Today in Royal Misogyny

CNN's Royal Contributor (via TPM):

White female CNN anchor, whose name I don't know, with a US accent: Victoria Arbiter is joining me; she is live in New York, but she knows the royal life very well, having lived in Kensington Palace—her dad, Dickie Arbiter, was the press secretary for the Queen for many, many years. So exciting—just, first, your reaction, Victoria.

Victoria Arbiter, a white woman with an English accent: Oh, I was just thrilled! I mean, I can't believe that we finally, after all this waiting, know that we have a BOY. So, my first thought, I have to say, was: This is how brilliant a royal Kate is. There are women throughout British royal family history that have panicked over not being able to deliver a boy—and here we are; Kate did it first time, so. It does mean, of course, a change in the laws to succession conversation is over for another good thirty years or so, but we're celebrating and thrilled that Kate has had a healthy, bouncing baby boy.
Listen, I'm not into the royals, and no one who argues that European monarchies are a relic of the past are going to get any argument from me (although I do envy Britain's having a distinct head of state and head of government, and take it from a USian that it sucks when you don't, but none of this is on-topic for this thread and I digress), but I do think it's just aggressively gross that after Queen Elizabeth II has been sitting on the throne for 61 years, there are still people who imagine that it takes a man to do the job.

Also: There was a change in the succession laws in 2011 that means either a boy or girl would be heir, so Arbiter's point, broadcast by CNN, is literally just YAY A BOY BECAUSE BOYS ARE THE BEST! There is not even any concern about female heirs anymore to justify this shit.

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Open Thread

image of singer and actress Tina Turner

Hosted by Tina Turner.

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Question of the Day

Suggested by Shaker laurakeet: "What is your favorite song about a place? It can be a real place, or an imaginary one."

I love with so many hearts Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah's "Lake Shore Drive," the piano in which just captures perfectly what it feels like to be driving down Chicago's Lake Shore Drive on a sunny day. For years and years, I lived at one end of North LSD and worked at the other end, and one of my favorite city drives, in any city, is from the bottom of South LSD past the museum campus and up to the northernmost part of the city. That road is just part of my heart, even with all the stinking traffic through downtown.

I mean, without the traffic, passing Randolph heading north wouldn't feel like freedom every damn time.

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Photo of the Day

image of a cameraman wearing a Prince William mask on the side of his head in the middle of a press gaggle
A TV camera operator wears a Prince William mask (possibly for shade) in a pen outside the Lindo Wing while awaiting the arrival of the royal baby. [Andrew Cowie/AFP/Getty Images]
Via the Guardian.

Princes William and Harry are among the most privileged people on the entire planet. And yet the media scrutiny to which they've been subjected, for a life they did not choose, is unfathomable. It's only gotten more intense since they were kids. I wish this kid well, in a life I wouldn't want, for all the money in Britain. (Or lots of it, anyway.) And I wish his parents, especially his mother, safety. Because I'm afraid she's gonna need it the most.

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Film Corner: The Fifth Estate

[Content Note: Rape culture.]

Below, the trailer for Julian Assange: What a Hero! The Fifth Estate, which is a biopicish film about WikiLeaks mucketymuck and accused rapist Julian Assange, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange.


Video Description: Julian Cumberbatch and two other white dudes and a white lady watch grainy video very intently while making serious faces. Piano music. A reportery voice says in voiceover, "A video was leaked today depicting what appears to be a US military helicopter firing on unarmed reporters."

Cut to Laura Linney yelling at Stanley Tucci somewhere in D.C. "Twelve million people have seen that video! You still wanna tell me you think it's just a little website?!" They look at WikiLeaks on a computer screen. "They have an agenda?" asks Anthony Mackie. Laura Linney says, "Truth. Justice. The American Way." She is only being PARTLY SARDONIC, because obviously everyone knows deep down that Julian Assange and Co. are heroes.

I'd better take a moment to say, in case the past nine years of archives haven't already made it abundantly clear, that I am all in favor of government transparency and accountability. That said, I also happen to find many of the people men who engage in whistleblowing leaking classified information to be self-aggrandizing assholes. That doesn't mean they're doing something wrong! Necessarily! But I am pretty contemptuous of narratives that paint them exclusively as altruistic lovers of truth. Especially when they are probably fucking rapists.

