand, sir!
"It Was Mutual."
Hey, speaking of Hillary Clinton and boobs, do you remember when Clinton met Christina Aguilera and my brain exploded because squee?
Also!—and shockingly more widely reported than my internal fangirling—there was an image captured of Clinton apparently looking at Aguilera's cleavage. Which is obviously the biggest news ever of all time.
Anyway. Aguilera was on Ellen Degeneres' show recently, and Degeneres asked her about the picture. I kind of can't even imagine how awkward it might be to be asked about Hillary Clinton looking at your breasts? Yikes. Aguilera's response was, however, the best, obviously:
"She's such a force in a room. She's got that star charisma and everything about her. I couldn't take my eyes off her, either, so it was mutual," Aguilera said.Perfect.
Take Your Boobs to the White House Watch
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
In 2008, there was so much pressure for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the Democratic Primary, even when she still had a decent chance of winning the nomination, that I started cataloging the public admonishments for her to go away in a series called Take Your Boobs and Go Home Watch.
Now, with no small amount of bitter irony, there is public pressure for Hillary Clinton to run for the 2016 nomination, even though she has stated multiple times that she currently has no plan nor desire to run.
This, as I have mentioned once or twice, ahem, irritates the fuck outta me. For a lot of reasons. I hate that Clinton is constantly cajoled to act in contravention to her stated will. I hate that she is treated like public property. I hate the creeping narrative that she owes the Democratic Party and liberal voters another run. And I hate most of all the evident contempt for female ambition wrapped up in shouting at her to take her boobs home when she wants the presidency, and shouting at her to take her boobs to the White House when she doesn't.
Here is just a small sampling of pieces I've read over the past two days:
Paul Steinhauser at CNN: Clinton Rides High Poll Numbers Into Private Life (For Now?)
Luisita Lopez Torregrosa at the New York Times: Hillary Dominates 2016 Chatter in Washington.
George Stephanopoulos at ABC: James Carville: 90% of Dems Want Hillary Clinton.
Lindsey Boerma at CBS: Hillary Clinton for President in 2016?
Bobby Cervantes at Politico: Martin O'Malley: Hillary Clinton 'Could Be a Great President.' [Note: O'Malley's quote in the piece ends with his saying if she wants to do it.]
HuffPo: Hillary Clinton in 2016: Celebrities Who Support Clinton.
Etc. And of course there one of the periodic "when will Chelsea run for office?" stories, too, care of the NY Daily News: Chelsea Clinton Continues Evolution into Public Figure as She Moderates Panel—the lede of which is: "One of the Clintons is fueling new speculation that she might run for office one day. Not Hillary Clinton—but Chelsea."
I am five op-eds away from showing up on YouTube with mascara streaming down my face beseechingly wailing at everyone to "Leave Chelsea alone!" FYI.
Today in Projection
[Content Note: Religious intolerance; violence.]
To hear Fox News and the GOP and the conservative evangelical crowd (aka the Axis of Drivel) tell it, American Christians are the most persecuted people on the planet.
Yeah. Not so much.
Reuters: Atheists Around World Suffer Persecution, Discrimination: Report.
Atheists and other religious skeptics suffer persecution or discrimination in many parts of the world and in at least seven nations can be executed if their beliefs become known, according to a report issued on Monday.The report details the ways in which atheists are charged with crimes in countries where atheist or humanist views on religion are banned outright; in which atheists are compelled to lie about their beliefs in countries compelling identification with state-recognized religions; in which atheists are denied access and privileges that religious believers are not.
The study, from the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), showed that "unbelievers" in Islamic countries face the most severe - sometimes brutal - treatment at the hands of the state and adherents of the official religion.
But it also points to policies in some European countries and the United States which favor the religious and their organizations and treat atheists and humanists as outsiders.
The report, "Freedom of Thought 2012", said "there are laws that deny atheists' right to exist, curtail their freedom of belief and expression, revoke their right to citizenship, restrict their right to marry."
Other laws "obstruct their access to public education, prohibit them from holding public office, prevent them from working for the state, criminalize their criticism of religion, and execute them for leaving the religion of their parents."
