Sophie, with Olivia's butt photobombing natch.
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
Sophie, with Olivia's butt photobombing natch.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Biden Not Running
Vice-President Joe Biden has announced that he will not be running for president:
Vice President Joe Biden announced Wednesday he will not be a candidate for president in 2016, sparing Democrats from a shake-up in the race for the White House and removing a potential stumbling block for Hillary Clinton.It probably also has a little something to do with the fact that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both showed themselves to be credible candidates during the last debate, leaving no space for the "we need a credible candidate" arguments.
The vice president's decision comes after a long, and very public, struggle with whether or not to make a third run for the White House.
..."As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I've said all along what I've said time and again to others, that it may very well be that the process by the time we get through it closes the window," Biden said. "I've concluded it has closed."
And on his way out, Biden showed us exactly why he would have been the candidate we didn't need:
"I believe we have to end the divisive politics. It's mean spirited. It's petty," Biden said. "I don't think it's naive to talk to Republicans. I don't think we should look at Republicans as our enemy. They're the opposition, not our enemies."I guess it's easy to see the opposition as something other than an enemy when you agree with them that there's no pressing need to respect some people's comprehensive humanity.
Anyway. Don't worry about Joe Biden. Joe Biden's gonna be just fine.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: War] Just fuck: "Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has visited Moscow on his first overseas trip since the civil war broke out in his country in 2011. During the surprise visit, he held talks with President Vladimir Putin. ...The US and Russia agreed a deal on Tuesday to ensure their air forces do not clash in the skies over Syria, after Washington said last week their planes had 'entered the same battle space' and came within miles of each other." And I'm sure President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are THRILLED that immediately after this agreement, Putin was yukking it up with his BFF Assad.
[CN: War; description of bombing and injuries; death] The US military may have planned the attack on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, despite the many minimizing and deflecting stories provided by the US government: "The US military initially conceded only that their airstrike might have caused 'collateral damage' to the hospital. The top commander in Afghanistan, John F Campbell, later admitted—in the fourth attempt at explaining the devastating attack—that the hospital was 'mistakenly struck.' Since then, a former intelligence official has told the Associated Press that American special operations forces who planned the attack knew it was a hospital because they had been gathering intelligence on it for days. They believed it was being used to coordinate Taliban activity, and considered the strike justified. The report said it was not clear whether the commanders in the gunship firing on the site knew it was a hospital or the details of the allegations." Fucking hell. What the fuck are we even doing? Rage. Seethe. Boil.
[CN: War on agency] GOOD: "This week, women's healthcare providers in Ohio and Oklahoma challenging anti-abortion legislation have succeeded in blocking dangerous TRAP laws in two of the most hostile states in the nation for reproductive rights. On Tuesday, in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of HB64, a 2015 measure which automatically suspends ambulatory surgical facilities (ASFs) licenses should the state's Department of Health deny an application for variance or neglect to process it within 60 days of receipt. ...Meanwhile in Oklahoma, a state court judge ordered a measure banning dilation and evacuation abortions (D and Es)—the most common second-trimester termination procedure—be blocked on Wednesday." Very good news on both counts. But this isn't the last we'll see of either of these measures. Republican legislatures will keep trying and keep trying, and pro-choice advocates will have to keep fighting and keep fighting.
[CN: Transmisogynistic violence; death] Goddammit: "A Washington, D.C. man charged with the murder of transgender woman Zella Ziona on October 15th in Montgomery County shot his victim multiple times because she embarrassed him in front of his friends... Capt. Darren Francke, commander of the Montgomery County Police Major Crimes Division, said 'it's clear that this was an absolutely premeditated murder…Leblond sought out the victim and killed her.'" I can't even find the words to describe how angry and sad this makes me.
Former Vice-Presidential candidate and zombie-eyed granny starver Paul Ryan will deign to be the next Speaker of the House, as long as members of his party meet a few conditions, like "an understanding that he would have a free hand to lead without a constant fear of intra-party reprisals." Neat job requirement! As long as you never disagree with me or try to hold me accountable if I fuck up, then I will totally take this job!
