Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: San Bernardino shooting] What the everloving fuck!!! "Journalists storm San Bernardino shooters' apartment after landlord pries open door: A swarm of local and national media entered the apartment where Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik lived after the landlord tore off a piece of plywood that was blocking the door. News outlets, including MSNBC, BBC, CBS News, and CNN, broadcast live scenes as reporters toting cameras and microphones pushed through the open door and reported from inside the apartment." As far as I know, that residence is still part of an active, ongoing investigation, and may even be considered a crime scene, given the explosives found there. This is unbelievable. UNBELIEVABLE. Media is live broadcasting papers and IDs that are scattered around the apartment, with zero concern for the possibility that some of them could be stolen (and thus they're exposing an innocent person to harm) or for the fact that Syed Farook's brother has the same name, and they could be broadcasting his social security number... Fucking hell, what is the media even doing?
[CN: Guns] Submitted without comment: "Man's hoard of nearly 5,000 guns shows ease of amassing arms in US."
[CN: Class warfare; video may autoplay at link] Republican priorities: "The Senate on Thursday passed legislation repealing the core pillars of ObamaCare, taking a major step toward sending such a bill to the president's desk for the first time. Republicans hailed it as a political messaging victory and a fulfillment of their promise from the 2014 midterm election... The House will need to approve the amended legislation before it can be sent to the White House." Where it will promptly be vetoed.
[CN: Anti-semitism] Jesus fucking Jones this guy: "Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday invoked a series of stereotypes about Jews that are often deemed offensive and even anti-Semitic—in an address to Jewish Republicans. 'I'm a negotiator like you folks were negotiators,' the controversial candidate declared to his audience at the Republican Jewish Coalition, as he explained that he would broker a stronger nuclear deal with Iran than the one concluded earlier this year. At another point in his speech, he said: 'Is there anyone in this room who doesn't negotiate deals? Probably more than any room I've ever spoken.'"
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] But, of course, Trump is still leading the polls. By a wide margin. "Donald Trump is once again alone at the top of the Republican field, according to the latest CNN/ORC Poll, with 36% of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents behind him, while his nearest competitor trails by 20 points."
Awesome: "Every 16-year-old in Sweden is being given a copy of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's call to arms, We Should All Be Feminists. The essay, adapted from Adichie's award-winning TED talk of the same name, is being distributed in Swedish to high-school students by the Swedish Women's Lobby and publisher Albert Bonniers. Launching the project at Norra Real high school in Stockholm this week, they said they hoped the book would 'work as a stepping stone for a discussion about gender equality and feminism.' ...'This is the book that I wish all of my male classmates would have read when I was 16,' said Clara Berglund, chair of the Swedish Women's Lobby, announcing the giveaway. 'It feels so important to contribute to this project. It is a gift to all second-grade high-school students, but it is also a gift to ourselves and future generations.'" ♥
RIP Scott Weiland, frontman for the bands Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver, and Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts. He was 48. Such a shame.
[CN: Racism] So, last night, NBC aired a live performance of The Wiz, which I am saving for this weekend and I AM GOING TO LOVE IT SO MUCH, and a bunch of racist dipshits had no idea The Wiz exits and said a bunch of really racist dipshit things. Good grief.
And finally! "Unwanted Cat Becomes This Little Boy's Guardian, Following Him Everywhere." Y'all know I cry at everything anyway, but holy geez did this one really get me. All the blubs!
In the News
Fundraiser: PayPal Alternative
It's end-of-year fundraising time, and a bunch of Shakers have emailed me about providing an alternative to PayPal.
So I've set up a Square Cash account.
My preference is still PayPal, but now there's an option for those who want to make a one-time donation but can't or prefer not to donate via PayPal.
Again, please note that I don't want anyone to feel obliged to contribute financially, especially if money is tight. There is way more than a significant enough readership that no one needs to donate if it would be a hardship, and no one should ever feel bad about that.
My profound thanks to each of you who donates or has donated, whether monthly or as a one-off, financially or otherwise. I am deeply appreciative.
George Zimmerman Continues to Be a Public Menace and Human Nightmare
[Content Note: Misogyny; rape culture; revenge porn; privacy violation; doxing; Islamophobia; description of sexual assaults at first link.]
