Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; death] Another black person is dead after being pulled over for what should have been a routine traffic stop: 43-year-old Samuel Dubose was shot in the head by University of Cincinnati Campus Police Officer Ray Tensing following an altercation during a traffic stop for a missing front license plate. Dubose's family awaits answers as the investigation is ongoing. Protesters are demanding accountability.
[CN: Transphobic violence; death] In the past week, two more trans women have been killed in the US: In Florida, 25-year-old India Clarke, a black trans woman, was found beaten to death outside Tampa's University Area Community Center. In California, 66-year-old K.C. Haggard was fatally slashed in the throat outside a Fresno bar she liked. Eleven trans women have been murdered in the US so far this year. My condolences to Clarke's and Haggard's families, friends, and colleagues, and to all those in their communities who are feeling alienated, angry, and unsafe. I fervently hope their deaths will be vigorously investigated and their killers found.
[CN: Guns] In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC (a full transcript of which is available here), President Obama says that "his failure to pass 'common sense gun safety laws' in the US is the greatest frustration of his presidency." I'll bet.
[CN: Police brutality; racism; death] Lots of people have lots of questions about the information available about Sandra Bland's arrest, detainment, and death. Ryan Broderick has compiled a bunch of those questions at BuzzFeed.
I'm sure this will work out great for everyone: "The health insurer Anthem said on Friday that it had agreed to acquire its rival Cigna for $48.3 billion in a deal that would further concentrate the United States market to just a few major players. ...Earlier this month Aetna agreed to acquire Humana, the smallest of the big five insurers, for $37 billion in cash and stock. If both transactions are completed, the number of major health insurers in the United States will shrink to three."
[CN: Fat hatred; dehumanizing image at link] I have all the thoughts about this story about a very fat man who is riding a bike across the US in order to lose weight and win back his wife. I hate that lots of people will only care about this guy because he's doing something intense and weird to lose weight, and I hate that he and all the people who will follow his journey are putting pressure on his wife to take him back because of this grand romantic gesture. Fuck this whole thing.
[CN: Racism; religious intolerance] "For generations, members of the Apache Native American tribe have viewed Oak Flat as a holy, sacred place. Located about an hour due east of Phoenix, Arizona, the land has long served as a site for traditional acorn gatherings, burial services, and rite of passage ceremonies for young women. The flat is tucked inside Arizona's Tonto National Forest, and has historically been protected by the federal government. 'It's our sacred land—it's where we come to pray,' Carrie Sage Curley, an Apache woman, told ThinkProgress. But last year, the land quietly became something else: A proposed site for a massive copper mining project spearheaded by Resolution Copper, an organization run by two multinational corporations based in the United Kingdom and Australia. ...'It's the same thing as a church,' Curley said. 'We protect these temples, why can't we do the same for our sacred land?'" Good question.
[CN: Class warfare] Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has scheduled a vote to repeal ObamaCare, because of course he has.
Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift have squashed their beef, and I really love both of them and how they handled this situation (I mean, I don't love how Taylor Swift fucked up, but I love how she comported herself afterwards). TEAM BOTH LADIES.
Images of Pluto "taken by the New Horizons spacecraft have been combined with color data to paint a new and surprising portrait of the dwarf planet," and the result is breathtakingly spectacular!
I love everything about this post by Kaiser about Alejandro Iñárritu's new film The Revenant, especially these final lines: "Why would it have been such a big deal to enhance the natural light? Because that wouldn't have been authentic to the time period? Guess what? Neither is your movie camera." LOL FOREVERRRRRRR.
And finally! This is an absolutely amazing story about a baby seal who lost her way, was discovered by a herd of cows, whose curiosity alerted a bird watcher, who collected the seal and got her to safety with a rescue organization. What a series of events!
I'm not a major internet quiz-head like some of my friends, but occasionally I'll stumble across a quiz I really love, and this is one of those: "Which 80's Movie Girl Are You?"
OF COURSE I WAS WATTS FROM SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL. WHO THE FUCK ELSE WOULD I BE?
[Content Note: Racism.]
