[Content Note: Guns; violence; terrorism.]
Over the weekend, there was a devastating assault on a Nairobi shopping mall, in which at least 70 people have been killed and dozens more injured. There are still people being held hostage, although many of them have now escaped. The siege continues, as Kenya's security forces close in on the shooters, identified as Somali al Shabaab Islamists, who are "demanding Kenya pull out troops from its northern neighbor, where they have put the al Qaeda-affiliated group on the defensive in the past two years."
Here are some good articles with more details: Reuters; BBC; New York Times; Guardian. Please note there may be images of violence at these links.
See also the WaPo's "10 things to know about Somalia's militant group al-Shabab."
There are US-born fighters among al-Shabab's ranks, and there may be US-born assailants at the Westgate Mall.
Which is, of course, not the only way the United States is connected to Somalian terrorism, and the void of stability in which groups like al-Shabab were born, and the weapons in their hands. I won't go into a history lesson, but our (and other nations') foreign policy in the African region is on-topic for this thread.
My sincerest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of the victims of this massacre. I hope the survivors will get the support that they need, and justice, and peace.
Shooting at Nairobi Shopping Mall
Sunday Shuffle
Today is Hobbit Day! (Bilbo and Frodo's mutual birthday)
What are you listening to today?
Open Thread
This week's open threads have been brought to you by classic carnival rides.
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!
The Newest Attack on Hillary Clinton
[Content Note: Homophobia; misogynist and homophobic slurs.]
Which is really an old attack, being drudged up from the depths of the fetid cesspool that is the history of gross attacks on Hillary Clinton: Hillary is bisexual!
Earlier this week, the garbage rag that is the Daily Mail ran a totally trenchant piece (to which I refuse to link, but I'm sure Google will help you locate it if you're so inclined) about how former and possibly future Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is totes bisexual for sure, using as its reliable source former President Bill Clinton's ex-lover Gennifer Flowers, who says: "Bill told me and that was that he was aware that Hillary was bisexual and he didn't care. He should know. He said Hillary had eaten more p***y than he had." Charming.
Meanwhile, a week or so ago, the Globe, another fine publication featuring rock-solid journalism, featured on its cover in giant block letters: "HILLARY'S STEAMY ROMPS—WITH ANOTHER WOMAN! WILL SECRET PAST WRECK WHITE HOUSE DREAM?"
(I took this picture while standing in the check-out line at the grocery store, because Aphra_Behn and I have a fun habit of texting each other the most egregious tabloid covers across which we stumble.)
So, in case Republican Congressman Darrell Issa and his merry band of integrity-challenged miscreants don't succeed in derailing any potential presidential ambitions of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by screaming BENGHAZI! on an infinite loop for the next six months, the tabloids are getting their backs with reprehensible appeals to the dinosaurs of social justice with the journalistic equivalent of a mean rumor scribbled on a page of notebook paper and passed around during study hall.
Hillary Clinton has never disclosed that she is bisexual. Whether she is bisexual has nothing to do with her skills, or her flaws, as a politician and a leader.
And I suspect Hillary Clinton would not consider being called bisexual an insult. Factually inaccurate, maybe.
But of course it's not for her, or even really about her. It's for the people who will never vote for her in a million years, anyway. It's for the people who think it's the height of clever discourse to call any woman who is a feminist a "dyke!" (or some variation thereof); to call any straight person who supports LGB equality a "homo!" (or some variation thereof). It's for people who don't know shit about shit, who don't even know enough to compose a legitimate critique of Hillary Clinton's policies, and thus have to settle for what they perceive to be name-calling, imagining Hillary fucking Clinton will crumble at ALLEGED EVIDENCE SHE MAY HAVE SWUM IN THE OCEAN WITH ANOTHER WOMAN ONCE UPON A TIME POSSIBLY!
Hillary Clinton, I imagine, couldn't give less of a shit. And I'm not writing this post for her. I'm writing it for all the girls and young women who watch her, and other women like her, and see what is done to them, and have to weigh their desire to change the world against their desires to be safe, respected, treated with kindness.
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by avocados.
Recommended reading:
Guttmacher: Almost 13 Million Women of Reproductive Age Were Uninsured in 2012
BYP: Michael Giles Denied "Stand Your Ground" Defense, Mom Starts Petition [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of guns, violence, and racism.]
Alexandra: Quote of the Day: Tasteful Rape [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of sexual violence and rape apologia.]
Adrienne: Canadian iTunes App Store Censors the Word RedSk*n [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of racist slurs.]
This Is Thin Privilege: Thin Privilege Is Getting the Correct Dosage of Chemo When You Have Been Diagnosed with Cancer [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of fat bias.]
