[Content Note: There are strobe and lightning effects in this video.]
Janet Jackson: "Rhythm Nation"
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Janet Jackson: "Rhythm Nation"
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: War; terrorism] Fucking hell: "The US military has called for 'vigilance' after an online threat was allegedly made by Islamic State (IS) to about 100 of its personnel. A list of names and addresses was posted on a website linked to the group alongside a call for them to be killed. The Pentagon said the threat was unverified and would be investigated."
[CN: War; death; displacement] The ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia isn't holding: "Clashes between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels continued to undermine a cease-fire in the country's east as Russia accused the government in Kiev of violating the truce. The United Nations raised its death toll estimate to at least 6,072 and said 15,345 people have been wounded in the conflict that started last April. About 1.2 million people have registered as displaced within Ukraine and 747,357 have fled abroad, including 610,558 to Russia, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report Monday. Skirmishes between government troops and pro-Russian rebels continue to underscore the tenuous nature of a truce agreement negotiated last month in the Belarusian capital. While the cease-fire has checked the worst of the fighting, both sides are accusing each other of violations that are threatening to return to conflict to open war."
[CN: War on agency; termination of wanted pregnancy] Tara Culp-Ressler has an important story about community for people who end a wanted pregnancy "only after receiving a diagnosis of serious fetal abnormalities that weren't evident earlier. They're not having abortions because they want to dismember their babies, although that's often the political rhetoric that's used around later procedures. In fact, these women typically believe that abortion is the most compassionate choice available to them, because their unborn child has serious health complications that won't allow them to survive for very long outside the womb."
[CN: Rape culture] Later today, the Charlottesville, Virginia, police department will "release the results of an investigation into the alleged gang rape of a University of Virginia student [known as Jackie] that was questioned after a high-profile Rolling Stone article last year. ...After the veracity of the article was called into question, Captain Gary Pleasants of Charlottesville police said the department would continue to investigate the incident. The results are to be announced at a press conference on Monday at 2pm." I'm sure that will be great.
[CN: Misogynoir] There is some annoying "don't worry—this powerful professional athlete is still a girl at heart!" crap in this article about Serena Williams, but read it just for this: "Let's just put an end to this myth that women players cannot be friends. We can!" YES.
[CN: Privilege; racism] Starbucks has already thrown "Race Together" in the dustbin. "Starbucks baristas will no longer write 'Race Together' on customers' cups starting Sunday, ending a visible component of the company's diversity and racial inequality campaign that had sparked widespread criticism in the week since it took effect. The company had planned all along to end the cup messages on Sunday and continue the campaign more broadly, Starbucks spokesman Jim Olson said." Oh, okay. Well, you really changed the world or whatever.
My heart: "Vin Diesel has found another way to pay tribute to his late Fast and Furious co-star and close friend Paul Walker. The actor revealed on Monday's Today show that he named his newborn daughter after Walker, giving her the name 'Pauline.' 'It felt like a way to keep his memory a part of my family and a part of my world,' Diesel told NBC's Natalie Morales as the two were riding in a helicopter." Everything about that is perfect, right down to the helicopter ride. Because of course Vin Diesel was giving an interview in a helicopter OBVIOUSLY.
Headline of the Day: "Tom Hardy looks hot and dusty in snap from Mad Max: Fury Road." Accurate.
And finally! These dogs hate getting out of bed. Legit.
I Still Have a Problem with This
[Content Note: Coercion; hostility to consent.]
There were three articles in the Boston Globe yesterday urging Senator Elizabeth Warren to run for president.
Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org Civic Action: "Elizabeth Warren, run for the White House."
Warren should run. Our country will be better off if she does. She would be a strong candidate — one who injects valuable ideas into the conversation and ensures the kind of debate our country needs. And she could win.Joshua Green, national correspondent at Bloomberg Businessweek: "Warren would be a credible threat to Clinton in the primaries."
Put simply, this moment was made for Elizabeth Warren.
...To be clear: Senator Warren has said she's not running for president, and we take her for her word. But we also believe she's open to persuasion.