As you may recall, I'm not exactly a huge fan of Jon Stewart. And one of the primary reasons that I increasingly lost ardor for him and The Daily Show over the years is because, in my experience, people who are hostile to the very idea of identity politics tend to be pretty hostile to the people with those identities when they advocate for inclusion themselves. (Leave it to the white dude comedians, okay, people? Geez.) Case in point:
[Wyatt Cenac, a black man], who was a writer and correspondent on The Daily Show for over four years, spoke with Marc Maron on his "WTF" podcast about what it was like working with Stewart. Maron asked, "And you got along with Jon?" "Naw," replied Cenac. While Cenac initially wanted to see Stewart as a father figure, he didn't get that. What he remembers instead is a moment when Stewart screamed at him in front of the entire staff. "There had, in my experience, never been an explosion like that," he said.I'm so sorry that happened to Wyatt Cenac, and, because there are so many people who are straight-up calling him a liar, I also want to say that I believe him.
This happened back in the summer of 2011, when Stewart was roundly pillorying the 2012 presidential hopefuls, including one Herman Cain. He made fun of Cain by doing a "voice." At the time Cenac was on a field assignment, and watched the bit from home. "I don't think this is from a malicious place, but I think this is from a naïve, ignorant place," he remembered thinking. "Oh no, you just did this and you didn't think about it. It was just the voice that came into your head. And so it bugged me."
...Cenac, who was the only black writer there at the time, voiced his concerns during the writer's meeting. "I've got to be honest, and I just spoke from my place," said Cenac. "I wasn't here when it all happened. I was in a hotel. And I cringed a little bit. It bothered me." He wanted them to drop the bit and said that it reminded him of Kingfish, a character Tim Moore played on Amos 'n' Andy. He remembers:
[Stewart] got incredibly defensive. I remember he was like, What are you trying to say? There's a tone in your voice. I was like, "There's no tone. It bothered me. It sounded like Kingfish." And then he got upset. And he stood up and he was just like, "Fuck off. I'm done with you." And he just started screaming that to me. And he screamed it a few times. "Fuck off! I'm done with you." And he stormed out. And I didn't know if I had been fired.The fight carried on at Stewart's office and was only stopped when one of the office dogs began pawing at them. (Aww.) Eventually, the show had to go on, and Cenac remembers going outside to a baseball field and having a breakdown. "I was shaking, and I just sat there by myself on the bleachers and fucking cried. And it's a sad thing. That's how I feel. That's how I feel in this job. I feel alone," he said.
[Content Note: Gun violence; death; self-harm.]
Last night, in Lafayette, Louisiana, a 59-year-old white man named John Houser walked into a movie theater and began shooting. He killed two people, injured nine others, and then killed himself.
The two women he killed have been identified as Mayci Breaux, 21, and Jillian Johnson, 33. My sincere condolences to their family, friends, and colleagues. I am so sad and so angry that Houser took Mayci and Jillian from them in this way.
Authorities say his motive is unknown.
He is being described as a "drifter," and already the "mentally ill" narratives are starting. Just another crazy lone gunman acting in a vacuum.
But Houser didn't walk into just any movie. He walked into a showing of Trainwreck, the audiences for which are two-thirds female. The two people who died are women. At least one of the injured, who'd been shot in the leg, was a woman. This story about a friend saving her coworker is about two women.
Still, maybe that's all just a big coincidence. Isn't it always.
The shooting also took place on the same day that a jury in the trial of James Holmes, who went on a shooting spree in a movie theater in Colorado three years ago, "unanimously decided the death penalty can be considered for Holmes and will move on to the next phase of sentencing."
Suggested by Shaker Diverkat: "What's your favourite self-care activity or routine?"
Here's a nifty little video care of the NASA Ames Research Center on Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone around a G2-type star much like our sun, newly confirmed after being discovered by NASA's Kepler mission:
The thing I love most about covering presidential elections is how, every single time, there's a whole new crop of shitlords screaming at me that I don't understand how politics works.
And, inevitably, the "You don't understand how politics works, dummy!" refrain is launched in response to my criticizing Politics As Usual.
Especially when I push back on the idea that Democratic candidates don't have to earn marginalized people's votes, but are entitled to them. (Because where the hell else are we gonna go?)
Cool argument! Super progressive!
Please continue to misconstrue as my ignorance about how politics works what is in actual fact simply my unwillingness to share your profoundly unprogressive belief that how politics works is immutable and cannot be made better. Alienating marginalized people who advocate to be heard by shouting at us that we are stupid has always worked out great for progressive organizing! KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK. You are definitely showing you totally understand how politics works.
Unlike me.
[Content Note: Reproductive policing.]
When I was in my 20s—and even earlier, as I started saying I didn't want children in my teens—I was told by people who had chosen to parent that I would change my mind.
