[Content Note: Anti-immigrant sentiment; racism.]
Yesterday, US District Judge Andrew Hanen "temporarily blocked President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration, giving a coalition of 26 states time to pursue a lawsuit that aims to permanently stop the orders. [The ruling] puts on hold Obama's orders that could spare from deportation as many as five million people who are in the U.S. illegally."
It also delays the President's proposed program to shield immigrant and migrant children from deportation if they were brought into the US without documentation. That program was to begin tomorrow.
Today, the Justice Department has announced it will appeal Judge Hanen's ruling: "The Justice Department, legal scholars, immigration experts, and the federal district court in Washington have determined that Obama's actions are well within his legal authority, the White House said."
And, let us recall, the reason the President took executive action to address immigration is because Congress refused to do it. In fact, Congressional Republican leadership explicitly and publicly urged the President to take executive action when they didn't want to take a position.
Now, at the one yard line, with millions of immigrants' lives and futures hanging in the balance, we've decided to play another 'round of Screw Obama and Who Cares Who Gets Hurt in the Process, because gamespersonship is always and forever more important in US politics than harm reduction.
Justice Dept. to Appeal Immigration Ruling
This Lady ♥
Sunday night, NBC aired a three and a half hour spectacular in honor of Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary. And, like any episode of SNL, there were good bits and a lot of chaff. I liked the tribute to Eddie Murphy for saving the show, and the ode to NYC, and the audition tapes of some people they didn't hire, and Melissa McCarthy as Matt Foley.
But, most of all, I liked The Californians sketch, and Betty White making out with Bradley Cooper.
Is this the best thing that's ever aired on television? MAYBE!
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Feel free to discuss SNL 40, all the bits you liked or didn't like, or engage in general discussion about the awesomeness that is Betty White.
The Virtual Pub Is Open (+ Programming Note)
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Since Monday is Presidents' Day in the US, which is still a work holiday for many people, we've got a lot of mods who will be out through Monday. So we're going to be taking Monday off, and we'll resume regular programming again on Tuesday. Have a great weekend!
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by footprints in the snow.
Recommended Reading:
Ali: [Content Note: Fat hatred; child abuse] Criminalizing the Fat Child
Lucia: [CN: Harassment; descriptions of sexual/physical violence; appropriation; self-harm] Law and Order SVU's GamerGate-Inspired Episode: Are Real-Life Victims Fair Game?
Kyler: [CN: Homophobia; transphobia] Arkansas Legislature Passes Bill Banning LGBT Non-Discrimination Laws
Aura: [CN: Racism; police brutality] Indian Grandfather Nearly Paralyzed After Police Encounter in Alabama
Daniel: [CN: Racism; police brutality] Washington Official Fears 'Another Ferguson' After Cop Shooting Video Goes Viral
Emily: [CN: Misogynoir] Republicans Delay Confirmation of First Black Female Attorney General
Jessie: [CN: Racism] Race and Online Dating
Angry Asian Man: [CN: Top Chef finale spoiler] Meet the New Top Chef!
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelda. Being cute. Like she can be anything else.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Homophobia; anti-choicery.]
"The issue of gay rights, on abortion, on many of the issues in which [Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg]'s opinions and mine differ does not pertain to the substance. It doesn't pertain to whether gay people ought to have those rights or whether there ought to be a constitutional right or a right to an abortion. That isn't the issue. The issue is who decides. That's all. I don't have any public views on any of those things. The point is who decides? Should these decisions be made by the Supreme Court without any text in the Constitution or any history in the Constitution to support imposing on the whole country or is it a matter left to the people? But don't paint me as anti-gay or anti-abortion or anything else. All I'm doing on the Supreme Court is opining about who should decide."—Justice Antonin Scalia, during an event at George Washington University last night.
I wanted to provide the whole quote for context, but, obviously, this is real money quote: "Don't paint me as anti-gay or anti-abortion." OKAY PLAYER LOLOLOLOLOL FOREVER.
That whole "all I'm doing is opining on who should decide" shit is so disingenuous, especially coupled with that garbage about there being no explicit text in the Constitution. The Supreme Court makes decisions on issues on which there is no explicit guiding text all the time; that's basically their whole job and raison d'être.
Scalia's biases become evident when he will make this issue about privacy, but not that one, for example.
"I don't have any public views on any of those things." You know, I think you actually do. Because, for real, there aren't progressive people who insist on being strict constructionists at the expense of people's rights and lives.
