Something something headline about Republicans who think Obamacare is a failure. Something something headline about Republicans who think Obamacare is a disaster. Something something headline about Republicans who think Obamacare is socialist or Communist or fascist. Something something headline about Republicans who think Obamacare needs to be repealed immediately before it DESTROYS THE ENTIRE NATION. Something something headline about Republicans who think Obamacare is unpopular. Something something headline about Republicans who say no one likes Obamacare and no one ever will.
You know who likes Obamacare? People who now have insurance, some of them for the first time in their lives.
I'm not saying the Affordable Care Act is perfect. It isn't. I'm not saying that the Obama administration rolled it out effectively. They didn't. And I'm really, really not saying that I think running healthcare through a for-profit insurance industry is a good system. It ain't.
I'm just saying that maybe the Republicans can STFU unless and until they've got a better plan.
Because not only are they shitting all over the President; they're ignoring and silencing all the people who are grateful to have healthcare. They're behaving, as usual, like those people don't matter.
That's not just partisan politicking. That's cruel indifference in the interest of political expedience.
Yawn
Important News
[Background: Part One; Part Two.]
I thought: "YES. Now I can get on with my life." Followed immediately by: "Well, I know it's possible to get to 4096, so..."
This game has destroyed me.
My only solace is knowing that I am not alone. Which is my way of inviting you to discuss in comments about how 2048 has taken over your entire existence. Or any other game, for that matter.
The Walking Thread
[Content Note: Descriptions of violence; descriptions of an attempted sexual assault; child abuse; fat hatred. Spoilers are lurching around undeadly herein.]
Lord Richard Grimes of Traincar Abbey, looking markedly less sweaty than usual.
This fucking show. Just when I think there is no way it could gross me out even more (and I don't mean with zombies, but with its penchant for narrative fuckery), it hits a whole new low.
Right off the top, I want to address, with the seriousness it deserves, the scene in which the Dirtbags catch up to Grimes, Michonne, and Carl the Hat, and one of the Dirtbags (the fat one, obviously, because fat conveys extra immorality and weakness of character) tries to rape Carl, and Michonne is also threatened with rape. You see, it wasn't enough just for Fat Dirtbag to threaten to kill Carl and Michonne, because the entire episode is about how you can still be A Good Person (fixed identity!) if you've killed people in the zombiepocalypse. So, to show how extra super-duper evil these fuckos are, they have to threaten sexual violence: The fate even worse than death, as is constantly implied by pop culture.
It's completely reprehensible that a show which has never responsibly addressed how dangerous the threat of sexual violence would really be for women and children in the midst of such social chaos would suddenly introduce it as essentially a lazy piece of character development, for characters we already understand are terrible, amoral scum, in order to provoke Grimes into a brutally violent act of revenge, for a tired commentary on moral relativism that this show has already mined bare.
And it has not escaped my notice that the writers essentially decided to throw in a graphic threat of child rape to add a little extra shock value to the season finale.
Further, I was deeply distressed watching a 14-year-old boy be pretend-assaulted for a television show. Call me old-fashioned, but I just don't think that a child ever needs to be subjected to participating in a staged sexual assault for my entertainment.
Adult actors who have filmed rape and attempted rape scenes have spoken about how unexpectedly traumatic those sorts of scenes can be. This show has come nowhere close to the threshold for justifying putting a kid through shooting a potentially lingeringly distressing scene.
So, yeah. That scene was basically the centerpiece of the first half of the episode. Which opens on an image of Grimes, sitting on the ground with his face and hands covered in blood.
From there, we cut to a flashback of better days at Grimes Jail, and Hershel is being all Hershelly and lecturing Grimes on how he needs to make life at Grimes Jail as normal as possible and teach Carl the Hat how to garden and be a man. The episode is intercut throughout with flashbacks to this Golden Era of the Zombiepocalypse, before Captain Murder destroyed everything. They are typically saccharine and heavy-handed and introduce nary a single new idea about compromising one's principles in order to survive.