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Just remember as you read this that Ronald Reagan was once a b-movie actor considered a total joke before he was a two-term president and patron saint of modern conservatives: "Donald Trump leads the Republican presidential field in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, not only in vote preferences but in expectations as well—a remarkable feat for the non-politician who's surprised the GOP establishment with his staying power as well as his support. ...Trump also fares well on many key attributes. Nearly half of leaned Republicans—47 percent—view him as the strongest leader; 39 percent think he'd be best able to handle immigration; 32 percent feel he is closest to them on the issues; and 29 percent say he 'best understands the problems of people like you.'" Holy cow.
[CN: Nuclear disaster; worker harm] Damn: "More than four years after thousands of workers converged on Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power during its meltdown to turn it off, reports have surfaced of the first cancer diagnosis linked to exposure to radiation during the recovery. Japan's ministry of health, labor, and welfare recently announced that an unnamed worker has developed acute myelogenous leukemia—a cancer of the blood and bone marrow—that was contracted in the course of duties performed on the grounds of the plant. The man, in his early 40s, worked on No. 3 and No. 4 reactors between 2012 and 2013." He will only be the first of many. So fucking awful.
Adele's new album is imminent, and I AM SO RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED FOR IT, but damn if I don't want her to feel like she has to apologize for the length between albums. She doesn't owe us an album, so she sure doesn't owe us an apology.
NEAT! "A Microbiologist Recreated 'Starry Night' with Bacteria in a Petri Dish."
[CN: Moving gifs at link, but you can access the video without seeing them if you just don't scroll down] And finally! This video of a fawn named Fonzie being confused and delighted by a rubber ball is THE BEST!
The Make-Up Thread
Here is your semi-regular make-up thread, to discuss all things make-up.
Do you have a make-up product you'd recommend? Are you looking for the perfect foundation which has remained frustratingly elusive? Need or want to offer make-up tips? Searching for hypoallergenic products? Want to grouse about how you hate make-up? Want to gush about how you love it?
Whatever you like—have at it!
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Instead of the usual pic of MAH FACE, I thought I'd instead share this piece by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett: "Why do girls wear makeup?" Which starts out pretty terrific—"Ask a group of women why they wear makeup and you'll receive myriad responses. Some will say it makes them feel more confident, that they don't feel completely 'done' without it; others will say they love experimenting with looks and colours as a way of expressing themselves, that there's a fun, theatrical element to face paint that allows them to channel different personalities and aesthetics. 'After 20 years working as a makeup artist I can say quite confidently that women wear makeup for themselves,' Lisa Eldridge, the author of Face Paint: The Story of Makeup, tells me.—and then rapidly devolves to a bunch of heterocentrist evo psych claptrap and a pretty appalling concluding paragraph:
Perhaps, then, when it comes to makeup, we are our own worst enemies, believing that the world wants to see us in a certain way when in actual fact we're fine the way we are. Why do women wear makeup? You could say it's a pinch of patriarchy, a dusting of sex, a smattering of fun, and a whole, caked-on layer of misplaced insecurity.Good grief.
There are indeed myriad reasons why women wear make-up. Some of us feel compelled to wear it, in some or all situations, for different reasons. Some of us don't have any professional obligation to wear it, but enjoy wearing it all the same for the creative outlet it provides. Many of us don't wear make-up for the same reason every time we wear it!
As for me, as I've said before, part of the reason I didn't enjoy make-up for much of my life was because I always resented the idea of make-up as a cover-up of one's flaws. I didn't want to feel obliged to cover parts of myself that others perceived as flaws.
But, in the last few years, partly because of the freedom afforded by no longer working in an environment in which I have to conform to a limited definition of "professional appearance," I've started to enjoy playing with make-up. I resent utterly "make-up so I look like you want me to look," but love "make-up so I look like I want me to look."
I will never like make-up as obliged cover-up (which is distinct from someone who personally wants to use make-up as cover-up—a choice I do not judge), but it turns out I like it a whole lot as self-expression.
Anyway.
I recently encountered a thought, pushing back on the heterocentrist narrative that women wear make-up for men, that I absolutely adored. I wish I could remember where I read/heard/saw it (maybe one of you will recognize it, and can tell me in comments!), and I can't find it now. But it was essentially: I don't own eleventy thousand shades of pink lipstick to impress men who can't even tell the difference between them. LOL! Fact.
So: What's up with you? Tried any new products you want to recommend? Looking for suggestions? Want to share why you wear—or don't wear—make-up? Have at it in comments!