The report was welcomed by Heiner Bielefeldt, United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, who said in a brief introduction there was little awareness that atheists were covered by global human rights agreements.
The IHEU - which links over 120 humanist, atheist and secular organizations in more than 40 countries - said it was issuing the report to mark the U.N.'s Human Rights Day on Monday.
And though many USians might imagine this happens only in "those countries, over there," the report notes that legal and cultural discrimination against atheists exists in the US, as well.
While freedom of religion and speech is protected in the United States, the report said, a social and political climate prevails "in which atheists and the non-religious are made to feel like lesser Americans, or non-Americans."And, suffice it to say that no US President has ever been heard to say an equivalent thing about Christians that George H.W. Bush reported said (and has never denied saying) about atheists: "No, I don't know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God. ...I support the separation of church and state. I'm just not very high on atheists."
In at least seven U.S. states, constitutional provisions are in place that bar atheists from public office and one state, Arkansas, has a law that bars an atheist from testifying as a witness at a trial, the report said.
I also, to my knowledge, have not heard of anyone being run off a US Presidential campaign for being a blogger who, irrelevantly to her work, happens to be Christian. Ahem.
Maybe the Axis of Drivel could cool it with the persecution complex.
(Or, failing that, direct their considerable energies toward one of the places in the world where Christians are actually persecuted.)
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Bad Habits You Had in Childhood But No Longer Have. Anything from nose-picking to serial exaggeration to bullying. Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Our Marxist President
President Obama gave an address in Redford, Michigan, earlier today, in which he addressed the bullshit "Right to Work" legislation, and, wow, is he pissed with this union-busting, workers' rights-subverting garbage.
We should do everything we can to keep creating good middle-class jobs that help folks rebuild security for their families. [applause] And we should do everything we can to encourage companies like Daimler to keep investing in American workers. And, by the way, what we shouldn't do—I just gotta say this—what we shouldn't be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions. [huge sustained cheers and applause] We shouldn't be doing that.More of this, Mr. President. Please. Ever more.
You know, th-th-these so-called right to work laws—they don't have to do with economics; they have everything to do with politics. [shouts of agreement] What they're really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money! [cheers and applause] You only have to look to Michigan, where workers were instrumental in reviving the auto industry, to see how unions have helped build not just a stronger middle class but a stronger America. [shouts of agreement]
So, folks from our states' capitals, all the way to the nation's capital—they should be focused on the same thing. They should be working to make sure companies like this manufacturer is able to make more great products. [shouts of agreement] That's what they should be focused on. Not— We don't want a race to the bottom; we want a race to the top! [cheers and applause]
America— America's not gonna compete based on low-skill, low-wage, no workers' rights—that's not our competitive advantage! There's always gonna be some other country that can treat its workers even worse. [murmurs and laughter] Right? [shouts of "Right!"] What's gonna make us succeed is that we got the best workers, well-trained, reliable, productive, low-turnover, healthy—that's what makes us strong. [shouts of agreement] And it's also what allows our workers then to buy the products that we make—because they got enough money in their pockets! [cheers and applause]
So, so, so we've gotta get past this whole situation where we manufacture crises because of politics. That actually leads to less certainty, more conflict, and we can't all focus on coming together to grow.
[Video via TPM.]
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Mick Jagger's mad acting skillz.
Recommended Reading:
Jorge: Gabrielle Douglas Interviewed by Melissa Harris Perry's 10-Year-Old Daughter, Parker [MSNBC transcripts are available here.]
Ari: The Supreme Court and Proposition 8: High Risk, High Reward?
Ana: Nice Guy Rapists and Manpain [Content Note: Sexual violence; rape apologia.]
Spectra: Seven Social Media Ideas That Will Strengthen Digital Activism in Africa
Trudy: We ALL Can Do It
FYP&R: What Would Poehler Do?
Katie: Rape Jokes & Mocking Serena Williams' Body: This Weekend in Racism and Sexism [Content Note: Rape culture; misogyny; racism.]
Makers: Malika Saada Saar on Her Work with Trafficking Victims & Getting Craigslist to Remove Ads Selling Girls & Women [Content Note: Sexual violence. Video only.]
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Prankers Feign Shock That Pranks Hurt People
[Content Note: Pranking/bullying; rape; self-harm.]