...Senator Warren, we hope you're reading this. Our country needs you. Please run.
Although she took her time doing it, Elizabeth Warren seems to have finally convinced the panting obsessives of the Washington press corps that she isn't going to run for president next year. Her decision is a big loss for Democrats, because having Warren in the field would have a number of salutary effects.The Globe editorial board: "Democrats need Elizabeth Warren's voice in 2016 presidential race."
...[Clinton's] instinct is to do everything in her power to avoid exposing herself to scrutiny. That instinct will undoubtedly carry over to the primaries — unless someone like Warren forces her hand.
Democrats would be making a big mistake if they let Hillary Clinton coast to the presidential nomination without real opposition, and, as a national leader, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren can make sure that doesn't happen. While Warren has repeatedly vowed that she won't run for president herself, she ought to reconsider.Our country needs her. (It's her duty to run.) Clinton must be stopped. (And Warren is the only one who can do it.) Her party needs her. (But not so much she shouldn't risk a long career in public service to do this thing we want her to do RIGHT NOW.)
...A presidential campaign would test Warren as never before. Her views on foreign policy are not fully formed. And on many other important issues — climate change, gun control, civil rights — Warren could struggle to articulate clear differences between herself and Clinton. That's a risk she should be willing to take.
Each of the three pieces notes that Warren has said she has not running, but: "We believe she's open to persuasion" and "She ought to reconsider."
This, after Warren literally used the very specific language of: "No means no."
Why aren't there more women like Senator Elizabeth Warren in politics? the pundits wonder. Welp.
[Related Reading: sporktastic's "The Problem with 'Run Warren Run.'"]
Senator Ted Cruz Announces Presidential Bid
Nah.
Fresh off the coolest speech that was ever speechified, Republican Senator Ted Cruz has announced he is running for president:
Lest there be any doubts that Sen. Ted Cruz will be aggressively courting cultural conservatives, look at where the Republican chose to begin his 2016 presidential campaign Monday: the flagship campus of the nation's largest Christian university.It's pretty sweet that he's making no bones about the fact that he doesn't want to lead "the American people," but definitely just wants to lead conservatives to take back the country from the terrifying grip of moderates and liberals. Fresh take!
Cruz announced his White House bid early in the morning, on Twitter, hours before his kickoff speech at Liberty University, the college founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. A familiar stop for presidential hopefuls, the selection is meant as a marker against potential rivals who are also counting on Christian conservatives to fuel their ambitions.
On Monday, became Cruz the first high-profile Republican to enter the 2016 contest officially even though, like others, he has been campaigning in all but name for many months. A man in a hurry, he got ahead of his announcement speech with a tweet after midnight and a flashy video previewing his campaign.
"I believe in America and her people, and I believe we can stand up and restore our promise," Cruz said in the web video as images of farm fields, city skylines and American landmarks and symbols played in the background. "It's going to take a new generation of courageous conservatives to help make America great again, and I'm ready to stand with you to lead the fight."
Which reminds me of that time Senator Cruz made a neat ha-ha joke about how Washington, D.C., isn't actually part of the United States: "I spent all week in Washington, D.C., and it's great to be back in America."
This is just the perfect Republican candidate, right here: A professional politician who hates government; who makes his living from taxpayer dollars but hates taxation of the wealthy and corporations; who wants to be president of the country, but hates most of it.
Super.
[Related Reading: Meet Senator Ted Cruz!]
Kerry Washington, Y'all
Over the weekend, Kerry Washington was honored for her LGBT ally work at the 2015 GLAAD Media Awards, and this is the acceptance speech she gave:
Kerry Washington, a thin black, 38-year-old woman, wearing a halter gown with a burgundy top and purple skirt, stands onstage before a large audience at a standing mic.
Thank you, Ellen [Degeneres]! Thank you, Ellen; thank you, Ellen; thank you, Ellen, so much. We just love having you and your beautiful, extraordinary wife [Portia de Rossi] in our Scandal family. It's a good night for Shondaland up in here! [cheers]
So, forgive me—I thought I was gonna have a podium, so I'm gonna do this the best I can without one. [She opens a folder she is holding in her hands.] Okay. [She clears her throat.]
