[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
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!
Give That Dog a Milkbone Watch
[Content Note: Descriptions of child abuse.]
Stilson
Stilson is a courtroom black lab who is retiring after seven years of service, during which he comforted hundreds of children who survived abuse, in Snohomish County, Washington:
Stilson came to the Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office in 2006. He was the second dog in the nation to be employed by prosecutors. After seeing a presentation about the first service dog being used in Seattle, Heidi Potter who works in the Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office stayed behind and wanted to know about getting a dog for her office.All the blubs.
Potter agreed to undergo the training and be responsible for a dog, including paying for his food and medical bills. After training and socialization Stilson was matched up with Potter and he has been helping victims ever since. Potter works as the lead victim-witness advocate and Stilson was by her side helping victims to open up and feel comfortable as they told their stories.
"I love that dog. I love what he has done for kids and victims," said Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Lisa Paul. "He helps them face what they have to face in the criminal justice system."
Paul prosecuted a case last fall where an 11-year-old girl who testified how she was repeatedly whipped with electrical cords, burned with lit cigarettes and starved for days. As she testified Stilson lay at her feet. For two hours the gentle Labrador didn't move or make a sound, he just lay there bringing comfort to the girl.
[Potter and Stilson] are moving to California where Stilson's plans are to become a beach bum and getting the rest he deserves. Potter recalls how Stilson would often come home exhausted; he'd eat dinner and then go right to bed. He spent all day absorbing the grief and hurt of the victims he comforted.
"He's burned out," said Potter. "He's almost 9 years old and he's worked with hundreds of children. He's had hundreds of kids crying on him and climbing on him. It's time for him just to be a dog.
Every courtroom in the country should have a comfort animal. (Or, ideally, multiple comfort animals, in case someone is scared of one.) It's certainly not unattainable, given the number of unwanted animals. And cuddly, empathic Sophs and Zelly are perfect examples of abandoned shelter animals who are eminently capable of this kind of work, if only given the chance. It could be done. All we need is the political will to fund better support for trauma survivors. And unwanted animals.
#StigmaKills
[Content Note: Violence against sex workers; victim-blaming.]
Today, people are gathering in 36 cities across the globe to protest against violence against sex workers.
Following the murders of [Turkish sex worker] Dora Özer and [Swedish sex worker] Petite Jasmine on the 9th and 11 of July 2013, sex workers, their friends, families, and allies are coming together to demand an end to stigma, criminalisation, violence and murders. In the week since the two tragedies occurred, the feelings of anger, grief, sadness and injustice – for the loss of Dora and Jasmine, but also for the senseless and systemic murders and violence against sex workers worldwide – have brought together people in 36 cities from four continents who agreed to organise demos, vigils, and protests in front of Turkish and Swedish embassies or other symbolic places. JOIN US on Friday the 19th at 3pm local time and stand in solidarity with sex workers and their loved ones around the world! Justice for Dora! Justice for Jasmine! Justice for all sex workers who are victims of violence!A press release from the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe provides additional context here.
You can follow social media of the protests under the hashtag #StigmaKills.
Sex work is not something about which I write often, because it's not one of my areas of expertise (guest posts always welcome!), but, when I have written about it, it is around the intersection of sex work and violence. Judges who rule that sex workers can't be raped. Law enforcement who are indifferent to the murders of sex workers. Sex workers, who are disproportionately women and marginalized men, are targeted for violence by predators who know that their cultures don't value their lives.
Which begins with the stigma against sex work, and the people who do it.
Stigma means that sex workers are vulnerable to violence. (And privilege means the most vulnerable sex workers are also the most vulnerable to violence. Sex workers from marginalized populations are less likely to be employed in legal sex work, are less likely to be safe on the job, are less likely to have independent control over the work that they do, and are more likely to face arrest and prosecution.)
Stigma means that male clients are less likely to be arrested than sex workers.
Stigma means that sex workers who are abused by clients, or law enforcement, or anyone, are more likely to be victim-blamed than they are supported by their communities and the agencies ostensibly tasked with protecting citizenry.
