"I love that she's not the girlfriend or the wife. She doesn't really care what everyone thinks; she feels no responsibility for other people's feelings. She's not trying to be charming, which isn't always the case with a leading lady. There's [usually] sort of a responsibility to be a little bit likeable… Not that you want to be a horrendous character, just a little more human."—Rachel McAdams, on her character Detective Ani Bezzerides in Season Two of True Detective, which premieres June 21.
I feel like there's so much embedded there, about (the patriarchal ideal of) womanhood, about the roles women are expected to play in real life and in cinema.
Just juxtaposing these two ideas alone: She doesn't really care what everyone thinks...just a little more human.
I could write volumes, volumes, on how the cultural requirement of women to "care what everyone thinks" diminishes our humanity in a thousand ways every day.
And about how very interesting a journey it is for a woman to stop caring what everyone thinks and find her humanity, only to discover that now she isn't "likable" anymore.
It's pretty terrific how the Patriarchy sets rules for women that effectively mean we can like ourselves, or be liked by "everyone else," but not both.
And then its cheerleaders wonder why we want to smash it into oblivion.
Quote of the Day
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Earthquake; death; injury] A second devastating earthquake has hit Nepal: "A 7.3 magnitude earthquake killed at least 37 people and spread panic in Nepal on Tuesday, bringing down buildings already weakened by a devastating tremor less than three weeks ago and unleashing landslides in Himalayan valleys near Mount Everest. Most of the reported fatalities were in villages to the east of Kathmandu, only just beginning to pick up the pieces after the April 25 quake that left more than 8,000 people dead. The new earthquake was centered 76 km (47 miles) east of the capital in a hilly area close to the border with Tibet, according to coordinates provided by the U.S. Geological Survey. Aid workers reported serious damage to some villages seen from the air and witnesses reported seeing rocks and mud crashing down remote hillsides lined with roads and small hamlets." I don't even know what to say. There aren't sufficient words, not that I can find. As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to leave suggestions for how to help in comments.
[CN: Extreme weather] In related news: "The El Nino effect, which can drive droughts and flooding, is under way in the tropical Pacific, say scientists. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology predicted that it could become a 'substantial' event later in the year." Fuck.
[CN: Police brutality; racism] The Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Sheriff's Department, which took over the investigation of 12-year-old Tamir Rice's death from the Cleveland Police Department earlier this year, says their investigation is almost complete. Terrific. But will this six-month investigation result in anything that even resembles accountability?
[CN: Hunger and thirst] Oh dear: "A group of 350 migrants from Myanmar have told an activist by phone that they have been abandoned by their crew and need help. The migrants, including 50 women and 84 children, say they have had no food or water for three days. The passengers were calling for help and crying down the phone, said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project which works with the Rohingya ethnic minority. ...The migrants' location is unclear but they think they may be close to the Malaysian island of Langkawi. They can see land and they said they have seen several ships in the area and have signalled for help but none has approached. Earlier on Tuesday, Indonesia said it had turned away a boat the previous day carrying hundreds of migrants believed to be from Myanmar and Bangladesh. Indonesia's navy said it provided the vessel with food and water on Monday before sending it back out to sea. It said that it did so because the migrants wanted to reach Malaysia, but an international migration agency said the decision was 'shocking.' As many as 8,000 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar are believed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to be stranded at sea."
There are a whole lot of reasons that I don't want the US to the be the "world police," but goddamn if I don't wish we used our global reach to answer explicit calls for help like this, rather than imposing our will with weaponry around the fucking world.
[CN: War on agency; sexual assault] "Undeterred by recent controversy over legislative efforts to restrict abortion access for rape victims, Republicans in Congress are preparing to wade back into the fray this week." Of course they are. "House leaders are readying another vote on a national 20-week abortion ban—this time, with slightly different language related to sexual assault that party leaders say will allow the legislation to more easily advance." Fuck. Off.
Pew finds that fewer USians are identifying as Christians these days. Huh. Hard to believe, what with so many prominent conservative evangelicals giving Christianity THE BEST reputation.