I am truly honored to be here and to be receiving this award. When I was told that I was gonna get an award for being an ally to GLAAD, it got me thinking: Being an ally means a great deal to me, and so I'm gonna say some stuff. And I might be preaching to the choir, but I'm gonna say it, not just for us, but because, on Monday morning, people are gonna click a link to hear what that woman from Scandal said on that awards show. So I think some stuff needs to be said. [cheers]
There are people in this world who have the full rights of citizenship—in our communities, our countries, and around the world—and then there are those of us who, to varying degrees, do not. We don't have equal access to education, to health care, and some other basic liberties like: Marriage, a fair voting process, fair hiring practices. Now, you would think that those of us who are kept from our full rights of citizenship would band together and fight the good fight. But history tells us that no—often, we don't.
Women, poor people, people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, trans* people, intersex people—we have been pitted against each other, and made to feel like there are limited seats at the table for those of us who fall into the category of 'other.' As a result—as a result, we have become afraid of one another. We compete with one another; we judge one another; sometimes we betray one another. Sometimes even within our own communities, we designate who among us is best suited to represent us and who, really, shouldn't even really be invited to the party. [cheers] As 'others,' we are taught that, to be successful, we must reject those other 'others,' or we will never belong.
I know part of why I'm getting this award is because I play characters that belong to segments of society that are often pushed to the margins. Now, as a woman and as a person of color, I don't always have a choice about that. But I've also made the choice to participate in storytelling about the members of the LGBT community. I've made the choice to play a lot of different kinds of people, in a lot of different kinds of situations. In my career, I've not been afraid of inhabiting characters who are judged, and who are misunderstood, and who have not been granted full rights of citizenship as human beings.
But here's the great irony: I don't decide to play the characters I play as a political choice. Yet the characters I play often do become political statements. Because having your story told as a woman, as a person of color, as a lesbian, or as a trans* person, or as any member of any disenfranchised community is sadly often still a radical idea. There is so much power in storytelling, and there is enormous power in inclusive storytelling and inclusive representations.
That is why the work of GLAAD is so important. We need more LGBT representation in the media. We need more LGBT characters and more LGBT storytelling. We need more diverse LGBT representation [cheers] and by that, I mean lots of kinds of different kinds of LGBT people, living all different kinds of lives, and this is big—we need more employment of LGBT people in front of and behind the camera. [standing ovation]
So, in 1997, when Ellen made her famous declaration, it took place in an America where the Defense of Marriage Act had just passed months earlier, and civil unions were not yet legal in any state. But also remember, just 30 years before that, the Supreme Court was deciding that the ban against interracial marriages was unconstitutional. Up until then, heterosexual people of different races couldn't marry who they wanted to marry, either.
So when black people today tell me that they don't believe in gay marriage... [makes a "come on, now" face; cheers] So, the first thing that I say is: "Please don't let anybody try to get you to vote against your own best interest by feeding you messages of hate." And then I say: "You know, people used to stay that stuff about you and your love, and if we let the government start to legislate love in our lifetime, who do you think is next?"
We can't say that we believe in each other's fundamental humanity and then turn a blind eye to the reality of each other's existence and the truth of each other's hearts. We must be allies, and we must be allies in this business, because to be represented is to be humanized, and as long as anyone, anywhere, is made to feel less human, our very definition of humanity is at stake and we are all vulnerable. [cheers]
We must see each other, all of us, and we must see ourselves, all of us, and we have to continue to be bold and break new ground until this is just how it is, until we are no longer 'firsts' and 'exceptions' and 'rare' and 'unique.' In the real world, being an 'other' is the norm. In the real world, the only norm is uniqueness, and our media must reflect that. Thank you GLAAD for fighting the good fight. God bless you. [standing ovation]
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by cold pizza.