Stigma means that the rape and murder of sex workers and the institutional apathy to that violence is met with a sighing, "What did you expect?"
I cannot say this more plainly: Sex work is valid work. No caveats. No qualifications.
All the arguments that demonize sex work are so much noise, broadcast in service to abusers whose accountability-free exploitation of sex workers is dependent on a culture that shames and silences and stigmatizes sex workers.
I am not persuaded by religious protestations, nor am I persuaded by hand-wringing concerns about whether sex workers practice their work safely, inevitably emanating from people who don't give a shit about the safe professional practices of the privileged white male thieves and scoundrels inhabiting the majority of CEO chairs. (Or, even if they do, don't use it in pursuit of an argument to criminalize their work irrespective of how it is practiced.) I am able to care passionately and insistently about busting exploitative sex traffickers, and simultaneously support sex workers—and their agency, and their absolute right to it. I will never be convinced that criminalizing sex work does anything but make sex workers less safe.
I will not stigmatize sex workers or the work that they do. Stigma kills.
[Commenting Guidelines: In case it isn't already abundantly evident, stigmatization of sex workers is not welcome in this space. Comments that fail to recognize that stigma kills will be deleted.]
Film Corner!
Heyyyyyyy, everyone! Remember last year when Kirk Cameron, former child star and current religious annoyfuck, released his one-day only film Monumental, and we all definitely went to see it because he is so smart and we love him so much? HA HA JUST KIDDING! No one saw it and it was terrible! Well, now you can look forward to not seeing another Kirk Cameron film, because here comes another one-day wonder called Unstoppable, and it is obviously a masterpiece.
As you may recall, Monumental was a film about Kirk Cameron looking confused. Unstoppable is apparently the sequel to that film, because this also appears to be about Kirk Cameron looking confused. But in black and white. Artsy!
"Buh? Zuh? Huh? Wuh? Guh? Muh?"
Basically, Kirk Cameron is employing the same insufferable, paper-thin ruse of naive consternation to justify another fake journey of fake enlightenment for the dipshits who lap up his special brand of Christian supremacist pablum, but this time the Big Question he's seeking to answer is: "Where is God in the midst of tragedy and suffering?"
Is the answer getting a sandwich? I bet the answer is getting a sandwich.
Anyway. Roll the video!
Kirk Cameron's face in EXTREME CLOSE-UP. He is a terrible actor, so anyone with the willingness to engage their critical thinking skills in even the most rudimentary way can tell he is affecting a Troubled Face. "Why does god let bad things happen to good people?" he asks. I would love to hear his definition of "good people," ha ha. I bet it's great!
Twangy music. White people at a funeral. Kirk's Big Face (KBF) says: "If god is good, and he is a god of love, and he is powerful enough to stop evil and pain and suffering, why doesn't he?" I should seriously sue this dude for plagiarizing questions I was asking in my second-grade Sunday School class.
Twangy music. White people at a funeral. KBF says: "That is the question that wrecks people's faith." That, and: "Dinosaurs." Which I realize isn't a question. "Dinosaurs?" Picture me asking that with the same gormless expression as Kirk Cameron.
Twangy music. White people at a funeral. KBF, really dialing up the incredulity now, says: "What do you do when the unexpected tragedy hits, and your whole world comes crashing down?!"
MORE WHITE PEOPLE AT A FUNERAL. Is this the worst thing Kirk Cameron can think of that happens to white Christians? Evidence of mortality? When I was a child asking these same questions, I was thinking about genocide and famine and drought (I was a very anxious kid, I'm sure you're all SUPER SHOCKED to hear), and grown-ass adult man Kirk Cameron is wondering why it sucks when grandpa dies? Come on, man.
Blah blah Kirk hits the road to take a journey to answer these Important Questions. "I went on a journey to examine my faith, to be honest and face my questions and my doubts. This is the most personal project I have ever made regarding my faith."