[CN: Sexual assault] This fucking guy: "Sweden's highest court has thrown out Julian Assange's appeal against his arrest warrant, dashing his immediate hopes of an end to his three-year confinement in Ecuador's embassy in London. His lawyers were, however, encouraged by a 4-1 decision by the judges, which a senior legal figure said indicated the court could still change its mind." I don't believe his victims will ever get justice. I desperately hope I am wrong.
Neat: "11 Super-Cool Science Photos from the Past Decade." If you don't like mice or insects, maybe skip this one.
Whoa: "A painting by Pablo Picasso has set a new world record for the most expensive artwork to be sold at auction after reaching $179m (£115m) in New York. ...Overall, 34 of 35 lots sold at Monday's auction for a total of $706 million." Good job, 1percenters! You're doing great!
And finally! "From Scared Stiff to Slobbery Kisses, Terrified Pit Bull Transforms after Rescue from Trash Heap." All the blubs foreverrrrrr!
Every Breath You Take
[Content Note: Hostility to consent and privacy; surveillance; stalking.]
Once upon a time, the internet and mobile phones came to the (white collar) workplace, and everyone was excitedly talking about how it was going to revolutionize (white collar) work. We'd be so much more efficient! We'd be able to work from home! Our work-life balance was going to be extraordinary!
Hahahahahaha whooooooooooooooooooops!
Instead, now (white collar and other) workers never leave work at all. Not really. Slowly, there evolved an expectation that workers would answer their mobile phones and respond to email and digitally submit their TPS Reports (with new cover sheets) (did you even see the memo?) (I'll go ahead and make sure you get another copy of that memo) at all hours of the day and night. Always connected! Always plugged in! Always in competition with the RedBull-swilling 20-something douchebag with no kids, no pets, no elderly parent to care for, whose whole life is his work BOOYAH!, answering emails at 11:30pm on a work night.
No downtime. No real vacations. No work-life balance. No boundaries.
No privacy:
A Central California woman claims she was fired after uninstalling an app that her employer required her to run constantly on her company issued iPhone—an app that tracked her every move 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Stubits used "the program to continuously monitor her, during company as well as personal time." Which, under any other circumstances, would rightly be identified as stalking.
Plaintiff Myrna Arias, a former Bakersfield sales executive for money transfer service Intermex, claims in a state court lawsuit that her boss, John Stubits, fired her shortly after she uninstalled the job-management Xora app that she and her colleagues were required to use. According to her suit (PDF) in Kern County Superior Court:
After researching the app and speaking with a trainer from Xora, Plaintiff and her co-workers asked whether Intermex would be monitoring their movements while off duty. Stubits admitted that employees would be monitored while off duty and bragged that he knew how fast she was driving at specific moments ever since she installed the app on her phone. Plaintiff expressed that she had no problem with the app's GPS function during work hours, but she objected to the monitoring of her location during non-work hours and complained to Stubits that this was an invasion of her privacy. She likened the app to a prisoner's ankle bracelet and informed Stubits that his actions were illegal. Stubits replied that she should tolerate the illegal intrusion….
But, increasingly, all manner of personal tracking by employers—including employee "wellness" programs—are considered acceptable, as long as the tracking is done under the auspices of "efficiency," or "health," or "productivity," or "compliance," or any other red herring offered to mask that it's about nothing more than profitability and control.
Each boss for whom I've ever worked, some of whom were generally terrific and some of whom were appalling, had some level of totally unjustified paranoia that their employees were scamming them.
It didn't matter if everyone was getting their work done; it didn't matter that people came in early and skipped lunches and stayed late; it didn't matter that, like at many companies, people were salaried who shouldn't have been and thus were losing out on deserved overtime pay; it didn't matter if the boss was someone who would call you at home at night and expect you to pick up the phone and chit-chat about an idea zie'd just had.
If they saw one person fucking around on the internet for five minutes, obviously that person was a lazy scammer, probably indicative of an office full of lazy scammers, and it was time to lock shit down and scare some work ethic into these people!