Then we go back to before Grimes was bathed in blood. Grimes, Michonne, and Carl the Hat are discovered on their journey to Terminus by Daryl and the Dirtbags, and Grody Joe holds a gun to Grimes' head and tells him, in retribution for Grimes having killed one of his men, he's going to make Grimes watch his son and his friend be raped before killing him.
Daryl steps in to stop Grody Joe, who orders the rest of the Dirtbags to beat Daryl to death. I mean, this fucking show.
While Daryl gets a beating, and Michonne is held with a gun to her head, and Carl the Hat is nearly raped, Grimes watches and slowly boils. When the Fat Dirtbag, who's got Carl pinned to the ground, reaches down to unbuckle his pants THIS FUCKING SHOW, Grimes loses it, and knocks Grody Joe's gun away from the side of his head, then lunges at Grody Joe and FOR THE LOVE OF MAUDE tears out his throat with his teeth, then turns on the Fat Dirtbag and stabs him A MILLION TIMES as Carl, clinging to Michonne, watches.
The next morning, Grimes, Michonne, Carl the Hat, and Daryl take off for Terminus, and Carl is scared of Grimes now, but Michonne tells him he doesn't have to be and makes her point (?) by telling him a terrific story about horrible things she did and how he and his dad and Andrea (!) brought her back.
Grimes buries their cache of weapons in the ground outside the perimeter of Terminus, and they each carry just one weapon as they climb the fence and head inside to investigate.
They meet a bunch of Terminus Heads, who seem hesitantly welcoming and super creepy. And then Grimes notices that one of them is carrying the stopwatch Hershel gave Glenn, and he grabs him by the neck and demands to know where "their people" are. Shit gets wild. They try to make a run for it, but a sniper shoots at their heels, directing them to a train car like a border collie corralling sheep.
Mary, meanwhile, is still cooking barbecue. And there is a big open pen (sure) past which Grimes et. al. run, filled with human bones. And the Terminus Heads say things about how the more people arrive, the better their odds of survival. So basically, it looks like we're dealing with a cannibal cult. Just what this show needed.
Grimes ("Ringleader"), Daryl ("Archer"), Michonne ("Samurai"), and Carl the Hat are ordered inside the train car, where SURPRISE! they are greeted by Glenn, Maggie, Sasha, Bob, Tara, Sgt. Red Bull, Doctor Mulletsworth, and Rosita Espinoza.
Immediately, Grimes assumes his Patriarch Posture, and says to everyone, inside their train car prison from which there appears to be no escape, "They're gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out."
"Find out what?" asks Sgt. Red Bull.
And Grimes replies: "They're screwing with the wrong people."
LOL OMG I AM NOT EVEN MAKING THAT UP. THAT IS REAL DIALOGUE. THAT PIECE-OF-SHIT CLINT EASTWOOD REJECT LINE ARE THE FINAL WORDS OF THE SEASON FINALE.
The writers of this show THIS FUCKING SHOW couldn't come up with anything better than "They're screwing with the wrong people." That's not even quippy and it's not even cool! It's terrible!
I mean, right off the top of my fucking head, something like "That we endure" would have been way more powerful (and quotable) and representative of what this season (and every season) has been about.
(Or, they could have gone the route of the EXTREMELY BRILLIANT, like: "That Grimes Gang always takes out the garbage." Which at least would have had the benefit of being deliberately funny.)
But instead they went with the wettest of all wet farts. "They're screwing with the wrong people." Okay, player. Enjoy your nap in the corner of the train car until Carol and Tyreese show up to rescue you, tough guy.
Next Season: More zombies!
Daily Dose of Cute
Sophie, on one of her favorite perches, atop the piano.
She's so stinking cute, I don't even know what to do!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by thistles.
