This blogaround brought to you by colorful markers.
Recommended Reading:
Gemma: [Content Note: Disablism; appropriation] It's Not All About You
crunkadelic: [CN: Racism; classism; human rights violations] Detroit Goddamn
Christian: [CN: Transmisogyny; dehumanization] Trans Women Face Hideous and Dehumanizing DMV Discrimination in West Virginia
Trudy: [CN: Violence; privilege; racism] The Potato Salad Kickstarter, "Jokes," and Privilege
Chicago Chatter: [CN: Gun violence; racism; classism] That One Time My City Didn't Kill Anyone
And happy (belated) birthday to Aoife: Aoife's Birthday
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
The Wednesday Blogaround
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Homophobia.]
"Executive branch agencies are to execute their functions as though the U.S. District Court Order of June 25, 2014 had not been issued."—From a memo (pdf) issued to "All Executive Branch Agencies" from Mark G. Ahearn, General Counsel to Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence, on July 7, 2014, titled: "Status of Same Sex Marriages According to Indiana Law and Pursuant to Court Order."
Basically, Governor Pence is telling state agencies to pretend as if same-sex marriage was never legalized in Indiana, and to refuse to recognize legally performed same-sex marriages that happened before the stay.
He's now not merely trying to impede equality; he's actively rolling it backwards. He's de-legalizing legal same-sex marriages in Indiana.
My contempt for this shit cannot be measured on a scale fathomable by human intellect.
Meanwhile, the media talks about what a "tough spot" he's in.
[Via @AndyMarkle & @indianalawblog.]
* * *
UPDATE: INDEMS Chair John Zody's Statement on Pence Decision to Close Door on Equality: "How predictable that Governor Pence refuses to recognize the hundreds of marriages that occurred after the court struck down our discriminatory same-sex marriage ban. For most newlyweds, they have time to enjoy their union and the creation of a new family. Instead, the Attorney General stalled by providing foggy guidance in order for uncertainty to continue, giving the Pence Administration plenty of time to find legal loopholes to perpetuate the notion that our state's welcome mat should only be out for some—those who fall under his narrow notion of a Hoosier family. Governor Pence is embarrassing our state by ignoring these families, creating an unwelcoming environment for those who want to call Indiana home. No Hoosier should be treated as a second-class citizen. What's more, the Governor can't even face Hoosiers himself to tell them he's shutting the door on equality. He has to do it through a staffer."
Emphasis mine.
Also: IndyStar: "Indiana won't recognize same-sex marriages performed last month."
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: War; death—covering next four paragraphs] In news from Israel and Gaza: "Israel's military incursion in the Gaza Strip showed no signs of abating on Wednesday, with a slew of fresh military strikes killing at least 14 people in an open-ended operation that is said to be in response to Palestinian rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled territory. Since the airstrikes began Tuesday, the Israeli army says it has attacked more than 400 sites in Operation Protective Edge. At least 41 Palestinians have been killed since the strikes began. During Israel's operation, more than 225 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza, some reaching as far as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, which caused several minor injuries. ...Israel's military operation is likely to continue in the coming days, as its leadership aims to deal a major blow to Hamas. 'The operation against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very high,' said Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon."
Meanwhile, "hospitals in Gaza are struggling to cope, according to a senior aid worker in Gaza City. Fikr Shalltoot, director of programmes for Medical Aid for Palestinians...says hospitals have less than a week's worth of fuel and that a further escalation of attacks will completely overwhelm Gaza's already fragile health system. Hospitals were facing an acute shortage of supplies before the air strikes, Shalltoot said."
Israel asserts to be making targeted strikes, but, as we've seen over and over in US wars, where the US government has been making exactly the same claims, targeted strikes effectively means nothing. There are always civilian casualties, and at least eight of the dead in Gaza are children, and people as old as 83 have been killed. Again, this is what I mean when I talk about the need to be honest about the costs of war. "Targeted strikes" is dangerously sterile language. Hamas' military wing, on the other hand, does not make such a claim, instead openly admitting they target civilians. Which is, of course, just terrible in a different way.