George Zimmerman has spent his life harming people and evading accountability for it. He allegedly sexually assaulted his younger cousin for a decade, but charges were never brought. He was arrested in July 2005 for "resisting officer with violence," but "the charges were reduced and then waived after he entered an alcohol education program." One month later, his former fiancé "sought a restraining order against him because of domestic violence. Zimmerman sought a restraining order against her in return. Both were granted." He racially bullied a co-worker, but was only fired after he repeatedly called the human resources hotline to "complain about each and every manager and employee."
He killed black teenager Trayvon Martin, and was acquitted, then evaded federal civil rights charges, and then claimed he was doing god's will when he killed Martin.
In the years following his acquittal, he threatened his then estranged wife and her father with a gun; the charges were later dropped. He was then arrested again for domestic violence, but again faced no charges. Earlier this year, he was involved in "a road rage incident as part of an ongoing dispute." In August, he went on a homophobic and racist tirade on Twitter, during which he used racist slurs against President Obama, and, in September, he tweeted an image of Trayvon Martin's dead body.
[CN: Screen caps of tweets at link] And now his Twitter account has been suspended after he engaged in "revenge porn" by tweeting naked pictures of his ex-girlfriend, accompanied by her contact information and racist invective against a man whom he believes she was seeing.
The "@TherealGeorgeZ" account showed two different naked photos and an email address for the woman Thursday afternoon.Will Zimmerman finally face some consequences, beyond having his Twitter account suspended? Probably not!
"This is Heather," the first of two tweets about her read. "She cheated on me with a dirty Muslim." He added a phone number and told his 15,500 followers, "She'll sleep with anyone."
Minutes later, he continued, "Did I go to far? I won't even mention that she stole a gun and cash from me."
Carrie Goldberg, a board member at the Initiative and an Internet privacy and sexual consent attorney, said in an email that the Tweets were "repulsive" but may not amount to a violation of the revenge porn law due to the fact that the pictures don't show what the statute defines as "nudity." Zimmerman, though, could be held liable under the state's coercion, stalking or harassment laws, she said.Police didn't want to prosecute Zimmerman for murdering a boy in the street until they were obliged to bring charges under the duress of national outrage. I'm sure they care even less about bringing charges just because he violated the privacy and incited violence against a woman.
"Zimmerman's publication of the victim's personal information like her phone number and email address suggest an intention to incite third parties to contact this woman in a sort of harassment-by-proxy scenario," Goldberg said. "Not only could he be arrested criminally, but this behavior makes a strong case for the victim to obtain an order of protection from family court."
Officials in the Seminole County Sheriff's Office didn't immediately respond to a request to know whether the authorities are aware of the tweets or any domestic dispute involving Zimmerman.
This guy is a public menace. He is going to kill someone else, or get someone killed, and no one with any power seems interested in stopping him.
Boom
[Content Note: Guns; war on agency. There is an image of guns at the link.]
Missouri State Representative Stacey Newman has introduced legislation that would require the same steps for accessing a gun as accessing an abortion. To be clear, Newman isn't equating buying a gun with getting an abortion; she's calling out the fundamental inconsistency in "pro-life" conservative ideology, exposing its hypocrisy, and challenging them to defend why they refuse to take the same steps to save lives from gun violence as they have to stop abortions.
"Since Missouri holds the rank as one of the strictest abortion regulation states in the country, it is logical we borrow similar restrictions to lower our horrific gun violence rates," Newman said in a statement.A+
The bill, pre-filed Tuesday for the 2016 session, is doomed to die in Missouri's Republican-controlled legislature, something that Newman knows perfectly well. ...But at a time when frequent mass shootings, such as Wednesday's San Bernardino shooting that killed 14 people, have more Americans speaking up about access to firearms, Newman's bill comes across less as an activist stunt than as a concerning contrast in legislative approaches to two public health issues.
House Bill 1397 says that before Missourians could buy a gun, they'd have to:
* Meet with a licensed physician to discuss the risks of gun ownership at least 72 hours before attempting to buy a gun and obtain a written notice approval.
* Buy the gun from a licensed gun dealer located at least 120 miles from the purchaser's legal residence.
* Review the medical risks associated with firearms, including photographs of fatal firearm injuries, and the alternatives to purchasing a firearm, including "materials about peaceful and nonviolent conflict resolution," with the gun dealer orally and in writing.