It never mattered how much of their lives outside 8-6 (lol 9-5) people were giving (or having taken from them). That never counted. Work endlessly encroached on employees' lives, but employees' lives were never, ever, meant to encroach on work. The lines were blurred in one direction only.
Now, I know there are some bosses who are fucking terrific about work-life balance, even in corporate environments, but that is, unfortunately, not the norm. The norm is treating employees like their salary buys access to their entire lives.
The norm is pretending like having no official policy that you have to answer your mobile phone 24/7 means that, if you do, it's your choice. It's not a meaningful choice when you know that wanting some privacy will mean you lose out on raises, bonuses, promotions—because you haven't demonstrated sufficient commitment to the company; you haven't demonstrated sufficient willingness to be owned.
The norm is walking into an office that treats your life like their property, and seeing some bullshit motivational poster hung on the wall. "Work to live; don't live to work!" Without a trace of fucking irony.
Primarily Speaking
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
BIG NEWS, Y'ALL! Hillary Clinton hasn't answered a question from the press in 21 days. TWENTY-ONE DAYS! That's THREE WEEKS! A FORTNIGHT AND A HALF! Does she even realize that this election is only EIGHTEEN MONTHS AWAY?! Oh my god. How are we even supposed to understand her policy positions when all she's doing is giving speeches about her policy positions which are accessible online in their entirety and not even filtered through the mainstream media to be edited down into tiny, contextless soundbytes that have a 65% chance of fundamentally misrepresenting her position?! Everything they say about her is true: She is a monster!
I mean, just listen to her campaign's defense of this NO QUESTIONS strategy! "The focus of our ramp-up period is to hear from voters about the issues they care about. She's enjoyed engaging in hours of public question and answers sessions and, as the campaign progresses, looks forward to more engagement with voters and the press as well." HOLY SHIT, THIS HARRIDAN THINKS THAT QUESTIONS DIRECT FROM VOTERS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS QUESTIONS FROM REPORTERS! Hahahahaha Hillary Clinton, those questions don't count! WHAT A JERK!
Ahem.
Yeah, it's a real fucking mystery to me why Clinton might be disinclined to make herself available to a press corps who will literally turn her not answering their questions into a negative story about her, and who are such elitist fucking assholes that they will dismiss her direct interactions with voters in order to create that negative story. "Oh you're not going to make yourself accessible to us? Fine, bitch: We'll write stories about how you're not accessible at all, never mind that you're making yourself accessible to average people. WHY WON'T YOU TALK TO USSSSSSSSSSS?!"
The
In other news: Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has pledged not to accept SuperPAC support. Cool. He also promised, if elected, to appoint Supreme Court justices who will roll back Citizens United. (Excellent in theory.)
Not so cool: He again went after Hillary Clinton's Iraq War vote as the primary point of difference between them. Come on, Bernie. Move on. Especially because Clinton's foreign policy hawkishness is one area of major disagreement lots of progressives have with her, and we want to hear what your current differences are. How is your current foreign policy frame more progressive than Clinton's?
Speaking of Iraq: Even conservatives are unimpressed with Jeb Bush and his "Iraq was the awesomest!" shtick. So now he's claiming he misheard the question. Hoo boy. If you have to do this much laughable backpedaling after a foreign policy softball from Fox News, you are not ready for primetime, pal.
Meanwhile, Senator Marco Rubio is stealing his foreign policy rhetoric from the movie Taken (no seriously): "Sen. Marco Rubio, whose muscular foreign policy doesn't hesitate to exert U.S. influence or military might around the world, revved up an audience in South Carolina recently by referring to a line from the movie thriller Taken. That's the one where actor Liam Neeson vows to track down the people who had kidnapped his daughter. The same approach should be applied to global terrorists, said the Florida senator and presidential candidate. 'We will look for you,' Rubio went on, 'we will find you, and we will kill you.' A simple applause line from a Hollywood blockbuster says a lot about Rubio's foreign policy, which has been central to his rise in Washington." Yes, it says that he's a dangerously aggressive dipshit.