I know it's trite as shit to say that people without any meaningful control over political decision-making always suffer the most during wars, but people without any meaningful control over political decision-making always suffer the most during wars.
[Please note: We have always managed to have thoughtful and civil threads in this space on previous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, and I trust that can happen again. If the thread gets ugly, it will just be closed. Please comment thoughtfully—and bear in mind that neither Israelis nor Palestinians are monolithic groups; among Israelis are people who agree with the Netanyahu administration's actions and people who condemn those actions; among Palestinians are people who agree with Hamas' leadership's actions and people who condemn those actions. There is not consensus among diaspora populations, either.]
[CN: War; death] In Afghanistan, civilian casualties are increasing: "Afghanistan's war is getting deadlier for its civilians with the toll from crossfire and ground battles rising sharply, the United Nations has said in a report. The number killed or injured in the first six months of the year rose by a quarter from 2013 levels to nearly 5,000 people, the bloodiest total since the UN began keeping records in 2009. Women and children are particularly badly affected." Which is a particularly bitter irony, given that US intervention in Afghanistan was routinely justified by the Bush administration as bringing freedom to women. Never mind whether those women wanted our "freedom."
[CN: Extreme weather; death] Typhoon Neoguri continues to batter Japan, "leaving two dead and threatening widespread flooding as the storm headed for the nation's main islands."
In good news: "Starting in September, all students in the Chicago Public Schools system, regardless of income, will be given free school meals, WBEZ reports." YES!
Secretary of State John Kerry says: "We are convinced that the United States and China do not have to be rivals, but can be partners and find things to cooperate on that are important to the security of the region."
[CN: Homophobia; Christian Supremacy] LGBT Groups Pull Support for ENDA in Wake of Hobby Lobby Ruling: "After the the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force dropped its support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act over concerns the Hobby Lobby decision opened a door to abuse of the bill's religious exemption on Tuesday, additional equality groups followed suit. The American Civil Liberties Union announced on Tuesday that it would pull its support as it is currently written, along with the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center. The groups cite concerns over the broad religious exemption included in the bill passed by the Senate in November. They worry that it could be used for companies to continue to discriminate against LGBT people due to religious beliefs, especially considering the exemption the Supreme Court allowed in its Hobby Lobby decision."
Former Democratic Indiana Governor Evan Bayh is mulling over running again for his old office. No thanks!
George R. R. Martin has a message for the people who publicly hand-wring about his age and health (which is a codeword for his weight) and fear that he will never finish the Song of Fire and Ice series: "I find that question pretty offensive. So fuck you to those people." Right on.
Zooey Deschanel is tired of being asked if she's going to be a mom and general reproductive choice policing: "Like every woman is dying to give birth! I don't think so. Nobody asks guys that. And you go into a supermarket and every tabloid is like, 'Pregnant and Alone!' Stuck in the 1950s ideal of how a woman should live her life. This brings out the fiery feminist in me." Right on.
Number of the Day
[Content Note: Class warfare.]
77 million: The number of USians who "lived in a high-poverty area in 2012, according to Changes in Areas with Concentrated Poverty: 2000 to 2010, a recently released report that analyzes data from the United States Census Bureau and the American Community Survey."
The [one in four] Americans who live in poverty areas - defined as an area where over one-fifth of the residents earn incomes below the current poverty line of $23,600 for a family of four - is a significant increase from the 18 percent recorded by the Census Bureau in 2000. Southern states, which have been found to have a higher percentage of low-income public school students than others, have especially seen their numbers grow. In 2012, 57.3 percent of people living in the south lived in poverty areas, up from 46.7 percent in 2000.Conservatives call "wealth redistribution," i.e. higher taxation on wealthy individuals and corporations to robustly fund a functional social safety net, "class warfare." That is not class warfare. This is.
The increase has affected Americans across the board, but the report found that Africans Americans are the most likely to live in poverty areas, at 50.4 percent, followed by American Indians and Alaska Natives. About 20.3 percent of white Americans live in poverty areas.
