This goofy, adorable face. ♥
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Daily Dose of Cute
This goofy, adorable face. ♥
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
"It Was Never a Dress"
[Content Note: Gender essentialism.]
So, I am not a fan (ahem) of gendered bathroom markers, but, as long as we're stuck with the damn things, this is pretty cool: "Recently, a tech company called Axosoft reimagined the ladies room symbol."
Jamie Kruger posted the above image to Twitter on April 29 at the Girls in Tech conference in Arizona. Axosoft was the main sponsor of the conference, outfitted with bathroom signs featuring two generic female symbols side by side. But this version throws the familiar shape on its head with one one wearing a cape—decidedly not a dress.Last night, on social media, I saw a terrific Wonder Woman variation:
"It was never a dress," Axosoft writes in their new campaign to empower women in technology.
"This lady, well, we've been looking at her the wrong way," Tania Katan, the Curator of Code for Axosoft, said in a recent video. "We're launching a campaign that shows you what's really on the other side. It was never a dress."
WIN.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Jennifer Lopez: "Qué Hiciste"
This week's TMNS brought to you by some of my favorite songs with Spanish lyrics.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
RIP Ben E. King: "R&B and soul singer Ben E King, best known for the classic song Stand By Me, has died at the age of 76." His voice is one of my favorite all-time voices. "Stand by Me" is my favorite among his tracks, but there are so many good ones: "This Magic Moment," "I Who Have Nothing," "Save the Last Dance for Me." Goosebumps.
[Content Note: Sexual assault] Jameis Winston, the accused rapist who is such a terrific football player that no one cares if he's a rapist (including the police), went #1 in the NFL draft last night. Fuck everything. My friend Jessica Luther has covered the sexual assault allegations against Winston for Vice Sports and RH Reality Check, if you're looking for solid background.
[CN: War on agency] The Satanic Temple is at it again: "A Missouri Satanist plans to challenge her state's 72-hour waiting period for abortions by claiming the delay violates her religious beliefs. The woman, identified only as Mary by her local Satanic Temple, said she regards the waiting period as 'a state sanctioned attempt to discourage abortion' and plans to challenge the law on religious grounds... The waiting period places an 'unnecessary burden' on her religious belief that her body is subject to her will alone, she said. 'The waiting period interferes with the inviolability of my body and thereby imposes an unwanted and substantial burden on my sincerely held religious beliefs,' she said." Right on.
[CN: Police brutality] There is some debate about the efficacy of police body cameras, for a bunch of reasons, not least of which are that cops can just turn them off and that even being caught on camera has been no guarantee of violence prevention or legal accountability, but: "The Obama administration is spending $20 million on police body cameras, amid rising tension over police violence. The announcement from the Justice Department on Friday would create a new pilot program to equip police in dozens of cities with the devices, as the first step in a $75 million three-year effort that President Obama requested from Congress in December." Welp, let's see if it makes a damn bit of difference.
I love this: "The most powerful man in the world wants to return to community organizing after he hands over the keys to the White House in 2017, President Obama told middle-school students at a public library in Washington's Anacostia neighborhood today. 'I'll be done being president in a couple of years and I'll still be a pretty young man,' he said. 'And so I'll go back to doing the kinds of work I was doing before, just trying to find ways to help people.'"
[CN: Surveillance] The Electronic Frontier Foundation has concerns about the reintroduction of the bipartisan USA Freedom Act, which is "an attempt to rein in the intelligence community's 'Collect It All' strategy," but still says it's a step in the right direction.
[CN: Environmental destruction; animal endangerment] A new study, which is "the most comprehensive look yet at the impact of climate change on biodiversity loss" to date, has found that "one in six of the planet's species will be lost forever to extinction if world leaders fail to take action on climate change." Fuck.
I love these superhero heels, but they are definitely only for those among us who can do reeeeeally high heels!
[CN: Image of beetle at link] Headline of the Day: "This beetle's butt is basically a machine gun."
And finally! A stray pitbull is found nursing a kitten on the side of the road, so they are rescued together. Now rescuers are hoping they can be placed together in a forever home. ♥
Six Officers Charged in Freddie Gray's Death
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism.]
