If you had to pick just one (ONE!) book to call your favorite (I KNOW!), what would it be?
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There is a strobe effect in this video.]
New Kids on the Block: "Hangin' Tough"
True Fact: I saw NKOTB in concert three times.
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by potatoes.
Recommended Reading:
Charlotte: [Content Note: Discussion of sex, coercion, body shaming] Against the Cult of the Pussy Eaters
Keith: Warren Buffett's Son and Daughter-in-Law Will Invest $90 Million in Women of Color
Alan: 10 (Un)documented Black and LGBTQIA+ Activists You Need to Know
Monica: [CN: Sexual violence; transmisogynistic violence] Trans Woman Sexually Assaulted at Stonewall Inn
Angry Asian Man: The New Superman Is...Chinese! And Written by Gene Luen Yang
Maddy: A Little Girl Dressed as BB-8 Faces Off Against a Tiny Xenomorph Cosplayer
Sumitra: [CN: Disablist language] 'Blackout' Tattoo Trend Has People Blacking out Large Areas of Their Bodies (Note: I'm linking this piece because I think it's interesting and begs for deconstruction from a racial perspective, although I don't think I'm the person to do it. But that aspect is definitely on topic for comments.)
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
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!
On the Debate Debate
So, over the past couple of days, a debate has been raging about Bernie Sanders asking Hillary Clinton for more debates, and Clinton aide Joel Benenson having told CNN's Kate Bolduan that Clinton won't agree to more debates unless Sanders changes his tone:
There's no risk. She's done well in the debates. But Senator Sanders doesn't get to decide when we debate, particularly when he's running a negative campaign. Let's see if he goes back to the kind of tone he said he was going to set early on. If he does that, then we'll talk about debates.This, naturally, unleashed a firestorm, and there are plenty of articles care of the corporate media, as well as hashtags full of Sanders supporters, criticizing and ridiculing Clinton for suggesting that Sanders' tone has been inappropriate.
...We'll see what kind of tone he sets. If his campaign wants to run the kind of negative campaign and run negative ads like they did in North Carolina and Illinois all over the country on March 15th, that's going to be disappointing to a lot of Democrats who feel we have to start focusing on Republicans, whether it's Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, and about our differences so we win in November. That's what Democrats ought to be doing. That's what she's doing.
For the record, Clinton has not ruled out a debate in New York.
My guess is that Clinton will end up debating Sanders, just as she relented and agreed to more debates after their originally agreed-upon schedule once before. But if she doesn't, I frankly feel like that's fine. There have been more than enough debates by now.
Just to be clear, if the situation were reversed, and Clinton wanted more debates at this point and Sanders didn't, I would also defend his right to take a pass, irrespective of his reasons.
But of course it's her reason that's at issue.
Personally, I find Clinton's condition not only eminently reasonable but good politics. We are bearing down on the general election, and any candidate with a chance at the nomination—which Sanders insists he still has—should be pivoting at this point to making their case against the Republican nominee.
Which, as Berenson noted, Clinton has started to do. In her an op-ed for the New York Daily News on gun reform, she went directly and forcefully after Republicans:
Of course, all of the Republican candidates march in lockstep with the gun lobby.And in a speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she let loose on the Republican Party, their odious front runner, and their Supreme Court obstructionism:
Donald Trump has called the NRA's efforts to stop gun safety reforms "invaluable." He has vowed to "un-sign" all of President Obama's executive actions to strengthen background checks. And he has pledged that on his very first day in office he would override laws that prevent people from carrying guns into schools.
When he isn't cooking bacon on the barrel of an automatic rifle, Ted Cruz is earning his lifetime NRA "A+ rating" in the Senate by voting against comprehensive background checks. He even signed a letter pledging to "oppose any legislation" to address gun violence.
It's time we stand up to the Republicans and the gun lobby and stand with parents who have lost their children to gun violence.
"Donald Trump didn't come out of nowhere," Clinton said in a speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "What Republicans have sown with their extremist tactics, they're now reaping with Trump's candidacy."Meanwhile, Sanders is continuing to make attacks on Clinton, her fundraising, her speaking fees, her ties to the Democratic establishment, etc.
"Once you make the extreme normal, you open the door to even worse," she added.