On Friday, I wrote about a terrible "prank" pulled by two Australian DJs, which appears to have contributed in some measure to the suicide of Jacintha Saldanha, a woman on whom the prank was played (among others, including Duchess Kate Middleton).
Over the weekend, it was reported that the DJ duo [edit: and/or other DJs at the same station, which may simply or additionally indict their employers as general bad decision-makers] has previously pulled other "pranks" that necessitated investigation, including fake calls to emergency services and a "prank" that involved hooking up a teenage girl to a lie detector while her mother interrogated her about her sex life, during which the girl revealed to having been raped at age 12. Hilarious, this pair and their colleagues.
The show is on indefinite hiatus, with at least one report I've seen that it's been canceled. Speaking to A Current Affair, the duo defended themselves by implicitly blaming the victim:
Michael Christian (who is a white man): "When we thought about making a call, [we thought] it was going to go for 30 seconds, we were going to be hung up on, and that was it. As innocent as that."So, you see, if only Jacintha Saldanha had hung up on them, none of this would have happened. Since, you know, Christian and Greig were apparently incapable of hanging up themselves or simply not widely promoting and broadcasting the call.
Mel Greig (who is a white woman): "We thought a hundred people before us would've tried it. We thought it was such a silly idea and the accents were terrible, and not for a second did we expect to speak to Kate, let alone have a conversation with anyone at the hospital. We wanted to be hung up on."
Further, the DJs talked about how terrible they feel. Christian explained he feels: "Shattered, gutted, heartbroken, and obviously, you know, our deepest sympathies are with the family and the friends. Prank calls are made every day, on every radio station in every country, around the world and they have been for a long time, and no one could've imagined this to happen."
We feel so bad, but geez, not that bad, because it was just a prank, and no one could've predicted it.
Here's the problem with "no one could've predicted" a terrible outcome of a garbage prank: There are people who could have predicted it.
There are people who do predict it, loudly and often. There are people who have survived loved ones' suicides as a result of being targeted by a prank, and people who have themselves survived suicide attempts as a result of being targeted by a prank.
There are people who self-harm, or people who just value and practice basic human empathy, who might have said, if asked whether it's a good idea to involve people in a prank surrounding one of the most famous women in the world, no. No, that is not a good idea, for several reasons, one of which is that not everyone wants and not everyone is capable of navigating international notoriety. No, you could be harming those people. No, you should not do that. To anyone. Ever.
Suggesting that "no one could've predicted" that what happened might happen is to disappear all the many people who absolutely could have, and would have, predicted that it was one potential outcome. And not an unreasonable one, given the numbers of people in our fucked-up world who—by virtue of mental illness, or lack of a solid emotional support system, or having survived trauma but being left with an indelible urge to self-harm, or any one of a number of other reasons—don't have the capacity, every day or any day, to process international humiliation.
Or humiliations much smaller than that.
There are people who could've predicted. It's a damnable lie that no one can conceive of self-harm in response to ignominy, to ridicule, to nonconsensual exposure on a massive scale.
It's a damnable lie told by shameless dirtbags who want to pretend that their individual antipathy is universal ignorance.
It isn't.
Street Harassment: Same Old Shit, 40 Years Later
[Content Note: Street Harassment]
[Image Description: Comic book opening splash page. A dark-haired white women walks down a night-time street, followed by about six white men.Narrative text box: "Diana Prince has a problem this night! And how many women get by without having to deal with this dilemma?" Harasser #1: "Hey, ain't that a pretty one?" Harasser #2: 'I'd like to put that one in my stable! Harasser #3: Wow! What a stuck-up dame! Who does she think she is?" Harasser #4: "You think you're something, huh sweetheart? But I'd like to put you in your place!" Diana thinks: "Here we go again! If I smile and try to be a good sport, they follow me and come on stronger! If I ignore them, and walk on by, I get-- static!" Narrative: 'What would you do? Diana Prince has other thing son ehr mind this evening...but when a problem persents itself as often as this... what can you do? .. But face it!" In an inset box, Diana, in confrontational pose, says "Hey, you guys...!"]