Of all the personal projects he has made about his personal faith, this is the most personally personal of all of them! That is some touching shit.
At this point, we are not even halfway through a video that is two minutes and twenty-four seconds long. There is so much more of KBF posing coercive rhetoricals in an intolerably inauthentic voice, and so much more footage of white people at funerals, and so much more twangy music, and some weird footage of Adam and Eve (?) (I don't even know?) (there's an apple?) (?) (who cares), and then KBF gets to the point: "I want to settle once and for all that life is stronger than death, good is stronger than evil, and faith is stronger than doubt."
Welp.
I can tell you this: If I were the sort of person who had a very tenuous faith with all the substance of a fairy tale, and I had to avoid any critical examination of it because the slightest insecurity would send me into a fear-rage, and so I really liked pandering garbage entertainment that reassures me that my simplistic view of god and the propping up of my privilege that masquerades as my religion are the bestest things for me to cling to as the reality I cast as a hostile world constantly tears at the seams of my narcissistic devotion to a god that's just as petty as I am, I would probably love this movie.
I would probably give it ALL THE STARS.
Discuss.
Shaker Garden Thread: July Edition
Hey Shakers! It's been almost a month since our last garden thread. July is here and that means full-on summer for most of the Northern Hemisphere! How does YOUR garden grow?
Mine has been inundated with rain, so much that low-laying beds were getting too much. It's been hard to keep the mildew and other plant viruses down, but we have started to harvets some nice things. In the picture above you can see the banana pepper, sweet bell pepper, zinnias and cucumber along with an assortment of cherry tomatoes and our first ground cherries (the things with the husks--they're a tomato relative, quite sweet with a pineapple taste). The various tomatoes are Mexico Midget (red), Snow White (pale yellow), Sun Gold (orange), Brown Cherry (brown) and Gold Nugget (yellow). All very tasty stuff!
Unfortunately the corn is another story. Unlike last year, when corn earworm destroyed most of it, I had no caterpillar/larvae damage. Spraying Bt early seems to have helped. But excessive rain hindered pollination, so the above was all we got out of it. It was tasty, definitely--there is NOTHING like garden-fresh corn! Yet I am not sure it is worth my space and trouble for me to try again. (I say that now, of course. Next January I am sure I'll be slavering over the seed catalogue persuading myself to try it one. more. time, lol!)
For a successful seed crop, though, I cannot beat these sunflowers, "Hopi Dye" variety. This one is about nine feet tall! We're trying to save some for seeds, although the wet weather may not make that successful. They're also beautiful cut flowers, and fantastic for attracting bees and other pollinators. Definitely growing these again!
There's been an interesting benefit to growing mostly c. moschata varieties this year. The three c. pepo zucchini plants I planted (Black Beauty type) have done remarkably well. Only one has succumbed to SVB so far. I assume that the moths can't tell the difference between varieties and lay their eggs wherever. So the eggs get laid mostly on c. moschata, simply because of numbers. The larvae starve and die there, since they cannot chew through moschata vines effectively. Because I have only a few vulnerable c. pepo zucchini plants, hidden among the others, they are making it through. That hasn't actually meant big crops of any summer squash, again thanks to rain/poor pollination. But I may try this trick again next year to see if I can get conventional zucchini to survive past May.
In conclusion: more sunflowers! Feel free to leave your gardening stories and pictures in the thread below. Wherever and whatever your garden is--herbs in the window? a rooftop container garden? a one acre field?--you can talk about it here. (And Southern Hemispheres Shakers are explicitly invited to share any gardening you have on the go, whether it's winter crops or planning for next season or whatever!)
[Commenting note: please be mindful that everyone has different requirements, restrictions, and needs in their gardens. Broad prescriptions that everyone must/should garden organically, or cheaply, or low-water, however-you-do-it, etc. are not helpful. Thanks in advance for respecting this!]
President Obama on Zimmerman Verdict
President Obama just gave a brief, unannounced address on the killing of Trayvon Martin and the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman. It was an address a white president could not give. It is so important.