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Please note, as always, that advice should be not be offered to an individual person unless they solicit it. Further: This thread is open to everyone—women, men, genderqueer folks. People who are make-up experts, and people who are make-up newbies. Also, because there is a lot of racist language used in discussions of make-up, and in make-up names, please be aware to avoid turns of phrase that are alienating to women of color, like "nude" or "flesh tone" when referring to a peachy or beige color. I realize some recommended products may have names that use these words, so please be considerate about content noting for white supremacist (and/or Orientalist) product naming.
Anti-Choice Jesus Math
[Content Note: Anti-choicery; rape culture; slut-shaming.]
Anti-choicers never cease to amaze me with the quality of their garbage rhetoric:
The guest on today's edition of the "WallBuilders Live" radio program was Carol Everett, who reportedly spent several years "selling abortions to other women" before renouncing legal abortion and opening an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center in Texas.That's quite an interesting calculation! If a man sleeps with multiple women, it's "almost like rape." Except for how it's totally not at all like rape, if all these adults are consenting partners who have defined boundaries around their sexual relationships.
..."Everything [Planned Parenthood is] doing is destructive," she said, which prompted host Rick Green to go off on a tangent about how Planned Parenthood now allegedly also promotes thing like polyamory and open relationships, which is destroying not only people's hearts and minds but entire communities.
"It's sick," Everett agreed. "It breaks down all those natural barriers that we're supposed to have. Think about this: one woman sleeping with a man and she knows this woman living here sleeps with him, too, how does she feel about that woman? That is not a relationship that fosters anything kind. And how does she feel about him? That, in my mind, is almost like rape when you're just having sex with two or three different women. It's just, what are you doing? It is a sick thing and the only thing that can help us recover is Jesus."
And note how Everett conveniently writes out these hypothetical women's agency from the equation. It quickly goes from a "woman sleeping with a man" to a man "having sex with two or three different women." Just having sex with them. As if they aren't independent actors and meaningful participants.
Color me unsurprised that an anti-choice asshole doesn't care about women's agency in the bedroom any more than they care about women's agency in her reproductive decisions.
I find it utterly contemptible that anti-abortion scoundrels will casually compare virtually every aspect of sexuality and reproductive choice to rape, except for actual rape, which is just a misunderstanding between a slut and a good boy who made a mistake.
Happy Back to the Future Day!
A clip from Back to the Future II. Scene: Inside the DeLorean, with Doc Brown, Marty, and Jennifer. Marty asks: "Where are we? When are we?!" Doc Brown, wearing futuristic silver glasses, says, "We're just headed toward Hill Valley, California, at 4:29pm on Wednesday, October 21, 2015!" Jennifer looks amazed and concerned. Marty exclaims, "Two thousand fifteen?! You mean we're in the future?!"Lots of nerdz (myself included!) are super excited about Back to the Future Day, and people are celebrating in all sorts of ways. If you are a Pedantic Nerd, for example, you will probably enjoy pointing out all the things that Back to the Future II didn't get right about the future! If you are a Science Nerd, you will probably enjoy pointing out all the things it did!
My favorite celebration of the day I've seen so far is this goof post care of the Ayrshire Police Division in Ayrshire, Scotland, who posted this notice on their Facebook page: "About 0728 hours today, Wednesday 21st October 2015, police received reports of a suspicious vehicle causing concern in the car park of an Irvine supermarket. Witnesses report the stainless steel DeLorean vehicle to have been damaged and two men to have been within the vehicle. One man is described as being around 17 years old, slim build with dark hair while the other is only described as being older with grey hair and wearing a white coat. A spokesperson for Ayrshire Police Division commented 'on arriving at the location the vehicle almost collided with two members of the public on hover boards. Luckily the hover board's collision avoidance system prevented any injuries. We are keen to speak with the two men seen within the vehicle.'"
LOL PERFECTION.
In 1989, when Back to the Future II was released, I was 15 years old and just growing out of my crush on Michael J. Fox—and into my crush on Elisabeth Shue—and I can still remember sitting in the theater thinking that 2015 seemed like such an impossibly futuristic date.
And now, here we are. In the future.
Open Thread
Hosted by a saguaro cactus.
(I always enjoy how they look like they're flipping off the world.)
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Grey: "What is the best thing you've ever purchased for less than $10 (or the equivalent in your nation's/region's currency)?"
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
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Now would probably be a great time to share favorite soup recipes again, if you've got 'em!
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Privilege.]