Recommended Reading:
Jess: [Content Note: Domestic violence; violence apologia] The Baltimore Ravens and Domestic Abuse
Tressie: [CN: Racism] A Nasty Piece of Cornbread: Chait, Coates, and White Progressivism
Jon: Chris Christie's Implausible Deniability
Digby: [CN: Violence; disablism] Another Casualty in the War on the Mentally Ill
enuma care of Libby Anne: [CN: Rape; rape apologia] A Rape Trial from behind the Scenes
Kyler: Days of Our Lives' Gay Couple Will and Sonny to Finally Tie the Knot
Becky: Frozen Is Now the Highest-Grossing Animated Movie of All Time
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
An Annotated Index of Ross Geller (119-124)
[Content Note: Misogyny, Patriarchal Relationships, Disability]
So did you enjoy the very slight Ross-reprieve on the last disc (which didn't even last the entire disc)? I hope so because now it's back to really-horrible-Ross-ville, population: YOU. And also probably lots of eyerolls and maybe some judicious rage, lol.
(Also, I'm sorry this one is coming after such a long delay--I've been sick this week, ugh.)
An Annotated Index of Ross Geller: Disc 4
Episode 119: The One Where the Monkey Gets Away
Synopsis: Rachel babysits Marcel, but he escapes the apartment.
Analysis: Hooboy, this is a bad one. Let's start with the fact that this episode sets the scene for the upcoming Barry arc (the next episode will be "The One With the Evil Orthodontist"). Rachel opens the episode by finding out that her ex-fiance is engaged again (this time to her bridesmaid), and immediately proves that she is better than Ross at all the things because instead of being angry at her friend and ex-fiance, she acknowledges that (a) she should be happy for them and (b) any issues she has over the wedding are her issues that she needs to sort out. She doesn't blame her feelings on others as Ross so often does.
Of course, Ross is constantly on the lookout for ways to introduce a mega-list of All The Reasons Why You Should Be Dating Me, so instead of talking to her about her feelings, or commiserating with her about how it can be hard to see old lovers move on, or even just honestly saying "hey, would you like to go out sometime", he instead wants to dredge up her post-Paolo vent about not wanting to date anymore (because it's very important that she admit she was wrong to say so!) and so he quizzes her about "the whole penis embargo". (UGH.) And then he immediately gets pissy when she talks about Paolo, and shuts her down. Women: You give them an inch, and they'll start thinking you wanna hear about their feelings, amiright.
Anyway, Ross mentions that he wants Rachel to babysit the monkey in Monica's apartment, and when Monica objects because the monkey is dirty, he defecates and urinates on her clothes and furniture, and he touches all the cooking utensils, Ross tells her cuttingly to "unclench" because she's "not even gonna be [here]". Haha, definitely a great brother and potential life mate! And because Rachel isn't used to caretaking small animals, Marcel slips out the door and gets lost.
Now, I want to say a thing: This is very easy to do. I'm a very careful cat owner, and I've still had one of mine slip out a couple times without my knowledge. (Always immediately rescued because they were more curious than wanting-to-run-away, in my case.) But Ross pretty much explodes when he gets home and accuses Rachel of being stupid and criminally careless, saying that he "should've started you off with like a pen or a pencil". Rachel starts crying and reveals that she's called Animal Control, at which point Ross literally starts stalking her around the dinner table (while Rachel backs away from him) and telling her that Marcel is illegally owned but that he never felt the need to tell anyone that.
So let's recap: He left, in the apartment of his Sister and the Woman He Loves, an animal which, if found, could get them up to two years in prison (according to this episode) and didn't warn them, presumably because he felt they wouldn't consent to Marcel's visits otherwise. And so it is very definitely Rachel's fault for calling for help in this situation. From there the episode just gets worse and worse, culminating in Ross heaping verbal abuse on Rachel for not magically intuiting that he has pants-feels for her:
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Racism; emotional policing; harassment.] In case you haven't been following the #CancelColbert story, here is some basic background. I've been tweeting about it, but I haven't written about it here, because I'd basically be rewriting this post. My position remains the same: Satire that looks indistinguishable from actual bigotry directed at marginalized people on a daily basis often isn't funny to them/us. It's not a matter of getting or not getting a joke. It's a matter of: Why the fuck should I find your ability to replicate bigotry funny? Naturally, there has been SO MUCH whitesplaining at Asian people (and their allies) who objected to the joke, and SO MANY threats against Suey Park, who started the hashtag. But, in a twist of typical awesomeness, Suey Park and other feminists on Twitter have shown they know exactly how effective satire works.