* Watch a 30-minute video about fatal firearm injuries. (This requirement mirrors House Bill 124 from last year, which would have required women to watch a video with information about abortion they're already required to receive from doctors orally and in writing.)
* Tour an emergency trauma center at the nearest qualified urban hospital on a weekend between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when gun violence victims are present, and get written verification from a doctor.
* Meet with at least two families who have been victims of gun violence and two local faith leaders who have officiated, within the last year, a funeral for a victim of gun violence who was under the age of 18.
"If we truly insist that Missouri cares about 'all life,' then we must take immediate steps to address our major cities rising rates of gun violence," Newman said.
There is only one abortion clinic in the entire state of Missouri. By comparison, there are 115 gun stores just in Jefferson County, Missouri, alone.
San Bernardino Shooting Updates
[Content Note: Guns; terrorism; violence; death.]
Previous posts: Wednesday; Thursday.
Late last night, I updated yesterday's post with the names of the 14 people who were killed in the shooting: Robert Adams, 40; Isaac Amanios, 60; Bennetta Bet-Badal, 46; Harry Bowman, 46; Sierra Clayborn, 27; Juan Espinoza, 50; Aurora Godoy, 26; Shannon Johnson, 45; Larry Kaufman, 42; Damian Meins, 58; Tin Nguyen, 31; Nicholas Thalasinos, 52; Yvette Velasco, 27; and Michael Raymond Wetzel, 37.
My sincerest condolences to their families, friends, and colleagues.
You can find out more about their lives here.
There still isn't much to report with regard to motive, which remains a big question mark. There was no manifesto left behind to be discovered. There is no evident online footprint that provides context. There are no obvious red flags. Even the most reactionary, reductive assumption that it was religiously motivated doesn't immediately make sense:
At the Islamic Center of Riverside, where [Syed Rizwan Farook] had worshipped until about two years ago, mosque director Mustapha Kuko described him as quiet, private and devoted to Koran study.It is possible that even she failed to meet the standards of a newly radicalized Farook. Some law enforcement sources have said that he "had been in touch with people in the Los Angeles area who have expressed jihadi-oriented views. Intelligence sources told NBC News that Farook appeared to have been in some form of communication with people overseas who are persons of interest to U.S. authorities."
"He knows that we believe that to take one life is to take all life. So for him to do the opposite of what we as Muslims believe … I don't know," Kuko said.
One victim, who worked in the same department as Farook, was also a member of the congregation, he said.
"He shot her," Kuko said. "Point blank."
The victim's husband reported she is in stable condition, he said.
Whether that will turn out to be anything meaningful, however, remains to be seen. There are lots of people who are "of interest" to authorities for no legitimate reason. Just earlier this week: "Man held at Guantánamo for 13 years a case of mistaken identity, say officials."
So the investigation continues. [CN: Video may autoplay at link] Electronic devices recovered at the scene "had been smashed when they were found by investigators." FBI computer forensics analysts "will try to reconstruct and extract any digital information they can, which sources said will be painstaking work. One law enforcement source told ABC News that while investigators have some capabilities to mine information from damaged digital media, 'they are not miracle workers.'"
Pakistani authorities are also working with US authorities to further investigate Tashfeen Malik, though, given that Malik entered the US on a fiancé visa, I don't know what will be found that didn't come up during that screening process. As noted at the link: "The K-1 visa program has one of the more rigorous security screening processes—presenting far more hurdles than other avenues for foreigners to enter the U.S." And, having been through that process, I can attest that it contains an extraordinary level of investigation, of both the foreign and citizen applicants.
I hope the mystery of their motivation is solved, especially for the injured victims and survivors of those killed. I can't even imagine being harmed by someone in an act of mass violence, or losing a loved one to an act of mass violence, and not knowing why it happened.
Searching for some explanation himself, Farook's brother-in-law Farhan Khan said: "He was a bad person, that was his personal act." That much is true. And maybe that's all we'll ever be able to say with certainty. They were bad people, who did an unfathomably terrible thing.
As always, please respect our usual request to keep these threads image-free.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker DesertRose: "If you could pick a fictional culture in which to live (from an existing book/film/TV show/comic/whatever), what would you choose? Why? Would you want to be any particular character who already exists in that culture, or would you want to be someone else who just happens to live there? :) (For example, if you'd want to live on Discworld, would you want to be one of characters Terry Pratchett created or yourself-but-on-Discworld or something else?)"