The growth of poverty areas can largely be attributed to exclusionary zoning and the migration of affluent people into suburban areas, according to Paul Jargowsky, a professor of urban research and education at Rutgers University and an analyst of the report. Exclusionary zoning occurs when suburban districts set requirements for joining a neighborhood, such as large minimum house sizes, that are impossible to meet for lower-income families. These policies contribute to highly segregated neighborhoods.
"You have many, many politically independent suburbs that use exclusionary zoning to create housing only for families with higher incomes," said Jargowsky. "As families with wealth move further and further out of urban areas you develop these very high-poverty neighborhoods where the schools begin to fail, you have high crime and low wages."
On top of higher crime, lower wages, and schools lacking in resources, low-income families living in concentrated poverty areas often face a lack of job opportunities and lack of access to good housing conditions and health services.
Deadly Storms in New York, Maryland
[Content Note: Extreme weather; death.]
Powerful storms hit central New York last night, "killing four people, destroying or damaging numerous houses and knocking out power to more than 70,000 utility customers, officials said Wednesday."
The deaths occurred in the rural town of Smithfield, between Syracuse and Utica, after the storms hit at about 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Madison County Sheriff's Office said.I fervently hope that the people who lost power get it restored quickly. My sympathies to everyone who's been affected.
Injuries and damage from fast-moving storms Tuesday were not limited to New York state. In Maryland, a child at a summer camp was killed by a falling tree.
...Early Wednesday, about 72,000 homes and businesses were without power, most in central and northern New York.
...Also, severe thunderstorms spawned at least one tornado in Mercer county in northwestern Pennsylvania, and more than 300,000 homes and businesses lost power at the peak of the storms. Early Wednesday, more than 135,000 across the state remained without power, including 74,000 in Philadelphia and its suburbs. The NWS said possible tornadoes were also reported in Perry, Bedford and Sullivan counties in central Pennsylvania.
The National Weather Service said three small tornadoes touched down in northeastern Ohio, causing minor damage, as strong storms moved across the state.
Clean-ups after storms like this can take weeks, or months. There were so many downed trees in our town after the storm that knocked out our power last week, the town has barely managed to make a dent in removing them all.
If you're thinking it sure seems like we're getting more intense storms than we used to in the US, well, you're right:
This is the new normal.
[Chart via.]
Adeus Brasil
As you've probably heard, if you've looked at any news source at all in the last 15 hours or so, irrespective of how much or little you care about the World Cup, Brazil was knocked out by Germany yesterday in a stunning defeat.
I have thoughts about the match itself, and how well, or not, Germany navigated the balance between continuing to play hard so as not to insult the other team, but also not playing to humiliate them, but mainly I just want to say that I hope the Brazilian players are safe.
They had a shitty day at their jobs. But the nature of their jobs means that lots of people are disproportionately invested in their job performance, and sometimes lose perspective on the fact that it really is just a game and they really are just guys at their jobs, doing the best they can.
With Brazil out of the competition, so departs the last of the players I truly like, David Luiz.
I like the way he plays on the pitch, and I like the way he loses, and the way he wins.
After Brazil knocked out Colombia, Luiz comforted a distraught James Rodriguez, holding his face and telling him what I was imagine was something like, "It's okay, you did well, keep your chin up, be proud."
And then, in one of the most beautiful and touching examples of sportspersonship I've ever seen, they exchanged jerseys, and hugged, and walked off the field together, with Luiz pointing at Rodriguez, as if to say, "This kid didn't win, but he is still amazing."
David Luiz, you and the rest of team Brazil didn't win, but you are still amazing.
Question of the Day
It's that time again: What would you like to see asked as a future Question of the Day? Either something that's never been asked, or something that I haven't asked for awhile and you really enjoyed the first time around.
I Write Letters
[Content Note: Fat bias.]
Dear ModCloth:
I love you. I really love you.