This image was published just over 40 years ago, for issue #203 of Wonder Woman (November-December, 1972). It's part of a "special Women's Lib Issue," that makes an attempt to connect the feminist issues of the day to the fictional adventures of Wonder Woman. There's a lot I could say about that issue, or even this panel, its successes and failures, etc.
But what strikes more more than anything is this: how little has changed in the United States, despite 40 years of feminist protest against street harassment. It's still ubiquitous. It's still a barrier to full participation in public life. There are still no good options. And it's still one of those things we're just supposed to put up with, like wind or rain.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Daily Dose of Cute
When we got home from the feed store yesterday, each of the dogs got a dried pig's ear. Dudley immediately ate his in its entirety, of course, and then this happened:
"Hey, how come Zelda has something I don't have?"
*Jedi mind tricks to make Zelda give up her chewy treat*
"TWO-LEGS! THIS IS NOT FAIR! I DEMAND JUSTICE! OR I WILL WHINE LIKE A BABY!"
"Hey, Zelda. Are you done with that? Are you done yet? Can I have some? Are you done?"
It was at this point I told Dudley to leave Zelda in peace. Not because she was remotely bothered, but because his passive-aggressive hovering was irritating me, lol. He went and laid on the couch like a good boy, but not before giving me one last pitiful look.
"How could you? OH THE HUMANITY."
(As always, note Livs photobombing the last photo. She is the master.)
[Related: Agony Antler.]
Feminism 101: Helpful Hints for Dudes, Part 7
Following is a primer for men who are genuinely interested in learning about how to be a more feminist-friendly dude. Most of the information in this piece is, as always, generally applicable in terms of being decent to the people around you, but this has been written to be most accessible for men in keeping with the objective of the series, which is responding to commonly emailed questions from privileged men (here, generally meaning straight cis men) seeking advice on how to interact with the women in their lives.
[Content Note: Violence; harassment.]
Recently, a fellow feminist blogger emailed me about the bullshit that is men entering conversations with feminists by saying things like:
"I'm going to get clobbered for saying this, but..."
or
"I'm just going to say this and then run away...."
—and then claiming that these are reasonable things to say, because it's SO SCARY to engage with feminist women.
Here's the thing: If you want to engage in good faith with feminist women, don't start from a position of implying that we are hostile (and violently so, at that).
That is not to say that you don't have a right to feel intimidated. Feeling intimidated by engaging with a person to whom you have relative privilege and/or multiple privileges, especially when you're first examining that privilege, is natural—and a good sign you've arrived at a place where you consider that person an expert on hir own experiences.
It's also not to say that expressing intimidation is always a terrible thing. But if you want to express intimidation, the best way to do that is, "I feel intimidated right now as a result of my own lack of expertise," not to imply that the problem lies with the expert.
That reflexive assumption, casually and incessantly expressed, that feminists are hostile (and violently so!) is one of the reasons I inserted the "no bad faith" clause into Shakesville's commenting policy. If someone can't approach me, or another contributor, or a fellow commenter, without the implication that feminists are violent tyrants who react vengefully to any expression of disagreement, that is not engaging with good faith. To put it politely.
As any blanket generalization about an entire group, it is dehumanizing and gross, but there's an extra layer of fuckery in eliding that feminist women have faced actual, real-life, meaningful consequences for transgressive feminist thought before feminism even had a name.
Feminist/womanist/progressive women have sometimes faced punishment in the form of violence, including rape and murder; sometimes in the form of imprisonment; sometimes in the form of ostracization from family and/or community; sometimes in the form of lack of professional opportunities; sometimes in the form of harassment at or termination from work; sometimes in combinations thereof, and that is hardly a comprehensive list.
This isn't a Thing of the Past. This isn't a Thing That Happens in Those Countries. This is a thing that happens even to the most privileged feminist women, who identify as feminist and lead public lives as feminists, whether they are writing about reproductive rights, video games, race, literature, cooking, war, knitting, rape culture, or anything and everything in between.
There is a risk and there is a cost.