Now that I am in my 40s, and it's becoming pretty damn clear that I am not going to change my mind, instead of those same people apologizing for having asserted for two decades that they know my mind better than I do, they are now warning me that I will regret not having changed my mind. That my old age will be filled with regret for not having children.
Okay, players. See you in 20 years.
When I will certainly be just as devoid of regret as I am devoid of a desire to parent now.
[Related Reading: Childfree 101: Cultural Reproductive Coercion.]
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Reproductive rights] YES: "As President Obama makes official visits to Kenya and Ethiopia this week, a broad-based coalition of leading domestic and global organizations are calling on him to put an end to the incorrect implementation of the Helms Amendment in order to save women's lives and protect their health. In an open letter, the coalition asks President Obama to meet with the U.S. government's partners implementing health and gender-based violence programs in Kenya and Ethiopia, local community organizations, and the women they serve, in order to see why it's imperative that the Obama Administration address its flawed implementation of the Helms Amendment [which prohibits the use of U.S. foreign assistance funds 'to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning']."
[CN: Racism] A terrific piece by Janessa Robinson for Salon: "Dear white progressives: Stop telling black people how to vote." She writes: "The reality is that no part of this political system truly benefits black liberation when our institutions are built on anti-blackness. The entire political system perpetuates systems of oppression and therefore each candidate and party cannot escape complicity in reinforcing the oppression of blacks. We are a people who were kidnapped, then stripped of our culture and humanity, and are now forced to make choices in circumstances we did not choose for ourselves. Having the 'lesser of two evils' argument about the political party system shoved down my throat by white moderates is infuriating and irrelevant, because quite frankly, I don't like evil—and neither candidate will free my people."
[CN: Racism] Relatedly, Imani Gandy writes "You're White and Marched With Dr. King: So What?" in which she correctly observes: "All it tells me is that Bernie Sanders was an adult sentient white liberal in the 1960s who had the time, money, and wherewithal to do the right thing—to join one of the many civil rights marches during that time period, along with scores of other adult sentient white liberals, and Black people who were literally fighting for their own lives." That's what Sanders should have been doing. It doesn't earn him cookies, and it sure as hell isn't a defense against failures on race now.
[CN: Abduction; sexual assault] Speaking of doing the right thing: Northern Virginia construction worker Kevin Huntington was doing roadwork along I-95 when he noticed a car careening toward the work zone and then saw an 18-year-old woman "jump out of the car; she came running up to us and you could tell she was pretty distraught and terrified. ...I asked the [woman] if she was okay and she said no, there was a man trying to kill her; I told her just stay behind me and I wouldn't let anything happen to her." And that's what he did: He called 911 and stood in between the teenager and the male driver of the car, who turned out to have kidnapped, strangled, and sexually assaulted her. Huntington almost certainly saved her life, because he believed her.
[CN: Class warfare] This sort of sounds like good news, but... "After more than a year of organized action, fast food workers in New York are about to get what they have been demanding: a $15 minimum wage. The Fast Food Wage Board appointed by New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday that they are recommending a new $15 an hour minimum wage for fast food workers employed by chains with 30 or more stores nationwide. Those working in New York City will see their wages increase to $15 an hour by December 2018, whereas those working in the rest of the state will see their wages increase at a slower pace and will reach $15 by July 2021." So, it will be more than three years before they see a $15 minimum wage. Terrific.
[CN: Homophobia] Rachel Maddow had Rick Santorum on her show last night, and he was obviously terrific: "Maddow [asked] Santorum about his infamous 'man on dog' remarks on homosexuality back in 2003 and managed to get a surprising admission from the career homophobe. 'It was a flippant comment that should not have come out of my mouth but the substance of what I said, which is what I've referred to, I stand by that. I wish I had not said it in the flippant term that I did and I know people were offended and wish I hadn't said it.' In other words, Santorum totally still thinks your gay marriage will lead to people f–king their pets. But he's sorry he was flippant about the whole thing." This fucking guy.
MORE PLUTO NEWS! (I am sorry if you are getting tired of Pluto news, but I will literally never be tired of Pluto news, lol.) "The latest images from the New Horizons spacecraft have revealed another range of ice mountains on Pluto. The frozen peaks were found on the lower-left edge of the dwarf world's 'heart' and are 1-1.5km-high. They sit between a patch of icy, flat terrain, called Sputnik Planum, which scientists believe is less than 100 million years old, and a dark area dating to billions of years ago. ...The newly spotted mountains are about 110km away from another range, which is now known as Norgay Montes, which appeared in some of the first images returned from last week's fly-by. Those peaks are much more lofty: standing at about 3.3km-high, they rival the Rocky Mountains in size."