I would definitely choose to live a thousand years ago on the planet Thra. And obviously, I'd be Aughra. I mean, I've even got her orrery tattooed on me!
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!
* * *
Spudsy recently sent me this recipe for Roast Chicken with Dijon Pan Sauce, and I cannot wait to try it. It looks so good!
Dear Maude, even the picture is making my mouth water.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: War; injury.]
"I didn't lose my legs in a bar fight—of course women can serve in combat. This decision is long overdue."—Democratic Congressional Representative from Illinois Tammy Duckworth, on US Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter's announcement today that the military "is opening all jobs in combat units to women, a landmark decision that ends a three-year period of research with a number of firsts for female service members and bitter debate at times about how women should be integrated."
Hahaha don't forget the bitter debate!
The decision opens the military's most elite units to women who can meet the rigorous requirements for the positions for the first time, including in the Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, and other Special Operations Units. It also opens the Marine Corps infantry, a battle-hardened force that many service officials had openly advocated keeping closed to female service members.This decision is important for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that, as long as the military remains the best option for lots of young people in poverty (which is a whole other issue), giving women the exact same opportunities as men is crucial.
"There will be no exceptions," Carter said.
...Carter said that top leaders in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and U.S. Special Operations Command all recommended that all jobs be opened to women. The Marine Corps recommended that certain jobs such as machine gunner be kept closed, but the secretary said that the military is a joint force, and his decision will apply to everyone.
Not Enough
[Content Note: Guns; disablism; racism.]
There is a reason that when I write about wanting something done about gun access in the US, I always say I want legislators to do something meaningful. Because doing something and doing something meaningful are not the same thing.
Senate Democrats will offer a pair of gun-related amendments to a budget bill on Thursday, seeking to put Republicans on record on the charged issue in the aftermath of Wednesday's mass shooting in California.I'm sure that's true. But I don't want gun legislation the purpose of which is to shame Republicans. I want gun legislation the purpose of which is to stop gun violence.
..."The entire country will know where every member of the Senate stands on tightening background checks, on keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists, and on strengthening and improving mental health in this country," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday at a news conference detailing the strategy. "There are a good number — not all — but there are a good number of our Republican colleagues dreading these two votes. Dreading them."
And since many terrorists—and let us observe here that people on the government's terrorist watch list are almost exclusively people who conform to reductive, racist definitions of terrorism—can pass background checks and either aren't mentally ill at all or haven't sought treatment for mental illness, these proposals are all about doing something without doing something meaningful.
To the contrary, flagging people with mental illness for a government watch list is only going to discourage people from seeking mental healthcare treatment. That will neither "strengthen" nor "improve" mental health in the US.
Which is to say nothing of the fact that people with mental illness are more likely to be targets of violence than perpetrators of violence.
As I have said many, many times before, the problem with restrictions designed to keep guns out of the "wrong" hands is that most of the people who decide to use a gun to harm someone else are, per these definitions, the "right" hands until they're not anymore.
The only meaningful thing that is going to curb gun violence is fewer guns.
Daily Dose of Cute
This goofy, wonderful dog. LOL.
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: War on agency; class warfare] Republican priorities: "Republicans are pushing toward Senate approval of legislation demolishing President Barack Obama's signature health care law and halting Planned Parenthood's federal money, setting up a veto fight the GOP knows it will lose but thinks will delight conservative voters. The White House promised a veto Wednesday, saying the bill would 'take away critical benefits and health care coverage' from families. With Republicans lacking the two-thirds House and Senate majorities needed for a successful override, the measure became a political messaging battlefield as both parties looked toward the 2016 presidential and congressional elections. 'Obamacare is a direct attack on the middle class of our country. It's a partisan law that puts ideology before people, that hurts many of the very Americans it was supposed to help,' said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky." Presumably without a trace of irony.
[CN: Police brutality; racism] Hillary Clinton has called for "a Justice Department review of the Chicago Police Department in the wake of the Laquan McDonald shooting. The Clinton campaign said Wednesday in a statement, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, 'Hillary Clinton is deeply troubled by the shooting of Laquan McDonald and the outstanding questions related to both the shooting and the video. Mayor Emanuel's call for a task force to review practices of the Chicago Police Department is an important step, but given the gravity of this tragic situation, she supports a full review by the Department of Justice.' Clinton's move put her at odds with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who on Wednesday said he was opposed to a Justice Department Civil Rights Division probe." I'll bet he is, since he obstructed the investigation. (Btw, Clinton is wrong: Emanuel's call for a task force isn't "an important step." It's another way for Emanuel to evade accountability via official corruption in Chicago.)