[From the wayback machine: Scalia says criminalizing abortion and "homosexual sodomy" are "no-brainers."]
Oh, Internet!
I've been laid up with what my doctor thinks is the flu, so I've been in bed browsing Twitter. Also, my doctor prescribed me cough syrup that contains codeine.
The Independent was tweeting about a story on the UK's favourite sex positions, so that was cool. I'm not British, and thanks to body dysphoria, I'm pretty much 0 for 2 on that score. I'd also read a bunch of articles this month, so I didn't want to waste one of my freebies on such an obvious grab for attention. So I guessed.
Westsidebecca and I started tweeting our favourites [sic] (HAHAHAHA I MADE A FUNNY ABOUT THE LETTER "U"). Our circle of largely feminist friends (pretty much all of whom are sex-positive, because that's how I roll) joined in, and the whole thing took off. It's tooooooootally the first time something like this has happened, because we're all humourless cunts, obvs.
In conclusion, #trends.
Click here to read a Storify of the hashtag. Spoiler: Our guesses were way off.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Olivia Newton-John: "Physical"
This week's TMNS brought to you by songs by women with one-word titles.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Reporting of birth name at link] The US military has "approved hormone therapy for Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst convicted of leaking national security secrets to WikiLeaks, to make the transition to a woman, a media report said Thursday. The decision is said to mark the first time the military has agreed on providing such treatment to any of its personnel. ...'After carefully considering the recommendation that (hormone treatment) is medically appropriate and necessary, and weighing all associated safety and security risks presented, I approve adding (hormone treatment) to Inmate Manning's treatment plan,' [Col. Erica Nelson, the commandant of the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks] wrote in a memo, obtained by USA Today." One suspects that Nelson also carefully considered that Chelsea Manning was also just announced as a contributing opinion writer for the Guardian. Still: Good news, and good precedent for other trans* servicemembers without Manning's platform.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Congratulations to $564M Powerball Jackpot winner Marie Holmes, 26, a mother of four, including one child with cerebral palsy, who was recently "forced to quit her jobs at Wal-Mart and McDonald's to care for her four children." She said: "I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw the ticket and checked it." Winning the lottery can be a blessing and a curse, for a whole lot of reasons, so I wish her the absolute best and hope that it is, on balance, a great thing for her family.
Ashton B. Carter has been confirmed as Secretary of defense, replacing Chuck Hagel, who resigned late last year. I literally cannot read that guy's name without seeing "Ashton Kutcher." Dude, where's my Pentagon?
[CN: War; terrorism] Cameroon is deploying more troops to its border with Nigeria "after Boko Haram militants kidnapped another 11 people. Scores more have been taken or killed in the last three weeks." Meanwhile: "Boko Haram fighters attacked a village in Chad on Friday, the first known lethal attack in that country by the Nigerian militant group, which killed several people including a local chief according to residents and security forces. Dozens of militants arrived by motorised canoe at the fishing village on the shores of Lake Chad early in the morning, setting houses ablaze and attacking a police station. 'They came on board three pirogues and succeeded in killing about ten people before being pushed back by the army,' said a resident of the village of Ngouboua." It is scandalous how little media coverage this is getting in the United States.
[CN: Racism; police brutality] Yesterday, FBI Director James B. Comey gave a speech to students at Georgetown University in which he "addressed 'hard truths' about policing, acknowledging racial bias among law enforcement officers and lamenting a 'disconnect' between police agencies and communities of color." Well, good. Give him a cookie. Now what are you going to do about it, sir?
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is delightful: "We now know why it appears that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appeared to fall asleep during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last month... In a lighthearted moment before an audience at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Thursday night, the 81-year-old Ginsburg cracked up telling the story that she 'wasn't 100 percent sober' before going to the State of the Union. 'The audience—for the most part—is awake because they're bobbing up and down all the time and we sit there stone-faced, sober judges,' Ginsburg said. 'At least I wasn't 100 percent sober because before we went to the State of the Union we had dinner.'"
[CN: Rape culture] Normally, I wouldn't even bother sharing anything that Rush Limbaugh disgorges from his repulsive mouth-hole, but his latest is advising Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to say he dropped out of college to avoid rape charges: "They're trying to create this rape culture on the campus—well, (he should say,) 'I quit because I don’t want to be accused of rape down the road.' ...It seems like any man that goes to college could randomly be accused of committing rape. ...So (Walker should say,) 'I wanted to remove myself from this culture that might have turned me into this very mean guy,' and just see what they say. Cram what they believe right down their throats." It doesn't matter that it's not true. At all. That Walker didn't leave for those reasons. Not only do rapists lie; rape apologists lie, too.