TLC: VICTORY! EEOC Announces Settlement for Transgender Employee in Discrimination Case
Jamilah: Meet B-Girl Terra, the Flyest Six-Year-Old Dancer Around
Susana: Rumor: Marvel Has Peggy Carter-Based TV Series in Early Development
Steve: Why Adopt a Pet? Many Reasons [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of euthanasia of healthy animals.]
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Congressional Republican Cruelty, Again
People not having access to affordable healthcare is a crisis. Defunding the social safety net is calamitous. The sequester is a disaster. And all of it is part of the Republican strategy to bring the federal government to its knees, "to reduce it to the size where [they] can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
Today: House Republicans set course for shutdown with anti-Obamacare bill.
Republicans in Congress have placed the US on a path to a potentially calamitous government shutdown over the federal budget, after voting through a measure on Friday that makes the continuing funding of the government contingent upon an attempt to derail President Barack Obama's signature healthcare initiative.Welp, that about sums it up. Holding the nation hostage to a garbage ideology the healthcare plank of which is "don't get sick if you can't pay for it" may have global consequences, but "House Republicans are unperturbed."
Leaders in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives immediately called on the Senate to back the bill, which would keep up government spending until mid-December but also withdraw funding for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Democrats opposed the vote, arguing in a debate beforehand that Republicans were threatening to deny resources to vital agencies and playing a high-risk game that could place the entire US economy in jeopardy.
The resolution is expected to be blocked next week by leaders in the Democratic Senate; Obama has already said he will veto any such measure.
...There are just 10 days before the end of the federal fiscal year, after which government departments will run out of money. A showdown is expected to dominate Washington throughout next week. ...[T]he consequences of a failure to reach an agreement over the next week could be far-reaching. Economists are warning that the danger of a government shutdown or debt default could seriously damage the US, with ripples potentially impacting the wider global economy.
...However, House Republicans, whose agenda has been set by the conservative wing of the GOP, and who have been a thorn in the side of the Obama administration, are unperturbed.
And, hey, if they do happen to get perturbed at any point and need some medical attention for their perturbation, it's no problem—since US taxpayers are already paying for them to have excellent healthcare.
Pope Francis: My Theology is Still a Garbage Nightmare!
[Content Note: hostility to agency, misogyny]
Lest anyone get any ideas that Pope Francis I respects the rights of uterus-bearers, he made it clear today: fetuses are definitely more important than pregnant people! And he's urging Catholic doctors to make sure they have their priorities straight:
In his comments, Francis denounced today's "throw-away culture" that justifies disposing of lives, and said doctors in particular had been forced into situations where they are called to "not respect life.""Every child that isn't born, but is unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of Jesus Christ, has the face of the Lord," he said.
He urged the gynecologists to abide by their consciences and help bring lives into the world. "Things have a price and can be for sale, but people have a dignity that is priceless and worth far more than things," he said.
Well, unless those people happen to be pregnant, that is. Then their dignity and worth takes a back seat to the "unjustly aborted." And no word on whether pregnant people have the "face of Jesus Christ, the face of the Lord." Maybe if they turn a little more to the right and smile.
There is a connection between poverty and hostility to agency. There is a connection between the right to bodily autonomy and respect for human dignity. As long as you act as if fetuses float in some incubator-spaceship, rather than inside a human person with thoughts, cares, needs and rights, it really doesn't matter how sweetly you deliver your message. It is still misogynistic garbage.
Daily Dose of Cute
Fuzzy Cat is fuzzy.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Heart: "Crazy on You"
This week's TMNS brought to you by some of my favorite guitarists.
Who's to Blame for Mass Shootings? (Hint: LADEEEEZ!)
[Content Note: Sexism, gun violence]
Well, the problem isn't Buddhism after all. It's the ladyjobs.
A former New Hampshire state senator who’s announcing his candidacy to unseat Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen says women in the workplace are at least partially to blame for mass shootings and other violence by men.
“Bottom line: the collaborative, flexible, amorphously-hierarchical American economy is shutting out ordinary men who were once the nation’s breadwinners in living-wage labor and manufacturing jobs,” wrote former state Sen. Jim Rubens in a 2009 blog post.
The original post, which is now protected behind a firewall, argues that this loss of status had provoked violence in men.
Now of course Mr. Rubens did not mean to imply that the rise of (somewhat) more female-friendly workplaces, what with their collaboration and flexibilty and (sorta-kinda-maybe) equal pay for gals ladypeople was a bad thing. NOT AT ALL. He made this totes clear on Buzzfeed:
“I don’t see anything that causes anyone to conclude I’m seeking to in any way make a claim that it’s not great that women have come up in the economy,” Rubens said. “My wife is my business partner, so I know that it’s fantastic that the economy has made a fulsome role for women as I was pointing out in the posting. We need to get manufacturing jobs back.”