[CN: Murder; domestic violence] GOOD: "South Africa's supreme court of appeal has found Oscar Pistorius guilty of murdering [Reeva Steenkamp, who was dating Pistorius at the time], overturning a previous conviction for culpable homicide. The court has ordered the original trial judge in Pretoria to impose a harsher sentence. No date has been set for this hearing. The minimum sentence for murder is 15 years in prison. ...Justice Eric Leach, who read out an abridged version of the judgment on Thursday morning on behalf of the court, said: 'The accused ought to have been found guilty of murder.' ...Leach was critical of Pistorius's inconsistent testimony in the original trial. 'In the light of these contradictions [in Pistorius' testimony], one does not really know what his explanation is for having fired the fatal shots,' he said."
[CN: Class warfare] This is utterly appalling: "A new study released Wednesday by the Institute for Policy Studies shows that...not only do the top one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans own more than most Americans put together, but the nation's top 20 richest people own as much wealth as the entire bottom half of U.S. earners. That's a sliver about 15,000 times smaller than the already superrich one-tenth of 1 percent. ...[The Fortune 400 annual list of the wealthiest Americans] has a combined net worth of $2.34 trillion, the study found, more than a full 62 percent of Americans—more also than the nation's entire black population. But staggering as they are, these figures still don't paint the full picture, says [the study's coauthor Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies]. That's because they only represent taxable wealth that is not held in offshore accounts or siphoned through complex tax loopholes. According to a separate study published earlier this year by the Boston Consulting Group, offshore tax havens represent as much as $10 trillion globally, with as much as one quarter of that held by individual Americans. ...'It may be that we're only seeing half the wealth,' says Collins." Grotesque.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Speaking of obscenely wealthy shitlords: "Donald Trump said Thursday he will release a doctor's report of his health within two weeks and it will show 'perfection.' ...'I consider my health, stamina and strength one of my greatest assets. The world has watched me for many years and can so testify-great genes!' Trump tweeted." My top secret sources have provided me with an EXCLUSIVE image of Trump's brainscran, and it's preeeeeetty interesting.
[CN: War on agency] "Michigan, Ohio's neighboring state, has seen an influx of nonresidents seeking abortion care in the wake of Republican Gov. John Kasich's relentless campaign to roll back abortion access, FiveThirtyEight reports. Since Kasich, a 2016 presidential candidate, took office in 2011, he has quietly led his state to an almost unprecedented number of abortion clinic closures." And he's the "moderate" in the clown car.
[CN: Misogyny] Big news for Saudi women: "Saudi Arabia will let divorced women and widows manage family affairs without approval from a man or a court order, a state-aligned newspaper said on Wednesday, a major step to lift some of the legal powers men hold over female relatives. ...The Al Riyadh newspaper said the Interior Ministry will issue family identity cards not only to men, but also to divorcees and widows, granting them powers that will include accessing records, registering children for schools, and authorizing medical procedures. The newspaper did not give a date for the move. In a country where men hold legal powers over female relatives in almost all their interactions with the state, the change will significantly change the lives of divorced or widowed women, particularly for those bringing up children alone."
[CN: Homophobia] Good news from Ireland: "Ireland has passed a bill that will make it illegal for religious-based schools to discriminate against gay teachers. ...The Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013 had already passed through the upper house of the Irish government and will now go to President Michael D. Higgins for signing."
[CN: Transphobia] "The state of Minnesota wants health insurance companies to quit screwing over transgender people. Last week the state government issued an official-sounding 'administrative bulletin' putting insurers on notice that discriminating against transgender folks isn't cool anymore. If that sounds like something that probably should have been illegal already, that's because it is. While Obamacare makes your free-market pal's blood boil, a section of it bans health care discrimination based on sex and gender identity—the first federal law of its kind, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Good stuff for the trans community, right? Except the discrimination is still happening anyway, says Joann Usher, executive director of Minneapolis-based Rainbow Health Initiative. 'Some of it I think is unintentional, perhaps not realizing the scope of the Affordable Care Act,' she says. 'Some of it is clearly intentional. There's a suspicion that by making this coverage available it's going to cost insurance companies a lot of money.'" Running healthcare through for-profit insurance companies continues to be an excellent idea.