Even though I am fully aware of the fact that your exceptionally successful expansion into fat fashion is at least as much (and probably more) just a cynical ploy to make money from a woefully underserved population as it is a genuine interest in treating fat women as human beings who deserve cute clothes, too.
I still love you.
I love your selection of clothes. I love that your site is clean and easy (for me) to navigate. I love your return policy and your frequent sales and special offers to return customers.
I love that you use fat models.
I love the way your listings are structured, and how you've encouraged a community of consumers who post pictures of themselves and leave reviews that include their size, so I can look at the clothes on bodies like mine and read the critiques of women whose bodies are my size.
There's just this one thing, ModCloth, that we need to talk about.
There's something about this that bothers me, ModCloth—sticking "Plus Sizes" at the end of that list. Is it possible, maybe, that "Plus Sizes" doesn't need its own category? Because, really, they're just "sizes." I am a fat lady who would like to just be able to click on "dresses." Or just search by my size, which is something you offer.
When I click on "New Arrivals," it's even worse:
Do you kind of see the problem, ModCloth? Do you see how putting "Plus Sizes" as its own category, separate altogether from the "Normal Sizes" (?) clothing, below home decor, makes a person who needs to click that link feel othered, even in a space that wants to include us?
This is an easy fix, ModCloth. Just rework your menus!
And think about how truly serving fat women as a population should mean genuine inclusion, and what that looks like on a website.
I wouldn't even ask, except I think you can and genuinely want to do better, ModCloth. You've given me reason to have high expectations.
Your Loyal Fat Customer,
Liss
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Animal cruelty (but a happy ending).]
"Raju was in chains 24 hours a day, an act of intolerable cruelty. The team were astounded to see tears roll down his face during the rescue. It was incredibly emotional. We knew in our hearts he realized he was being freed. Elephants are majestic and highly intelligent animals."—Pooja Binepal, a spokesman for Wildlife SOS, a group established in 1995 to protect endangered wildlife in India, on the rescue of Raju the elephant, who had been held captive in spiked chains, surviving off scraps and garbage, for much of his 50-year life.
Wildlife SOS rescued him last week, and his rescuers were overwhelmed by Raju's reaction:
"[The rescue team] went in to rescue him and [his captors] had bound him up so tightly that he was in a lot of pain," [Nikki Sharp, the executive director of Wildlife SOS-USA] said. "The vet and our team came with fruits and just started speaking softly to him and to reassure him that we were there to help, and it was at that time that tears flooded down his face. The founder of Wildlife SOS, who was there are the time of the rescue, said ... that really caught him off guard. They've done a lot of elephant rescues and the fact the the tears were just coming down ... he was weeping. It was an emotional moment and everyone was more motivated to get him on the truck and to safety."Raju will now live out his life at the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura, where he is being rehabilitated, socialized, and nursed back to health.
All the blubs forever.
Raju in his new home. [Photo via.]
[H/T to Shaker Alison Rose.]
My Condolences, Cleveland
Welp: "The Republican National Committee announced Tuesday that their Site Selection Committee has picked Cleveland to host the 2016 Republican National Convention. The full membership of the RNC is expected to ratify the Site Selection Committee's recommendation at its early August meeting in Chicago."
Awwwwww lol.
Daily Dose of Cute
Pretzel legs.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Don't Do This
[Content Note: Harassment.]
Shakesville Moderator Hallelujah_Hippo emailed, which I am sharing with her permission:
I've been seeing several links recently to people going to their local Hobby Lobby and rearranging stamps and craft letters to say things like 'pro choice' and 'all women deserve health care' and I understand the feeling behind it (we'll show them!) but I think it's a really, really shitty thing to do.This also came up in comments, when Shaker billerina mentioned that some people were making suggestions like filling up a cart with merchandise and then abandoning it, or making a mess in the store.
Now someone who works at that store has to rearrange the display (and if they get a mystery shopper or a product rep or a regional manager before they get to it, the store manager, and therefore whose ever job it is to 'keep things tidy and neat' is going to hear about it).
Like, I don't know what a good way to 'just show them!' is, but I feel like making more work for the in-store workers is not the way to go about it.