So, let me state plainly that there are a lot of whistleblowers I deeply admire, about whom no one is clamoring to make sycophantic biopics with major stars, but Julian Assange is not among them. Hence the snark.

Anyway.

Blah blah lots of super pretentious quotes from Julian Cumberbatch about conspiracies and truth and secrets and morality, over images of Assange and other white men with computer screens reflecting off their faces, car chases, Julian Cumberbatch smiling shyly (HE SO HUMBLE!) while getting a standing ovation after a speech, blah blah yawn fart. "Courage is contagious!" says Julian Cumberbatch. The US government is after him. "We have to publish now!" Exciting thriller music now. Text onscreen says: "Some call him a visionary. Some call him a traitor." A woman tells Julian Cumberbatch, "If we had someone like you, the Berlin Wall would have come down years before." I know, right? He's practically Christ.

Speaking directly into the camera in what I can only imagine is part of an interview conceit framing the film, because PREDICTABLE MOVIE IS PREDICTABLE, Julian Christerbatch says: "If you want the truth, you should seek it out for yourself. That's what they're afraid of. You." Text onscreen reads: "You are the Fifth Estate."

Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes.

Okay, so, there is A LOT of story here, at least in the marketing for the film, about how Julian Christerbatch is a hero who is totes concerned with fairness and rightness and justice and THE TRUTH, and there is nothing, at least in the marketing, about how he has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment and refuses to face those women in court in the interest of justice.

In fact, there is a brief scene smack in the middle of the trailer showing Julian Christerbatch in silhouette with a woman, smiling at each other while they unbutton their shirts.

Welp.

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Today in Rape Culture

[Content Note: Rape culture; victim-blaming.]

There is, yet again, another "rape prevention tips" meme going around social media. I'm not going to link to it; if you haven't seen it, consider yourself lucky. Suffice it to say it's another piece of victim-blaming shit that tasks women with taking preventative measures so we won't be raped, eliding the existence of the rape culture and ignoring that what every rape victim shares in common is being in the presence of a rapist and perpetuating the rape-abetting narrative that someone other than rapists are accountable for rape.

Here then, again, is my handy guide to rape prevention:

image of a handwritten list labeled 'Melissa's Handy Guide to Rape Prevention' with 10 rape prevention tips, all of which read 'Don't rape anyone.'

The only people at whom rape prevention tips need to be directed are rapists. The end.

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What a Hero or Whatever

The mainstream media is breathlessly reporting (here is Raw Story's breathful coverage) that George Zimmerman "resurfaced" last week to help rescue some people from an overturned vehicle.

So, breaking news: Murderers can also do nice things sometimes.

I don't really give a shit. I'm only posting about this at all because I find it fascinating that I'm obviously supposed to give a shit. But I was never under the impression Zimmerman only murdered people. I never had to believe he was unadulterated evil to believe that he did a terrible thing.

What's telling about George Zimmerman isn't that he is capable of good things. What's telling is that he is unrepentant about the bad ones.

And that's all I've got to say about that.

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RIP Dennis Farina

Via Shaker Kevin Wolf, I just found out that actor Dennis Farina has died. I don't know the first thing about him as a person, aside from the fact that he was from Chicago and was once a cop in real life and had the greatest mustache. He played quite a collection of love-to-hate-'em characters in his career, approximately 137% of which were cops. In his honor, here is a [NSFW] clip of one of my favorite movie moments of all time:


Video Description: Scene from the movie Striking Distance, in which Dennis Farina shouts at Bruce Willis, who plays a boat cop: "Now get in your little fucking boat and get the fuck outta here! Go catch a fish!"

Dennis Farina, I will always be grateful that you made that scene a real thing in this world that I can enjoy over and over forever. Thank you, sir. I hope you are getting in a little fucking boat and getting the fuck to heaven right now.

* * *

[Note: If there are less flattering things to be said about Farina, they have been excluded because I am unaware of them, not as the result of any deliberate intent to whitewash his life. Please feel welcome to comment on the entirety of his work and life in this thread.]