Neat! "The European Space Agency has launched a pathfinder probe from French Guiana tasked with carrying out an experiment aimed to detect gravitational waves—ripples in space and across time predicted, but never proven, by physicist Albert Einstein 100 years ago. 'The purpose of this spacecraft is to eventually detect something that Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts and hasn't been detected yet which is gravitational waves,' Francisco Diego, senior research fellow at University College London's Department of Physics and Astronomy, told Al Jazeera. 'We believe and we anticipate that this is the way gravity travels in space.'"
And finally! "Dog Showers Rescuer with Kisses as a Thank You." Awwwwww. ♥
Fundraiser to Keep Shakesville Going
This is, for those who have requested it, your bi-monthly reminder to donate to Shakesville and an important fundraiser to keep Shakesville going.
It's also a follow-up to my August post in which I straightfowardly communicated that donations had to increase in order for me to keep doing this job, and to keep Shakesville a safe ad-free space, while making enough through donations to support myself, independently.
I promised that I would continue to communicate openly with this community about what I need to keep doing this and to reasonably assess how this space, and my work to make it what it is, is valued.
To give you a picture of what things currently look like for me, yesterday there were over 18,000 pageviews at Shakesville. I worked more than fifteen hours, which was longer than usual, because of my coverage of a major news story.
And for the entire day, I made $37.17 in donations, before taxes.
Now, some days donations are significantly higher than that, but some days they are even lower.
This is not a tenable situation for me.
I would very much like to keep doing this, but, as I've said before, if the readership of this space determines that they would rather not collectively donate so that I can keep running and writing for this space in the same way I do now, then that is a legitimate choice, and I will move on. But I have been asked to communicate frankly with you about what I need, if it gets to the point where I'm approaching a tough decision, so that's what I'm doing.
Again: I don't mean for that to sound like an ultimatum. I'm just trying to be as straightforward as possible. It takes an enormous amount of time, more than a full-time job, to manage the community, write and edit content, moderate comments alongside the other mods, and engage with readers via email and social media. I can't do this and hold down another job. So this has to pay me a livable wage for my time, and enough to pay contributors for their work, or I need to find another way to make a living.
And just to be abundantly clear: I'm not looking to get rich off this work. I simply want to make enough money that I am able to support myself, in exchange for my full-time labor.
So, if you value Shakesville, please consider setting up a subscription or making a one-time contribution.
I would certainly be grateful for your support, if you are able to chip in. The donation link is in the sidebar to the right. Or click here.
Please note that I don't want anyone to feel obliged to contribute financially, especially if money is tight. There is way more than a significant enough readership that no one needs to donate if it would be a hardship, and no one should ever feel bad about that.
Thank you to each of you who donates or has donated, whether monthly or as a one-off, financially or otherwise. I am deeply appreciative.
Discussion Thread: Bits of Life Worth Celebrating
On Tuesday, I opened a thread for us to share the bits of our lives that aren't perfect. Here is a companion thread, for anyone who wants or needs it, to share the bits of your life about which you are happy. The things that are going right, the pleasant surprises, the little victories, the big victories, the contentments and joys.
It's strange how we are often discouraged from sharing the best parts of our lives, through fears about boasting or showing off, as much as we are from sharing the worst parts.
But sharing the good bits are important, too.
And, you know, I thought many of us might need a place to talk about good things and a place to express gratitude today.
This is a non-competitive space. It's not about keeping up with Joneses, or doing better by comparison to someone else. It's just about acknowledging the things that we do have, with the recognition that not everyone is so fortunate.
I'll go first: I am happy and grateful to be loved and known by my friends and my husband.
San Bernardino Shooting Updates
[Content Note: Guns; terrorism; violence; death.]
Yesterday, two people—a man and a woman—armed with assault-style rifles and handguns and wearing assault gear, opened fire in the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and injuring 17 others, 10 critically, in what was the deadliest shooting in the US since Sandy Hook in 2012. Following a shootout with police, both of the shooters are dead, and a third conspirator is in police custody. (See updates at end of post for additional/new information.)