See? His wife is his partner, so he is NOT SEXIST! All he wants to do is get manufacturing jobs back, because those are DUDE JOBS. Ladies, of course, have been competely unaffected by the decline in manufacturing! Also: without access to manufacturing jobs, guns magically appear in angry man-hands! Or something. All of which definitely connects in a clear and logical fashion.
Mr. Rubens, I hereby grant you the Most Creative Entry Prize in the contest for Worst GOP Avoidance of Gun Control!
I will also offer you some free advice.
1. Your derriere looks like a chapeau, and it is on your head.
2. Access to guns just might have something to do with gun violence. If this is hard to grasp, go write it out 500 times.
3. It is perfectly possible to talk about renewing manufacturing in the United States (which I support) without resorting to gender stereotypes or bizarre mass psychoanalysis (which I write snarky blogposts about).
4. LOL your gendered jobs.
5. LOL your history.
Congratulations for living up to the GOP's true heritage as the Party of Personal Responsibility! By which I mean, blaming everyone but yourselves for everything.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
Igor has your Complete Guide to the GOP's Three-Year Campaign to Shut Down the Government. What a depressing but very excellent read! Those Republicans sure are terrible!
Speaking of which: House Republicans Pass Deep Cuts in Food Stamps. Which is both cruel AND pointless! Because the Democratically-controlled Senate is very unlikely to pass these cuts, and, even if they did, President Obama would almost certainly veto the fuck out of it with what I can only imagine is a special veto pen made of undiluted rage that he would have commissioned just for the occasion.
[Content Note: War] The Syrian government says the country's civil war has reached a stalemate and neither side is strong enough to win. According to Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, "President Bashar al-Assad's government will call for a ceasefire at a long-delayed conference in Geneva on the state's future."
[CN: Homophobia] Anti-choice Mormons are fixing to insert themselves into Hawaii's fight for same-sex marriage. Because nothing says "I am a good person who is definitely going to the Celestial Kingdom" like dedicating your energies to obstructing other human beings' happiness.
The government contractor that ran the background check on Navy Yard Shooter Aaron Alexis "performs a majority of background checks for our government." Whooooooops!
This is a real article in the world: Hillary Clinton all but running. In which reporters basically accuse Clinton and her team of lying, because she appears to be laying groundwork for a presidential run but hasn't announced her candidacy. HOW DARE SHE. Who does she think she is, anyway—some kind of HUMAN BEING who has the right to determine the course of her own life? What a jerk!
Do you want to see Peter Dinklage on Sesame Street singing about Simon Says? Well, here you go then! Simon Says let's all cheer for Peter Dinklage! *cheers*
[CN: Breaking Bad spoilers] Vince Gilligan talks about writing Breaking Bad. It's a lot of responsibility messing with our emotions and shaming the writers of almost every other show on television!
Mass Shooting in Chicago
[Content Note: Guns; violence; racism.]
Last night, 13 people were shot in a park on Chicago's South Side. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, but a three-year-old boy who was shot in the head remains in critical condition at a local hospital.
[A] total of 13 people were shot, the boy, two teens, and 10 adults, with the boy the most seriously wounded. The boy suffered a gunshot wound to the head at an ear that exited through his mouth, and was in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.Four adults are in serious condition. No suspects are in custody.
The little boy who was shot, Deonta' Howard, lost his uncle to gun violence in the Labor Day shootings in Chicago, during which eight people were killed at least 20 more injured.
This story is, so far, not getting quite the same level of media attention as most mass shootings. Currently, NBC News is featuring it as a secondary headline, next to multiple stories and a giant slideshow about the new iPhone, including images of people cheering about their new phone:
That about sums it up.
(Note: The source of NBC's accompanying grainy photo of a black, tattooed man in a tanktop is a mystery; it is not a still from the video at the story link that I could find, so I've no idea who that guy is. But the shooter is not known, so if he is indeed someone related to this shooting, he's a survivor of it. ETA: He is an investigating police officer.)
This media deprioritization of another mass shooting is partly because murder by gun violence has become so routine on Chicago's South Side that a mass shooting is barely newsworthy. It's partly because the victims are black. And it's partly because:
Chicago police were making no information about what happened public, except to say that the shooting appeared to be gang-related.Which makes it easily dismissed out of hand with racist stereotypes about violent thugs, and impossible to frame as the work of a crazy lone gunman with a suspicious religious affiliation. This shit is about guns, and access to them.