MSNBC is replaying it right now, for anyone who missed it. Their quick summary is here.
As soon as video and transcript become available, I will post them here. (Edit: Transcript below. Video can be viewed here.)
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.
UPDATE 1: Via the Washington Post, here is the transcript of the President's address:
REPORTERS: Whoa!
Q: Hello.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: That’s so -- that’s so disappointing, man. Jay, is this kind of -- the kind of respect that you get? (Laughter.)
Q: Wake up!
Q: What brings you out here, Mr. --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, on -- on -- on television it usually looks like you’re addressing a full room.
Q: (Laughs.) It’s just a mirage.
Q: There’s generally not --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: All right.
(Cross talk.)
Q: (Inaudible) -- got the Detroit story.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I got you. All right. Sorry about that. Do you think anybody else is showing up? Good.
Well, I -- I wanted to come out here first of all to tell you that Jay is prepared for all your questions and is -- is very much looking forward to the session.
Second thing is I want to let you know that over the next couple of weeks there are going to obviously be a whole range of issues -- immigration, economics, et cetera -- we’ll try to arrange a fuller press conference to address your questions.
The reason I actually wanted to come out today is not to take questions, but to speak to an issue that obviously has gotten a lot of attention over the course of the last week, the issue of the Trayvon Martin ruling. I gave an -- a preliminary statement right after the ruling on Sunday, but watching the debate over the course of the last week I thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit.
First of all, you know, I -- I want to make sure that, once again, I send my thoughts and prayers, as well as Michelle’s, to the family of Trayvon Martin, and to remark on the incredible grace and dignity with which they’ve dealt with the entire situation. I can only imagine what they’re going through, and it’s -- it’s remarkable how they’ve handled it.
The second thing I want to say is to reiterate what I said on Sunday, which is there are going to be a lot of arguments about the legal -- legal issues in the case. I’ll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues.
The judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. The prosecution and the defense made their arguments. The juries were properly instructed that in a -- in a case such as this, reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. And once the jury’s spoken, that’s how our system works.
But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling. You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African- American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that -- that doesn’t go away.
There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.
And there are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.
And you know, I don’t want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.
The African-American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws, everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. And that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.
Now, this isn’t to say that the African-American community is naive about the fact that African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they are disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that fact, although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context.
We understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history.
And so the fact that sometimes that’s unacknowledged adds to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African-American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain.
I think the African-American community is also not naive in understanding that statistically somebody like Trayvon Martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else.
So -- so folks understand the challenges that exist for African-American boys, but they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that there’s no context for it or -- and that context is being denied. And -- and that all contributes, I think, to a sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario, that, from top to bottom, both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.
Now, the question for me at least, and I think, for a lot of folks is, where do we take this? How do we learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction? You know, I think it’s understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests, and some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through as long as it remains nonviolent. If I see any violence, then I will remind folks that that dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family.
But beyond protests or vigils, the question is, are there some concrete things that we might be able to do? I know that Eric Holder is reviewing what happened down there, but I think it’s important for people to have some clear expectations here. Traditionally, these are issues of state and local government -- the criminal code. And law enforcement has traditionally done it at the state and local levels, not at the federal levels.
That doesn’t mean, though, that as a nation, we can’t do some things that I think would be productive. So let me just give a couple of specifics that I’m still bouncing around with my staff so we’re not rolling out some five-point plan, but some areas where I think all of us could potentially focus.
Number one, precisely because law enforcement is often determined at the state and local level, I think it’d be productive for the Justice Department -- governors, mayors to work with law enforcement about training at the state and local levels in order to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists.
You know, when I was in Illinois I passed racial profiling legislation. And it actually did just two simple things. One, it collected data on traffic stops and the race of the person who was stopped. But the other thing was it resourced us training police departments across the state on how to think about potential racial bias and ways to further professionalize what they were doing.