State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby, pictured above, has announced that Freddie Gray's cause of death has been ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, and has brought criminal charges against all six officers involved.
Via Alan Blinder, the documents detailing the charges:
* Officer Caesar R. Goodson, Jr. is being charged with second-degree depraved heart murder (with a maximum sentence of 30 years), involuntary manslaughter (10 years), second-degree assault (10 years), manslaughter by vehicle—gross negligence (10 years), manslaughter by vehicle—criminal negligence (3 years), misconduct in office for failure to secure a prisoner and failure to render aid (per the 8th amendment; no sentence indicated).
* Officer William G. Porter is being charged with involuntary manslaughter (10 years), second-degree assault (10 years), misconduct in office.
* Lieutenant Brian W. Rice is being charged with involuntary manslaughter (10 years), two counts of second-degree assault (intentional and negligent; 10 years each), two charges of misconduct in office, and false imprisonment.
* Officer Edward M. Nero is being charged with two counts of second-degree assault (intentional and negligent; 10 years each), two charges of misconduct in office, and false imprisonment.
* Officer Garrett E. Miller is being charged with two counts of second-degree assault (intentional and negligent; 10 years each), two charges of misconduct in office, and false imprisonment.
* Sergeant Alicia D. White is being charged with involuntary manslaughter (10 years), second-degree assault (10 years), and misconduct in office.
Said SA Marilyn Mosby: "To the youth of this city: I will seek justice on your behalf."
The announcement of these charges is not the end of a journey; they are only the beginning. Let us fervently hope there will be meaningful accountability in this case, unlike so many others.
Today in the Radical Gay Feminist Agenda
[Content Note: Homophobia; anti-feminism.]
Sounds legit:
"By 2020, [feminists] want 50/50 in the state houses and the U.S. House and Senate. They want 50 percent women and 50 percent men, they want 50/50, they want equality," [Iowa Republican National Committee member Tamara Scott] said. "So my laugh is, then why wouldn't you want equality in a marriage? Why aren't those same women wanting that same argument at home? Because we know children do better when they're raised by their biological parents."Well, it's always fun anytime we pretend that feminists are monolithically united on any issue, but I'm just going to speak for myself here, because I'm just that kind of a pain in the ass: Advocating for an expansion of marriage is not engineering its destruction. Two plus two does not equal zero.
This led [RNC member Carolyn McClarty of Oklahoma] to explain that "the extreme feminist movement and the gay liberation movement really is using same-sex marriage as a way to destroy marriage."
"The feminist movement, they've been against marriage from the beginning, against traditional marriage, and it was up until the Massachusetts court case in 2003 where they recognized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts that they kind of changed their tune," she said. "And now they see that this would also destroy marriage, so they're for same-sex marriage."
That said, if we're talking about the destruction of the institution of marriage as previously defined—the transfer of ownership of a woman from her father to her husband—then I am GUILTY AS CHARGED for being all the fuck for the destruction of the institution of marriage.
See also: Defining marriage exclusively on the basis of its being a child-making enterprise. Sorry, ladies, but my uterus is too busy emitting Radical Gay Feminist Agenda Gamma Rays of Ultimate Doom to be hosting fetuses. MY BODY MY CHOICE!
Updates from Baltimore
[Content Note: Racism; disablism; police brutality; violence; detention.]
The latest about the police officers who have been suspended over Freddie Gray's death, about which precious little is known since the investigation is only leaking victim-blaming bullshit, is that the most senior of the six, Lt. Brian Rice, "was hospitalized in April 2012 over mental health concerns for an unknown duration and had his guns confiscated by local sheriff's deputies, according to records from the sheriff's office and court obtained by The Associated Press. ...The incidents described in the sheriff's report and court records involving Rice's personal problems portray allegations of concerns about self-control and judgment."'
Okay. So, here is where the "lone crazy wolf" narrative begins: If the ringleader is mentally ill, then that means it's an individual problem, not a systemic one, and there's no need to take a long, hard look at institutional racism and eliminationist violence in the police force.