Even to a feminist woman who goes to her RPG group and asks them to stop using "rape" to mean anything but a sexual assault, there is a risk and there is a cost. Even in the best-case scenario, where everyone immediately says, "Oh gee, we're so sorry, Friend, and thank you for pointing that out!" and no one ever ever never ever keeps in the back of their minds that Friend is oversensitive and polices language and she is such a drag and political correctness blah blah, there is the emotional cost of having to ask in the first place, and the wondering, always wondering, if she's been forever labeled as The Hysteric.
A man entering into a feminist blog thread to leave a comment is not equivalent. Particularly if he's leaving a contrary comment, as most comments preceded by "I'm probably going to get hammered for this, but..." are, the entire rest of the culture has his back.
It is this lack of perspective, this pretense that it is feminists who are so aggressively intolerant of dissension that they are prone to react with actual violence to anti-feminist ideas, while anti-feminists are the tormented minority constantly in danger of undeserved retribution, that makes such salvos truly abhorrent.
The fear of being punished for an idea is really projection—a deliberate misrepresentation in precise opposite of what men and woman face, which effectively masks the truth of our world.
If you want to engage feminist women in good faith, you must start by respecting the realities of their lives.
And you must understand that approaching a feminist with the implication she will physically harm you does not invite a kind response. So don't be surprised if you fail to get one.
[Related Reading: Teaspoon vs. Dumptruck.]
Quote of the Day
"When you talk about raising the Medicare eligibility age, there's one key question—what happens to that early retiree? What about that gap in coverage between their workplace and Medicare? How will they be covered? Now I listen to Republicans say we can't wait to repeal Obamacare and the insurance exchanges. Well, where does a person turn if they're 65 years of age and the Medicare eligibility age is 67? They have two years there where they may not have the best of health. They need to have accessible, affordable medical insurance during that period."—Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, on Meet the Press this weekend, after reports that the White House was considering, as part of the "fiscal cliff negotiations," raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 in exchange for a modest tax hike.
It's important for Durbin (and Pelosi, et. al.) to keep publicly reiterating what a terrible idea this is and putting pressure on the administration not to make this concession.
Krugman, in typical style, lays it out plainly (emphases mine):
I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that this is just a case of creeping Broderism, that it's a VSP fantasy about how we're going to resolve this in a bipartisan way. Because if Obama really does make this deal, there will be hell to pay.Yeah.
First, raising the Medicare age is terrible policy. It would be terrible policy even if the Affordable Care Act were going to be there in full force for 65 and 66 year olds, because it would cost the public $2 for every dollar in federal funds saved. And in case you haven't noticed, Republican governors are still fighting the ACA tooth and nail; if they block the Medicaid expansion, as some will, lower-income seniors will just be pitched into the abyss.
Second, why on earth would Obama be selling Medicare away to raise top tax rates when he gets a big rate rise on January 1 just by doing nothing? And no, vague promises about closing loopholes won’t do it: a rate rise is the real deal, no questions, and should not be traded away for who knows what.
...And if it does happen, the disillusionment on the Democratic side would be huge. All that effort to reelect Obama, and the first thing he does is give away two years of Medicare? How's that going to play in future attempts to get out the vote?
If anyone in the White House is seriously thinking along these lines, please stop it right now.
In The News
[Content note: racism, homophobia, gun violence, war]
Some things that happened recently:
Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast any false or misleading news." As such, Fox News will not be expanding its operations north of the border. Whoops!
Farewell, Little Space Spider: Nefertiti, the courageous space spider who spent three months aboard the International Space Station, has died. She was 10 months old.
Related: David Bowie: "Ziggy Stardust."
DNA from In Cold Blood killers may help solve 1959 Florida murder.
Unrelated: Truman Capote's former Hamptons home is now available for $15 million.
A British teen who hurled homophobic abuse at two gay men on a train will be imprisoned for 18 weeks.
Chart: Almost every Obama conspiracy theory ever. Fascinating.
The Merck Foundation is cutting off funds to the Boy Scouts of America over the group's anti-gay policies.
Charlie Crist is becoming a Democrat.
Remember when Subarus were like punk rock?
This is just fucking tragic: A 7-year-old boy was shot to death after his father's handgun accidentally went off as he got into his car this weekend.
A new website shows the sites of all bombs which landed during the Blitz of London.
A crashed plane, believed to be carrying grupero superstar Jenni Rivera, has no survivors.