And initially, the police departments across the state were resistant, but actually they came to recognize that if it was done in a fair, straightforward way, that it would allow them to do their jobs better and communities would have more confidence in them and in turn be more helpful in applying the law. And obviously law enforcement’s got a very tough job.
So that’s one area where I think there are a lot of resources and best practices that could be brought bear if state and local governments are receptive. And I think a lot of them would be. And -- and let’s figure out other ways for us to push out that kind of training.
Along the same lines, I think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws to see if it -- if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than diffuse potential altercations.
I know that there’s been commentary about the fact that the stand your ground laws in Florida were not used as a defense in the case.
On the other hand, if we’re sending a message as a society in our communities that someone who is armed potentially has the right to use those firearms even if there’s a way for them to exit from a situation, is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace and security and order that we’d like to see?
And for those who resist that idea that we should think about something like these “stand your ground” laws, I just ask people to consider if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman, who had followed him in a car, because he felt threatened?
And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.
Number three -- and this is a long-term project: We need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African-American boys? And this is something that Michelle and I talk a lot about. There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement. And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?
You know, I’m not naive about the prospects of some brand-new federal program.
I’m not sure that that’s what we’re talking about here. But I do recognize that as president, I’ve got some convening power.
And there are a lot of good programs that are being done across the country on this front. And for us to be able to gather together business leaders and local elected officials and clergy and celebrities and athletes and figure out how are we doing a better job helping young African-American men feel that they’re a full part of this society and that -- and that they’ve got pathways and avenues to succeed -- you know, I think that would be a pretty good outcome from what was obviously a tragic situation. And we’re going to spend some time working on that and thinking about that.
And then finally, I think it’s going to be important for all of us to do some soul-searching. You know, there have been talk about should we convene a conversation on race. I haven’t seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations. They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have.
On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there’s a possibility that people are a little bit more honest, and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can; am I judging people, as much as I can, based on not the color of their skin but the content of their character? That would, I think, be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.
And let me just leave you with -- with a final thought, that as difficult and challenging as this whole episode has been for a lot of people, I don’t want us to lose sight that things are getting better. Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race. I doesn’t mean that we’re in a postracial society. It doesn’t mean that racism is eliminated. But you know, when I talk to Malia and Sasha and I listen to their friends and I see them interact, they’re better than we are. They’re better than we were on these issues. And that’s true in every community that I’ve visited all across the country.
And so, you know, we have to be vigilant and we have to work on these issues, and those of us in authority should be doing everything we can to encourage the better angels of our nature as opposed to using these episodes to heighten divisions. But we should also have confidence that kids these days I think have more sense than we did back then, and certainly more than our parents did or our grandparents did, and that along this long, difficult journey, you know, we’re becoming a more perfect union -- not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.
All right? Thank you, guys.
Q: Could you --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Now you can -- now you can talk to Jay.
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelly on the Stairs
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by squirrels.
Recommended reading:
Trudy: Racism Hurts [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of violence and racism.]
G.D.: Black Violence and Concern Fatigue [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of violence and racism.]
BYP: Tracy Martin: "If Trayvon Was White, This Never Would Have Happened."
Jess: I Am Texas
Atrios: America Is Too Damn Poor
Shannon: People Can Be Abused out of Their Own Healthcare [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of fat bias and abuse.]
TLC: Investigation Concludes Government Agency Discriminated Against Transgender Job Applicant [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of transphobia.]
Brentin: Is Obama Poised to Create Stop-and-Frisk Nation? [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of racism and police malfeasance.]
Mike: Our Ignorance of the Link Between Antibiotic Resistance and Agricultural Use Is No Accident
Rachel: Women Make Movies: New Releases Include Films on Virginity, Women in Prison, and Body Image [Content Note: The post at this link includes descriptions of multiple iterations of misogyny.]
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Club Nouveau: "Lean On Me"
(Filling in for deeky while he is stealing Red Rackham's Treasure.)
This week's music brought to you by injustice, anger, and love. Deeky's whereabouts brought to you by the Adventures of Tintin.