Recommended Reading:
Shubhra: [Content Note: Sexual violence; misogyny; culture of abuse; racism] No One's Daughter
NPR: [CN: Anti-feminism] Detained Feminists Highlight China's Crackdown on Dissent
Ragen: [CN: Fat hatred; disordered eating] Willful Suspension of Disbelief
Carla: Google Backs Opps for Latino and Black Entrepreneurs in 3 Cities
Brian: A Clever Way to Tell Which of Your Emails Are Being Tracked
Esther: Human Bodies Glow, Proving That the World Is Weirder Than We Can Imagine
Mia: [CN: Racism; violence; descriptions of violence; spoilers for The Walking Dead] Why Are All the Black Characters Killed So Gruesomely on The Walking Dead?
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
It Continues to Be a Real Mystery Why Republicans Aren't Connecting with a Majority of Female Voters
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN???!!!
Rick Perry's latest hire as a top campaign staffer was embroiled in controversy in 2012 over a private email which suggested children's lives would be harmed if the nation had a female president, according to the Des Moines Register.LOL okay, player. I can't wait to hear the context in which questioning whether "God" wants a women to be president because it might hurt children makes perfect sense.
Jamie Johnson is a longtime Iowa Republican activist who was hired by former Texas governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate Rick Perry on Wednesday to organize conservatives in Iowa and other early primary states. Johnson is a member of the party's state central committee and was a staffer for Rick Santorum's caucus-winning campaign in 2012.
The controversial email, which Johnson sent to a friend in the summer of 2011 and which was then leaked to the Des Moines Register a few months later, included the question, the paper reported: "Is it God's highest desire, that is, his biblically expressed will ... to have a woman rule the institutions of the family, the church, and the state?"
...In an interview with the Guardian, Johnson emphasized both that it was a private communication and that the email in which he wrote those words was taken out of context.
He said the email was "sent to one person, speaking as a pastor, to someone who is a personal friend of mine". Johnson emphasized this was a "private message" and not intended to be shared publicly.Oh. That context.
*that face*
Daily Dose of Cute
Livs, sitting on a pillow, looking
out the window, and grooming herself.
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: Police brutality; torture.]
"[T]he City's Conduct was to act like the proverbial ostrich and, though aware of misconduct at Homan Square, allowed the misconduct to occur in such a manner as to permit officers: to seize, transport and secretly detain citizens at Homan Square; to detain citizens for extended periods of time while handcuffed to a bar on a cell wall; to interrogate citizens when they had not been read their Miranda rights; to deny citizens access to attorneys; to attempt to coerce false confessions out of citizens; to deny citizens the ability to tell their families of their whereabouts; to refuse citizens access to a restroom, food, or water; and to threaten citizens that they would be charged with crimes if they did not provide information."—From a lawsuit brought by John Vergara and Jose Garcia against the Chicago police on behalf of Homan Square victims. Homan Square is the detention center which has been described as "the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site."
This is the first lawsuit of its kind so far. There are likely to be others, given the vast constitutional violations which have been perpetrated by police at Homan Square.
This shit is happening in Chicago. In the center of the American heartland. To US citizens.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Class warfare] This is what class warfare actually looks like: "A new Stateline analysis shows that in all 50 states, the percentage of 'middle-class' households—those making between 67 percent and 200 percent of the state's median income—shrunk between 2000 and 2013. The change occurred even as the median income in most states declined, when adjusted for inflation. In most states, the growing percentage of households paying 30 percent (the federal standard for housing affordability) or more of their income on housing illustrates that it is increasingly difficult for many American families to make ends meet."
[CN: Death by hanging; racism; eliminationism] Um. "FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jason Pack said the FBI and Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are on the scene where a man's body was found hanging from a tree by a bed sheet in the woods near Old Rodney Road. It is unclear if the death is a homicide or a suicide, as Coroner J.W. Mallett would not release any details, stating the death is under investigation." I know they have to say that, but the man is believed to be 54-year-old Otis Byrd, a black man who has been missing since March 2. This has all the hallmarks of a lynching.
[CN: Police brutality] Leaving aside the debate about whether body cameras worn by police officers would actually have a meaningful effect on reducing police brutality: "Lawmakers in nearly a third of the states have introduced bills to restrict public access to recordings from police officer-worn body cameras." Of course they have. Which states have introduced legislation and what that legislation looks like is detailed at the link.