Senator Ted Cruz is still bad at math. (By which I mean: He's a liar.) But his conservative audiences eat up his anti-IRS crapola, so he continues to serve it up.
[CN: Dehumanization; anti-immigrationism] Speaking of the conservative base, they seem nice: "During a focus group led by GOP pollster Frank Luntz at the South Carolina Freedom Summit, the mother-in-law of Citizens United president David Bossie compared immigrants to rats and roaches, to the delight of the audience. Bossie is the organizer of the summit, one in a series of cattle calls for GOP presidential hopefuls. Asked by Luntz to give advice to the these candidates, she said: 'One man, one vote. People are comin' in this country across the borders like rats and roaches in the wood pile. We've got a state like Minnesota that says it's not our business to check 'em out, we just register 'em. We've got to get control. That's what they need to know.' Her comments drew laughter, whistling, and applause. Afterwards, Luntz asked the audience if they would vote for Bossie's mother-in-law for president, which drew louder cheers and applause."
Something something Carly Fiorina something something HP CEO something something failure.
Professor of Bible Bigotry Mike Huckabee and Dr. Ben Carson are still definitely human persons running for the US presidency.
And finally! Here is just a terrific video of a Rand Paul campaign staffer licking the camera lens of a Democratic tracker filming an event:
Duing a campaign event, as someone introduces Senator Rand Paul, a middle-aged white man steps in front of a camera, blocking the shot with an extreme close-up of his face. He hovers there for a few seconds, then licks the lens and smiles creepily.Um, okay. Cool team, you've got there, Senator.
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
Tech Nooz
Verizon to Buy AOL in $4.4 Billion Deal. That sounds amazing! I mean, not only because I am a HUGE FAN of corporate monopolies and how they really improve the lives of everyone employed by them and everyone who uses their services, but also because it just sounds like a terrific investment.
I wish I have FIVE BILLION dollars so I could revive Geocities. I would ring the bell on Wall Street, then make everyone dance in celebration to a midi of "Greensleeves."
Question of the Day
What's the best birthday present you've ever gotten?
(If you don't celebrate birthdays, or if you've never gotten a terrific birthday present, substituting the best present you've gotten for some other occasion is okay, too!)
Garbage Treasures: Birthday Edition
As you may recall, Deeky collects and saves useless garbage like we're beyond Thunderdome and useless garbage is now a form of currency and he's a garbageaire. Then, instead of throwing it away, he throws pieces of his fancy detritus collection into an envelope and pays money to ship it to me, at which point I put them in plastic treasure chests and put them out by the curb every week to be collected by the "treasure man," who buries them at the "treasure dump" for me for safe keeping.
But not before taking a picture of the bounty so that I can post it, natch.
Because this was a Super Duper Special Deluxe Birthday Garbage Treasures package, however, it was not 100% Garbage Treasures! But you didn't think Deeky would send me a birthday present without including trash in it, did you?! I HOPE NOT!
Before Unwrapping: Two presents wrapped in Hello Kitty wrapping paper, a present wrapped in green bubblewrap, a birthday card addressed to me, and a stack of junk.
The Gifts: One Blur CD, one set of anal beads from the officially licensed '50 Shades of Grey' collection, two religious candles featuring Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, and one birthday card reading: "Liss: From one hobag to another, have a filthy fucking birthday! #BUTTSTUFF Love, [Deeky]."
Blur, anal beads, and Saints Mercury and Bowie. TO BE KNOWN IS TO BE LOVED.
And, of course, there was the usual collection of garbage treasures! Clockwise from top left: An "EAT BERTHA'S MUSSELS" bumper sticker; a menu from the Charcoal Deli; a "Saucers Invade China" collectable card; a CD labeled "URANUS" in Deeks' handwriting; an advert for Starlooks' first ever cosmetics line for men; a flyer for Germano's Cabaret; and a flyer for the Cabaret Macabre.