"There were strong differences of feeling between the hierarchy and myself. The Democratic Party is heavily invested in the notion of interest-group politics—and interest-group politics can also exclude people who also need a voice in the hallways of power."—Clock complainer Jim Webb, announcing his resignation as a Democratic candidate and vowing to continue his pursuit of the Oval Office as an Independent.
Whatevs. He can lose as an I just as spectacularly as he would have as a D.
In case you missed the fine print on his petulant quote of departure, he's singing the same "what about the straight white men?!" tune he's been hideously warbling for decades.
Dear J-Webb: Straight white men aren't "excluded" from "interest-group politics." Intersectional social justice politics is trying to create a space in which the interests of people who aren't straight white men can be represented, because "politics" represents the interests of straight white men as a default. For fuck's sake. No Love, Liss.
P.S. I understand that many poor straight white men's interests aren't well represented by mainstream US politicians, but, for the record, politics designed to address the needs of vulnerable, marginalized people from the bottom up will inevitably also address the needs of poor straight white men. Ain't no reason to pretend otherwise, except to entrench privilege.
P.P.S. I see you.
Whoa!
George Dvorsky at Gizmodo: "Unexpected Asteroid to Zip Past Earth On Halloween."
We can expect a totally different kind of trick-or-treater this coming Halloween. A rather large asteroid—discovered less than three weeks ago—is set to to fly past the Earth at a distance not seen in nearly a decade.Yikes! But don't worry: NASA says 2015 TB145 will "safely pass by the Earth and continue to following along its exceptionally eccentric and high-inclination orbit—which may explain why it wasn't discovered until only a few weeks ago."
The asteroid, dubbed 2015 TB145, was discovered on October 10 by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS telescope. The object measures about 280 to 620 meters (920 to 2,034 feet) in diameter, so it's pretty big—about the size of a skyscraper. Or two. Not only that, it's moving at a velocity of 35 km/s (78,830 mph or 12,600 km/h), which NASA describes as "unusually high."
When 2015 TB145 makes its closest approach on October 31, it will zoom past the Earth at a scant 0.0032 AU, or 1.3 lunar distances. That's about 479,000 km or 297,000 miles.
In case you're inclined to check out our asteroid friend as it flies by, it will "reach a magnitude luminosity of 10, so it should be observable to astronomers with telescopes. It'll be seen best in the Northern Hemisphere, but the moon will be a relatively bright 80% waning gibbous at the time. Bad news for astronomers, but good news for the trick-or-treaters."
I love everything about this, obviously. And "Unexpected Asteroid" is totally my new band name.
Daily Dose of Cute
Dis face!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Video autoplays at first link] The first official trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been released!!! WOOT! Are you so excited?! I am so excited! Here are six things we (sort of) learned (maybe?!) from the trailer.
[CN: Racism; antisemitism] And a seventh thing we learned (hahahasob we already knew this!) is that white supremacists are the fucking woooooooorst: "The #BoycottStarWarsVII hashtag, which started appearing on Twitter Sunday night, expresses objection to the fact that The Force Awakens features lead characters who aren't white males, with its users accusing the movie of pushing a sinister multicultural agenda. '#BoycottStarWarsVII because it is anti-white propaganda promoting #whitegenocide,' read one tweet from an account calling itself 'End Cultural Marxism.' (A subsequent tweet from the same account read 'A friend in LA said #StarWarsVII is basically 'Deray in Space,''—a reference to civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson. 'Jewish activist JJ Abrams is an anti-white nut.') Another Twitter account, calling itself 'Captain Confederacy,' similarly griped that 'SJWs [Social Justice Warriors] complain about White artists 'misappropriating' culture created by blacks but then celebrate a non-White Star Wars.' Yet another complaint read that the movie should be boycotted 'because it's nothing more than a social justice propaganda piece that alienates it's [sic] core audience of young white males.'" Go to hell!
[CN: Drones] Good: "The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) pressed ahead on Monday with a lawsuit to compel the CIA to turn over basic details about the US program of clandestine drone warfare, a week after startling contours of the program emerged in a new leak by an anonymous intelligence source. The ACLU lawsuit seeks summary data from the CIA on drone strikes, including the locations and dates of strikes, the number of people killed and their identities or status. The ACLU also is seeking memos describing the legal reasoning underpinning the drone program. None of the summary strike information is currently available to the public, which instead must rely on estimates compiled by analysts and journalists, based on reports on the ground."