[CN: Disablism; racism; carcerality] Abreham Zemedagegehu is a deaf man who is able to communicate only with sign language, and after he was arrested last year, he reports being denied an interpreter during the entire six weeks he was held. Further: "He was administered a tuberculosis shot without his consent, often went hungry because he couldn't hear alerts for mealtime, and was unable to call friends or an attorney because of inadequate technology in the jail." He was "placed in a cell alone and missed many meals because he couldn't hear the alerts for mealtime and no one explained that he had to push a button to open his cell door quickly after the alerts sounded." I feel like there's there's no way, NO WAY, that in a place where every move is scrutinized for excuses for further punishment that no one noticed he wasn't eating. And by that I don't mean that I think Zemedagegehu is lying; I mean I think that the people responsible for his well-being knew but didn't care that he wasn't.
[CN: Racism; White Supremacy; slurs; violence] Tracy Clayton has written a powerful essay on being "one of few black students at a small college in Kentucky in the early 2000s. Every day I was reminded just how unwelcome I was there."
[CN: War on agency] Andrea Grimes on how increasing restrictions on abortion are "Changing the Way People Think About Self-Induced Abortions."
[CN: Christian Supremacy; homophobia] John Wright with more on the garbage "religious freedom" legislation expected to pass in Indiana next week.
[CN: Anti-choice terrorism; war on agency] A year after Susan Cahill's All Families Healthcare clinic was destroyed, the clinic still has not reopened "and its proprietor, Susan Cahill, has been out of work for a year. Patients were shifted to new health care providers, and the Flathead Valley lost its only clinic willing to perform abortions. ...For Cahill, her future is in limbo: Unable as of yet to find a space in the valley willing to rent to her, she says she can't continue her practice as a physician's assistant, even though she has decided to stop performing abortions. 'I promised my family I wasn't going to be a martyr; I've had enough. Which doesn't make me feel particularly happy,' Cahill said."
[CN: Abuse of homeless people; religion] I would say this is unbelievable, but, of course, it isn't: "St Mary's cathedral, home of the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco, has been scrambling to explain itself after local media revealed that it had installed water sprinklers above its doorways that were dousing homeless people seeking shelter in the alcoves there. Officials of the archdiocese hastily began the process of dismantling the sprinklers after the local CBS franchise, KCBS Radio, revealed that homeless people and their belongings were routinely being soaked by the automated system. The anti-homeless technique has been deployed outside commercial properties in several major cities, including San Francisco, but its use by an institution devoted to the tradition of the good Samaritan has proved more contentious." More contentious. Fucking hell. My friend sent this to me with the note: "tax. the. church." Yeah. It's long past time to revisit the church's tax exempt status.
Wow: "18 Amazing Images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope." Stunning.
Johanna Basford's adult coloring book, Secret Garden, "inspired by Scotland's Brodick Castle Gardens, where her grandfather was the head gardener," has sold over a million copies. And I can see why. Extraordinary.
Say hello to my little NOPE! "Universal is moving forward with its Scarface remake." I cannot get on board with this unless the new filmmakers promise to make the new one as PERVASIVELY PINK as the original.
And finally! March is Dolphin Awareness Month, so here are some fun facts about dolphins to celebrate one of the coolest animals in the seas!
"Hello." "Hello." "Follow Me." "Okay."
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is my favorite video game of all time, and Abe one of my favorite all-time characters, so when Iain forwarded me the news this morning that "a ground-up remake of the much-loved original Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee" will launch on Xbox One on March 27, I literally exclaimed aloud with overwhelming joy.
Marking the first outing of an Oddworld game on Xbox since Stranger's Wrath in 2005, New 'n' Tasty is a ground-up remake of the much-loved original Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, developed by Just Add Water (Development) Ltd.I loooooove that this is a remake of the original, because one of the things I adored about the original was the theme of resistance and liberation. I am SO EXCITED to play this! Yayayayayay!