Thank you, Deeky. Between these amazing gifts and my heartfelt cake, you really are the bestest of friends!
(Seriously, though: I am listening to the Blur CD right now, and those candles are fucking amazeballs. There's a better picture of them here. ♥)
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by the scent of jasmine.
Recommended reading:
Digby: Your Little Piece of Good News for the Day
Sharmila: [Content Note: Misogyny; racism; war on agency] If America Really Cared About Mothers, Reproductive Health Care Would Be Available to All
Teddy: [CN: War on agency] Indiana Governor Signs TRAP Bill
Tami: [CN: Misogynoir; police brutality] Making Black Women's Lives Matter
Lisa: [CN: Worker rights] Elon Musk Once Scolded a Tesla Employee for Missing a Work Event to Witness the Birth of his Child
Tyson: [CN: Racism] As a Native Actor, I Applaud Those Who Walked off the Set of Adam Sandler's Racist Movie
Carolyn: Orange Is the New Black Returns on June 12th
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
This F#@king Guy
[Content Note: Guns; minor injuries.]
George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, and has been involved in both road rage and domestic violence assaults since the fatal shooting, has been in yet another altercation described by police as a road rage incident as part of an ongoing dispute. The other person reportedly shot at Zimmerman through the passenger window of his vehicle after Zimmerman brandished a gun, and some of the glass caused minor injuries to Zimmerman.
Because this happened in Florida, presumably the person who shot at Zimmerman in self-defense was legally allowed to do so.
Zimmerman can't stay the fuck out of trouble. But it was Trayvon Martin who was incessantly described as a "thug."
For fuck's sake.
Daily Dose of Cute
Goofy flop-ear? Check. Grody beef tongue? Check. All greyhound systems go!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Primarily Speaking
Oh damn! Former Texas Governor and founding member of the Losing to Mitt Romney Before He Lost to Barack Obama Club Rick Perry said something ominously accurate while peddling his political wares in South Carolina: "Something I want you all to think about is that the next president of the United States, whoever that individual may be, could choose up to three, maybe even four members of the Supreme Court. Now this isn't about who's going to be the president of the United States for just the next four years. This could be about individuals who have an impact on you, your children, and even our grandchildren. That's the weight of what this election is really about." Soooo don't vote for Rick Perry!
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who, if he decides to run will probably win the nomination despite wreaking havoc in Wisconsin simply because he looks resoundingly reasonable compared to the rest of the bozos in the clown car, has repeatedly tried to pass a law requiring doctors to lie to pregnant people "if the doctor feared [they] might get an abortion." What a terrific dude!
[Content Note: Fat hatred] Well, this is a fun new way of reminding everyone that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is fat: "During the past five years as New Jersey's governor, Chris Christie (R) used his expense account to spend about $300,000 on food and alcohol, according to an analysis by New Jersey Watchdog. The governor spent a total of $360,000 using his expense account—about 80 percent of which went toward food." Is that a lot? Compared to previous New Jersey governors? Compared to governors of other states? Is that a reasonable amount for a public figure who entertains lots of visitors? Who knows?! There's no context! But it's a big number and it's for FOOD and he is FAT, so HAHAHAHAHAHA let's all laugh at how Chris Christie definitely ate $300,000 worth of food himself because that's definitely what happened!
For the gazillionth time, I will note that there is so much to criticize about Chris Christie; anyone who is explicitly or implicitly making commentary on his weight is lazy and mean and an utterly ineffective political critic the end.
Dr. Ben Carson can't answer simple questions about his garbage tax plan. Whoooooooops that's because it's garbage!
Speaking of not being able to give good answers to questions: Professor of Bible Bigotry Mike Huckabee says you might as well not even bother asking him about stuff he's done that now looks pretty bad, like promoting a dietary supplement whose makers claim cures diabetes: "I don't have to defend everything that I've ever done." Haha solid answer!
Senator Rand Paul is still definitely a human person running for the US presidency.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush continues to say really terrific and smart things about US foreign policy, like how he totes would have supported the Iraq War. Let's put this very intelligent and very decent man in the White House STAT!