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Quote of the Day

"[Congress] should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal. ...Unpopular? Yes. Why? We're in a divided government. We're fighting for what we believe in. Sometimes, you know, the American people don't like this mess."—Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, whose party is currently very interested in repealing a healthcare bill and not at all interested in repealing an authorization for never-ending warfare. Just as a couple of examples.

As an aside, I always love it when any politician refers to "the American people" as if we are monolithic in our support of their party's platform. Whoooooooops we are not.

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Monday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by apples.

Recommended Reading:

Lyle: Judge "Troubled" over Drone Killing Powers [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of war; drones.]

Michelle: What India's Sex Workers Want: Power, Not Rescue [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of misogyny; hostility to agency; violence/rape.]

Jonathan: Fruitvale Station & Oscar Grant: Why Our Anger Is Necessary [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of racialized violence; police brutality.]

Trudy: Marissa Alexander [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of domestic violence; guns; racism; misogyny.]

FMF News: Even John McCain Supports Revisiting Stand Your Ground Laws

Julianne: The Curious Case of George Zimmerman's Race

James: Salon Columnist Asks if Holder Is Obama's "Inner [Slur]" [Content Note: The post at this link includes a racial slur; discussion of racist narratives.]

Megan: "One Man" to Rule Them All [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of misogyny in filmmaking.]

Leave your links and recommendations in comments...

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Daily Dose of Cute

image of Zelda the Black and Tan Mutt sitting on the couch, looking extra adorable
Zelly Belly

How am I supposed to get anything done around here when there is a face this cute just begging for snorgles?

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

ZZ Top: "TV Dinners"

(Filling in for deeky while he checks in to the Hotel Berlin.)

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AMC's The Killing Open Thread

image of Holder crying while Linden sits quietly beside him

OMG my fellow The Killing fans. Last night's episode wrecked me. WRECKED ME. We need to talk about ALL THE THINGS that wrecked my shit and probably wrecked your shit, too!

[Spoilers!!! Big time spoilers!!!]

Bullet. I cannot even fucking deal. All the sobs forever.

That fuckhead beating up Linden. No. No no no no no. I am so over dudes messing with Linden this season. I wanted Holder to put that guy in a cannon and fire him into the sun!

Holder crying. Please don't do meth again, Holder! PLEASE.

The fucko on death row messing with Peter Sarsgaard's head! WHAT THE FUCK. That scene broke me into one million pieces, and I don't even like Peter Sarsgaard! (I mean, I don't know Peter Sarsgaard, but he seems pretty nice. I just don't know his stinking character's name and I am too lazy to look it up! By which I mean, I am refusing to look it up in an attempt to inject some levity into this post because THIS EPISODE OMG.)

Discuss.

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In The News

Here is some stuff in the news today!

Over the weekend, there were rallies at federal courthouses in cities across the nation to protest the Zimmerman verdict. In New York City, Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mother, choked back tears as a crowd of around 2,000 people chanted: "We love you."

Something something royal baby.

President Obama plans to tour the Midwest this week to lay out his economic agenda, which will be immediately rejected by Republicans no matter what it is.

[Content Note: Guns] Because of course they are: "A gun owner's advocacy group in Ohio is raising money to buy a new gun for former neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in response to federal officials' delaying the return of his old one following his acquittal on second-degree murder charges in the killing of Trayvon Martin."

[Content Note: Homophobia] Patriarch Kirill I, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, says that same-sex marriage is a "very dangerous sign of the apocalypse." Are there signs of the apocalypse that aren't "very dangerous"? "This season's resurgence in neon fabric is a moderately concerning sign of the apocalypse!" Anyway. By all accounts of what constitute signs of the apocalypse according to Godly Men, the apocalypse looks like it will be PRETTY FUN!

[Content Note: Peril] Stuntmen at ComicCon rescue a woman dangling from a 14th floor balcony. "We're trained to deal with these situations should they arise." All right then! Good job, bros!

RIP Helen Thomas, trailblazer. I admired Helen Thomas fiercely, and she sometimes deeply disappointed me. I imagine Ms. Thomas would be pleased that I remember her fuck-ups, and held her to account for them, just as much as I remember her successes. She was, after all, keenly interested in documenting the truth. She was tenacious and strong and eminently human and occasionally apologetic. What a person. What a career. What a life.