Shorter Pat Buchanan
[CN: white supremacy, racism, violence.]
Actual headline: "Black America's Real problem Isn't White Racism."
Alternative headline: "LET ME WHITESPLAIN THIS TO YOU!"
Actual excerpt: "Though blacks are outnumbered 5-to-1 in the population by whites, they commit eight times as many crimes against whites as the reverse. By those 2007 numbers, a black male was 40 times as likely to assault a white person as the reverse. If interracial crime is the ugliest manifestation of racism, what does this tell us about where racism really resides — in America?"
Alternative wording:"Let me throw around some statistics that confirm racist stereotypes about crime, statistics which are in no way biased, because certainly it's not that white people get away with murdering POC, whereas Black people get arrested and convicted for murdering white people. Because statistics are farted out of the Statistic Fairy's (white) ass, and are therefore unbiased and objective! Nah, white people are the REAL victims here! Oh, is that an obscene way to respond to the murder of teenage boys? Is that some morally repugnant horseshit? Hahaaha I don't fucking care because I am a huge racist! And people paid me to write this white supremamcist dungheap! Yay me!"
Helpful suggestion: Hey, Pat! GO FUCK YOURSELF.
In The News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
Later this year, the US Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of an Oklahoma law restricting the use of oral medications for abortions. Great! I'm sure nothing will go wrong!
It's hard to believe, but the US media has been ignoring why access to abortion after 20 weeks is necessary. Come on, people. Even Butch Pornstache gets it!
The Texas legislature files a bill to ban abortion after six weeks, which would go into effect if Roe is overturned.
Republican Congressman Pete King, who is just a delight, says he is contemplating a run for president. I haven't been this excited about a potential presidential campaign since Tom Tancredo ran! Remember him? He was the best. (The woooooooorst.)
President Obama says he's going to "blow through" Republicans' criticisms of Obamacare to implement it. Cool. What about the criticisms that it does not go far enough and was a giant handout to insurance companies and still leaves lots of people with no coverage and also pandered to anti-choice rhetoric that abortion isn't a key part of women's healthcare? I bet he's gonna blow through those, too! Which is neat.
The US Senate has confirmed Gina McCarthy to lead the EPA and Thomas Perez as labor secretary.
David Axelrod says Clinton will totes run in 2016. That guy's got a couple of real crystal balls!
Finally! Kristen Wiig seems pretty cool.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Christian supremacy.]
"It is your patriotic duty to worship God in order that we may have a prosperous and flourishing economy."—Bryan Fischer, Professional Annoyfuck and Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association, on his garbage radio show this week.
Yes, if only we had a religious president, a religious vice-president, an almost entirely religious executive branch, an almost entirely religious Congress, and 50 almost entirely religious state legislatures. Then our economy would be flourishing. If only! It's just too bad how atheists are running everything.
Oh, what's that, Bryan Fischer? You meant it's everyone's patriotic duty to worship God in the exact way you prescribe, even though the social and economic policies you support are actually antithetical to a robust economy? Huh.
Once again I will observe that even if I were presented with definitive proof that a god did exist, and that god was exactly the petty, retributive, narcissistic revenge-monster that conservative evangelicals imagine him to be, who punishes people with poverty and neglect and abuse and suffering because they don't "believe" hard enough, or right enough, I would reject that asshole on principle.
Richmond Rape Trial Update
[Content Note: Sexual violence.]
Last month, I wrote about one witness' testimony during the trial of two of the dozen+ assailants of a teenage girl in Richmond, California, in 2009. That trial has now ended, and both of the men have been found guilty of multiple felony charges.
Marcelles Peter, 20, of Pinole and Jose Montano, 22, of Richmond showed no emotion when the verdicts were read in a Martinez courtroom, but their mothers wept in the gallery. Peter's attorney, Gordon Brown, put his arm around his client's shoulder.Two more assailants have been identified and await trial.
The victim, referred to in court as "Jane Doe," wasn't in court, nor was her family. But the Richmond police detectives who worked the case for months before making arrests sat in the front row, as a sort of proxy for the girl, said police Capt. Mark Gagan.