[CN: Misogyny; male privilege] Welp: "Twitter threw a summer soiree to rival all soirees Tuesday. The microblogging site hosted a college-frat-party themed happy hour for its San Francisco employees complete with beer pong, a keg, those iconic red Solo cups synonymous with underage drinking, and a proud banner that read 'TWΦTTΣR ΓRΛT HΘVSΣ.' ...Twitter has since apologized for the party as spokesman Jim Prosser told Fusion, 'This social event organized by one team was in poor taste at best, and not reflective of the culture we are building here at Twitter. We've had discussions internally with the organizing team, and they recognize that this theme was ill-chosen.'" Fuck you.
Did you know that Queen guitarist Brian May is also an astrophysicist? He will never stop rocking you. Never!
Would you like to hear Kelly Clarkson do a great cover of 'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye"? Well, here ya go!
OMG LOLOLOLOL: "Bob Cross of Lake Mary said he normally gets calls from his neighbors to catch nuisance critters. On Saturday, however, he said he got quite the unusual call from the lady next door. 'There was big bear in her backyard,' said Art Fischer, a resident. 'That's a big bear!' Fischer said. 'That's a huge bear.' When Cross rounded the corner, he knew he was going to leave this animal alone. As he got closer, he snapped pictures. In them, the bear is clearly having dinner with a 20 pound bag of dog food it had dragged from a nearby garage. The bear brought to the shade of a tree. After several minutes of watching from a safe distance, Cross said he couldn't keep the camera still because he started laughing. The bear, like a person who has eaten too much, was tossing and turning. '[It] repositioned three or four times and stretched out,' Fischer said. 'It just laid there.' Eventually, the animal dozed off." I love that the headline of this article is: "Bear snags 20 pounds of dog food, enters food coma on man's lawn."
And finally! An entire village in India came together to help rescue a baby elephant who'd fallen into a well. Yayayayayay! Joyblub.
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; death; self-harm.]
The latest news being leaked from the investigation into Sandra Bland's death is a bunch of "case against the victim" stuff typical to police killings of black women and men: Sandra Bland had previously attempted suicide; a toxicology report found she had smoked weed; she had cutting scars on her wrists.
Naturally, the Waller County Sheriff's Office wants us to interpret that information in a way that casts Bland as a mentally unstable drug user who was bound to kill herself and there's nothing they could do about it.
Instead of, say, a woman with mental illness who used weed to treat her depression and anxiety to aid in her survival.
And releasing information such as this—
Newly released booking documents reveal Bland told a deputy at the Waller County jail in Hempstead, Texas, that she once tried to kill herself within the last year by taking pills after she had a miscarriage.—indicts the police more than it does Bland, to anyone who understands that the police are legally responsible for the safety of the people they take into custody. Especially when:
In her handwritten jail intake form, there are check marks in the "yes" category next to questions asking if she ever felt very depressed, or if she feels that way now. In a computer-generated form produced a few hours later, the same questions are marked "no," though both forms do show Bland previously attempted suicide.
Despite that, jail officials never placed her on suicide watch.The possibilities are these: Bland died from an untreated head injury after State Trooper Brian Encinia bashed her head against the pavement and police staged her suicide; Bland died from an epileptic seizure (recall that Encinia's response to Bland telling him she had epilepsy was "Good") and police staged her suicide; Bland was killed or died in some other way in police custody and her sucide was staged; or Bland indeed took her own life, after she informed police of previous suicide attempts and they utterly failed to prevent another while she was in their care.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has found the cell where Bland died to be deficient and non-compliant with minimum jail standards. The commission said guards were not properly trained in suicide prevention procedures, and failed to observe Bland at least once an hour while she was in her cell, as required.
[Content Note: Marginalizing narratives about childfree people.]
One of the most pervasive narratives about people who are childfree by choice is that we all hate kids, or that we all have no fucking idea what it's like to parent (even though many of us have helped parent younger siblings, nieces and nephews, etc.), or that we don't understand children.
And some people who are childfree really don't care for kids, or really don't know what it's like to parent, or really don't get or relate to kids very well, but, if we're honest, we all know people who are parents about whom we could say the same things. (Some of us could probably say these things about our own parents, unfortunately.) And we probably all know people who are childfree who are great with kids.
Most halfway decent people who give these things even a modicum of thought will agree that these narratives are garbage.