The names of the victims have not yet been released, as families are presumably still being notified. My condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the people who were killed. I desperately hope that the 17 people who are injured will survive, and that they have access to the resources they need to heal. I also hope that the people who escaped harm but experienced and witnessed such a traumatic event will have what they need to process what they went through.
The male and female shooters who were killed have been named by law enforcement sources as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27. The identity of the third person involved has not been released. Farook was employed by the San Bernardino County Department of Health as a health technician inspecting restaurants and hotels.
The police have not commented on a motive, although, during one of several press conferences held yesterday, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said that "there had been some sort of dispute at a holiday party at the center and one person had left the gathering. He cautioned that police did not know that if the person who left the party was one of the people who returned and opened fire." Now they know: It was Farook, who left before a group photo was to be taken, and returned with a determination to mass murder his colleagues.
The exact why is not known, although it seems unlikely that whatever happened at the party was a singular precipitating event. Farook and Malik clearly had a plan for which they'd been preparing, as indicated by the amassed weaponry and body armor. Further, that morning, they left their 6-month-old daughter with Farook's mother, telling her they had a doctor's appointment. "The grandmother grew worried when she heard of the shooting attack in San Bernardino, and 'she started calling. No answer,' [Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Los Angeles office] said. The family was worried the Farook and Malik were shot in the attacks, but then they started receiving calls from media outlets indicating that Farook was a person of interest."
Farook's family, some of whom appeared at a brief press conference with CAIR last night, appeared genuinely surprised and stricken that he and his wife had committed this terrible act. His brother-in-law Farhad Kahn said: "I have no idea why he would do that, why would he do something like this. I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself." His coworkers and neighbors are shocked.
In coming days, we may hear from other people that there were indications of Farook's and/or Malik's grievances. But, at the moment, there is no clear picture of their motivation.
Many media reports are framing this question as "workplace violence vs. terrorism," which is quite strange, as the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Workplace violence can be a form of terrorism, and ideological terrorism can manifest as workplace violence.
In any case, it's unclear at this point what motivated Farook, who was a US-born Muslim, to kill his colleagues and others. And what motivated his wife to kill alongside him.
After being briefed on the shooting, President Obama made a statement to CBS News, saying that we must "come together in a bipartisan basis at every level of government to make these rare as opposed to normal. We should never think that this is something that just happens in the ordinary course of events, because it doesn't happen with the same frequency in other countries."
This is the 352nd mass shooting in the US so far this year. (Where "mass shooting" is defined as a shooting in which there are four or more injuries and/or deaths.) We haven't gone more than a week without a mass shooting in this country since 2013. This is our new normal. Our unfathomable, horrific new normal.
The ATF has confirmed two of the four firearms, the assault rifles, retrieved by investigators were legally purchased. They are still working to determine the origins of the other two weapons, the handguns, used in the shooting.
Lots and lots of conservative lawmakers tweeted "thoughts and prayers" to the people of San Bernardino yesterday, which was met with deserved derision, given the fact that an enormous number of these lawmakers received donations from the NRA during the last election cycle. Today's front page of the New York Daily News is absolutely extraordinary, reading in giant letters "GOD ISN'T FIXING THIS," and, below that "As latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards who could truly end gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes.," surrounded by images of tweets from Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, and Paul Ryan, with the word "prayers" highlighted.
At this point, elected officials offering "thoughts and prayers" is literally worse than nothing. They're empowered to do something real but refuse to do it. When I see an elected official, who could do something but refuses, tweeting/saying "thoughts and prayers," all I hear is "fuck you." It's a pretense of concern, while obdurately refusing to take meaningful action to prevent more violence. If that ain't a fuck you, what is?
If all they've got is prayers and thoughts, they should be praying for themselves to stop being craven shitlords and focus their thoughts on what vile and indecent opportunists they are.
And then there's this: If this heinous act of mass violence was indeed religiously motivated, as many of the people most vociferously offering prayers have already determined it to be, there is a particular foulness to responding with it exclusively with public prayer.
I am well aware that anyone inclined to offer prayer as their comprehensive solution to mass gun violence will disagree with me. I am happy to be in unyielding disagreement with any person who imagines the solution to an act of possible religious violence is more religion and more guns.
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I will update this post as more information becomes available. As always, please respect our usual request to keep these threads image-free.