And finally: THIS KITTY IS SO NAUGHTY! And it is hilarious!
It Continues to Be a Real Mystery Why Republicans Aren't Connecting with a Majority of Female Voters
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
Y'all, I just can't figure out why it is that the Republican Party has a female voter problem:
A discussion over a pending criminal domestic violence (CDV) bill took a bizarre turn this week when [Republican South Carolina state Senator Thomas Corbin] offered some bizarrely sexist commentary on the role of women in the political process.Corbin has a reputation for saying that women "do not belong" in the South Carolina General Assembly and should instead be "at home baking cookies" or "barefoot and pregnant." Which is the context for his awesome "shoes" joke, I guess.
Corbin's comments – made at a legislative dinner held in downtown Columbia, S.C. – were reportedly directed at S.C. Senator Katrina Shealy, the only female member of the 46-person State Senate.
..."I see it only took me two years to get you wearing shoes," Corbin told Shealy, who was elected in 2012 as a petition candidate.
He didn't stop there:
At one point in the conversation – which quickly escalated into a confrontation – Shealy is said to have angrily asked Corbin where he "got off" attacking women.Women are a lesser cut of meat. WOMEN ARE A LESSER CUT OF MEAT. This is an actual thing said in the actual world by an actual human adult man in the actual year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and fifteen.
His response – overheard by numerous lobbyists and fellow lawmakers – was one for the ages.
"Well, you know God created man first," Corbin said, reportedly smirking at Shealy. "Then he took the rib out of man to make woman. And you know, a rib is a lesser cut of meat."
One of Corbin's colleagues dismissed this shit as a "running joke" between Corbin and Shealy, but Shealy doesn't seem to share that impression:
"She got in his face," one lobbyist who attended the event said of Shealy's reaction, adding that at one point "we thought we were going to have to hold her back."Raise your hand if you're a women who's experienced being harassed by a man in a professional environment who insisted it was all just good fun while you slowly boiled. Why you gotta get so mad? Geez, get a sense of humor.
[Video of a clip from Bridesmaides; Jon Hamm tells Kristin Wiig: "It's called humor. Learn about it."]
The report states: "Shealy declined to discuss the matter with FITS–citing its irrelevance to the legislative matter under discussion," which is basically politic-speak for "I'm choosing to swallow shit today, instead of ruining the afternoon."
Because of course Shealy can't win: If she says anything about it, she'll be cast as the humorless hysteric who can't take a joke. Not as a woman deserving of respect who is standing up and asking to be respected.
Misandry Monthly
[Content Note: Lampooning the trope of feminists as man-haters.]
I recently changed my Twitter bio to "I am the very model of a modern major misandrist," and last night, Shaker mdevile, who also created my Feminist Boss Card and our incredible banner, put me on the cover of Misandry Monthly magazine as a modern major misandrist:
The image she used as inspiration, and her drawing.
The only question is what articles should be on the cover of the magazine. Some of my suggestions I made last night on Twitter:
"Best New Recipes for Leftover Jars of Male Tears."
"10 Tricks to Make Him Cry."
"Are You Exploiting Your Female Privilege to Its Full Potential?"
"Teach Your Cat to Hate Men."
"Skirts to Communicate 'You're in the Friend Zone.'"
Please feel welcome and encouraged to leave your own suggestions in comments!
Your Progressive Pope
[Content Note: Reproductive policing; choice policing.]
As you may recall, last summer, Pope Francis criticized straight married couples who choose not to have children, warning that their marriages would "come to old age in solitude, with the bitterness of loneliness."
Well, he's at it again, this time bluntly stating that choosing not to have children is "selfish."
"A society with a greedy generation, that doesn't want to surround itself with children, that considers them above all worrisome, a weight, a risk, is a depressed society," the pope said.Unless you don't want children, or your life and goals are incompatible with parenting, or any one of a number of reasons that one's life might actually be diminished by having children that you don't want.
"The choice to not have children is selfish. Life rejuvenates and acquires energy when it multiplies: It is enriched, not impoverished."