Don't do this.
This is not "activism." This is just piling more harm on the people who are being directly harmed by this bullshit ruling.
It isn't the owners of Hobby Lobby who have to clean up the mess left "for them." It's the workers in their stores, and causing them headaches isn't sending a message to management, and it sure as shit isn't acting as an "ally" to those workers.
Many of whom might not have the option of easily switching jobs to work somewhere else.
If you want to register your dissatisfaction with Hobby Lobby's corporate management, here is their contact page. Or leave a message on their Facebook page. Or tweet at them.
Do not create additional work for their in-store employees.
Because you know who else is endeavoring to fuck over those employees? Hobby Lobby Corporate HQ.
If your activism aligns itself with the very people you're ostensibly trying to protest, and you end up hurting the exact same people, you're DOING IT WRONG.
[Shakesville Moderator Scott Madin notes that Sarah Joffe has also been talking about this subject today.]
That Kid
[Content Note: Bullying.]
I was not bullied by other children when I was a child.
Although I remember some specific instances of name-calling, and I'm certain there are additional instances that have fallen, or been cast, out of my memory, I was never subjected to a sustained campaign of bullying and/or unwanted isolation.
That, of course, is a combination of luck and privilege. To say it was merely luck would be to suggest that it didn't matter I was a fairly average-looking and able-bodied white kid whose parents could afford to clothe and clean me; to say it was merely privilege and nothing else would be to suggest that similarly privileged children targeted by intense bullying somehow have control over it, or deserve it.
I read or listen to accounts of childhood bullying with visceral, vicarious terror. It is a difficult thing to survive.
I am married to a survivor of intense and lasting childhood bullying, psychological and physical, and it is something that stays with him to this day, and comes up unexpectedly, sometimes. Often in ways that reveal how it informs his profound empathy for people who are being harmed.
The stories of being bullied by other children evoke in me a feeling of distant recognition, calling forth memories that don't belong, not among stories of being tormented by classmates.
You might have noticed I said I was not bullied by other children. And this is a true thing.
I was, however, often bullied by adults.
I used to think it was just that some adults are not nice to kids generally—and I believe that's certainly part of it. Everyone has stories of adults who were shitty to them when they were kids.
But as I got older, and I would share some of these stories, having turned them into "humorous anecdotes" in an attempt to process them, the reactions I got from older friends, the cringing and curious responses, transmitted that these weren't just examples of experiences every kid had. They weren't greeted with familiarity, but surprise. And sympathy.
I was that kid.
I was an extremely shy child, and an awkward child. I was also the sort of child whose every ounce of woundedness registered on my crumpled face, unable to mask feeling hurt behind a contrived defiance. I would apologize for whatever I'd done to anger any adult, which neatly communicated to any adult bully that they never need fear there was ever any danger of my telling what they'd done.
A perfect target for adults who wanted to look cool to other children, who needed a foil to humiliate, to garner what they perceived as admiration, but was probably more often a strategic obsequiousness offered by their young audiences to avoid being targeted themselves.
I can't say I understand why there are adults who desire and cultivate the adoration of children, although I have some ideas. Ultimately, I don't really care, because it's beside the point.
At least for those of us who were convenient marks for such adults.
Sometimes it was kids other than their own with whom adults were trying to curry favor. The minister who routinely mocked my questions in front of my Sunday School classmates and would grin proudly when they laughed, or the young choir teacher who would end class early so a gaggle of girls could crowd around her music stand at the front of the room to gossip.
I spent four years as her student—four years in which she would say, for instance, "Let's talk about fashion! I hate when girls wear flats with jeans, don't you?" as I stood with my face growing red, casting my eyes downward at the flats on my feet, the only girl in the group wearing them.
No matter what I was wearing, or what opinion I had expressed, or what thing I liked—anything that could be singled out as the source of her disdain, would be.
I kept going up to that music stand, every day. Because I wanted her to like me. It felt like the only thing that would make me stop feeling bad.