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has penned an op-ed for USA Today about how we need vast surveillance programs blah blah 9/11 blah blah terrorism blah blah fart.
The parodies of the Republican Clown Car have begun, with SNL's cold open this weekend poking fun at the nightmare that is the Southern Republican Leadership Convention. If you're not familiar with the SRLC, it's basically a parade of clowns pretending to be cool and also convincing conservatives that they are the MOST TERRIBLE.
Headline of the Day: "Clinton Campaign's Dilemma: What to Do with Bill?" Send him to summer camp!
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Terrorism; death] In the London Review of Books, Seymour Hersh charges that many details of the United States government's official account of the killing of Osama bin Laden are not true: "The major US source for the account that follows is a retired senior intelligence official who was knowledgeable about the initial intelligence about bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad. He also was privy to many aspects of the Seals' training for the raid, and to the various after-action reports. Two other US sources, who had access to corroborating information, have been longtime consultants to the Special Operations Command. I also received information from inside Pakistan about widespread dismay among the senior ISI and military leadership—echoed later by Durrani—over Obama's decision to go public immediately with news of bin Laden's death. The White House did not respond to requests for comment." The entire thing, unfortunately, sounds pretty par for the course for US foreign policy public relations.
[CN: Worker exploitation; class warfare] Still all the nope on the planet for this: "To Barack Obama, the Trans-Pacific pact will increase trade, strengthen protections for Asian workers and aid international relations. But opponents of the most important trade deal in a generation—including unions, but also left-leaning Democrats such as Elizabeth Warren—are worried about the impact it will have on US jobs. ...Irked by Warren's criticisms of the deal Obama chided his long-time ally for being a 'politician' who was making 'arguments' that 'don't stand the test of fact and scrutiny.'"
[CN: Extreme weather; death] Storms continue to barrage parts of the US plains: "At least two people were killed in Arkansas and another 10 unaccounted for in Texas after a series of tornadoes hit the Great Plains states overnight, flattening buildings and injuring dozens, local officials said on Monday." How's everyone in those parts of the country doing?
[CN: Misogyny] Tara Culp-Ressler on the issue of misogyny in seeking medical care: "When Gender Stereotypes Become a Serious Hazard to Women's Health." And, of course, women who are fat or trans*, women of color and women with disabilities, all face exponential barriers to getting healthcare providers to listen to us, to take us seriously, to treat our actual systems.
"The Clock Is Ticking and Republicans Still Have No Serious Obamacare Alternative." I'm shocked—SHOCKED, I tell you!
Are you a major Mulderhead or a super Scullybutt? Then you will probably be very excited to hear that The X-Files revival will officially debut on January 24, 2016!
American Idol has announced that next season, its 15th, will be its last. Sad trombone! "That trombone wasn't sitting in the pocket!"—Harry Connick, Jr.
This is what the sunset looks like on Mars. Cool!
And finally: Dave Meinert rescued a puppy, who he named Pegasus, from a backyard breeder who has lots of health problems, but: "Rather than focus on the negative, I wanted a way to document her good days of good health and celebrate them. I set about taking a picture of her growing up every day not knowing how long it would last. The result is a pretty amazing time-lapse that spanned half a year as she grew from a week 4 week old puppy to a 7 month old teenager." Aww. ♥
Blog Note
I've got a doctor's appointment this morning, so I'll be out for a bit. I'll be back and resume regular programming as soon as I can!
Good Morning! Or Whatever!
Let's all watch and/or read the transcript for this video of a baby sloth eating green beans, because it is very adorable!
Video Description: A small baby sloth hangs out on a towel and is fed green beans by the hands of a female caretaker. Green bean. Nom nom nom. Green bean. Nom nom nom. Green bean. Nom nom nom. And then a carrot! Which falls just out of the baby's reach, and also the baby is very lazy because sloths, so the caretaker picks up the piece of carrot and feeds it to the baby. Nom nom nom.
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!