Surely, the Baltimore Police Force would like nothing more than to have aggressive racism be recast as "mental illness" and thus to merely be asked, "Why was this guy allowed back on the job?" than to have to face real accountability for decades upon decades of systemic abuses.
* * *
In other leaks: "Baltimore police have found that Freddie Gray suffered a serious head injury inside a prisoner transport wagon, with one wound indicating that he struck a protruding bolt in the back of the vehicle, according to sources familiar with the probe. New details of the investigation emerged as police officially turned over the case to city prosecutors Thursday. Police said they have 'exhausted every lead.' In announcing an early conclusion to the first phase of their investigation, police also revealed a previously unknown stop by the transport van driver. Officials declined to comment further on what happened but said they had obtained private security footage depicting that event. While witnesses have said that police officers roughly handled Gray, who died a week after his arrest from injuries including a severed spine, police have said a focus of their investigation has been what occurred in the van."
Well, everything about that sounds terrible. Misdirections, shrugging indifference, lack of accountability.
And while the police are busily failing to hold themselves accountable, they're definitely arresting the fuck out of everyone else, including the man who shot the video of Freddie Gray's arrest:
Kevin Moore, the man who filmed Freddie Gray's brutal arrest, has himself been arrested following "harassment and intimidation" from Baltimore police.Two hundred and thirty-five protesters were arrested Monday night alone, and many of them were left in jail for days "without being formally charged or having a bail hearing." Two Baltimore Public Defenders, Natalie Finegar and Marci Tarrant-Johnson, have reported that detained protesters "are being withheld food for up to 18 hours, denied medical attention and detained for extended periods of time with up to 20 people in small cells intended to hold many less."
Moore was arrested at gunpoint last night along with two other members of Cop Watch, a community dedicated to filming and documenting police work.
Moore claims that despite having co-operated with two detectives in the Baltimore Police Department's Office of Internal Oversight and given them the video, police posted his photo and told the public that he was "wanted for questioning", asking people to identify him.
"What is so important that you have to plaster my picture over the Internet? I've already spoken," Moore said, suggesting that they posted it simply to harass him.
And at least one young man who turned himself in, after doing misdemeanor property damage, is now being held on half a million dollars bail.
The police killed Freddie Gray. His community said, in the only way people will listen, that this shit is intolerable and we want real justice and real accountability and real safety. And the police are punishing every last fucking person they can get their hands on in response.
And it's the protesters who are called thugs.
Open Thread
Hosted by a Hemingway Cat.
This week's Open Threads have been brought to you by the letter H.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker iwillbedamned: "Have you seen my keys?"
I have not seen your keys, but have you seen my wallet?
Film Corner: Legend
[Content Note: Violence.]
Remember when Tom Cruise made a fantasy film in the '80 with Mia Sara, whom we probably all know best as Sloane Peterson from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Tim Curry, who played the Devil I MEAN DARKNESS because of course he did, and it was directed by Ridley Scott (huh?) and it was called Legend, and there was so much pollen from sparkleflowers floating in the air?
This is not that movie. This is a different movie called Legend.
And this movie called Legend—which could have been called The Last of the Famous International Playboys or Fuck You, Spandau Ballet (these are esoteric but terrific references) (look them up!) (or don't)—is about the Kray Brothers, Reggie and Ronnie, who were hot twin gangsters in London in the 1960s, and it stars Tom Hardy playing both of them.
LITERALLY JUST TWO TOM HARDYS ONSCREEN AT ONCE.
I repeat: Two Tom Hardys.
That's fully 100% more Tom Hardy than you usually get in a Tom Hardy movie!
Here is the teaser trailer for Legend starring two Tom Hardys, and it will probably not be my finest trailer work, both because teaser trailers are always full of quick-edit montagery and because all the blood is gone from my brain AND I AM SORRY.
Video Description: Guitar music. London at night. Text onscreen: "This year." Tom Hardy in '60s glasses smoking a cigarette and the smoke curls around his face. Tom Hardy without glasses struts down a street. Text onscreen: "Witness the true story." A young white lady lying in a bed. Tom Hardy without glasses looking surly and walking somewhere. Text onscreen: "Of the twins who ruled a city." Tom Hardy standing at a window in what looks like a fancy hotel room, looking out over the city at dusk.