In the speech, Clinton asked voters to consider – "as scary as it might be" – who Trump might pick to fill the supreme court vacancy after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. The president has nominated Judge Merrick Garland, but Republican leadership has refused to even grant him a hearing.
Clinton singled out Senate judiciary committee chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa who, along with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have committed to keeping Garland from having a hearing. The Republicans have argued that the next president should pick Scalia's replacement on the bench. She quoted Grassley, who has said that allowing Obama to pick the nominee is in effect denying voters a voice in shaping the Supreme Court.
"As one of the more than 65 million Americans who voted to re-elect Barack Obama, I'd say my voice is being ignored," Clinton argued. Then, she said: "I'm adding my voice to the chorus asking Senator Grassley to step up and do his job. He should hold a hearing."
He would certainly use further debates to do the same, even though, at this point in the primary, he should be more invested in weakening the Republicans than the other possible (and likely) Democratic nominee.
He's still running against Clinton, using negative campaigning in which he promised he'd never engage, while she is already looking forward to the fight that awaits whichever one of them wins.
And, frankly, it's a timely reminder that Clinton hasn't weathered decades of Republican attacks by accident or luck. She is a savvy and fearless fighter, with an abundance of moxie and the skills to articulate laser-focused critiques of her career opponents.
Sanders might do well to consider showing us he can keep up, if indeed he can.
Daily Dose of Cute
Dudley, half on my lap and fully silly last night.
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; reproductive coercion] This is a must-read piece by Sharona Coutts at Rewire: "A Rewire investigation has found that at the center of the drama that unfolded in AJ's life was a document produced by Life Dynamics, the prominent anti-choice group that is based in Denton, Texas, which receives the majority of its funding from the fracking billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks. The Wilks brothers are also the main backers of Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. The document is a bogus 'notice' that tricks women into believing they have signed away their legal rights to receive an abortion. Providers throughout the country have told Rewire that this document has been used for years to deceive and intimidate both patients and providers by threatening them with legal action should they go through with obtaining or providing an abortion. In AJ's case, the tactic did not work. But her story is an illustration of the intrusive and dishonest techniques used by anti-choice activists to deprive women of their constitutional rights." Fucking hell.
[CN: Racism; police brutality] Goddammit: "A Minneapolis county attorney has decided not to press charges against two officers involved in the shooting of unarmed black man Jamar Clark in November 2015. Clark, 24, was shot by police in November following an altercation with two officers just yards from the precinct headquarters, and died a day later from his injuries. Police said that he was shot during a struggle, but some eyewitnesses said he was already in handcuffs. Family members later described the shooting as 'execution-style.' However, county attorney Michael Freeman said that the evidence did not suggest Clark was handcuffed at the time of his shooting, and that he was reaching for one of the officers' gun at the time. He also said that Clark told the officers: 'I am ready to die.'"
[CN: Policing] "The 74's Matt Barnum examined public records for the nation's ten largest school districts to uncover one important statistic: the ratio of counselors to security personnel. What he found sheds light on where the districts—each of which counts students of color as the majority—choose to invest their time and funds. Of the largest five districts, three have more officers than counselors. They are New York City, Chicago, and Miami-Dade. When the scope is widened to the top ten, four fall into the same category." Emphasis mine.
Last night at the Republican townhall, all three remaining candidates "stepped back from their earlier pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee during Tuesday night's CNN town hall." Welp!
[CN: Sexual assault; racism] Yesterday at a Trump rally in Wisconsin, a 15-year-old girl "was groped and then pepper sprayed in the face after pushing away her assailant... A vibrant orange spray of oleoresin capsicum blasted the girl in the face after she shoved a man who was packed among dozens of pro-Trump supporters shouting 'All Lives Matters' outside the Janesville event Tuesday. Janesville cops believe the pepper sprayer was a bearded man with glasses wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat seen in video footage. ...No suspect information was immediately available as of early Tuesday, but authorities were seeking two men, one sought for the alleged sexual assault and the other accused of spraying the girl's face." That would be on the same day Trump was using rape apologia to defend his campaign manager on charges of gendered violence. Not incidentally.
Meanwhile, Trump is on the cover of People magazine, and insists "I'm a much nicer person than people would think." Yeah, I doubt that.