[CN: Racism; police misconduct] This is amazing: "Ferguson Traffic Fines Reform Is Having a Surprising Side Effect: A tiny Missouri town disbanded its police department last week, acknowledging that its old way of operating was untenable under a new state law restricting towns in St. Louis County from using cops, courts, and speed traps as a money mill. ...Charlack isn't the first town to dissolve its force in recent months, and it likely won't be the last either." Wow.
[CN: Violence; death; guns] Fucking hell: Oscar Pistorius "was released on parole late on Monday, just short of a year into his five-year sentence for killing [Reeva Steenkamp, who was dating him at the time of her death] on Valentine's Day 2013. [Pistorius] must serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest and still faces an appeal on Nov. 3 by prosecutors who argue that he should have been convicted of murder, not culpable homicide." Not only was he released from prison after only one year, but he was released a day early: "Pistorius had been expected to leave prison on Tuesday, and his early release took media by surprise." Sure. We wouldn't want him to be disgraced in the media for killing someone.
This is a must-read piece by Ian Millhiser: "The Future of the Democratic Party Will Be Decided by the Supreme Court."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] LOVE: "President Obama hosted 300 students, 11 astronauts, and Bill Nye (the Science Guy) on the south lawn of the White House on a clear Monday night for the second 'Astronomy Night.' And in the third row, among the students, was Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Texas boy who became an international celebrity after police investigated the clock he invented for a school project as a possible explosive device. Mohamed did not bring his clock, despite an invitation from Obama to do so."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] COOL: "You can now marvel at a dozen new shots of Earth every day. NASA has launched a new website this week showcasing beauty shots of Earth as it rotates over a 24-hour period. The photos are taken from the vantage point of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), which is positioned a million miles away from Earth. Every day, visitors to the new website can expect to see at least a dozen gorgeous color images of our planet that NASA said will have been taken anywhere from 12 to 36 hours earlier from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). Because the images will be taken over the course of the day, it will show Earth as it rotates, providing a look at the entire globe." YES!
A new study done by an international team of scientists reveals that "the origins of modern dogs 'extremely messy'" but it appears as though dogs may have originated in Central Asia. Still: "Adam Boyko of Cornell University and one of the study's researchers [cautioned] that it was very possible that dogs were domesticated elsewhere before arriving in Central Asia and diversifying into modern canines. Regardless, the study's large population sample, including village and feral dogs, is remarkable, representing a clearer picture of dogs and where they come from. As Boyko quipped, 'The great thing about working with dogs is that if you show up with food you don't usually have trouble recruiting subjects. Usually.'" LOL aww.
Oh my heart: "A little girl who was adopted by her family celebrated her 8th Gotcha Day by adopting a kitten from a rescue center for pets displaced by the recent severe flooding in South Carolina. Kayla Hodge visited the Beck recreation Center in Georgetown County with her family on Saturday. The rec center is being used as a temporary shelter for animals displaced or lost due to the flooding, as well as some pets from the St. Frances Animal Center. The family say they had not planned to go home with new pet but Kayla was drawn to an unclaimed kitten named Kermit. Saturday was Kayla's 8th adoption Gotcha Day and ended up being Kermit's Gotcha Day, too, as he got adopted into Kayla's family."
And finally! Goats on a trampoline! I repeat: Goats on a trampoline!
Primarily Speaking
So, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton will be testifying before the Select Committee on Benghazi later this week, and I don't even know what in miscalculating hell these Republican fuckbrains are even thinking, since every time they question Clinton, they end up looking like epic dipshits.
Paul Waldman says as much in the WaPo, after first noting the string of recent humiliations for the panel, before she's even arrived:
And what's going to happen on Thursday? Understand that most of the time, congressional testimony makes the witness look much better than the questioners. There are exceptions here and there, but a well-prepared witness who knows the facts will usually look almost heroic when posed against a bunch of grandstanding blowhards trying in vain to trip her up. The Republicans on the committee will be trying so, so hard, but their main problem is that they just don't have the thing they hoped they would find: evidence that Clinton committed some act of malfeasance or corruption that led to the deaths of four Americans on that night in Benghazi three years ago.But instead of approaching this colossal farce with even a modicum of humility, with even a shred of awareness of how it's going to go, instead we're getting shit like Alabama Representative Mo Brooks pronouncing that Clinton "would be a unique president if she is elected by the public next November because the day she's sworn in is the day that she's subject to impeachment because she has committed high crimes and misdemeanors." A Day One impeachment! Neat!