[CN: Violence] Of course: A demonstration in Albuquerque descended into a chaotic, violent confrontation between police and protestors, who were protesting the high number of police killings in the city—23 fatal incidents since 2012. Welp.
[CN: Environmental disaster] The IPCC has issued a new report detailing how climate change is already well underway and warning "the worst was yet to come. Climate change posed a threat to global food stocks, and to human security, the blockbuster report said. ...Monday's report was the most sobering so far from the UN climate panel and, scientists said, the most definitive. The report—a three-year joint effort by more than 300 scientists—grew to 2,600 pages and 32 volumes. The volume of scientific literature on the effects of climate change has doubled since the last report, and the findings make an increasingly detailed picture of how climate change—in tandem with existing fault lines such as poverty and inequality—poses a much more direct threat to life and livelihood. This was reflected in the language. The summary mentioned the word 'risk' more than 230 times, compared to just over 40 mentions seven years ago." And the debate, such as it is, that we're having in the US is about how regulation will kill jobs. So instead I guess we'll just do nothing and eventually kill everybody. Cool.
[CN: Human rights violations] "U.N. Holds U.S. Accountable for Human Rights Violations at Home and Abroad." At least, they called it out. Which is as about as accountable as it's going to get at the moment. Still: "Within one year, the U.S. government is required to submit a follow-up implementation report on four key recommendations: gun violence (including Stand Your Ground laws), lack of accountability for the Bush administration's violations of human rights, closing Guantánamo, and NSA surveillance."
[CN: Death; natural disaster] The search for survivors of the massive landslide, and/or to recover bodies, continues with difficulty. There are least 21 confirmed deaths. In better news, the number of missing has gone down dramatically, as people potentially in the affected area have turned up. There are, however, still around 30 people unaccounted for.
[CN: War on agency] Ohio is making its play for becoming the worst state in the nation on reproductive healthcare. Rage. Seethe. Boil. I'm sorry, Buckeyes.
And finally: A rescued German Shepherd dragged his 80-year-old owner out of bed and down the hall after he'd lost consciousness due to a gas leak. Says his grateful owner: "I'd be dead. He saved my life." Good dog!
Today in Rape Culture
[Content Note: Sexual violence; classism; white cis male privilege.]
Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden has sentenced Robert H. Richards IV, an heir to the du Pont fortune who is unemployed and lives off a trust fund, to probation for the rape of his three-year-old daughter because, she says, he "will not fare well" in prison.
Court records show that in Judge Jan Jurden's sentencing order for Robert H. Richards IV she considered unique circumstances when deciding his punishment for fourth-degree rape. Her observation that prison life would adversely affect Richards confused several criminal justice authorities in Delaware, who said that her view that treatment was a better idea than prison is typically used when sentencing drug addicts, not child rapists.Shades of the sentencing of Ethan Couch, the 16-year-old wealthy white Texas teenager who received probation after killing four people while drunk driving, because he suffers from "affluenza," i.e. being a privileged shit who's never held accountable for his actions.
Jurden gave Richards, who had no previous criminal record, an eight-year prison term, but suspended all the prison time for probation.
"Defendant will not fare well in Level 5 [prison] setting," she wrote in her order.
...Kendall Marlowe, executive director of National Association for Counsel for Children, said that individuals who abuse youngsters deserve to be punished.
"Child protection laws are there to safeguard children, and adults who knowingly harm children should be punished," said Marlow. "Our prisons should be more rehabilitative environments, but the prison system's inadequacies are not a justification for letting a child molester off the hook."