And poverty. And institutional neglect. And a lot of stuff that makes Chicago two different cities north and south of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Stuff that we bury behind ten metric fucktons of vile public commentary about bootstraps and welfare queens.
Chicago had more homicides than any other US city last year. Our President's hometown. Thirteen people were shot in one incident last night. Thirteen people. Across the city, there were twenty-three shootings last night, and two people died.
I desperately hope the survivors get the care and support that they need. I hope they get justice.
I hope their country gives a fuck about them.
[H/T to Jordan. Related Reading: These Chicagoans Matter, Too.]
Stephen Harper Doesn't Give a Shit About Aboriginal People, Again
[Content Note: racism, misogyny, violence against women and girls.]
The Conservative government of Canada has rejected calls from the UN Human Rights Council for a federal investigation into the alarming problem of violence against Aboriginal Women:
[Canadian ambassador to the UN Elissa] Golberg said Canada takes the issue seriously and that provincial and local governments are better suited to getting results on those issues.Shawn Atleo, national chief of Canada's Assembly of First Nations, said there is deep concern among aboriginals over the government's refusal to conduct a national review of the problem.
"There is strong support for this action domestically among provincial and territorial leaders and the Canadian public and strong international support, not to mention a multitude of reports and investigations that urge Canada to act," Atleo said in a statement...."It is especially clear that words need to be supported by actions, that commitments and declarations need to be accompanied by concrete and concerted efforts in collaboration with First Nations to ensure all of our citizens, including women and girls, are safe."
As for the provincial governments, most premiers have already made it clear that they want a federal inquiry. Harper's stance has been that it's time for action, rather than more investigation. Ha ha ha, that is SO TRUE, sir! Considering that the UN has been pressuring you since at least 2008-2009 to do something about the nearly 600 missing aboriginal women and girls, I would say it is definitely time for action. You are on to something there!
But since the Harper government's sense of "action" on Aboriginal rights issues has been one of GARBAGE action, from the reckless abandonment of the Kelowna Accord and the godawful colonialist provisions of Bill C-64, to the continued avoidance of Idle No More and the bullshit paternalistic "workfare" in the 2013 Budget, please forgive me for being doubtful that your call to action is a call to good action.
Oh, and let's not forget: the Harpercons severely cut funding for Sisters in Spirit, a database tracking aboriginal women's disappearances. Yes, Mr. Harper, you are definitely very sincerely interested in this problem! I totally believe that!(Disclaimer: I do not even partially believe that.)
Nearly 600 aboriginal women and girls, gone. Hundreds or thousands of other women and girls at risk. And Stephen Harper's government has the fucking racist audacity to treat them as bargaining chips in their latest showdown with the UN, or as disposable items in the budget, or whatever fucking game they're playing this week. I have no words to express my contempt for this continuing obscenity. I stand in solidarity with Idle No More's October 7 Day of Action:
We must collectively send a clear message that our movement will not stop intervening in Canada’s attempts to conduct business as usual, until our right to free, prior, and informed consent is universally upheld, until all provisions of Bill c-45 are repealed, until justice is served in the dealings over our murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, and until our lands and our treaties are respected!”
(If you would like to find a Day of Action event, or to organize your own, you can visit Idle No More's Event page.)
Question of the Day
All things being equal (i.e. access to both, in terms of location and ability to pay): Would you rather camp out or stay in a motel/hotel on a holiday?
NC Police Shooting Update
[Content Note: Police brutality; guns; violence; racism.]
Background: Part One; Part Two.
Via Black Youth Project, police have released the recording of the 911 call from the woman who requested police when Jonathan Ferrell showed up at her door in the middle of the night seeking help following a serious car accident. Contrary to earlier reports, the caller explicitly requests police because she believes Ferrell is trying to get into her house, and expresses concern that he might hurt her sleeping baby, despite the fact that Ferrell "made no verbal threats to the woman."
So. Something made this woman fearful, other than what Ferrell said to her, and I don't know if it was straight-up racism, alarmism resulting from faulty narratives about stranger assaults, a panic response from surviving trauma, something else, some combination of things. I don't even know if it was legitimate fear, or if she calculated that saying a child was in danger would get the cops there faster.
I'm not inclined to defend her or search for explanations. What happened, for whatever reason, is that she communicated a fear to police, who clearly treated that as fact.
And that transaction is racist.
Over and over, I write about police failing utterly to take women at their word when they have been actually, really assaulted. Over and over, in comments here and in other spaces, women share their stories of being disbelieved by police, of being turned away from making a police report after being assaulted. Over and over, we all hear stories of women who have been killed by partners after police failed to take seriously multiple reports of domestic abuse.