Which is why, when they originally began negotiating over this testimony, Gowdy wanted it to be in private. If it was, then committee members could do what they’ve been doing all along: selectively leak out-of-context snippets of her testimony to the press in an attempt to make her look bad, while keeping the full context secret. Clinton insisted on testifying publicly, and so she will.
It's possible that Clinton could perform terribly in her testimony on Thursday, just as it's possible that the committee will discover some shocking new information that none of the prior investigations managed to find. But it's more likely that the committee's Republicans will seem more angry about their inability to catch her in a crime than about whatever awful thing she was supposed to have done, while she succeeds in making the whole investigation look like a farce.
Her testimony will be the big story in the news on Friday. Then it will be the subject of a hundred think pieces over the weekend. By next week, the only real question Republicans be asking themselves is, how did we screw this up so badly?
Speaking of Day One, Democratic candidate (???) Lawrence Lessig, who said he would ideally "resign in a day" after being elected and immediately passing campaign finance reform by magic, has admitted his proposal was garbage. "Yeah, that's stupid. That was totally stupid. I withdraw that promise. I am not going to resign. I am running for president with the commitment to pass legislation that gets our democracy back." Vote for this guy! He's definitely got his shit together!
Speaking of having your shit together, Jim Webb may be considering a run as an Independent. Boy, if he thinks he didn't get enough time during a debate as a Democrat, wait 'til he finds out how much time he'll get during debates as an Independent!
In case you haven't heard, Bernie Sanders is a socialist! But more like a "democratic socialist capitalist." Okay. I don't really care what any candidate calls him- or herself. All I care about is the quality of their ideas and their competency as a leader!
Vice President Joe Biden may be running! Get your stories ready! But maybe he's not running! Get those stories ready, too!
In other Democratic candidate news, Martin O'Malley and Lincoln Chafee are still definitely running for president!
On the other side of the aisle, gold toilet aficionado Donald Trump continues to lead the pack, and I continue to dry heave eleventy million times every time I have to type that sentence!
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush has fallen to single digits in the latest University of North Florida poll. Single digits in his home state! He's really ripping it up on the campaign trail!
In other Bush family news, former President George W. Bush, brother o' Jeb, reportedly hates Ted Cruz. Well, whaddaya know? After all these years, Mondo Fucko and I finally have something in common!
[Content Note: Nazi references; antisemitism; video may autoplay at last link] Dr. Ben Carson is still polling second to Trump, which is fucking gobsmacking, and I would say despite his fascination with Nazi Germany, except, let's be honest, it's probably more because of said fascination. Alarmist hyperbole about liberals plays well with the conservative base. Almost as well as rank racism and misogyny! Like, three points less.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is doing his darnedest to get noticed with some of his own Hate Bandwagoning, vowing to fight an injunction that stops his administration's Department of Health and Hospitals from defunding Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. He REALLY REALLY REALLY hates women, y'all! Why won't you love him for hating women so much?!
[NB: Not only women need access to abortion, but Jindal does not give a fuck about that.]
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is still convinced he's gonna win, despite being "low on cash and short on poll results." Okay. Well, good luck with that!
I'm sure weirdo hate-peddler Rick Santorum is getting up to something somewhere wearing a nifty sweatervest, but who fucking cares.
Corporate power-failure Carly Fiorina enjoyed a small pop in the polls following the second Republican debate, where she conclusively proved she is definitely not Hillary Clinton, her #1 (and only) qualification, but it was short-lived: "Carly Fiorina's Numbers Plunge in Latest CNN Poll." Ouch.
Something something Rand Paul.
Senator Marco Rubio came in third in that Florida poll, and I hope if he's celebrating hard, he's keeping well hydrated!
Ohio Governor John Kasich is getting most of his support and donations from Ohio. Obviously. Because basically no one has heard of him anywhere else. If he were actually running for president, and not running in the hopes of landing some cushy sinecure with some grotesque lobbying firm when he leaves the governor's mansion in Ohio, no one knowing or caring about him would make him pretty sad I bet!
Senator Lindsey Graham is still a human being running for the US presidency on the Republican ticket.