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UPDATE 1: [CN: Video may autoplay at link] There were reports yesterday that explosive devices had been found and disabled at the scene of the shooting, and now this has been confirmed by law enforcement:
A bag believed to belong to the shooters was found in the conference room. Inside, investigators found three rudimentary explosive devices packed with black powder and rigged to a remote-controlled toy car. The remote for the toy car was found inside the SUV, a law enforcement official said.The couple's home was swept for further explosive devices, but none were found.
That means the pair planned to use the remote to detonate the explosives from a distance, the official said. Either it didn't work because of distance or they just didn't do it. Authorities later rendered the explosive devices safe.
UPDATE 2: Per Ayloush, above-quoted executive director of CAIR's LA office, Malik was "a Pakistani-born immigrant who lived in Saudi Arabia before marrying Farook," after the two met on an online dating site.
The same article also notes that Farook's office "had recently held a shower for the couple's new baby, and the two seemed to be 'living the American dream,' said Patrick Baccari, a fellow inspector who shared a cubicle with Farook."
Although I understand what Baccari is saying, and why he is saying it, "The American Dream" is a deeply problematic narrative, particularly for people of color. And there is not a singular "American Dream." It would be foolish to ignore that a number of mass shooters have explicitly stated notoriety as a motivating factor for their dramatic, heinous violence. The truth with which we all have to reckon is that, for a lot of people who pick up guns and commit acts of mass murder, the infamy guaranteed by such acts is their "American Dream" realized.
UPDATE 3: At a press conference this morning, above-quoted police chief Burguan updated the number of wounded from 17 to 21. He reaffirmed that 14 people were killed, and said that the victims' names would be released later today, once families had all been notified. Law enforcement were delayed in identifying victims because of the explosives that were discovered, and also because fire sprinklers were triggered by the shooting, which slowed down officers' ability to clear the scene; they did not reach the bodies until nearly midnight. Said Burguan: "We've been working throughout the night on that and we have been working on notifications. We will release the names, hopefully of all 14 people today, as we make notifications."
Other information from the press conference:
* Malik was in the US on a fiancé visa.
* The two handguns used in the shooting were purchased legally by Farook, who had no criminal record. The two rifles used were also purchased legally, but by someone other than Farook.
* The third man, detained Wednesday when thought to be a shooter and/or accomplice, has no relation to the shooting.
* A large amount of ammunition and explosive supplies were found at the couple's home. Police found 2,000 9mm rounds, over 2,500 223 rounds, and several hundred 22 long rifle rounds, in addition to "12 pipe bomb type devices found in that house or in the garage of that house. There were also hundreds of tools, many of which could be used to construct IEDs or pipe bombs."
* During the search of the home, police also found "computer evidence, cellphones...thumb drives" and other electronic items, which will be processed, and hopefully will reveal some motive for the mass shooting, because, at this point, the motive remains elusive.
UPDATE 4: Authorities have released the names of the 14 people who were killed in the shooting: Robert Adams, 40; Isaac Amanios, 60; Bennetta Bet-Badal, 46; Harry Bowman, 46; Sierra Clayborn, 27; Juan Espinoza, 50; Aurora Godoy, 26; Shannon Johnson, 45; Larry Kaufman, 42; Damian Meins, 58; Tin Nguyen, 31; Nicholas Thalasinos, 52; Yvette Velasco, 27; and Michael Raymond Wetzel, 37. Rest in peace.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker masculine_lady: "What non-material gift would you like to receive?"
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by rain.
Recommended Reading:
Teresa: Educators Whine About Trigger Warnings at Colleges; and They Say Students Need Coddling?
Noah: [Content Note: War; displacement; abuse] Male Refugees Deserve Asylum, Too
Atrios: [CN: War] Bombs Away
Yohana: Dave Chappelle Partners with Tech Company to Create 'No-Phone Zone' for Shows [Note: I'm not linking this piece approvingly. I think there are some real concerns, especially but not limited to some people with disabilities, with requiring zero cell phone access the cost of entry to attend a show.]
Charlie Jane: [CN: Disablist language] Mork and Mindy Was One of the Most Unlikely Miracles in the History of Television
Jesse: [CN: Rape culture; descriptions of abuse; racism] "I Remember John Furlong"
Kenrya: Nina Simone Talks Revolution and Black Pride in Never Released Interview
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There are flickery lights and editing in this video.]
New Order: "Bizarre Love Triangle"