"Me and my bruvah," says Tom Hardy in voiceover. Two Tom Hardys (TWO! TOM! HARDYS!) in the back seat of a swanky car. "We're gonna rule London," Tom Hardy says in voiceover. A police officer looks at a board covered in pictures of the Toms Hardy. HE HAS THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD!
"These are the Kray twins," a man's voice says, and some dude sitting in a chair at a desk looks behind him to see the Toms Hardy sitting in chairs behind him, rather menacingly. "Ronald and Reginald."
Car in a forest. The lady at a casino. The two Tom Hardys drinking and smoking and things, always wearing the best '60s suits OMG. Punching. Pistol. Newspaper headlines. The Toms Hardy sitting in court in a defendants' box, just sitting there next to each other, looking pissed as hell.
The Toms Hardy look at each other. The police officer runs through hung laundry in the street. Dancing with the lady. Pistol at a pub. Lady in the mirror. Stacks of cash. Tom Hardy without glasses in prison. The Toms Hardy posing for a picture. The street at night. More quick-edit montagery of dark rooms and fights and gangster stuff.
Text onscreen: "LEGEND." Text onscreen: "Tom Hardy." Tom Hardy with glasses in a car smoking. Text onscreen: "Tom Hardy." Tom Hardy without glasses in a car not smoking. Text onscreen: "In cinemas September 11."
DEAR MR. FANDANGO ONE TICKET PLZ THANK U.
Two Tom Hardys, y'all. TWO.
You Have the Right Obligation to Remain Unhappy
[Content Note: Sexual assault; workplace injury; misogyny.]
Amanda Hess: "Evidence of Life on Facebook: Appearing happy on social media may be used against you in a court of law."
Amanda does a good job of teasing out a lot of the reasons why people may cultivate illusory lives via carefully curated social media, and I just want to add this observation: Many people who have survived trauma, including the very sorts of trauma for which civil suits are brought, have to withhold from public view anything that shows vulnerability, because the person/people who harmed them lay in wait to exploit that very vulnerability.
So, in a very real way, this shit empowers the very abuses who limit their victims' freedom of expression. It's a gross revictimization.
There are so many reasons that people don't or can't put their pain on public display. And the last thing anyone needs is for that to be used against them.
Say What You Mean
[Content Note: This post talks about disablist language and includes examples of disablist slurs.]
So, now that we're careening into another election season, and the Republican candidates are proving to be typically obnoxious, indecent, and contemptible, I want to post a reminder that disablist language is a violation of the commenting policy.
Words and phrases with disablist etymologies are deeply embedded in contemporary US English—lame, dumb, crazy, insane, maniac, lunatic, idiot, moron, imbecile, cretin, freak, spaz, -tard, -nut, madness, sickness, myopic, blind and deaf used as synonymous with ignorant, etc.—and there is an obstinate tradition in political discourse of dismissing one's ideological opponents as "crazy."
I used to do it, too: The rhetorical flourish of "those people are nuts" is deeply entrenched in partisan punditry, and I had to be called out by people more sensitive than I was to the destructive nature of disablist language.
Working through one's privilege publicly can be difficult, but given the choice between showing my ass and learning from it, or being an asshole in private, I'll take showing my ass every time. I just regret that it means I've hurt or alienated people in the process.
Anyway. The point is that it was enough for me to stop using disablist slurs because they undermine the safe space. (And they're rather self-defeating and self-loathing, to boot. So there's that.) But the more distance I get from relying on disablist language—and the more I am forced to say what I really mean, that Mike Huckabee (for example) is not crazy, but privileged and bigoted and cruel—the more I realize how progressive pundits' reliance on disablist language is not merely hurtful or alienating, but counterproductive.
I said in comments once upon a time:
It really gives me the shivers to think about how much of the US' lurch rightward has been enabled by the left condescendingly dismissing rightwing extremist operatives—and the people to whom their ideas appeal—as "crazy."We need to do better than "those people are nuts." Not just because it's more ethical, but because relying on contemptuously dismissing ideological opponents as "nuts" is lazy—and I don't mean merely uncreative (although that, too) but a way of absolving ourselves of having to deconstruct, over and over, the way in which dishonest, immoral, selfish, and in other ways terrible positions held by conservatives are dishonest, immoral, selfish, and variously terrible.