To repeat myself:
I can't know precisely what my life might have looked like if I'd chosen to parent, but I know that building a career that took me from a reception desk to an executive office in six years would have been harder, if not impossible, if I'd had kids. I know that ending my first marriage would not have been as easy if we'd had children—both making the decision to end it, and the legal mechanics of ending it. I know I couldn't have picked up and moved to Scotland on a whim. I know I could not as easily hold firm boundaries with close family members, if I had children who needed and wanted to see them. I know I could not have built and maintained this space, because the demands on my time are too great.It never ceases to amaze me that a man who will not have children because his chosen job demands it can't begin to conceive that there are other jobs, other life circumstances, other valid choices to be made that end the same way.
...I am not going to be obliged to acquiesce that, sure, my life might have been even better with children. Never mind whether it's (in)accurate: It's irrelevant. My life is what I want it to be, as much as it can be, given my particular set of privileges, marginalizations, talents, and opportunities. And I am not going to be obliged to pretend that my choice is neutral: It isn't. I wanted to be child-free, and I am, and that is a better choice for me. We talk about these choices in a frame that exhorts us to recognize parenting as The Best Choice! and not-parenting as another choice. That isn't honest. Choosing to be child-free is the best choice, the happy-making choice, for a lot of people.
I don't need this man, or any man, weighing in on my reproductive choices. I've got it under control, thanks.
[Related Reading: Our Family Is Already Complete; Cultural Reproductive Coercion; The Non-Parent Trap.]
Open Thread
Hosted by a red-eyed tree frog.
This week's Open Threads have been brought to you by colorful animals!
Senate Republicans Want to Relax Gun Laws
[Content Note: Guns; stalking.]
At a time when every reasonable person, including millions of gun owners, are clamoring for stricter gun laws, Senate Republicans have introduced legislation which would allow people to carry concealed weapons across state lines:
The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would allow gun owners who have a concealed carry permit in their home state to bring their firearms in any other state with concealed-carry laws.If there's one group of people whose rights are really being encroached in the United States these days, it's poor, beleaguered gun owners.
"This operates more or less like a driver's license," Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the second-ranking Republican in the upper chamber, told The Hill. "So, for example, if you have a driver's license in Texas, you can drive in New York, in Utah and other places, subject to the laws of those states."
Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said this would "eliminate some of the 'gotcha moments,' where people inadvertently cross state lines" with guns they are legally allowed to carry in their home state.
The National Rifle Association endorsed the bill Thursday, calling it a "much-needed solution to a real problem for gun owners."
..."Our fundamental right to self-defense does not stop at a state's borders. Law abiding citizens should be able to exercise this right while traveling across state lines," [said Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action].
As far as I can tell, this will be a pretty nifty workaround for stalkers, who have been denied the right to carry in one state but have been granted it in another, which can happen since concealed carry requirements and restrictions vary from state to state.
But who cares, because this is about the pressing need to ensure the "fundamental right to self-defense" for the most privileged people in the country. Of course it is.
Chapel Hill Shooting: Update
[Content Note: Terrorism; guns; death; Islamophobia; anti-religiousness.]
Background here.
So, as you have probably seen, because it is fucking inescapable, lots of people are very insistent on disappearing any racial and/or religious motivation for Craig Stephen Hicks killing Deah Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. It's all just a parking dispute!
The "parking dispute" refrain is absolutely incredible and absurd: My pal Ashon Crawley pointed to a video posted on Facebook by Fatima Rahimi of Inside Edition doing a segment that is utterly jawdropping: "—shooting over, of all things, police say, a parking space. Three college students are dead; their neighbor has been charged. Now, initially, some said it was a hate crime, but police say the dispute was over parking at the apartment complex. Now, finding a parking space is one of those things that can push some people over the edge, but there is a way to always find a spot at the mall." Segue to a piece on finding parking. Seriously.
Yesterday afternoon in comments, Shaker Timberwraith linked an article in which the two women's father, Dr. Mohammad Abu-Salha, was quoted as saying the "parking dispute" claim hardly tells the whole story:
"This was not a dispute over a parking space; this was a hate crime. This man had picked on my daughter and her husband a couple of times before, and he talked with them with his gun in his belt. And they were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far."And today, Dr. Abu-Salha told the crowd gathered ahead of his daughters' burial "that he wants federal authorities to investigate the shooting as a hate crime."