As I said regarding that case, I agree that the worst way to deal with a lot of criminalized behavior is sending people into our terrible for-profit prison system, and I strongly believe that the US prison system needs major reforms, but "rich white cis male perpetrators get probation and therapy" does not constitute meaningful prison reform. Privileging the privileged merely entrenches existing inequities.
Further, this is a man who raped his own child. (Possibly both his children: He also stands accused of sexually abusing his infant son.) He is vanishingly less likely to benefit from treatment than a person convicted of just about any other crime.
This is what constitutes "justice" in the US: A rich white man gets probation for repeatedly raping his daughter, while a poor black woman is facing charges and prison time for leaving her children in a car for less than an hour while she went to a job interview in the hopes of providing for them.
Great News
[Content Note: Misogynoir; class warfare; criminalization of need.]
Last week, I wrote about Shanesha Taylor, a homeless, single mother of two children, who was arrested for child abuse after leaving her children in the car while interviewing for a job, because she had nowhere else to leave them. I mentioned the fundraiser started for her, which had an original goal of $9,000, an amount that would have covered her bond and nothing more.
Yesterday, Lynette Holloway reported at The Root that over $50,000 has been raised in support of Ms. Taylor and her children. The total currently stands at $63,000.
And more good news, via Prison Culture: As of this morning, Ms. Taylor has been released from jail.
The charges against her, however, are still pending. So if you haven't already signed the petition to drop the charges, please take a moment to add your name if you can.
And if you'd like to send a personal note of support to Shanesha Taylor, send them to her directly at: PO Box 5988, Glendale, AZ 85312.
#ISupportShanesha
Open Thread
Hosted by a pit bull, a cat, and chicks, who all live together on a farm.
This week's Open Threads have been brought to you by adorable animal friends!
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!
An Important Milestone
[Content Note: Animal cruelty.]
Earlier this month, South Dakota became the final state in the US to enact a felony provision for animal cruelty:
The new law represents the emergence of a nationwide consensus that egregious animal abuse should be treated as a serious crime. Although there is much more work left to be done, this event marks a significant milestone in an undeniable trend favoring humane treatment of animals.
Text Onscreen: "How many states have felony animal cruelty laws?"Stephen Wells has more on recent successes in animal protection here. There is still a long, long way to go in the treatment and protection of all kinds of animals, but this is a very important milestone along that journey.
A young, thin, white man appears onscreen. He is identified as Chris Berry of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Speaking directly into the camera, he says: "My home state of South Dakota just become the fiftieth and final state to enact a felony animal cruelty law. The new law rights an injustice that previously put malicious animal abuse on par with writing a bad check. In 1990, less than ten states had felony provisions. In the 2000s, ALDF began tracking those laws, naming South Dakota one of the five worst states for animals in 2013. We congratulate South Dakota, and local grassroots organizations like South Dakotans Fighting Against Animal Cruelty Together, for helping being America's laws in line with the humane values of the 21st century."
Number of the Day
$400 million: The amount of money the US federal government and state governments could save in ink costs if they exclusively used Garamond fond on printed materials, as determined by clever and curious 14-year-old Suvir Mirchandani "when he was trying to think of ways to cut waste and save money at his Pittsburgh-area middle school."
Collecting random samples of teachers' handouts, Suvir concentrated on the most commonly used characters (e, t, a, o and r).This is SO GREAT. Kids today, amirite?
First, he charted how often each character was used in four different typefaces: Garamond, Times New Roman, Century Gothic and Comic Sans. Then he measured how much ink was used for each letter, using a commercial tool called APFill® Ink Coverage Software.
Next he enlarged the letters, printed them and cut them out on cardstock paper to weigh them to verify his findings. He did three trials for each letter, graphing the ink usage for each font.
From this analysis, Suvir figured out that by using Garamond with its thinner strokes, his school district could reduce its ink consumption by 24%, and in turn save as much as $21,000 annually.