Professor of Bible Bigotry Mike Huckabee claims he's never "disparaged" LGBT people. LOLOLOLOLOLOL FUCK YOU! "I don't think I have disparaged people... I feel like I've held to a very consistent, biblical standard of marriage." OMG THIS FUCKING GUY!
In other Republican candidate news, Jim Gilmore and George Pataki are still definitely running for president!
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
This Is Terrorism
[Content Note: Terrorism; arson; violent racism; white supremacy.]
Over the summer, there was a series of fires at black churches, some of which were deemed to be weather-related and some of which were ruled arson, which got minimal national media coverage. At the time, I wrote: "And the mainstream media coverage of [the seventh] fire, no less within the context of six other fires at black churches since a white supremacist killed nine black women and men at a black church, is virtually nonexistent. Juxtapose that, as many people have observed on Twitter, with the coverage of the CVS set ablaze during protests in Baltimore, which was given wall-to-wall coverage by the cable news networks."
This morning, I read this piece by Ben Forstenzer: "5 Black Churches in the Ferguson Area Have Burned Since Last Week, Media Shrugs." And Forstenzer makes the same necessary point, again: "The lack of media coverage about these fires is highly-noticeable, given the media's hyper-intensive coverage of rioters in Baltimore setting fire to a CVS earlier this year."
There is no doubt that these fires have been set by arsonists:
In the last 10 days, five black churches have been set on fire in the St. Louis area. And unlike the last wave of black church fires this summer in which weather played a role in some of the fires, these all appear to be the work of arsonists.Five black churches within a three-mile radius, set ablaze by arsonists. And there is virtually no national media coverage.
..."It is arson," St. Louis Fire Department captain Garon Mosby told Fox 2 Saint Louis. "These are being intentionally set."
This most recent wave of church fires are taking place in North St. Louis, near Ferguson, where racial tensions have been particularly high since the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. The department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is investigating the arsons.
On October 8th, the first fire was set at the Bethel Non-Denominational Church. Between October 10th and October 14th, three more churches were burned — New Northside Missionary Baptist Church, St. Augustine Catholic Church, and the New Testament Church of Christ. In the early hours of Saturday morning, another fire was set at the New Life Missionary Baptist Church. All 5 churches are within three miles of each other.
This is terrorism. But it is being diligently ignored by most media, just like anti-choice terrorism, because it is almost certainly being committed by members of the US' most privileged class: White men.
Whereas a corporate building being set on fire during a protest led by black activists is major news worth 24/7 coverage.
Further, these church burnings are a grave encroachment on black Christians' religious freedom. A real encroachment on their religious freedom, unlike the bullshit spectacle of Kim Davis claiming that her job requiring her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples violates her religious freedom. But, for some mysterious (not at all mysterious) reason, you won't find Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz jumping in front of every microphone for a thousand miles to denounce the serious subversion of black parishioners' religious freedom.
All lives matter, they say. Except for how they clearly don't.
Steve: Heaved!
[With my thanks to Aphra_Behn for inspiring the title.]
Welp, the Canadian election results are in, and incumbent Conservative Prime Minister and Nightmare Human Stephen Harper is out on his arse! Woot!
Canada's Liberal Party has decisively won a general election, ending nearly a decade of Conservative rule.Expect more!
The centrist Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau, started the campaign in third place but in a stunning turnaround now command a majority.
Mr Trudeau, the 43-year-old son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, said Canadians had voted for real change.
Incumbent Conservative PM Stephen Harper accepted defeat and his party said he will step down as leader.
...Addressing his jubilant supporters shortly afterwards, Mr Trudeau said that Canadians "sent a clear message tonight - it's time for a change".
"We beat fear with hope, we beat cynicism with hard work. Most of all we defeated the idea that Canadians should be satisfied with less.
Now it's up to Trudeau and his party to deliver on those expectations. Harper and his pals set such rock bottom expectations, it won't be tough to be better than last week's rubbish, but I hope on behalf of Canadian progressives the Liberal Party doesn't just settle for "better," but instead reaches for great.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker 4PawsFriend: "What's your favorite art object in your home?"
A painting done for me by Deeky W. Gashlycrumb.
Here We Go Again
[Content Note: Food policing; fat hatred.]
Shut the fuck up, Jamie Oliver.
[H/T to Spudsy. Related Reading: Blame the Fatties.]