Sometimes it was their own kids whom these adults sought to impress, by going after me. In retrospect, I'm sure they bullied their own kids, out of view, and it was only by redirecting that nasty instinct on another child that they could earn their own children's momentary fondness, born of relief.
The first sexualized body policing I ever remember getting in my life came care of a father of two boys in the neighborhood (one of whom was the boy who told me "Your face is ugly"). I was running around shirtless in the summertime, like all the little kids in the neighborhood did, and he yelled at me to "put on a shirt, for god's sake—you're getting boobies!" I was 8.
His sons, and all the neighborhood boys, laughed. I remember his expression—pleased, smug—as I searched his face for some explanation.
"I'm sorry," I stammered, before running home to put on a shirt. Which I had to wear always after that, because the boys became fixated on my "boobies," which they hadn't even noticed or cared about until my neighbor called their attention to them. I don't even think I was "a girl" to them, until that moment.
Sometimes he would say something mean to me in front of his sons, and then he would high five them. He was the first person who called me a nerd. Right after I got glasses.
Before we left elementary school, I found his older son, the same age as me, sitting on his front step crying one day. I asked him what was the matter, and he told me his parents were getting divorced and his dad had moved out. Sitting beside him with my arm around his shoulders while he sobbed, I felt guilty for feeling relieved his dad wouldn't be around anymore.
Most of the adults who featured in my life this way were people with whom I had an ongoing relationship, whom I saw regularly. A friend's parent, my utterly strange orthodontist, volunteer parents ("room moms") at school. Which is, I suppose, why these memories stay. They happened inside relationships with adults I couldn't escape.
And I was certain that it was something I could control, if only I tried harder.
My home was not one in which bad feelings could be expressed and discussed. And when I made half-hearted attempts to broach the subject of an adult behaving this way toward me, I was not extended the assumption that I was being honest, or had a right to be upset. I was told that I was too sensitive, and, sometimes, that I had behaved in a way that caused the mistreatment.
One evening, I was over at a friend's house for dinner—a classmate and a neighbor, whose mother, J, was a good friend of my mother's. They had a difficult home life, for many reasons, and J was constantly comparing her children to my sister and me, and finding her children wanting. One moment, she would be using me to shame her children; the next, she would be mocking me in order to engender their affection.
J kept offering me the dishes of food she'd prepared first. There were more kids in their family, and I wasn't sure how much food to take. I was 7, so I couldn't look at a bowl of mashed potatoes and figure out how much would be too much, and I was afraid to take too little and offend J. I had offended her before, to effects I did not want to revisit.
So I said, "No, thank you," when the food was offered to me, until I got passed a plate of, I dunno, pork chops, where it was obvious I was supposed to take one and pass it.
Once everyone else had taken scoops of potatoes and peas, I asked if J could please pass the potatoes, and then I took some, and then I asked if she could please pass the peas, and then I took some, and, granted, this was a pretty silly thing to do, but it made sense to my 7-year-old brain, and I thought as long as I was polite it didn't matter.
The second time I asked for something I'd declined a few minutes earlier, J passed the bowl to me with the sweetest smile and said under her breath, "You're a real pain in the ass, aren't you?" I blinked, stunned. "You're a little shit," she said.
I felt so terrible—I could feel my face burning, all hot and red, and had to try so hard not to cry. Of course I didn't feel bad that I'd been called a little shit; I felt bad for being a little shit.
Now, as an adult, I suspect I would probably realize what a kid was doing who didn't want to take first servings at someone else's house, but, even if I didn't, I would never call a 7-year-old a pain in the ass and a little shit for asking me to pass a dish.
Of course, that's not only what it was about. J's daughter, for years, would gleefully recount how her mother had called me the names that night usually reserved for her.
J must have guessed she'd might have crossed a line, because while I was walking home that night after dinner, she phoned my mom to tell her she'd called me a little shit, because I was being one.
When I got home, my mother told me J had called. "Did J have to tell you that you were being a little shit tonight?" my mother asked. Have to tell you. She looked annoyed, embarrassed.