A cinematic platform adventure, New 'n' Tasty tells the tale of Abe, a hapless Mudokon who learns that his fellow meat factory co-workers are to be the main ingredients in the company's next line of tasty treats.
Abe must escape RuptureFarms and beyond, liberating as many of his fellow workers as he can. Along the way, he'll learn the secrets of his civilization and journey across perilous lands filled with dangerous creatures and lethal traps before returning to the sinister meat factory to put right the injustices faced by his long suffering species.
THUMBS UP!
Eclipse!
My cousin-in-law in Scotland has been sending me amazing pix this morning of the solar eclipse which is visible over Europe today. She also sent me the link to this collection of images of the eclipse and eclipse-watchers across Scotland, among which was this extraordinary image captured by Graeme Halkerston in Edinburgh:
So fucking cool! Please feel welcome to share in comments links/pix of the eclipse that you've found remarkable.
Open Thread
Hosted by a bonsai tree.
This week's Open Threads have been brought to you by the letter B.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker masculine_lady: "Besides them telling you, how do you know when someone loves you?"
They don't try to substitute their own needs for mine, but ask me what I need and then do that.
Yes, Please!
This is fucking amazing: Mr. T "has signed on to host a home renovation series called I Pity the Tool for DIY Network." GIVE IT TO ME IN MY FACE! A+!
LOVE.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism.]
"The failure to indict the officer responsible for the death of Eric Garner has left many wondering if black lives even matter. Sadly, today's decision will only leave many asking that same question again."—New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman, after New York Supreme Court Justice William E. Garnett ruled to maintain the secrecy of the grand jury testimony in the case of Eric Garner, the black man from Staten Island who was killed by New York City police officers after being detained and put in a chokehold.
A petition from the the New York Civil Liberties Union and others had called for the release of the grand jury transcripts, including testimony by Daniel Pantaleo, the New York police officer involved in the incident. It was brought by NYCLU; the Legal Aid Society; Letitia James, the city's public advocate; the New York Post; and the NAACP.Accountability schmaccountability.
...Garnett said in the ruling that he did not believe the civil rights lawyers had established a compelling enough reason for warrant a disclosure of the grand jury minutes.
"What would they use the minutes for? The only answer which the court heard was the possibility of effecting legislative change," he wrote. "That proffered need is purely speculative and does not satisfy the requirements of the law."
...The civil liberties attorneys argued that disclosure was in the public interest and would help restore public trust in the criminal justice system, which the secrecy around the case had eroded.
The primary argument in favor of secrecy is protecting "the anonymity prosecutors promise jurors and witnesses who take part in the grand jury processes."
But if black lives are really to matter, protecting privacy in cases of deadly police aggression simply cannot trump protecting the lives of black people.
(And, as a side note, redactions can always be made, and would have been, to protect the privacy of those who were not being investigated. It is the height of mendacity to pretend that protecting anonymity is an all-or-nothing proposition.)
I Write Letters
[Content Note: Fat hatred.]
Dear Story Creators, Everyone Who Tells Stories That Involves the Creation of Characters in Any Medium, Whether Those Characters Are Drawn with Images or Words or Both:
Please stop using "fat" as shorthand to convey to your audience that a character is bad in some way, or many ways.
Fat is not a synonym for "evil."
Fat is not a synonym for "lazy."
Fat is not a synonym for "ugly."
Fat is not a synonym for "manipulative."
Fat is not a synonym for "duplicitous."
Fat is not a synonym for "bumbling."
Fat is not a synonym for "unintelligent."
Fat is not a synonym for "mean."
Fat is not a synonym for "greedy."
Fat is not a synonym for "dangerous."
Et cetera.
Fat is also, for the record, not a synonym for silly or jolly or carefree or simple-minded.
Fat is a neutral descriptor of someone's appearance.
If you are reading this and thinking, "I don't write/draw/create any fat villains!" then good for you. I hope that is not because you are simply not writing any fat characters at all.
Because it's not just important to avoid writing fat villains whose fat is used to lazily communicate their inherent badness. It's also important to write fat heroes.
Love,
Liss