Chapel Hill police said their initial investigation indicated that the shooting grew out of a simmering dispute over a parking space with the alleged killer, Craig Stephen Hicks, but they were also exploring the possibility that it was a hate crime and had asked the FBI for help. Federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of North Carolina are monitoring the local investigation.I hope law enforcement appreciates what that trust means, and honors it. But this is not reassuring:
Dr. Mohammad Abu-Salha, the father of the two slain women, spoke before thousands of people gathered at a prayer service in Raleigh. He urged the federal government to get involved to determining what motivated the shooting.
"I call on the president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the U.S. [Department of Justice] and law enforcement: Please involve the FBI. Please investigate. Please look carefully. I have talked to lawyers, I have talked to law professors—this has hate crime written all over it," Abu-Salha said.
...He insisted that the shooting did not arise out of a parking dispute. "We don't want revenge. We don't care about punishment. We care about acknowledging this the way it is and protecting every other child—black or white, comes from Asia or Arabia or wherever they come from," he said. "I trust law enforcement and the government to do their duty."
Ripley Rand, the U.S. prosecutor for the Middle District, which includes Chapel Hill and Durham, said...that from the early details of the Chapel Hill investigation, he did not think the killings were part of a targeted campaign against Muslims.So what. Something does not have to be "part of a targeted campaign" to be a hate crime. And it beggars belief that anyone can say with a straight face that the murder of Muslims by someone who hated Muslims is "an isolated incident." Sure. Everything happens in a vacuum. Culture doesn't exist.
"This appears at this time to be an isolated incident," Rand said.
Until the next time we want to talk about Muslims as a faceless monolith, of course.
Today in Misogynist Terrorism
[Content Note: Threats of violence against women; harassment and abuse; self-harm.]
Brianna Wu, who has been a primary target of Gamergaters, has written a piece for Bustle entitled: "I'm Brianna Wu, and I'm Risking My Life Standing Up to Gamergate." It is difficult reading, but I encourage you to read it, if you can, to understand the scope of what she's facing—both in terms of threats to her safety and life and in terms of the indifference from both law enforcement and social media executives.
I am struck, once more, by the fact that women have to risk our lives so that law enforcement and social media execs can maintain their comfy indifference. My contempt, it is unfathomable.
And the grossest thing of all will be the outpouring of concern from men staying silent now, once a famously harassed woman is dead.
(Note: By someone else's hand. Because women have killed themselves. But that, somehow, doesn't "count.")
I really wish, deeply and desperately, that men would do me a favor and imagine what they'd say if one of us was turned into an unwilling martyr, and SAY IT NOW INSTEAD.
Because I am haunted by the specter of all the think pieces that will be written by men if one of the shitlords who threatens women kills someone.
And I am tired to my very bones of reading "before someone gets hurt." Women are getting hurt NOW. Death should not be a baseline for harm.
[Related Reading: This Is Misogynist Terrorism.]
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Violence.]
"Here's what you need to know about Nancy Wake: She once killed an SS officer with a judo chop to the throat."—From Lauren Davis' "10 Real-Life Female Spies Who Deserve Their Own Movie Franchises" for io9. Seriously, go read the whole thing, and then think about all the men who have argued that there aren't more woman-centered thrillers because HISTORY.
Remember, friends: Women have always been doing things.
Daily Dose of Cute
I have previously mentioned that Olivia, the most annoying creature on the planet, is the most food-aggressive cat (or any animal!) I have ever met in my life. She will literally try to grab food directly out my mouth while I'm eating; I go through a thousand glasses of water a day, because I can't leave them unattended for one second before she's dipping her dirty paws in there; she will risk her life stealing food from the dogs; she guards the cat food and hovers over the other two cats while they eat, ready to pounce if she thinks they're taking more than their fair share.
It's not a medical issue. She's just a greedy little goblin.
If I don't lock her up in the kitchen while I'm eating, I have to put her down on the floor over and over and over while I try to eat. She just hops right back up; nothing deters her. If I say, "No!" I might as well be saying, "Please grab my food and eat it, Olivia. Help yourself!"
If I don't immediately put my plate away in the sink as soon as I'm finished, she's all over it, licking up the crumbs.
This is what happened when I finished my lunch earlier:
Every millimeter of plate licked clean of leftover crumbs and smudges from my turkey sandwich and side of Brussels sprouts, then a satisfied licking of the lips before she crawled up on my lap, licking her lips some more, seeking some cuddles.
"THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD NOW PET ME PET ME PET ME."
This cat.
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As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