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Hillary Haterz

image of Hillary Clinton looking at her cellphone with an exhausted expression, to which I've added text reading 'Same shit, different election.'

Hillary Clinton has not even announced any plans to run for president (or not run for president), and the STOP HILLARY! campaign has already begun:
The organizers behind Stop Hillary PAC, a political action committee quietly incorporated in May, are stepping into public view this week as they ramp up their efforts to harangue Clinton as she mulls over her political future.

...[T]he group wants to be a boisterous party-crasher as the 2016 campaign gets underway, ginning up controversy and online contributions with barbed attacks against Clinton. To start, the PAC is releasing a video later this week "that will get a lot of attention," Marquis promised.

The organization's plans to "Stop Hillary" are admittedly scattershot in these early stages of the race. Their portfolio could include "bracketing" events at Clinton appearances around the country, or local TV and radio ads, or social media efforts. If Clinton does decide to run for office, the PAC will be in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina waiting for her.

The point, Marquis said, is "to make noise" wherever Clinton goes.

"We're supporting anything that is the opposite of Hillary," he said. "We will play however needed, wherever Hillary is playing. If she endorses in the Virginia governor's race, we will go there. Assuming she is active in Iowa, we will be there, too, and we will make some considerable noise."

The group is separate from "Stop Hillary 2016," a project initiated last month by America Rising, a new opposition research outfit helmed by former Mitt Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades and a pair of former Republican National Committee officials.
They sound neat!

So, on one side, you've got all the people who say Hillary HAS TO RUN and will totally be letting down her party and HER COUNTRY if she doesn't. And on the other, you've got all the people who say Hillary HAD BETTER NOT RUN and will totally be subjected to unusual levels of harassment even by the garbage standards of electoral politics. Cool. What a cool decision she has to make!

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Another Grim Weekend of Gun Violence in Chicago

[Content Note: Guns, injury, death.]

Six people were killed and at least 23 people were wounded by gunfire in Chicago over the weekend. Each of these people had lives and loved ones and individual stories of their complex humanity. They are not just statistics. But as the pervasiveness of gun violence in Chicago invisibilizes individual victims as numbers get reported where names should be:

Six men [Maurice Gibson, 26; Donald Lewis, 25; Marcus Holden, 28; Eugene Clark, 25; William Brown, 34; and Carlos Barron, 19] were killed and at least 23 people — including a 6-year-old girl — were wounded in shootings across the city since Friday night.

Asked Sunday about Chicago's reputation in the wake of another violent weekend, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he's primarily "concerned about the safety and security of our neighborhoods, and our residents."
Oh is he now? That's news to Chicago.

Naturally, his concern about the safety and security of Chicagoans does not mean a fundamentally new strategy for the city which disproportionately allocates resources to already-privileged areas while ever more deeply entrenching institutional neglect in areas compromised by poverty, discontinued public transport, defunded social services, no jobs, fewer grocery stores, and no tourist income. Naturally, his concern means sending more people to jail.
He again pushed for a three-year sentencing minimum for gun crimes — calling it the "weak link" in the city's crime-fighting strategy. And he said it's time to replace the "code of silence" with a "moral code."
Ha ha. A moral code. So says the mayor who is, in many of the same neighborhoods, "overseeing the closing of fifty-four schools and six community mental health clinics under the justification of a 'budgetary crisis' [after announcing] that the city will be handing over more than $100 million to DePaul University for a new basketball arena."

DePaul is a private Catholic university whose basketball team has a five-year record of 47-111.
The school closures are taking place entirely in communities of color while the city's elite feed with [wild] abandon at an increasingly sapped trough. As Karen Lewis, the Chicago Teachers Union chief who led a victorious strike last September fueled by rage at Mayor Rahm, said, "When the mayor claims he is facing unprecedented budget problems, he has a choice to make. He is choosing between putting our communities first or continuing the practice of handing out millions of public dollars to private operators, even in the toughest of times."
And this mayor has the temerity to lecture the men with guns on the need for a "moral code." Get your own shit in order, Mayor. Invest in those men's communities, instead of conveying to them at every turn that their lives have no value, and then wondering why they don't value life.