[CN: Misogyny] Another one by me at Blue Nation Review: "Zombie Frame: The False Narrative of Hillary's 'Enthusiasm Gap' Just Won't Die." To continue stating this false narrative is not only unfair to Clinton, but does a grave disservice to her supporters, whose enthusiastic support is being invisibilized. Many of these voters are from communities most likely to be disenfranchised at the polls, and now the media is adding insult to injury by rhetorical disenfranchising them. It really, really needs to stop.
In other Clinton news: "Beyoncé Gets a Surprise Visit from Hillary Clinton While Filming New Music Video." OMG!
In news we all know, but here are the numbers: "It's Really Hard to Get Bernie Sanders 988 More Delegates."
[NB: Not all men have penises. Not all people with penises are men.] "Finally! Reversible male birth control! All guys have to do is get an injection in their peni— yeah, this is never happening. The option, however, will soon be available for men who want to bear some of the responsibility of internal birth control methods. ...[A]fter years of development, Vasalgel emerged as a viable male birth control that, once injected into the penis, blocks sperm from leaving through the vas deferens. The gel essentially creates a temporary, painless vasectomy."
[CN: Misogyny; abuse] This article about what it was like for Meryl Streep working on Kramer vs. Kramer is fucking incredible. Dustin Hoffman seems like a real piece of work. And by "real piece of work," I mean abusive shithead.
RIP Patty Duke: "Patty Duke, who won a supporting actress Oscar playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, starred in 1960s sitcom The Patty Duke Show, and served as president of SAG, died Tuesday. She was 69. Her manager, Mitchell Stubbs, confirmed that she died early Tuesday of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. 'She was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a mental health advocate, and a cultural icon. She will be greatly missed,' Stubbs said."
"On March 17, Gerrit Kernbauer, an amateur astronomer in Mödling, Austria, was taking video of Jupiter using a 20 cm telescope. This is a common technique to capture thousands of frames of an object, so that the best parts of each frame can be teased out to create a high-resolution image, removing the distorting effects of the atmosphere. But he got more than he expected. At 00:18:33 UTC he captured what looks very much like the impact of a small comet or asteroid into Jupiter!" Ouch!
And finally! I love this: "What Are Cats Trying to Tell Us? Science Will Explain."
Good News!
[Content Note: War on agency.]
The FDA has reaffirmed the safety of Mifepristone and approved a new label for medication abortion. And, as Tara Culp-Ressler notes at Think Progress, in the process, they have "removed one of anti-abortion lawmakers' favorite talking points."
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Thank you, FDA!
Vicki Saporta, President and CEO of the National Abortion Federation, said in a statement: "We are delighted that the FDA has approved a label change, which brings the label for mifepristone in-line with scientific research and evidence-based practice. ...Because providers in the United States have already been providing evidence-based care, which the new label now recognizes, actual practice will not change. What will change is that politicians can no longer deny women access to this safe and effective method of early abortion care by insisting on an out-dated regimen. We hope the new label changes will soon allow women to access medical abortion care in states where anti-choice restrictions have made this evidence-based care unavailable."
Raegan McDonald-Mosley, Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement:
First and foremost, this is another affirmation from the FDA that medication abortion is a safe and effective option to end an early pregnancy. Studies show medication abortion has a 99 percent safety record, and that medication abortion is up to 98 percent effective in ending an early pregnancy...And Amy Hagstrom Miller, President and CEO of Whole Woman's Health, said in a statement: "Today's FDA announcement of a label change to Mifepristone is a significant advancement for women in the United States. All of us at Whole Woman's Health are thrilled that the updated FDA labeling reflects evidence-based care that is best for women. People who visit our clinics deserve options for abortion care without worrying about medically unnecessary obstacles and this change allows for more women to get the care they deserve."
Since Planned Parenthood's medical standards are constantly-evolving with the latest clinical research findings, we have actually had the protocols approved today in place at Planned Parenthood for some time. But given the restrictions on medication abortion enacted at the state level in recent years, updating the label to reflect best medical practice represents a significant step forward for science, for women, and for health care providers who want to give our patients the highest quality care.
She added: "While we appreciate this step forward, we also acknowledge that there are still too many restrictions preventing women from quality care. The reality is that low-income women, women of color, and rural women bear the brunt of abortion care restrictions. We will continue to fight for the day when all women have access to the compassionate and comprehensive reproductive health care that we provide at our clinics."
YES.
SCOTUS: Zubik v. Burwell
[Content Note: War on agency.]
Rather than handing down a ruling on the birth control case Zubik v. Burwell yesterday, the Supreme Court instead handed down a very curious order requesting further briefing. Ian Millhiser explains:
Last week, at oral arguments in this case, the Court appeared likely to split 4-4 in this case — potentially creating a chaotic situation where a woman's right to birth control coverage could depend upon which state she lived in and which regional appeals court considered her employer's obligations under the law. Tuesday's order appears to be an effort to warn off that circumstance.All of this, of course, could be avoided if we could all just agree that if you have a religious objection to birth control, don't use it yourself, but your personal belief is irrelevant in determining what sort of coverage you are required to provide to your employees who may not share those beliefs.
The order instructs the parties in Zubik and a bevy of related cases to "file supplemental briefs that address whether and how contraceptive coverage may be obtained by petitioners' employees through petitioners' insurance companies, but in a way that does not require any involvement of petitioners beyond their own decision to provide health insurance without contraceptive coverage to their employees" ("petitioners" in this case, refers to the employers who object to birth control).
...[The alternative solution proposed by the Court] would require a religious objector to "inform their insurance company that they do not want their health plan to include contraceptive coverage" at the time when they initially contract with the insurance company. If that seems like a mighty fine hair to split, that's because it is. It's not entirely clear why an employer who is upset by the government's form would suddenly feel better because they are allowed to notify their insurance company of their objection in a different way.
If the Court is, in fact, willing to accept this solution, however, that could be a win for the government — and for women seeking access to birth control.
...The catch, however, is that it may not be possible for the federal government to put such a solution in place, at least without a change to federal law. Employer benefits are governed by complex federal statutes such as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The Obama administration found authorization for its current rules in the existing ERISA statute, but it is not entirely clear that current law will enable them to move forward with the idiosyncratic solution described in the Supreme Court's Tuesday order. Indeed, it is likely that one reason that the Court asked for additional briefing in this case was to determine whether the government has the authority to implement the justices' preferred solution under ERISA.
On the Enthusiasm Gap That Doesn't Exist
[Content Note: Misogyny; racism.]
I've got a new piece up at Blue Nation Review addressing the false media narrative of the (nonexistent) enthusiasm gap among Hillary Clinton supporters, and how it's not merely wrong but harmful:
Gallup did what (apparently) none of the people repeating ad nauseam the "enthusiasm gap" narrative could be bothered to do: They simply spoke to Clinton voters and asked them if they are enthusiastic about her. And, as it turns out, they are.I have some ideas about that! Click through to read the entire thing.
Which, really, should not be surprising, since Clinton is leading by a large margin in primary votes. The people who participate in primaries, which is a relatively small portion of the number of qualified voters, tend to be enthusiastic participants in the electoral process. Most people who are indifferent, or would have to hold their noses to vote, aren’t always motivated to vote in primaries.
It was always the more reasonable assumption that someone who is winning the primary has enthusiastic supporters.
So why is it, then, that this particular media narrative took hold? Why, in spite of the safe assumption that primary voters casting their votes for Hillary were enthusiastic for her, and in spite of the fact that it was easy enough to discern by asking, have the media continued to cling to this narrative about an "enthusiasm gap" haunting Hillary?
Incredible
[Content Note: Violence against women apologia.]
Yesterday, Donald Trump doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on defending his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, against charges that he physically assaulted Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. This sustained defense is absolutely incredible, as he borrows every move from the Rape Apologia 101 playbook (right down to "destroy a man's life), repurposed for physical assault:
Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on what appears to be his private jet: I looked at the tape—there's not even a change of expression on her face! And then I looked at internet, and you take a look at the tweets, and people are saying, "You gotta be kidding me!" [crosstalk as reporters ask questions] I think it's something that's disgraceful. I think that you, as a reporter, and all of you as a reporter, probably get treated a lot rougher than that on a daily basis. I have never seen anything like it. I cannot imagine how they did it. He's got a very good lawyer; they will fight it. I told him he should never settle that case. And I know that's not to my—that is not to my benefit—but I think when people see that tape, and they take a look at that tape, and they take a look at her initial statement, before she knew that she was on tape—take a look at that; you have to see it. You take a look at her initial statement; it sounded like she got thrown out of a building. You take a look at that, and you, and then— [reporter interrupts him] Excuse me?Keep this guy as far the fuck away from the White House as possible.
Female Reporter off-camera: She did get bruises on her arm.
Trump: I don't know if they were bruises from that! Why? Who said they were bruises from that?! How do you know those bruises weren't there before?
Female Reporter off-camera: That's what the police said—
Trump: I don't know what the police said! How do you know those bruises weren't there before?! I'm not a lawyer! But she said she had a bruise on her arm. I mean! To me, you know, if you're gonna get squeezed, wouldn't you think that she would have yelled out a scream or something if she has bruises on her arm? She— Take a look at her— Take a look at her facial expression. Her facial expression doesn't even change! So, you know, you say bruises on her arm—how did they get there? Who put 'em there? I don't know that he put 'em there! In any event, I'm sticking up for a person because I'm not gonna let a person's life be destroyed over somebody that we have on tape and— You just take a look at what people are saying when they see that incident on tape. And no jury, in my opinion, no jury would convict a man and destroy a man's life over what you witnessed.
* * *
In other Terrible Trumpery news, there was another Republican townhall last night. Each remaining candidate was given an hour with Anderson Cooper, so it was basically three hours with terrible men. CNN has the complete transcript of Trump's turn, which was right in the middle, and he was a fucking disaster. He clearly doesn't know how anything works, from the federal government to his own website.
At one point, Anderson Cooper actually said the actual words to him: "Sir, with all due respect, that's the argument of 5-year-old." Welp.
Question of the Day
When you eat a meal at home, where do you tend to eat it? Do you sit at a dining room or kitchen table? A kitchen island with seating? Got a built-in banquette? Do you sit and eat in front of the TV?
Usually, we eat at the dining room table. Very occasionally (more often for breakfast), we eat at the kitchen island, where there are a couple of stools. If it's a working night for me, and I'm watching a debate or primary returns come in, we might eat in front of the telly.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There is some flickery editing/animation in this video.]
Matthew Sweet: "Girlfriend"
(I'd never seen the video for this track before, and his creepy expression is so unsettling lol! I just expect him to say: "But I'm a NICE GUY!")
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Depression; suicidal ideation; fat hatred; bullying.]
"I've struggled with depression since childhood. It's a battle that's cost me time, opportunities, relationships, and a thousand sleepless nights. In 2010, at the lowest point in my adult life, I was looking everywhere for relief/comfort/distraction. And I turned to food. It could have been anything. Drugs. Alcohol. Sex. But eating became the one thing I could look forward to. Count on to get me through. There were stretches when the highlight of my week was a favorite meal and a new episode of TOP CHEF. Sometimes that was enough. Had to be. And I put on weight. Big f--king deal. One day, out for a hike in Los Angeles with a friend, we crossed paths with a film crew shooting a reality show. Unbeknownst to me, paparazzi were circling. They took my picture, and the photos were published alongside images of me from another time in my career. 'Hunk To Chunk.' 'Fit To Flab.' Etc. ...In 2010, fighting for my mental health, it was the last thing I needed. Long story short, I survived. So do those pictures. I'm glad. Now, when I see that image of me in my red t-shirt, a rare smile on my face, I am reminded of my struggle. My endurance and my perseverance in the face of all kinds of demons. Some within. Some without. Like a dandelion up through the pavement, I persist."—Actor Wentworth Miller, on how fat hatred harmed him, how fat saved him, and how he survives despite the bullies who will never fucking understand, or even try.
Trump Is the Worst
[Content Note: Misogyny; objectification.]
I've got a new piece up at Blue Nation Review about Donald Trump's gross history of commenting on the quality of women's skin:
Trump objectifies women. He's running to be the standard-bearer for a party that increasingly treats women as property of the state. Every time he speaks about women as though we are things, rather than people deserving of respect, he upholds sexist narratives in which sexist policy, from abortion access to equal pay, flourishes.Click on over to read the whole thing.
And here, he is not just objectifying women generally. Each of the women whose appearance he's critiquing—as though their looks are the only thing they have of value to offer the world—have engaged in meaningful activism.
...These are women who have done more for the country—and the world—than Donald Trump has ever done.
Rage. Seethe. Boil.
[Content Note: Transphobia; gender policing; harassment.]
FUCK THIS: "Kansas bills create 'bounty' on transgender students."
Legislation in Kansas that would restrict how public schools and colleges accommodate transgender students is receiving national attention because other students would be able to collect monetary damages if someone was in what is deemed the wrong bathroom.The two bills, SB 513 and HB 2737, which comprise the "Student Physical Privacy Act," were introduced earlier this month and assigned to committee. So far, no hearings have been scheduled—which is not necessarily a good thing, as North Carolina just rammed through anti-queer legislation in 10 hours without giving opponents time to testify after Tennessee was obliged to shelve anti-queer legislation following trans youths' public testimony. So Kansas could be fixing to pull some shit once legislators get back from their "spring break" which lasts until April 27. (Must be nice!)
Two separate but identical bills before House and Senate committees limit accommodations for transgender students. The measures say group bathrooms, locker rooms and showers must be limited to a single sex, and gender would be defined "by a person's chromosomes"—so that transgender students would have to use facilities associated with their birth genders.
If transgender students are discovered using group facilities for their identified genders, other students who were present can sue the schools and colleges. The measures allow an award of $2,500 for each incident, along with monetary damages for "all psychological, emotional and physical harm." Aggrieved students would have four years after an incident to file suit.
"We are referring to them as a $2,500 bounty on the head of every trans student," said Tom Witt of the advocacy group Equality Kansas. "This puts trans kids in danger."
This is clearly heinous legislation in about a dozen different ways, but I'll just let trans student Taylor Stebbins heartbreakingly sum it up: "I already have to deal with so much, and my own self, attacking my own self, on a daily basis, and I don't need that extra violence on top of me. And if legislators want to protect somebody, it's trans students that they need to protect."
I take up space in solidarity with Taylor, and all the trans students across Kansas, who will be targeted by their peers in a whole new horrible way if this legislation is brought for a vote and passes.
And I direct a concentrated beam of contempt toward any adult who would support this trash under the auspices of "protecting children" as if trans kids don't need protection; as if they don't fucking count.
The Walking Thread
[Content Note: Spoilers are lurching around undeadly herein. Descriptions of violence.]
Glenn's face speaks for all our faces.
In the final moments of last week's episode, Carol's boyfriend Tobin found a note left by Carol, saying she's gone and asking that no one comes looking for her. I wrote at the time: "Tobin takes the note to Optimus Grimes. I'm sure he'll definitely respect her request to leave her the hell alone."
If you think that Optimus Grimes respected Carol's request to leave her the hell alone, I have some definitely totally 100% effective anti-zombie repellent spray that I would like to sell you!
In fact, this entire episode was basically about not respecting people's boundaries or choices. Optimus Grimes and Morgan decide to go after Carol. Daryl wants to go murder D-Bag Dwight to avenge Doctor Zoey, even if risking his own life puts the rest of his pals at risk, and he doesn't want anyone to stop him, but Glenn and Michonne and Rosita Espinosa go after him anyway.
It's basically just a cool reminder that Grimes Gang is comprised of a lot of people who make good decisions and have profound respect for each other's safety and agency.
Anyway! The episode opens with everyone getting ready for another lovely day in Aarontown. (Well, technically, it opens with a scene of an idling car on a road with a bullet-shattered windshield and dripping blood on the ground. Because teasing us with violence is necessary, since this isn't the most violent show on television or anything. What a shocker!) All the scenes of Grimes Gangs' lives are super, as usual, but the best is obviously Optimus Grimes and Michonne in bed together (NOOOOO!).
Michonne grabs an apple from the nightstand, because you know how people keep apples on their nightstands so they can eat drippy, sticky fruit in bed, and then takes a bite and hands it to Optimus Grimes, like some kind of Eve.
Michonne expresses concerns about LIFE IN THE ZOMBIEPOCALYPSE, and Optimus Grimes gives her an apple-eating grin and says, "The world's ours and we know how to take it." Good grief.
Shortly thereafter, Optimus Grimes and Morgan take off after Carol, Daryl speeds off to do some murderin', and Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita Espinosa take off after Daryl.
Meanwhile, on the road, Carol passes a pick-up truck full of Saviors, who shoot out her tire. She gets out of the car, and there's a tense standoff until Carol shoots them with a gun she had concealed in her sleeve. Whooooooops you messed with the wrong lady who left her community because she said she didn't want to have to murder anyone anymore!
(How did Carol ever calculate that she would be less likely to have to kill people out on her own than if she'd just told Grimes Gang she preferred not to be on the Murder Team anymore? Even with as IMPOSSIBLY UNREASONABLE AND BAD AT LEADERSHIP IN EVERY CONCEIVABLE WAY Optimus Grimes is, I still feel like he would have agreed to that! "Sure, your cookies are pretty good. Kitchen duty it is!")
The scene ends with a surviving Savior charging at Carol with a knife. Did she make it?! OH NOES!
Cut to Optimus Grimes and Morgan stumbling upon the remains of Carol's fight with the Saviors. There's no sign of Carol, so they follow a trail of blood into a field. On their trek, they have a classic Walking Dead conversation about hard decisions and murder and how the zombiepocalypse totally changes you, man.
Something something a guy looking for a horse. Optimus Grimes shoots at him, but Morgan bumps him so he misses. Morgan tells Optimus Grimes about the W-Head he had captured at Aarontown, and gives some dreadful monologue about how everything comes full circle, because if he hadn't saved the W-Head, then the W-Head wouldn't have saved Doctor Zoey when they got overrun by zombies, and then Doctor Zoey wouldn't have been around to save Pirate Carl.
Which is a pretty terrific story, if you ignore the part where Doctor Zoey never would have been overrun by zombies with the W-Head, if the W-Head hadn't taken her hostage, which he was only around to do because Morgan didn't kill him.
Anyway. Morgan tells Optimus Grimes he'll find Carol on his own, and don't come looking for him if he doesn't return. Which is a pretty amazing thing to tell someone who's out looking for a person who asked no one to look for her! Optimus Grimes hands Morgan a gun and goes home.
Meanwhile, Glenn and Michonne and Rosita Espinosa catch up with Daryl in the woods, near the site where D-Bag Dwight killed Doctor Zoey. Glenn tries to talk Daryl out of his revenge murder, but Daryl is all NOPE! Rosita Espinosa, who was there when Doctor Zoey was killed, joins Daryl on his quest. Glenn and Michonne decide to turn back and go home, because apparently the whole point of this adventure was to politely ask Daryl to reconsider and then shrug when he totally predictably said no.
But whooooooooops Glenn and Michonne are captured by D-Bag Dwight and the Saviors.
Back at Aarontown, Maggie asks Enid to cut her hair, because "I have to keep going and I don't want anything getting in my way." Suddenly she doubles over in pain and collapses to the floor, grabbing her abdomen and screaming. PREGNANCY PERIL! Too bad Glenn was fucking around the woods and just got himself captured!
Speaking of which: Daryl and Rosita Espinosa creep up on the clearing where the Saviors are holding Glenn and Michonne, who are bound and gagged. They make eye contact, and Glenn and Michonne try to "mmph! mmph!" a warning through their gags, but it's too late: D-Bag Dwight has snuck up behind Daryl and has a gun pointed at him. He shoots, and blood squirts all over the lens, obscuring our view of what happened.
This fucking show.
Next week: More of this garbage.
Daily Dose of Cute
I was walking by the hall closet and saw that its sliding door was open by a few inches. So I figured there were some cat shenanigans going on in there, and here's what I found:
"What?"
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: Assault] Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who was accused of forcefully grabbing Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, and vehemently denied it, has been charged with misdemeanor battery. In footage of the incident, Lewandowski can be seen grabbing Fields, contrary to his claims otherwise. Wesley Lowery has the text of the arrest report. Nice campaign you've got there, Trump.
[CN: Islamophobia] "Harsh rhetoric about Muslims by Republican candidates in the U.S. presidential election campaign is undermining national security efforts, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Tuesday. Asked about comments by Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, Johnson told MSNBC in an interview that singling out a specific community hampers government efforts to build the connections that are needed to thwart possible attacks. 'Inflammatory comments about patrolling and securing Muslim neighbors or barring Muslims from entering this country, having an immigration policy based on religion, is counterproductive to our homeland security and national security interests,' he said." The Republican candidates are a national security threat for the entire country, and a domestic security threat for Muslim Americans.
[CN: Hijacking] "The hijack of a domestic Egyptian flight that caused it to be diverted to Cyprus has ended with all hostages released and the hijacker surrendering. EgyptAir Flight MS181 was taken over by a passenger claiming to be wearing a suicide explosive belt. Airline officials later said they had been told by Cypriot authorities that the belt was fake. The hijacker's motives remain unclear but the Cypriot president said the incident was not terrorism-related. No-one was injured in the hijacking, Cypriot government spokesman Nikos Christodulides tweeted." What a truly strange story! I'm glad no one was injured.
[CN: Guns] Devastating: "A Chicago teen who appeared in an award-winning public service video about gun violence was shot and seriously injured over the weekend, the New York Times reports. Zarriel Trotter, 13, was struck by a stray bullet after two groups of youths got into a 'heated argument' Friday night on the city's West Side, authorities said. A person pulled out a gun and started firing, striking the boy. 'He was not the intended target,' Police Officer Jose Estrada said, according to the Times. 'He was standing on the sidewalk.' No one else was injured in the shooting. Zarriel, as the Times notes, was one of several young students who took part in a video series last year highlighting the impact gun violence has had on the black community. In the videos, which were part of the YouTube and Facebook campaign, Black Is Human, showed several youth speaking about their fear of gun violence and becoming part of the statistics, as well as the damage it was doing to their neighborhoods. 'I don't want to live around my community where I got to keep on hearing and hearing people keep on getting shot, people keep on getting killed,' Zarriel said in the video in which he is featured."
[CN: Homophobia; transphobia] GOOD: "North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced on Tuesday that he will not defend HB 2, the state's newly passed anti-LGBT law that bans all local LGBT rights ordinances. Cooper said in a statement that he and his office won't 'defend the constitutionality of the discrimination' in the bill which Governor Pat McCrory signed last week. ...Cooper, a Democrat, is running for governor and challenging incumbent McCrory in the fall."
[CN: Addiction] President Obama will unveil a new $1.1 billion proposal to combat heroin and opioid addiction, and it looks a lot different than the usual war on drugs. "During the summit, Obama will outline a multi-point plan, which will include, according to a White House fact sheet: Expanding access to treatment, establishing a mental health and substance-use disorder parity task force, investing in community policing to address heroin, implementing syringe-services programs." I'm not keen on the policing part, but it's only $7 million in Justice Department funding, out of the entire billion+ budget. So that's a big shift.
[CN: Racism; guns; militarized police] Jamil Smith expresses concerns for his hometown Cleveland, once the Republican convention arrives in town and what it will leave in its wake.
Perfect headline is perfect: "Trump Struggles With Presidential Demeanor Ahead of Wisconsin Primary."
If you've been waiting with baited breath to see who Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker endorsed, your long national nightmare is over: He has endorsed Ted Cruz.
[CN: Rape culture] Here are a few more stars you can add to your "These Fuckers Are Still Willing to Work with Woody Allen" list: Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, and Parker Posey, all of whom star in his new film Café Society, which will open this year's Cannes Film Festival, because of course it will.
Neat! "The discovery of a fossilized skull in Kazakhstan is making paleontologists rewrite the timeline of the Siberian unicorn, Elasmotherium sibiricum. This impressive animal was a real-life unicorn, though it didn't match the image most of us have for the fairytale creature. Closer to a rhino than a horse in appearance, it was similar in stature to the mammoth. Measuring up to 6.5 feet tall and almost 15 feet long, it weighed up to 9,000 pounds. Its most recognizable feature was its single horn, which is thought to have been much longer than a rhino's, up to multiple feet long. Its habitat was the vast territory from the Don River in Russia to east of modern Kazakhstan. ...The Siberian unicorn, which first emerged in the fossil record around 2.5 million years ago, was thought to have disappeared 350,000 years ago. But the discovery made by researchers from Tomsk State University in Siberia, Russia, seems to show that E. sibiricum might have stuck around much longer. In fact, the beast and humans might have met."
Speaking of unicorns: "They are distinctive for the long tusk that protrudes from their head but until now nobody had a clue why the Narwhal evolved like it did. Thanks to a scientific breakthrough, biologists now believe that the horn of the male of the species is in fact a sensory organ. ...The tusk is actually the left canine of the toothed whale which breaks through its upper lip. But unlike a normal tooth it has no enamel, making it porous and meaning sea water can travel through the tusk connecting with nerve endings and then, most importantly, sending signals to the brain."
And finally! Bonnie Baby Bentangs! The Edinburgh Zoo "is hopeful that the two Banteng calves will contribute to the conservation of this endangered species in the future."