"Yes," I confessed.
I was told not to be a little shit anymore.
But I continued to be a little shit, if the behavior of some of the adults around me were any indication.
When I reached my teenage years, and came out of my shell a bit, I wasn't—through time and an emergent feistiness—such an easy target anymore. And it stopped. So completely it was as though it might never have happened at all.
The only evidence is the lingering feeling of not-rightnesss, that comes up when I hear stories of childhood bullying. Even though I was never bullied by other children.
I don't want to derail conversations about childhood bullying with stories of being that kid, the one who adult bullies found to be a useful target. It's not the same. This is a conversation all its own.
I don't have a tidy ending. I just wanted to say: If you were that kid, too, you aren't alone.
[Note: Iain's history of bullying shared with his permission.]
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Paula Abdul with MC Skat Kat: "Opposites Attract"
This is the story of a human woman and an animated cat who can't help but be in love with each other, even though they are almost hilariously opposite in every way. 'Cause opposites attract. You know it.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: War on agency] The bad news and the good news and the bad news: "So far this year, 13 states have adopted 21 new restrictions designed to limit access to abortion," but that's "about half the number (41) of similar restrictions that had been enacted by this point last year." So it's slowing down (good news), but also? Bad News: There's not as much need for new restrictions when Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws are effectively shutting down abortion access in entire states. "Altogether, 26 states have some sort of TRAP law, a sharp increase from 2000, when only 11 states had such requirements. With the addition of these new laws, 59% of women of reproductive age live in a state that has enacted TRAP provisions."
[CN: War; abduction; murder] "Israel has launched what it described as an open-ended and escalating offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, as air strikes and naval gunfire hit 50 sites overnight. As part of a new offensive dubbed 'Operation Protective Edge,' Israeli troops have been mobilised along the Gaza border and a limited number of reserves called up for a possible ground invasion. ...Rocket attacks from Gaza—initially from Islamic factions other than Hamas—have been increasing in recent weeks against the backdrop of a major Israeli operation against Hamas on the West Bank following the kidnapping and murder of three teenagers whose bodies were found last week. Air strikes by Israel, both following the discovery of the bodies and in response to rocket fire, have escalated in recent days despite assessments by analysts in Gaza and Israel that neither Hamas nor Israel wants a prolonged or bloody conflict." Emphasis mine.
[Please note: We have always managed to have thoughtful and civil threads in this space on previous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, and I trust that can happen again. If the thread gets ugly, it will just be closed. Please comment thoughtfully—and bear in mind that neither Israelis nor Palestinians are monolithic groups; among Israelis are people who agree with the Netanyahu administration's actions and people who condemn those actions; among Palestinians are people who agree with Hamas' leadership's actions and people who condemn those actions. There is not consensus among diaspora populations, either.]
[CN: Guns; violence] The defense has rested in Oscar Pistorius' trial for murdering Reeva Steenkamp, whom he was dating at the time he killed her. Now all that is left is the verdict.
[CN: Extreme weather; death; video may begin playing automatically at link] A super typhoon has made landfall in Japan, and one person has been killed. Typhoon Neoguri's winds reached an estimated 150 mph on Sunday, but the storm has quieted somewhat. Still: The Japan Meteorological Agency "ssued a rare emergency warning, its highest level of warning, Monday evening to the island of Miyakojima, warning of a storm surge up to about 7 feet (2 meters) and offshore waves up to 46 feet (14 meters), and asking residents to prepare for the worst" and "very heavy rain, some wind damage, power outages, and at least some storm surge flooding on west and south-facing shorelines of Kyushu and Shikoku are anticipated as Neoguri moves through."
[CN: Racism; xenophobia] Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry is a rude dipshit. Think that's harsh? Well, I can back it up! Here he is being rude and here he is being a dipshit. CASE CLOSED, YOUR HONOR.
[CN: Antisemitism; domestic violence; racism] Mel Gibson says he's apologized a million times and everyone needs to get over his being a total abusive asshole. Welp, I'm convinced! (I am not convinced.)