The US left has used that flippant bit of ableist rhetoric to give ourselves permission to ignore all manner of indecency. And then feign shock when it turns out the "crazy" ideas presented without counter were embraced by a population of whom we were too contemptuous to even bother trying to communicate.
It occurs to me that the rightwing must love our casually dismissing them as "nuts," as unworthy of intensive examination. Yeah, sure, we're nuts, they agree, as they pass more "crazy" anti-choice legislation in seventeen state legislatures, nationally unscrutinized behind a wall of disablism.
So, in this space (and hopefully everywhere), instead of relying on disablist language: Say what you mean.
If you mean that the Republicans, or whomever, are being dishonest, say that they're being dishonest. And, if you mean that they're indecent, say that they're indecent.
If you need a less specific word, there are plenty of words that will do—contemptible, reprehensible, awful, terrible.
Not only is this a good practice so as not to alienate and other people with mental illness; it's also more politically effective in terms of developing counter-arguments and defining solutions. Because good solutions depend on defining problems accurately.
And "crazy" or "idiots" or "wingnuts" doesn't do that. Not even a little.
Let's think about what our objections really are, and then thoughtfully and carefully say what we mean.
[Previously: A Thing About Disablist Language. See Also: I Write Letters; Liss Says Stuff.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Dudley is so over it.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Terrible People
[Content Note: Racism; food insecurity.]
Rage seethe boil:
Republican Maryland state Delegate Patrick McDonough suggested this week that parents did not deserve to continue receiving food stamps if they refused to stop their children from protesting the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.As if there aren't parents who are out protesting with their kids, because they are frightened and angry that their children might meet the same fate as Freddie Gray.
In audio obtain by First Look's Lee Fang, a caller on a Baltimore radio program asks McDonough why the government could not "take away benefits from families, from like the parents who are collecting welfare" if the protesters were "too young."
"That's an idea and that could be legislation," McDonough volunteers. "I think that you could make the case that there is a failure to do proper parenting and allowing this stuff to happen, is there an opportunity for a month to take away your food stamps?"
Republicans think people aren't entitled to food under the best of circumstances, so naturally any opportunity to take away food stamps is their happiest day. You'd think people who constantly jerk off about the Constitution would be aware that protest is a Constitutional right, and that even the suggestion that people be denied food for exercising that right is obscene.
McDonough went on to propose a "scientific study" to explore the mindset of "thug nation."
"These young people, they're violent, they're brutal, their mindset is dysfunctional to a point of being dangerous," he says. "We have got to study, investigate, and really look at what this is all about."Violent, brutal, and dysfunctional to the point of being dangerous doesn't sound a lot like the protesters, but it sure as hell does sound a lot like the Baltimore Police.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism] Welp: "Investigators with the Baltimore police have finished their investigation into the death of Freddie Gray. The results - which have not been made public—were handed over to the state's attorney's office, which is conducting its own investigation. The city's top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, will decide whether to take the case to a grand jury to seek an indictment of any of the officers." So far, what we know for certain is that the police have been lying.
[CN: Torture] Swell: "The American Psychological Association secretly collaborated with the administration of President George W. Bush to bolster a legal and ethical justification for the torture of prisoners swept up in the post-Sept. 11 war on terror, according to a new report by a group of dissident health professionals and human rights activists. ...'The A.P.A. secretly coordinated with officials from the C.I.A., White House and the Department of Defense to create an A.P.A. ethics policy on national security interrogations which comported with then-classified legal guidance authorizing the C.I.A. torture program,' the report's authors conclude." Ethics schmethics.
Diverging from President Obama's view and aligning with Senator Elizabeth Warren's view, Hillary Clinton opposes a key provision of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: "Currently the United States is negotiating comprehensive agreements with eleven countries in Asia and in North and South America, and with the European Union. We should be focused on ending currency manipulation, environmental destruction, and miserable working conditions in developing countries, as well as harmonizing regulations with the EU. And we should avoid some of the provisions sought by business interests, including our own, like giving them or their investors the power to sue foreign governments to weaken their environmental and public health rules, as Philip Morris is already trying to do in Australia. The United States should be advocating a level and fair playing field, not special favors." John Oliver addressed this dynamic in a recent episode.