In the abstract.
And yet, every time another story about a crying kid in a restaurant goes around—currently, it's the one about the diner owner in Portland who yelled at a kid whose parents had reportedly let her cry without attention for a long time—virtually everyone I see discussing that story does in terms that are rooted in those very narratives.
That is, they define the two groups of people on either side of the debate—those defending parents of crying children and those defending people who complain about crying children—as parents and non-parents.
It happens every time. People reflexively assume that anyone who takes a position that isn't full baby access to all spaces at all times is childfree, and anyone who takes a position that defends children and parents must be a parent.
Which only makes sense if you subscribe to narratives about people who are childfree being (uniquely) hostile toward or ignorant about children.
Because some of the most aggressively judgmental people in these conversations, if you actually pay attention to them, are other parents.
And some of the people most desperately pleading for (some) childfree spaces are also other parents, who have far less flexibility to go out to dinner (or wherever) sans kids and thus dread their precious kid-free time being filled with the sounds of other people's children in spaces they didn't reasonably expect children to be.
This isn't an invitation to debate childfree public spaces. This is simply a request for people who engage in those debates to be a little more thoughtful when they do it.
It might seem like it's No Big Deal to shorthand the two sides as parents v. non-parents, and it might actually not be a big deal for lots of non-parents (especially dudes), but for a lot of us it's pretty important to dismantle those narratives—especially when women who don't like kids are still viewed as virtual monsters.
Which itself is a narrative that needs to be shoved into a cannon and fired directly into the sun. But I digress.
It's also a big deal because that narrative underwrites the drawing of parent v. non-parent teams in a way that invisibilizes the parents who advocate for (some) childfree spaces, which then functions to suggest there are never any valid arguments for childfree spaces, and certainly none made by parents—just a bunch of selfish, child-hating, ignorant childfree assholes who don't even have the right to weigh in on parenting issues.
It's a way to demonize people who are childfree so parents staking out a particular position can win, sheerly by virtue of claimed authority.
Look, argue these issues from here to eternity and back again, if you must, but at least do it honestly. Don't pretend that every parent shares the same opinion, and so does every person who is childfree.
And for chrissakes, parents: Stop misrepresenting who has the privilege in this context. I cannot even define myself in this context without referencing what I don't have. There is no word for my status that doesn't center parenting and/or children. Non-parent. Childfree. Childless. Not a mother. There is no word for my status that doesn't center your choice and how I didn't make it. That will never not be a marginalized position.
Which means, like any other privilege, you need to be responsible about how you talk about marginalized people on the other side of that privilege, and how you entrench narratives that are used to other and diminish them.
"The RNC has not been supportive. They were always supportive when I was a contributor. I was their fair-haired boy," the business mogul told The Hill in a 40-minute interview from his Manhattan office at Trump Tower on Wednesday. "The RNC has been, I think, very foolish."So this puts the Republican Party leadership in a great position. They can either indulge Trump's heinous foolery, and risk ending up with him as their nominee, or they can do whatever possible now to derail that potential outcome, and risk ending up with Trump as a spoiler who siphons off conservative votes during the general election.
Pressed on whether he would run as a third-party candidate if he fails to clinch the GOP nomination, Trump said that "so many people want me to, if I don't win."
"I'll have to see how I'm being treated by the Republicans," Trump said. "Absolutely, if they're not fair, that would be a factor."
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called Trump earlier this month asking him to tone down his controversial rhetoric.And Trump knows damn well that criticism is rank hypocrisy: "I'm not surrounded by all sorts of pollsters and PR people. I speak the truth."
...Yet he is connecting with a significant chunk of GOP voters. And despite criticism from party leaders and other presidential candidates, Trump appears fueled by controversy.
Suggested by Shaker airbornemihir: What is your favorite film, TV, or videogame soundtrack—and why do you love it?
[Content Note: Privacy violation.]
So, yesterday, as part of an escalating feud which started with Donald Trump insulting John McCain and Lindsey Graham calling Trump a jackass, Trump gave out Graham's cell phone number during a speech. Which was a real Trump move.
Today, Graham responded with the most pathetic rejoinder ever rejoined:
Last night, So You Think You Can Dance aired a special celebrating ten years on the air (and promoting some new Ryan Seacrest garbage reality show). I could have done with less Seacrest and fewer montages, and more with where are the winners now, but I loved getting to see some favorite routines from seasons past again, especially current judge Jason Derulo's favorite pick:
