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Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Heather T.: "What line or phrase that you've read from Shakesville has stayed with you in a particularly meaningful way? Like a pocket charm or talisman you take out and look at every once in awhile?"
To be clear, and as always: "Shakesville" does not mean "Melissa McEwan." There are lots of great contributors, on the main page and in comments, who have written amazing things in this space, lots of which stay with me in meaningful ways.
The first thing that came to my mind was this quote from my dear, departed friend Maud: "There are times when you must speak, not because you are going to change the other person, but because if you don't speak, they have changed you."
And the second was when commenter JupiterPluvius calmly, brilliantly, and memorably explained to a troll who was missing the point: "What you are doing, sir, is the equivalent of going into a pie-shop and demanding a jellied eel, because the jellied-eel shop had been closed down after a gang of hooligans had demolished the place. SIR, YOU ARE TOO LATE FOR THE JELLIED EELS. HERE, WE HAVE ONLY PIE."
YES!!!
On Valentine's Day, Paul Feig gave us all a gift by sharing the first teaser trailer for this summer's Ghostbusters reboot! Yayayayayay!
Video Description: The sound of wind over a sweeping view of New York City at dusk. Text onscreen: "WHO." Film of police cars, lights spinning, racing down a New York City street. Text onscreen: "YOU." Film of military personnel running, as a single note begins to crescendo. Text onscreen: "GONNA." Military personnel kneeling in the street with guns. Text onscreen: "CALL?" Ghostbusters logo. Text onscreen: "Trailer premiere 3.3.16."Omgomgomgomg! SO EXCITED!
In case you're wondering whether a bunch of whiny fanboy babies are still farting about how Paul Feig is ruining their childhoods, the answer is yes!
The damages in this case could be staggering. I hope Paul Feig's Heat money can cover repayment of a Members Only jacket and jizzy Kleenex.
The Tuesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by markers.
Recommended Reading:
Zoë: [Content Note: Domestic violence; harassment; threats; abuse; sex worker stigma] Why I Just Dropped the Harassment Charges against the Man Who Started GamerGate
Madison: Stevie Wonder Just Made a Powerful Statement at the Grammys about People with Disabilities
Ragen: [CN: Fat hatred; weight loss surgery] Craigslist Ad: Free Weight Loss Surgery for Marketing
Angry Asian Man: Chloe Kim Selected as Team USA's Flag Bearer at the 2016 Youth Winter Olympic Games
Nicole: [CN: Mother-shaming; misogyny; Walking Dead spoilers] Lori Grimes for Mother of the Year
Maddie: [CN: Colonialism] Scientists Discover a Boiling River of Amazonian Legend
Keith: First Confirmation Trailer Released, Starring Kerry Washington as Anita Hill
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
The Walking Thread
[Content Note: Spoilers are lurching around undeadly herein. Descriptions of violence.]
This is the very moment that Rick Grimes' brain broke.
Sunday night was The Walking Dead's season six mid-season premiere (sure), and if the garbage writers of this garbage show had tried to write an episode that encapsulated everything I hate about it, they could not have done a better job!
The episode picks up right where we left off—mid-chaos, as the horde of pit zombies descends on Aarontown. We start with Daryl, Sasha, and Sgt. Redbull, still out on the road trying to execute Optimus Grimes' plan, three plans ago, and create a diversion to draw the zombies away from Aarontown.
They're stopped by a group of greasy dudes on motorcycles, and Head Greaseball tells them that all their guns are belong to Negan now. (Who is Negan? Obviously the next Big Bad, because this show is a loop of the same story arc over and over.) Head Greaseball orders a Greaseball Minion to take Daryl to the truck and search it top to bottom, then points the stolen handguns at Sasha and Sgt. Redbull. He says he'll kill them, then says he won't, then says he will, and then he and the rest of the Greaseball Herd explode into a million pieces. Cut to Daryl holding a rocket launcher on his shoulder.
Pithy quips as Head Greaseball's smoking melon rolls around in the street. This fucking show.
Back at Aarontown, Optimus Prime leads the guts-slathered gang comprised of Tig Nocarl, Blaura Blinney, Ron Blinney, the Littlest Blinney, Michonne, Gabriel, and Judith through the legions of zombies. His first line in the episode is: "All right, new plan." Which is PERFECT, because Optimus Grimes' plans are always TERRIFIC.
Optimus Grimes gives Judith to Gabriel to keep safe, which is further evidence of his terrible decision-making, because everything we know about Gabriel up to this point suggests he will throw that baby at a zombie to save himself first chance he gets.
Elsewhere, Tara and Rosita Espinoza hatch a plan to save Doctor Zoey, who's still in the clutches of the evil W-Head. Glenn gives Enid some more cool lectures, and they hatch a plan to save Maggie. Carol and Morgan snipe at each other about who should have been killed when, and they hatch a plan to do something who cares.
Night falls. Plans are hatching all over the place. The Littlest Blinney recalls Carol's scare story about zombies and starts freaking out and refuses to keep moving. And, inexplicably, INSTEAD OF PICKING UP THIS SMALL CHILD AND CARRYING HIM, Blaura Blinney and the others start TALKING OUT LOUD and telling him they have to go. He starts whining and is immediately attacked and killed by zombies. This fucking show.
His mom starts screaming, and then she is immediately attacked and killed by zombies. This fucking show. Tig Nocarl screams for help, because his hand is clutched in her dead hand, and so Optimus Grimes cuts her hand off. This fucking show.
Ron Blinney then freaks out and points a gun at Optimus Grimes, blaming him for the deaths of his entire family. (Fair.) Michonne katanas him just as he shoots. This fucking show. The bullet misses Optimus Grimes, but hits Tig Nocarl squarely in the eyeball. This fucking show. Optimus Grimes scoops up Tig Nocarl's limp body LIKE HE SHOULD HAVE DONE WITH THE LITTLEST BLINNEY AND AVOIDED ALL THIS BULLSHIT and makes a run for the infirmary, as Michonne clears their path with her katana of no mercy.
THIS FUCKING SHOW.
Meanwhile, the W-Head gets himself and Doctor Zoey into a heap o' trouble trying to make his escape, and he gets bit. She promises him if he gets her to the infirmary, she'll save his life. They're almost there when Carol shoots him. Oh well!
Elsewhere, Glenn and Enid are busily saving Maggie when Glenn gets into a heap o' trouble trying to distract the zombies. LUCKILY, Daryl, Sasha, and Sgt. Redbull return just in time to save Glenn. PHEW!
Doctor Zoey arrives at the infirmary just in time to prep to save Tig Nocarl. PHEW! Everyone's showing up right on time tonight! PHEW PHEW PHEW!
Optimus Grimes can't! even! deal! with Tig Nocarl having been shot and maybe dying, so he does THE ONLY THING A MAN CAN DO, and runs out into the morass of zombies and starts hacking all of them like he's going to single-handedly destroy the entire horde.
All the other grown-ups peer out windows and see Optimus Grimes and run outside, not to pull him back indoors from his ridiculous suicide mission, BUT TO JOIN HIM. Gabriel gives a cool speech about how they've all been praying to god to save their town, and god has decided to save their town by giving them courage. Even Doctor Mulletsworth is suddenly brave!
Now, over the course of the previous
THE MISSING INGREDIENT WAS ALWAYS BELIEVING IN THEMSELVES AND WORKING TOGETHER AS A TEAM.
And if that rainbow-farting unicorn of a resolution wasn't bad enough, Daryl lights a big fire on the lake (presumably the place from which they draw their drinking water? cool) and a bunch of the zombies walk straight into it and incinerate themselves. Because, much like the zombie ponchos, the "distract and kill them with fire" scenario returns sporadically as needed.
The next morning, the streets of Aarontown are littered with zombie corpses and everyone is safe. Except Tig Nocarl, who is convalescing in an infirmary bed, while Optimus Grimes keeps vigil. He has a bandage over one eye, and now I guess I'mma have to see this kid wearing a goddamn hat AND an eyepatch, right? GOOD GRIEF.
Optimus Grimes holds Tig Nocarl's hand and gives a terrific speech about how he underestimated the Aarontownians and now he realized he was wrong and Deanna was right and everything is going to be perfect because he sees they can work together and they will rebuild and blah blah fart. Tig Nocarl squeezes his hand. Aww.
Meanwhile, Negan lurks in the distance. Because this fucking show.
Next week: More of this garbage.
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelda, being supercute, as usual.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Please Support Shakesville
This is, for those who have requested it, your bi-monthly reminder to donate to Shakesville and an important fundraiser to keep Shakesville going.
If you value the content and/or community in this space, please consider setting up a subscription or making a one-time contribution.
If you have appreciated being able to tune into Shakesville and/or my Twitter feed for coverage of the presidential primaries, for getting distilled news about politics or other topics, for a safe and image-free space to discuss difficult subjects, for pop culture deconstruction, for recipes, for the Fat Fashion threads, or for whatever else you appreciate at Shakesville, whether it's the moderation, community in the Open Threads, Film Corner, video transcripts, the blogarounds, or anything else, please remember that Shakesville is run exclusively on donations.
I cannot afford to do this full-time for free, but, even if I could, fundraising is also one of the most feminist acts I do here. I ask to be paid for my work because progressive feminist advocacy has value; because women's work has value.
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.
Thank you to each of you who donates or has donated, whether monthly or as a one-off. I am deeply appreciative. This community couldn't exist without that support, truly. Thank you.
My thanks as well to everyone who contributes to the space in other ways, whether as a contributor, a moderator, a guest writer, a transcriber, and/or as someone who takes the time to send me a note of support and encouragement. (Or a cool drawing!) This community couldn't exist without you, either.
Please note that I don't want anyone to feel obliged to contribute financially, especially if money is tight. There is a big enough readership that no one needs to donate if it would be a hardship, and no one should ever feel bad about that. ♥
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: War on agency; anti-choice terrorism] More absolutely heinous fuckery from the Conservative Legislation Lab: Indiana House Bill 1337 is an utterly appalling anti-choice piece of legislation, which will be heard in committee tomorrow. Earlier today, Harmony tweeted some important information about the bill, and I am sharing her tweets here with her permission:
We need to talk about #HB1337, being heard in committee tomorrow. It's an anti-abortion bill with 3 main issues.Teaspoons ahoy, Shakers!
Issue 1: would add a new hoop for abortion seeking patients to jump through, requiring an ultrasound 18 hours before procedure. Right now, patients have to hear state required info 18 hours before, but the ultrasound can be done day of. Requiring it earlier? Means that patients may need to travel farther, multiple times. More time off work, more childcare, etc. No reason for it.
Issue 2 with #HB1337: would share admitting privileges and backup agreements for abortion providers with all hospitals in county or contiguous. This is just another way to stigmatize abortion providers and cut them off from local doctors who provide their backup by making info public. Anti-abortion protesters will show up at the schools of doctors' CHILDREN. Flier their neighborhoods. Kill them. #HB1337 opens them to this. There is no reason hospitals need this info. Patients who experience complications post abortion will receive care no matter where they go. And since most patients seeking abortion have to travel so far from home, this info is even more useless for local hospitals.
Issue 3 with #HB1337: MANDATES that remains from miscarriages OR abortions be buried or cremated. Totally shames patients and takes autonomy. Current law allows patients to CHOOSE. #HB1337 removes that choice. Shameful.
So, now that we've talked about why #HB1337 is bad, let's talk about what to do next.
First thing: talk about it! #INLegis is def hoping that after the disappointment of not passing LGBTQ protections, you won't be paying attention to abortion issues. Next thing let's make sure local media is paying attention to #HB1337. So @indystar @rtv6 @NUVO_net @WTHRcom will you be @ #INLegis tomorrow? It's also important that legislators hear about opposition to #HB1337, so feel free to call the committee!
Former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has died. "Boutros-Ghali, whose term was marked by war in the former Yugoslavia, massacres in Rwanda and repeated battles with the US, has died at the age of 93. ...A diplomat who helped secure peace deals between Israel and his native Egypt, Boutros-Ghali served as UN chief from January 1992 to December 1996, and became the first secretary general to be deprived of a second term as he struggled to impose the UN's writ in a post-cold war world. He was the first African to hold the position. Repeated clashes with the world's dominant power meant his second term was opposed by then US secretary of state Madeleine Albright and president Bill Clinton, who garnered the mixed support of some EU nations, including the UK, to block him. He was succeeded by Kofi Annan."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] The singer Vanity has also died at age 57. "Denise Matthews, who as Vanity fronted the group Vanity 6 but was best known for her collaboration with Prince, has died at a hospital in Fremont, California." RIP Nasty Girl. What the fuck, 2016?
[CN: Misogynoir] Saturday Night Live had an amazing digital short this weekend, called "The Day Beyoncé Turned Black," sending up white people's reactions to Beyoncé's "Formation" video. If you missed it, head over to Colorlines. I was lolsobbing my face off when I saw it. My favorite part: Two dudes' reacting to the realization that Beyoncé is not only black, but a woman. A pretty terrific commentary on white supremacy's regard for black humanity, and how women are routinely asked to wrench their womanhood and/or their race and/or other parts of our identities from our personhood.
This is promising news: "A therapy that retrains the body's immune system to fight cancer has provoked excitement after more than 90% of terminally ill patients reportedly went into remission. White blood cells were taken from patients with leukaemia, modified in the lab and then put back. But the data has not been published or reviewed and two patients are said to have died from an extreme immune response. Experts said the trial was exciting, but still only 'a baby step.' The news bubbled out of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Washington DC. The lead scientist, Prof Stanley Riddell from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, said all other treatments had failed in these patients and they had only two-to-five months to live. He told the conference that: 'The early data is unprecedented.'"
[CN: Racism] This is a great observation by Leela Daou: "'While Sanders has drawn a significant portion of his support from the youngest voting bloc (under the age of 30), just 25 percent of millennial black voters said they are supporting the Vermont senator, compared with 64 percent who said they are backing Clinton. The reverse is true among white millennials, who support Sanders 75 percent to 22 percent.' Unless someone in the media wants to argue that black millennials don't matter, let's see some coverage of this. Because 'millennials' shouldn't just mean white millennials."
Whooooooooooooops! The opening shot in Marco Rubio's "Morning Again in America" campaign advert "appears to be filmed from Vancouver Harbour. And the flag on the boat appears to be Canadian."
Um, what? "Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Monday weighed in on the Senate's upcoming battle with President Obama over the next Supreme Court nominee, saying he believes Obama 'has a conflict of interest' in appointing somebody to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat." STFU, Rand Paul.
[CN: War on agency] In other Republicans Being Awesome as Usual news: "U.S. House Republicans are plowing ahead with an investigation into unsubstantiated claims that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue, with plans this week to subpoena three organizations involved in fetal tissue research."
[CN: Homophobia] "Manny Pacquiao, the famed boxer turned politician, has apologized for remarks he made saying that gay people are worse than animals. Pacquiao, a current member of Philippines' House of Representatives, made the disparaging comments about homosexuality in a TV interview. Pacquiao is currently running for one of 12 seats in the country's senate." Honestly? Who the fuck cares if he apologizes? How sorry can someone who said something so hideous actually be?
This is really cool: "NASA's Giving away Brilliant Space Travel Posters for Free: [The retro-style space travel posters from the design studio at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs] are a continuation of the Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster series first created by JPL's design studio last year. The studio, first put together 13 years ago, helps JPL's scientists and engineers plan out future missions, which means they're always aware of the latest and greatest ideas being bandied about the lab. When NASA came to them asking for additional posters in the series, they were able to integrate many ideas the agency had already been spitballing for the future—such as floating cities hovering above Venus."
And finally! "Dog Adopts Orphaned Opossums, Gives Them Awesome Rides on Her Back." Awwwwww! ♥
Supreme Court Nomination Update
Despite the Republicans' entirely typical caterwauling that President Obama should not nominate a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, the President has said that he will indeed nominate a replacement.
As well he should. And without the Republicans behaving like relentless assholes.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, published under the blunt headline "For the good of the country, stop your nakedly partisan obstruction," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid takes the Republicans to task for their bullshit:
We are entering uncharted waters in the history of the U.S. system of checks and balances, with potentially momentous consequences. Having gridlocked the Senate for years, Republicans now want to gridlock the Supreme Court with a campaign of partisan sabotage aimed at denying the president's constitutional duty to pick nominees.There is much more at the link.
Republicans should not insult the American people's intelligence by pretending there is historical precedent for what they are about to do. There is not.
The Senate has confirmed Supreme Court nominees both in election years and in the last year of a presidency — as recently as 1988, a presidential election year when a Democratic Senate confirmed President Ronald Reagan's nomination of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in the final year of his administration. My colleague and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), was a member of the Judiciary Committee then and voted to confirm Kennedy. More recently, Sen. Grassley stated, "The reality is that the Senate has never stopped confirming judicial nominees during the last few months of a president's term." That is true.
For his part, my counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), on Saturday called for the American people to have a "voice" in this process. Their voice was heard loud and clear when they elected and reelected President Obama, twice handing him the constitutional power to nominate Supreme Court justices.
That is how our system works and has worked for more than 200 years. Until now, even through all the partisan battles of recent decades, the Senate's constitutional duty to give a fair and timely hearing and a floor vote to the president's Supreme Court nominees has remained inviolable. This Republican Senate would be the first in history to abdicate that vital duty.
As Spandan Chakrabarti wisely notes, the Republicans' obstructionism may well play right into President Obama's hands: "Republicans have already helpfully handed the President all he needs to paint their opposition to his eventual nominee as political and not substantive with their incredibly shortsighted to demand right away that President Obama stay away from nominating a new Justice. There is no way they can stop the president from exercising his Constitutional power, and because they have shown their hands early, the President and Harry Reid can easily frame any Republican attack against his inevitable nominee as spite rather than any serious concern on jurisprudence."
Which frees up the President to nominate a legitimate progressive, rather than a consensus candidate. And I certainly hope he will exploit this opportunity and nominate a known progressive to the Court.
There are a number of lists of potential and/or likely nominees. [Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Here is one of those lists, featuring ten possibilities. Some of them are certainly more progressive than others.
While immediate reports suggested that Sri Srinivasan, a moderate whose personal views are largely unknown, would get the nomination, now a number of experts are saying they believe Attorney General Loretta Lynch will get the nomination.
I have no guesses. I just hope that the President will go for it. The Republicans are going to be jerks either way, and they've undermined their own credibility (such as it is) to object on issues of jurisprudence, so there's no reason not to try to swing the Court in our favor.
After all, that's what we elected him to do.
Republican Debate Wrap-Up, Round Whatever
So, there was yet another Republican debate over the weekend. Each one of these things is worse than the last, and this one got worse by exponential proportions. Donald Trump was literally just screaming at Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz; Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were screaming at each other; the audience was booing; the words coming out of the candidates' faces when they even bothered to talk policy were heinous in the extreme.
The Washington Post has a full transcript of the debate, and I Storified my live-tweeting.
I noted last Friday, in coverage of the last Democratic debate: "The Democratic debates are infinitely more substantive than the Republican debates. It's genuinely shocking (and terrifying) how huge the disparity is." And the last Republican debate only underscored how extraordinary that disparity really is.
Again, Trump's disgraceful performance did not erode his support from the GOP base. He is still leading in South Carolina, the site of the next primary, with a commanding 35%. Cruz and Rubio are tied for second place at a distant 18%.
[CN: Video may autoplay at first link] And Trump was so unhappy with getting booed during the debate—which he attributed to the audience being stacked with "special interests and donors," and he wasn't wrong—that now he is threatening to renege on his pledge to not mount a third-party run: "The RNC better get its act together because, you know, I signed a pledge. The pledge isn't being honored by the RNC. ...I signed a pledge, but it's a double-edged pledge. As far as I'm concerned, they're in default on their pledge."
And lest you imagine that Trump got booed for being a shameless bigot with garbage policy ideas that have been marinating in dumpster juice for three decades—nope! He was booed for saying that the Iraq War was a mistake and that 9/11 happened on George W. Bush's watch. Which Jeb Bush then said was an attack on his family.
Moderator John Dickerson of CBS News: On Monday, George W. Bush will campaign in South Carolina for his brother. As you've said tonight, and you've often said, the Iraq War and your opposition to it was a sign of your good judgment. In 2008, in an interview with Wolf Blitzer, talking about President George W. Bush's conduct of the war, you said you were surprised that Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi didn't try to impeach him. You said, quote, "which personally I think would have been a wonderful thing." Close quote. When you were asked what you meant by that and you said: "For the war, for the war, he lied, he got us into the war with lies." Do you still believe President Bush should be—should have been impeached?Of all the things Donald Trump has said during this campaign worth booing, worth getting upset about, worth yelling at him about, Jeb Bush loses it over Trump saying that his brother was a shitty president who took us to war on a bunch of lies. And why? Because despite Trump's unabashed rhetoric that makes plain how gross Republican policies really are, whether George W. Bush needs defending is basically Trump's and Jeb Bush's only major point of disagreement.
Trump: First of all, I have to say, as a businessman I get along with everybody. I have business all over the world. [jeers and booing] I know so many of the people in the audience. And by the way, I'm a self-funder. I don't have—I have my wife and I have my son. That's all I have. I don't have this. [smattering of applause] So let me just tell you, I get along with everybody, which is my obligation to my company, to myself, et cetera.
Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake. All right? Now, you can take it any way you want, and it took—it took Jeb Bush, if you remember, at the beginning of his announcement, when he announced for president, it took him five days. He went back—it was a mistake; it wasn't a mistake. It took him five days before his people told him what to say, and he ultimately said, "It was a mistake."
The war in Iraq—we spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, we don't even have it. Iran is taking over Iraq with the second-largest oil reserves in the world. Obviously, it was a mistake.
Dickerson: So—
Trump: George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East.
Dickerson: But so I'm going to— So you still think he should be impeached?
Bush: I think it's my turn, isn't it?
Trump: You do whatever you want. You call it whatever you want. I want to tell you: They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction; there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction! [booing]
Dickerson: All right. Okay. All right. Governor Bush, when a member on the stage's brother gets attacked—
Bush: I've got about five or six—
Dickerson: —the brother gets to respond.
Bush: Do I get to do it five or six times or just once responding to that?
Trump: I'm being nice.
Bush: So here's the deal. I'm sick and tired of Barack Obama blaming my brother for all of the problems that he's had. [cheers and applause] And, frankly, I could care less about the insults that Donald Trump gives to me. It's blood sport for him. He enjoys it. And I'm glad he's happy about it. But I am sick and tired...
Trump: He spent $22 million in—
Bush: I am sick and tired of him going after my family. My dad is the greatest man alive in my mind. [applause] And while Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. And I'm proud of what he did. [applause] And he's had the gall to go after my brother.
Trump: The World Trade Center came down during your brother's reign, remember that. [booing]
Bush: He's had the gall to go after my mother. Hold on. Let me finish. He has had the gall to go after my mother.
Trump: That's not keeping us safe.
Bush: Look, I won the lottery when I was born 63 years ago, looked up, and I saw my mom. My mom is the strongest woman I know.
Trump: She should be running.
Bush: This is not about my family or his family. This is about the South Carolina families that need someone to be a commander-in-chief that can lead. And I'm that person.
Your modern Republican Party, folks.
Good Morning! Or Whatever Time of Day It Is in Your Part of the World!
Video Description: A thin young woman who appears to be white and/or Latina offers a deep pink edible flower to a sloth, who is hanging out in the far back corner of a semi-enclosed area, which is topped with climbing branches. The sloth sniffs the flower, then slowly begins to move, limb by limb, branch by branch, toward the woman, who continues to hold out the flower. The sloth pauses to sniff the flower again, then slowly continues to move toward the woman. The sloth extends an arm way up to a higher level of branch, pausing again to sniff the flower. The sloth pulls itself up to the higher level, so it is eye-level with the woman, then turns to look at her. She holds the flower so the sloth can sniff it. The sloth reaches out, turns, and then moves toward her to be held. She woman gently holds the sloth, squeezing her eyes shut and smiling broadly with utter delight.
Quote of the Day
"I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor in due time. There will be plenty of time for me to do so and for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote. These are responsibilities that I take seriously, as should everyone. They're bigger than any one party. They are about our democracy."—President Obama, responding to the Republicans' outpouring of garbage words about how he should not nominate a replacement for Justice Scalia, but leave it for the next president, and that, if he doesn't, they will endeavor to obstruct and delay the confirmation hearing for his nominee.
It's not just President Obama's right as the elected and sitting president to nominate someone to the court; it's his responsibility.
So of course President Obama is going to nominate someone to the Supreme Court. Because he knows how to do his fucking job. Unlike Republicans.
At the Republican debate last night, all of the candidates suggested either or both that Obama shouldn't nominate someone in an election year or should nominate someone conservative. They all went on about how Obama should nominate a "consensus candidate," even as they promised to nominate conservatives if elected.
Hillary Clinton had a few thoughts about that bullshit. Namely: That President Obama is still president, and Republicans can go fuck themselves.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Has Died
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died in Texas at age 79.
My condolences to his family and friends.
You know the old adage: If you don't have anything nice to say.
...
President Obama will now have his third opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court justice. The Republicans are likely to try to hold up the nomination process until after the next president's inauguration, in the hope that they will have a Republican executive to choose the next justice.
Things are about to get pretty fucking weird.
Obviously, it's likely that Obama will select someone who's currently a sitting judge.
In my fantasy world, I wonder: Has a First Lady ever been nominated to the Supreme Court by her husband? If not, now seems like a good time to break the seal on that idea.
(There are a lot of reasons that couldn't and wouldn't happen, but a girl can dream!)
However, let us recall that Hillary Clinton loves the idea of nominating Barack Obama, if he's into it!
Let me repeat: Things are about to get pretty fucking weird.
Note: As celebrating Scalia's death is not welcome in this space, if you, like me, have nothing nice to say about the man, but feel obliged to recognize his death, please feel welcome and encouraged to simply leave an ellipsis in comments.
...
The Virtual Pub Is Open + Programming Note
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
I've got some personal stuff to do today, and then we will be taking Monday off for Presidents' Day. So I will see you back here on Tuesday!
Democratic Debate Wrap-Up
So, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders met in Milwaukee last night for another debate. I watched and live-tweeted it; for anyone who would like to see those tweets, I've collected them in a Storify.
The Washington Post has a complete transcript of the debate.
My primary takeaways:
1. The Democratic debates are infinitely more substantive than the Republican debates. It's genuinely shocking (and terrifying) how huge the disparity is.
2. Sanders is not merely passionate about wealth inequality; it is virtually all he cares about. His opening statement, his closing statement, and any answer to any question that could possibly be answered thus were dedicated to wealth inequality. Even when he is asked to speak about racism or sexism, he talks about wealth inequality. He does not seem amenable to embracing an intersectional analysis at all. Racism? Solve it with jobs and education! Sexism? Solve it with jobs and education! The thing is, he was standing onstage next to arguably the most privileged woman in the world, who is also subjected to arguably the most relentless misogyny in the world. She doesn't need a job or a free college education. She needs her whole humanity respected, and breaking up the banks won't make that happen.
3. Clinton takes strong issue with this approach. Her closing statement was, frankly, killer:
We agree that we've got to get unaccountable money out of politics. We agree that Wall Street should never be allowed to wreck Main Street again.BOOM.
But here's the point I want to make tonight: I am not a single-issue candidate, and I do not believe we live in a single-issue country. I think that a lot of what we have to overcome to break down the barriers that are holding people back, whether it's poison in the water of the children of Flint, or whether it's the poor miners who are being left out and left behind in coal country, or whether it is any other American today who feels somehow put down and oppressed by racism, by sexism, by discrimination against the LGBT community, against the kind of efforts that need to be made to root out all of these barriers, that's what I want to take on.
And here in Wisconsin, I want to reiterate: We've got to stand up for unions and working people who have been at the core [applause] of the American middle class, and who are being attacked by ideologues, by demagogues. Yes, does Wall Street and big financial interests, along with drug companies, insurance companies, Big Oil, all of it, have too much influence? You're right!
But if we were to stop that tomorrow, we would still have the indifference, the negligence, that we saw in Flint. We would still have racism holding people back. We would still have sexism preventing women from getting equal pay. We would still have LGBT people who get married on Saturday and get fired on Monday. And we would still have governors like Scott Walker and others trying to rip out the heart of the middle class by making it impossible to organize and stand up for better wages and working conditions.
So I'm going to keep talking about tearing down all the barriers that stand in the way of Americans fulfilling their potential, because I don't think our country can live up to its potential unless we give a chance to every single American to live up to theirs. [cheers and applause]
4. I found Sanders' general demeanor extremely unappealing, particularly his snide snipes at Clinton. They only had this debate because he wanted more of them (probably assuming Clinton would say no and he could use that against her whooooooops), and I'm not sure that people seeing more of this act is going to work in his favor.
5. The narrative going into this first post-New Hampshire debate was that Sanders would be confident and Clinton would look desperate. It was precisely the opposite.
Quite honestly, I started out with a much more favorable opinion of Bernie Sanders than I have now. The more I see of him, the less I like. That's largely because the more I see of him, the more I realize how little there is. He is a one-issue candidate. And he believes that one issue is the root of all ills. I disagree. Which doesn't leave us much common ground. Oh well.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Diverkat: "What's your favourite mood-boosting/feel good activity?"
Democratic Debate
There's another Democratic debate tonight, which will take place in Milwaukee and will be moderated by PBS NewsHour anchors Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff. The debate will be simulcast on PBS and CNN.
It will be streamed on the PBS NewsHour website and on CNN.com.
So, here's a thread for discussion!