And finally! Here is just a great video of a dog being scared of a cat, and a cat being an asshole, and another dog chasing the cat to save the dog. Cats and dogs, y'all, amirite?
Poor Pence
[Content Note: Homophobia.]
Poor Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence. What is a professional homophobe to do when a judge rules same-sex marriage legal in his state, and the older half of his disgusting garbage base wants him to do everything he can to fight this bit of equality, but the younger half of his base supports that bit of equality, and he's definitely on the losing side of history but totally wants to run for president? It's quite a conundrum!
Mike Pence is in a tough spot. The Republican governor of Indiana and potential presidential contender must now decide whether to recognize gay marriages in his state. His decision, and the response to it, could be an early sign of how the GOP might try to finesse an awkward issue as 2016 approaches.Oh dear! What to do, what to do.
...The political peril is clear. If Pence chooses to recognize same-sex marriages, he risks alienating the socially conservative Republican base and hurting his chances in the 2016 presidential primary, should he run. But an image as a culture warrior could cause big problems for Pence down the road.
In case I'm not laying on the sarcasm thick enough, I don't give a hot fuck that my shitty governor is stuck between decency and pandering to his contemptible base, and I sure as hell don't care that it might impede his presidential ambitions, because I wouldn't wish this guy on the nation.
I do, however, care quite a bit that the framing of this story (by the great liberal devil MSNBC) is that Mike Pence is in "a tough spot."
You know who's actually in a tough spot? The same-sex Hoosier couples who got married before the stay and now don't know the legal status of their own marriage. And the couples who didn't rush to get married before the stay and now can't legally get married, until it's resolved.
They're in a tough spot.
Their governor is not in a tough spot, so much as he is making a calculated choice to try to thread a needle in service to his own ambitions, with absolutely no regard for the people of his state whose basic equality he will happily deny if it proves to be the most politically expedient option.
That's not being in a tough spot. That's being an unprincipled opportunist who is being minorly inconvenienced by having to wait to see which way the wind is blowing.
It Continues to Be a Real Mystery Why Republicans Aren't Connecting with a Majority of Female Voters
[Content Note: War on agency; misogyny. NB: Not only women need access to contraception.]
So, Congressional Democrats are planning to fight back legislatively against the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision. In part, this is a cynical political act ahead of a midterm election that they're probably going to lose, and they want to turn out female voters. But also, they're supposed to be the pro-choice party, and presumably a number of them actually give a fuck about the ramifications of this garbage ruling. To that end:
At least three bills are being crafted in the House and Senate to amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which the high court used as the basis for its ruling that the contraception mandate violated federal law.They don't really have to do much work to "cast" the court's decision as a strike against reproductive rights, since that is literally exactly what it is.
Democrats are expected to introduce the measures prior to Congress's August recess as part of an effort to recalibrate the party's election-year messaging. Their hope is to turn out female voters by casting the court's decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby as a strike against reproductive rights.
And the Republican response is, predictably, just as out of touch as ever with the majority of women's reactions to the ruling:
"The polling shows that when we fight back, women believe in what we're saying," Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said.First of all, that barely makes any sense. How do I get a job being paid six figures for generating incomprehensible word salad?
"The Dems are a one-trick pony, and waging a false war on women is the only way they believe they can win. If you don't fight back, why wouldn't the voters believe them? Those days are over, and we've been very open and aggressive with our messaging and tactics," Kukowski said.
Second of all, what polling is showing that a majority of women believe in Republicans for "fighting back" against encroachments on reproductive healthcare? Would that be the same polling that convinced Republicans that Mitt Romney was definitely totally for sure going to win in 2012? Because whoooooooops.
I don't know who the Republicans think they're fooling with this rubbish. Even my more conservative female friends are not under the misapprehension that Democrats are the ones "waging a war on women."
No matter how many times the GOP sends out a female spokesperson to say it, it's never going to be true.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker masculine_lady: How have you rubbed off on your partner, or another significant person in your life, and vice versa?