This is a good idea: "President Barack Obama will go to a public library in one of Washington's poorest neighborhoods on Thursday to talk about a plan to give low-income children access to 10,000 e-books. Working with publishers and libraries, the White House sees the modest plan as part of a strategy to address inner city problems by increasing educational opportunities for kids." This could be a life-changer for kids who can't safely access a public library.
Huzzah: "Public health experts are celebrating some good news this week: Rubella [also known as "German measles"], a contagious virus that can cause serious health defects in unborn children, has been eliminated from the Americas. It's the first region of the world that the World Health Organization has officially declared to be rubella-free. ...This week's milestone is thanks to the availability of the shot that effectively protects against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR)."
[CN: Transphobia] In other healthcare news, Leela Ginelle details the horrid history of cis gatekeeping around trans* healthcare, and describes the required "real life test" as "a form of hazing," which is a great description of a terrible thing.
[CN: Fat hatred] The FDA has approved a drug to get rid of double-chins without surgery, and ABC helpfully reports this news with a whole new disgusting variation on the headless fatty: Just a fat chin with the rest of the face cropped out. I came up with my own solution for my double-chin years ago: Believing that it is perfectly fine and does not need to be changed.
Indiana State Superintendent Glenda Ritz says she might run for governor and oust the shitlord who's been trying to strip her of her power ever since she was elected. If she does, I will enthusiastically support her!
[CN: Misogyny] Whoooooooooooops! "The publisher of a science journal has apologised after a peer reviewer said two female researchers could improve their research by seeking help from 'one or two male biologists.' The review sent to the University of Sussex student read: 'It would probably...be beneficial to find one or two male biologists to work with (or at least obtain internal peer review from, but better yet as active co-authors)' to prevent the manuscript from 'drifting too far away from empirical evidence into ideologically biased assumptions.'" Wow.
South LA Man Builds Homeless Female Friend a Small, Portable House. I love everything about this story, especially that he asked her before doing it.
This literally sounds like it was designed to be my perfect companion: Chinese scientists have discovered a new dinosaur species about the size of a pigeon which had bat-like wings, but couldn't fly. And, according to an artist's rendering, basically looked like a pocket-sized Skeksis.
[Video autoplays at link] And finally! A puppy gets mad at his own hiccups lol awwwwwww!
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Racism; violence.]
"We are lovers. We refuse to allow our brothers spine to break in the dark without the song of our grief being heard. There are those who do not acknowledge that our rage is a symptom of our grief, a symptom of a society that has all but left us for dead. Their narrative is ahistorical and disconnects us from our legacy of demanding justice. We stand in solidarity with the people of Baltimore and the millions of Black people across the country who are tired of poverty, racism, and state-sanctioned murder. Black people, we are fully deserving of the room and space to fully express our humanity. This is what Black Lives Matter is truly about. We support all of our emotions, from our bliss to our anger to our grief. All of it is welcome, as this is what it means to be human, to love, and to lose those that we love so much. We acknowledge that our uprisings are being fueled by the love we have for ourselves and for one another. A love that challenges silence, repression, and death."—Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi, the founders of Black Lives Matter, in "#BlackLivesMatter Stands with Baltimore."
Primarily Speaking
[Content Note: Racism; misogyny.]
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has officially announced he's running for president as a Democrat, and he came out rhetorically swinging with a promise to address "obscene levels" of class disparity: "This is a rigged economy, which works for the rich and the powerful, and is not working for ordinary Americans. ...You know, this country just does not belong to a handful of billionaires." BOOM.
I will note that I'm not thrilled Sanders brought up Hillary Clinton's Iraq war vote, for which (again) she's since apologized and said she was wrong. Very bluntly: "As the war dragged on, with every letter I sent to a family in New York who had lost a son or daughter, a father or mother, my mistake [became] more painful. I thought I had acted in good faith and made the best decision I could with the information I had. And I wasn't alone in getting it wrong. But I still got it wrong. Plain and simple."