And don't even get me started on the victim-blaming shit of castigating victims and witnesses about a "code of silence" when your police force is doing half the killing.

This is the future of your Democratic Party. Mayor Rahm Emanuel. A corporate crony who doesn't give a fuck about anything but money and power, but gets elected saying he's on the opposite side of social issues that Republicans say they are, with precisely as little actual investment in those positions as his opponents. Woo.

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Transcripts, Transcripts Everywhere!

It's time for your irregularly-scheduled transcription update! Woo-hoo! In numbered format, of course, as that is the only way I know how to communicate! Which possibly makes me some kind of robot or possibly an ELIZA engine! QUICK SOMEONE GET A TURING TEST UP IN HERE.

Ahem.

1. I have sent out every piece of the Wendy Davis filibuster. I HAVE SENT OUT EVERY PIECE OF THE WENDY DAVIS FILIBUSTER. I cannot tell you how excited I am about that!

2. Transcripts are flowing in from volunteers through the intertubes! Other volunteers (and you know who you are, and you are the kindest, bestest, most patient people on the face of the planet) are proofreading them! Then I put them in the mega-transcript for public viewing FOREVER AND EVER.

3. This also means the whole filibuster is spliced and uploaded and ready to be saved for posterity! You can view the whole thing in playlist form on YouTube or you can download a nearly 16 hour mp4/mp3 file (your choice!) through Dropbox (no dropbox account needed!) Sadly, YouTube file limits prevented me from uploading the full file there.

4. I am now splicing and sending out videos from the House amendments session! This is very important work because everything said in that session needs to go on a campaign poster, like, NOW. These are being sent out, so check your inboxes! Because I'm pretty sure that Gmail thinks I am now a very excited email virus!

5. I have gotten SO MANY NICE EMAILS from people who couldn't see the filibuster when it went up and/or who have hearing disabilities and are excited to be able to participate in the democratic process after the fact. THIS IS BECAUSE OF YOU. YOU MADE THIS HAPPEN. I AM CRYING AS I WRITE THIS. Because a bunch of institutionalized privilege and ableism has been overcome -- or at least held off a bit -- entirely because of YOUR volunteer work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

6. Some of you have asked about the technical aspects of this process, and I keep promising an answer and then not delivering because of the Busy. The very short version here is LiteCam HD to record the live-stream as it plays (over RealPlayer). This takes multiple cuts because the live-stream can't play 16 hours straight without timing out, so Freemake Video Converter splices the pieces together into the "full" file. Then I watch the full file and pick out logical start and stop points for each video. Then Bigasoft Video Converter slices out the chunks. Then it's back to Freemake Video Converter again to shave off the rough "edges" because Bigasoft doesn't chunk perfectly cleanly. AND NOW YOU KNOW WHY I DIDN'T ANSWER SOONER, ha.

And this is, by the way, the fastest and most efficient method I have. The method I was working early in month had about 18 more steps. Whut.

7. Some of you have also asked how I'm doing, which is very sweet of you. I'm fine, which is the Polite way of saying that I could be better. I kind of wish I lived in a world where I was doing other things with my time simply because I wasn't living in a corporate dystopia nightmare anti-choice reality. HAHA, DON'T WE ALL! But I'm happy to be doing something productive and I'm so happy to be doing it with 100+ of my new favorite people.

8. I have been answering emails a little slowly because something weird is going on with my hands and arms such that I have to keep Ace bandages wrapped tightly around them to keep something (muscles? tendons? HAHA, I AM AN ENGINEER AND NOT A DOCTOR.) from spasming. So if you get an email from me and it seems a little terse, I swear it is NOT because I hate you. It's just the Ace bandages limiting my word count. :)

I think I had more to say, but it's gone now so I will just say again: THANK YOU. To all you wonderful, supportive, amazing, incredible, activist-superheroes and -superheroines.

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Open Thread

image of actress Sissy Spacek

Hosted by Sissy Spacek.

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Open Thread

image of a squirrel shoving a huge nut into its cheek

Hosted by a hungry squirrel. (Or maybe a chipmunk.)

This week's Open Threads have been brought to you by nuts.

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Open Thread

image of macadamia nuts

Hosted by macadamia nuts.

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