Encouraged by his teacher, Suvir looked to publish his findings and stumbled on the Journal for Emerging Investigators (JEI), a publication founded by a group of Harvard grad students in 2011 that provides a forum for the work of middle school and high school students. It has the same standards as academic journals, and each submission is reviewed by grad students and academics.
Sarah Fankhauser, one of JEI's founders, says that of the nearly 200 submissions they have received since 2011, Suvir's project was a real standout:
"We were so impressed. We really could really see the real-world application in Suvir's paper."
Fankhauser said Suvir's findings were so clear, simple and well thought-out, it had the peer reviewers at JEI asking, "How much potential savings is really out there?"
For the answer, JEI challenged Suvir to apply his project to a larger scale: the federal government.
[H/T to my old pal Jenn Stewart.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Two good girls! TWO OF THEM!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by infinity scarves.
Recommended Reading:
Veronica: [Content Note: War on agency; sexual violence] Stop Parental Notification Advocacy Day (#StopPNA)
Françoise: At UN, Governments Agree Equality and Health for Women Means Progress for All
Digby: [CN: Misogyny] What Do Women Want Part XXX
Amanda: [CN: Disablism; worker exploitation; class warfare] Goodwill Paying Disabled Employees Pennies Per Hour
BYP: [CN: Racism] Residents Face Fine for saggy Pants (I've written about saggy pants ordinances previously here.)
Brian: [CN: Misogyny] The Very Definition of Self-Serving
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Jeff Buckley: "Hallelujah"
This week's TMNS have been brought to you by one of the most covered songs ever.
LOL Your Terrible Ad
[Content Note: Disablist language.]
Shaker GoldFishy emails, which I am sharing with his permission:
I remember you had a post about the Cadillac commercial. Thought you might be interested [in this]: "Remember that Cadillac ad bragging about American exceptionalism that made everyone who doesn't drive a Cadillac feel pretty bad about America? Ford can play that game, too, apparently.""Take this, Cadillac!"—Ford.
A young black woman named Pashon Murray, a real person who is the founder of Detroit Dirt, stands with her back to the camera, looking out over a reservoir of water with dirt piled high on either side.Ha ha ha BOOM! Fuck you, Cadillac!
"Why do I work so hard?" she asks, glancing over her shoulder. "For what?" She holds out her hands, gesturing at the dirt. "For this?" She turns and looks at the camera. "For dirt?" She begins walking, in a cheeky mimic of the Cadillac ad. "Other countries, they work; they stroll to the market and buy locally-grown food. Locally. Why aren't we like that?" She looks directly into the camera. "Well, more and more of us are like that."
She walks into a greenhouse. "Because we're crazy entrepreneurs trying to make the world better." She high-fives a white male gardener working in the greenhouse as she passes him.
Cut to a cafe; she walks toward the camera as she speaks. "Some people might think we're nuts. Whatever! Me? I collect food scraps from restaurants." A black man hands her vegetable scraps as she passes him in the kitchen. "Manure from zoos." She looks at the camera. "Manure. Do you know why?"
Cut to "her home," where she speaks as she disappears into the bedroom then immediately comes out wearing a suit, just like in the Cadillac ad. "To keep this stuff out of landfills. And use it to make good, rich dirt, that's why. Yeah, look, it's pretty simple."
Cut to "her car," a white electric Ford plugged into a wall being charged. She unplugs it. "You believe that anything is possible, and you try to make the world better. You try."
Cut to inside the car, where she pushes the ignition button. "As for helping a city grow good, green, healthy vegetables, that's the upside of giving a damn."
Cut to close-up of Murray in the car. "N'est-ce pas?"
Text onscreen: Ford logo. #Upside.
Now listen, I'm not operating under the misapprehension that Ford is actually super concerned about growing vegetables in Detroit. One commercial does not mitigate a history (and present) of shitty corporate practices.
But this doesn't meaning nothing, either. And I feel pretty happy about driving a crappy old Ford today. *wink*