But suddenly, when a woman makes a call about a black man who is at her door, her word is gold. Her fear of attack is translated immediately into an actual threat of attack.
And so the police arrived, or at least one police officer did, primed for a violent confrontation.
With a man who was seeking help.
Who made no threats.
Who was shaken after a serious car accident.
Who approached people in his community seeking their assistance.
And who is now being victim-blamed by lawyers for the police officer who shot him, because he "did not comply with officers' commands to get down before he was killed."
"(Ferrell) advanced toward the officers. His hands were not in the air," said George Laughrun, attorney for Officer Randall Kerrick, speaking to reporters about what he saw in footage from a police cruiser's dashboard camera.Twelve times. Hitting Ferrell with ten bullets.
"You see one of his hands partially behind his back, concealed as he … continued to advance. He was given three commands to 'Get on the ground. Get on the ground.' He did not. And Officer Kerrick backed up and then felt the need to deploy his service weapon."
The attorney for Ferrell's family, who viewed the video, says it all happened so quickly, the shouts and the shots, that Ferrell didn't even have to respond.
And, even if he had, what response might have saved his life? Oscar Grant was lying on the ground with two police officers restraining him when he was killed by police.
The only response that could have saved Ferrell's life was a different police response. A response that arrives at any scene with a primary intention of establishing the actual facts of the situation, of prioritizing safety, of treating every person involved as a human being of equal worth.
Jonathan Ferrell was seeking help.
Opposition to Obamacare Hits a New Low
[Content Note: Sexual assault.]
Generation Opportunity, yet another conservative advocacy group that is a front for the loathsome Koch Brothers, is launching a campaign designed to convince young people to opt-out of Obamacare. The campaign will consist of a college tour across the US, which will consist of opt-out parties (sure) and coincide with an online video series, the first two of which are already viewable:
The video opens on a series of video screens that look like security feeds in a hospital. Zany, carnival-like music. The shot zooms in on the center monitor, where a thin, black, young woman (the nurse) in scrubs in walking down a corridor with a thin, white, young woman (the patient) in a a t-shirt and jeans shorts. "Oh," says the nurse, looking at a patient chart she's holding. "I see you chose to sign up for Obamacare."And there's one for the guys, too, in which a thin, white, middle-aged, male doctor tells a thin, white, young white man to take off his pants and get on an examination table with his knees pulled to his chest, so that creepy Uncle Sam, snapping on a glove, can investigate his asshole.
"Yeah," says the patient cheerfully. "It's actually my first time here."
"Well, here we are then," says the nurse, as they pause at an exam room door. "Change into a gown, and the doctor will see you soon."
Cut to the patient sitting on an exam table in a hospital gown. A thin, white, middle-aged female doctor wearing a white coat walks in, looking at the chart. "Okay, well, your vitals look good," says the doctor. "Any changes in your diet or exercise?" The patient smiles and shakes her head. "All right," says the doctor. "Can you swing on over? Scoot on down and try to make yourself comfortable." The patient swings her legs around the end of the exam table as the doctor pulls out metal stirrups, and places the patient's feet in them. "Okay," says the doctor. "Let's have a look."
The doctor smiles and walks out of the room. The patient looks confused. The zany music turns ominous as a creepy Uncle Sam with a horror-clown face pops up from below, appearing between the patient's legs. Through the window in the exam room door, we see him leer over her as she kicks her legs and screams. This is played for laughs.
The screen goes black. "Don't let government play doctor," reads text onscreen. "Opt out of Obamacare."
Cut back to creepy Uncle Sam with permanent evil grin on his immovable mask. He holds up a speculum and slowly opens it. Cut to text onscreen about the campaign.
Lest there be any confusion about the intent of these ads, the one with the female patient is titled, on Generation Opportunity's own YouTube channel: "Opt Out - The Exam - Creepy Uncle Sam."
Every single thing about these ads is reprehensible, and I will leave you to parse every deplorable aspect in comments. I will simply observe the unmitigated temerity of a conservative group suggesting that the Affordable Healthcare Act will result in the government sexually assaulting patients, which they would no doubt defend on the basis that it's just a metaphor geeeeez, when Republicans have been legislating anti-choice laws that both figuratively insert the government into people's bodies, and actually, really, literally require unnecessary, unsolicited, invasive procedures into which patients are coerced to access a legal healthcare procedure, which is a potential sexual assault—of either or both patient and practitioner.
What's treated like a fucking joke in these ads is already happening. Of which the miserable heapshits of humanity behind these ads are well aware, since they're the ones who underwrote the legislation that made it so.
[H/T to Shaker Variable.]