Peter's and Montano's cases were joined together, but separate juries listened to the evidence during the six-week trial before Judge Barbara Zuniga of Contra Costa County Superior Court. The panel for Peter reached its verdicts Tuesday; the jury for Montano took one extra day.
Peter and Montano will be sentenced Aug. 15. They face the prospect of terms of 33 years to life in prison for the Oct. 24, 2009, attack outside Richmond High.
...A juror in Montano's case, a 59-year-old man who didn't want to be identified, said he "really didn't want to believe that (Montano) was guilty" but that the evidence proved otherwise.
My heart is with Jane Doe. I hope these convictions bring to her some sense of justice, and eventually some bit of peace.
[My thanks to Shaker A for passing that along.]
Detroit
Detroit has filed for bankruptcy:
The city of Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history Thursday, culminating a decades-long slide that transformed the nation's iconic industrial town into a model of urban decline crippled by population loss, a dwindling tax base and financial problems.Brad Plumer has more here.
Gov. Rick Snyder justified approving the historic filing by reciting a litany of the city's ills, including more than $18 billion in debt, maxed-out tax rates, the highest murder rate in 40 years, 78,000 abandoned buildings and a half-century of residential flight. He said the city failed to provide basic services to residents or pay creditors.
The filing, which has broad implications for the nation's municipal bond market and sanctity of public pension funds, was met with outrage, disappointment and a vow to fight. Some creditors adopted a war stance, threatening a prolonged battle. Others accused Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr of failing to negotiate in good faith — an essential requirement for approval of a bankruptcy petition — during his month-long push to secure concessions from creditors, including deep cuts to pensions.
"It's war," said George Orzech, chairman of the city's Police and Fire pension fund.
There are a lot of reasons that Detroit arrived at this point. But one essential truth is this: A lot of the US is broken, and no one in charge seems particularly inclined to do what it's going to take to fix it.
UPDATE: "An Ingham County judge says Thursday's historic Detroit bankruptcy filing violates the Michigan Constitution and state law and must be withdrawn."
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shakesville contributor Mustang Bobby: "When was the last time you wrote a letter on paper, put it in an envelope, stamped it, and mailed it?"
Pro-Tip
If you make fun of "Texas" (or "Ohio" or "Florida" or "North Carolina" or "Indiana," etc.), you are by definition including the progressive activists who live there.
These places are our homes. We are working in demoralizing conditions and constant defeat to try to fix them. Give us a fucking break.
I'm looking at you, Louis Black.
Boom
Abby Ohlheiser at The Atlantic—The House GOP Won't Defend a Ban on Veterans' Benefits for Same-Sex Couples:
House Republicans will no longer defend a law that bars married, same-sex couples from receiving veterans' benefits available to married heterosexual couples. On Thursday, Buzzfeed reported that the House, responding to a Thursday deadline in a federal lawsuit challenging the veterans' benefits provision, asked to "withdraw as a party defendant" from the case.Sad trombones for the GOP's conservabigot constituency. Confetti for the rest of us.
The Title 38 definition of "spouse" in the U.S. Code that governs veterans' benefits specifies — twice — that the person in question must be of the "opposite" sex in order to qualify. For married veterans and their partners, that effectively limits spousal benefits to straight couples. It's very similar to the language of the DOMA provision struck down in the Windsor decision, which is in part why the Department of Justice hasn't defended the law since 2012, after the administration's decision to stop defending DOMA itself. The Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives, controlled by the GOP, has been defending the provisions ever since. Until today.
Here's the key passage from the motion filed by the Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives:
The Windsor decision [of the Supreme Court] necessarily resolves the issue of DOMA Section 3's constitutionality in this case. While the question of whether [Title 38] is constitutional remains open, the House has determined, in light of the Supreme Court's opinion in Windsor, that it no longer will defend that statue. Accordingly, the House now seeks to leave to withdraw as a party defendant.