Progressives always say that we want Democrats to get more progressive, to admit their failures, to meaningfully apologize when they fuck up, to embrace better policies when shitty policies they endorsed fail, to progress. But when Clinton does precisely that, instead of being commended for doing exactly what progressives ostensibly want Democratic politicians to do, she's just a terrible harpy who only "evolves" for political expediency.
See also: Many of the reactions to Clinton's speech about criminal justice reform. People have (rightly) pointed out that she once supported and endorsed then-President Clinton's terrible policies that contributed mightily to the era of mass incarceration. And now she's saying that shit didn't work and we need reforms.
Even though I believe her proposed reforms don't go far enough, I'm still glad that Clinton has moved in the right direction on this issue. I trust and respect politicians who hold themselves accountable for policy failures. Because, the thing is, I expect that, if elected, Clinton will make mistakes as president, as all presidents do. And I want someone who can and will admit when they're fucking wrong and pivot to try something better.
And, you know, on a personal level, as someone who has publicly learned and changed her mind dramatically about a number of issues over the decade I've been doing this, I just find it really obnoxious when people are held to positions they've changed and mistakes they've made, for which they've apologized. Progressives are meant to progress.
One of the things I've really liked about President Obama's presidency—and what I like about President Obama—is that he makes changes when necessary. Now, sometimes that's been out of political expediency (same-sex marriage), and sometimes it's been because he's learned something doesn't work (reflexive bipartisanship). I don't agree with all of his policies, but I trust and respect him for being someone who grows.
And then there's this: Holding the same views for decades is antithetical to progressivism. The world changes; views and policies need to change. Consistency isn't always a positive, when circumstances demand otherwise.
I mean, do I wish President Obama and Hillary Clinton had supported same-sex marriage much sooner? Yes. Do I think both of them prioritized politics over decency on that issue? Yes. Do I think those choices were a problem? Yes. Do I value Republican candidates' consistent opposition to same-sex marriage more than I value Obama's and Clinton's delayed support and "flip-flop" on the issue? NOPE.
Anyway. Let's deal with today's issues, shall we, candidates? Thanks.
Postscript: Let's also stop pretending that Hillary and Bill Clinton are the same fucking person or have identical brains and positions. And if we're going the "well, she endorsed those policies!" route, then let's hold Jeb Bush to the same standard and write fully one million articles about how he has to distance himself from the policies of his father's presidency which he supported, and the policies of his brother's presidency which he supported. None of this "Bush legacy" marshmallow fluff: Let's see reams of digital ink spilled over precisely which policies he supported, as long as two decades ago, and then hold him accountable for them.
What? That's never going to happen, because we don't treat men the same way we treat women, especially when they're wives? HUH!
I also wonder if Martin O'Malley will be held as responsible for his tenure as mayor of Baltimore, during which his policing policies were fucking horrendous, as Clinton has been for endorsing her husband's policies. Ha ha just kidding! I don't wonder that! I know for sure that he will not be, because nothing any male candidate actually did is ever as terrible as something Hillary Clinton endorsed once upon a time.
But none of this is uninterrogated misogyny. Nothing to see here. Move along.
In other news...
Whooooooooops your primary! "The rapid growth of the GOP presidential field is causing major headaches for party bosses ahead of a primary debate season that begins this summer. The dilemma for Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman, is stark: If the declared field grows to 18 or 20 candidates, as now looks plausible, how can those numbers be winnowed in a way that seems fair and reasonable rather than arbitrary and undemocratic? 'You've got to prevent it from becoming a WWE SmackDown event on national television,' said GOP strategist Ford O'Connell." LOL.
Senator Ted Cruz is awful: "As Baltimore residents continue to protest the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday accused President Obama of worsening racial tensions in the country. 'President Obama, when he was elected, he could have been a unifying figure,' Cruz said at a U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event, according to Politico. 'He could have chosen to be a leader on race relations and bring us together. And he hasn't done that; he's made decisions that I think have inflamed racial tensions that have divided us rather than bringing us together.'"