Good to know the GOP can begrudgingly and resentfully support the troops when they know they've already lost.
Number of the Day
[Content Note: Hostility to accessible healthcare for women et al.]
Three: The number of Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas whose staff were informed today that they would be closing.
The three clinics are located in Bryan, Huntsville and Lufkin, Texas. They are closing in response to a new package of abortion restrictions signed into law on Thursday and funding cuts to Texas' Women's Health Program that were passed by the Texas state legislature in 2011. Out of the three Planned Parenthood clinics that are closing, only the Bryan clinic performs abortions.Three clinics that provide life-saving healthcare to mostly women are being closed, and thousands of women left without access to affordable preventative care, treatment, and reproductive services because anti-choicers want to force every pregnant person to conform to their will.
"In recent years, Texas politicians have created an increasingly hostile environment for providers of reproductive health care in underserved communities. Texans with little or no access to health care services have been deeply affected by state budget cuts to programs provided by Planned Parenthood health centers and dozens of others that provided lifesaving cancer screenings, well-woman exams and birth control," said Melaney A. Linton, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.
...Republican state lawmakers voted in 2011 to block all funding from the state's Medicaid family planning program, called the Women's Health Program, from going to Planned Parenthood clinics. All three clinics are now set to close as a result.
The Bryan clinic, meanwhile, is also impacted by the abortion law signed on Thursday, which requires all abortions to take place in ambulatory surgical centers. The clinic would need to undergo a series of renovations to fit that description, which could cost millions of dollars. The new law also bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility, and requires doctors to administer the abortion-inducing drug RU-486 in person, rather than allow women to take it at home.
Pro-life my fucking ass. These people are killers.
Meet Senator Ted Cruz!
"LADIES?" ^ This guy totes wants to be your president. FYI.
In case you aren't familiar with Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, there's a delightful profile of him in today's Politico, as Cruz starts sending up 99
Cruz is a deeply religious Baptist who opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He is more supportive of the right to bear arms than Rambo on stilts and steroids. He also believes the constitution permits the radical diminution of the federal government, and he thus lives at the crossroads of the U.S. conservative ideological synthesis. Cruz further insists that libertarianism will be good for the 47 percent and stands ready to champion the libertarian populism that some Republican pundits envision. Unlike, for example, his Senate friend and rival, Rand Paul — who is likely to face fierce opposition from neoconservatives, veterans, party pundits, and media elites regarding his Kucinich-esque national security policies — Cruz also enthusiastically carries forward the party's typical militarist affect, and underscores it with a demagogically retro Cold War rhetoric reminiscent of the famous senator he uncannily resembles: Joseph McCarthy. Cruz has several times referred to the many "communists" on the faculty of Harvard Law School and, not very subtly, connected that to Obama's own legal training.He sounds neat!
Unlike the other tough Texan, Rick Perry, and the other Sun Belt Cuban-American, Marco Rubio, Cruz is carefully obstructionist about comprehensive immigration reform, supporting a "path to legalization," as opposed to citizenship — an inadequate, sure-to-be-rejected "skim milk" analogue to what civil unions are compared to same-sex marriage. For tea party types, immigration ties together fear of the ethnic other and anxiety about crime and economic parasitism. Cruz intuitively understands this. By contrast, Perry's presidential chances faltered when, during the 2012 debates, he supported a DREAM Act lite for children of illegal immigrants in Texas. Rubio apparently bought the argument of party elites that comprehensive immigration reform was an essential political concession to demographic destiny. But now, looking for the lost white vote is the grand goal for Republican thinkers that Latino outreach was six months ago, and Rubio can't feel so good about his position.
So it's best to think of Cruz as the perfect expression of what Perry and Rubio were mere beta versions: the exemplification, brilliantly articulated, of the fringe pathologies trapped in the body of a major party that is today's GOP. Cruz is the real deal. He is deeply grounded in his worldview, and skilled in his presentation of it.
Can I just tell you how excited I am about the next presidential election? I AM SO EXCITED. (I am not excited.)