If one more fucking Republican accuses the President of being divisive when they've done nothing for six years but dog whistle racist shit at him, I am going to explode from rage into a shower of tiny stars.
[Video may autoplay at link] Mike Huckabee just keeps saying words that I cannot believe an adult human being says in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and fifteen: "I respect the courts, but the Supreme Court is only that—the supreme of the courts. It is not the supreme being. It cannot overrule God. When it comes to prayer, when it comes to life, and when it comes to the sanctity of marriage, the court cannot change what God has created."
Again, I will point out that for those of us who don't believe our marriages are sacred, insisting that they are changes the definition of our marriages more than same-sex marriage ever could. (Which is: Not at all.)
Welp, I'm sure Marco Rubio and Rand Paul and Rick Perry and Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson and the rest of the Clown Car Club are up to lots of fun stuff today, too, but who cares. Not me!
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
Baltimore Police: Freddie Gray Hurt Himself
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; dehumanization; self-harm.]
Yesterday, conservative bloggers were peddling an absurd conspiracy theory that Freddie Gray was injured before his arrest. Which is not true, and is manifestly obvious from the arrest video in which Gray is still able to talk and is not in a coma.
I expect nothing less from the conservative blogosphere.
But, this morning, the Washington Post has published a report based on a leaked police document which claims there was another prisoner in the van with Freddie Gray, about whom we're inexplicably hearing only now, who says he could hear Gray "banging against the walls" of the van and believes Gray "was intentionally trying to injure himself."
The prisoner, who is currently in jail, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him. His statement is contained in an application for a search warrant, which is sealed by the court. The Post was given the document under the condition that the prisoner not be named because the person who provided it feared for the inmate's safety.Emphases mine.
The document, written by a Baltimore police investigator, offers the first glimpse of what might have happened inside the van. It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner's version, which is just one piece of a much larger probe.
So, what we have here is an unsubstantiated report offered by someone who couldn't even see what was happening with an incentive to offer a statement supporting police, who has mysteriously just surfaced after two weeks.
Sure. It seems super responsible to publish this report.
I'm probably not the first person to make this observation, but even if this anonymous detainee did legitimately hear "banging," that is hardly reason to axiomatically assume the noise was evidence of Gray "intentionally trying to injure himself."
It could easily be evidence that Gray was indeed being given a "rough ride."
It could have been a desperate attempt to signal for help.
And even if Gray had been trying to harm himself, the police are obliged to protect people in their custody, even from self-harm. (That's why "suicide watch" exists.) Police are responsible for the safety of people they detain.
There is no scenario—even the most outrageous, unbelievable, impossible version of this story—in which police are not culpable.
And of course it says something about Baltimore Police's regard for the safety and humanity of people they take into custody that they believe floating this reprehensible fantasy about Gray nearly severing his own spine and crushing his own larynx will absolve them of accountability.
Even were it conceivably true. Even if this weren't a classic example of Occam's Big Paisley Tie—the most aggressively outlandish explanation for what happened to Freddie Gray.
The reason that a suggestion Gray flopped himself around the back of a police van until he put himself in a coma from his injuries doesn't sound ludicrous on its face to anyone who hears such codswallop can be credited to centuries-old racist narratives that other black people in profoundly dehumanizing ways. Magical Negroes with superhuman strength.
Narratives which are constantly invoked in cases of police brutality against black men and women. Like Victor White III, who somehow shot himself while his hands were cuffed behind his back. Like Michael Brown, who Darren Wilson described as looking like "a demon" after he shot him the first time, and, then, as he fired subsequent shots: "At this point it looked like he was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I'm shooting at him."
Baltimore Police have already admitted that Freddie Gray was not seatbelted in the van, which is a breach of protocol and indication of their disregard for his safety.
They've also admitted that Gray was only handcuffed when the van took off, but that they stopped the van so they could put him in leg shackles. But, again, failed to seatbelt him.
So, by their own account, police restrained all of Gray's limbs without a safety belt, and even checked on him once during the ride (in order to further restrain him), but now claim the most likely explanation for Gray's fatal injuries were that he did it to himself.
There is no way to believe that incredible tale. Unless you want to believe it.
