Oh, look who's waking up and fixing to get herself into some trouble!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Daily Dose of Cute
Oh, look who's waking up and fixing to get herself into some trouble!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
No Ryan 4 Prez
My sympathies to all of you who totally had your hopes up that Paul Ryan would somehow finagle his way to the presidency this election cycle:
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will definitively rule himself out as a contender for the GOP presidential nomination in a formal statement before the media Tuesday afternoon.So he's gonna ruthlessly quash that speculation like he would a piece of pro-choice legislation.
"He's going to rule himself out and put this to rest once and for all," an aide said.
The Speaker will make his statement at 3:15 p.m. just steps from the Capitol, at the Republican National Committee headquarters.
Ryan has ruled out running for president multiple times this cycle, but speculation about the young Speaker emerging as a consensus candidate at a brokered Republican National Convention hasn't died down.
Better luck next time, Ryan-heads!
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Misogyny; racism; pay gap] Kanya D'Almeida on the pay gap: "The gender wage gap is widest for Black and Latina women, who earn 60 cents and 55 cents, respectively, for each dollar paid to white men, according to new data from the National Partnership for Women and Families released ahead of Equal Pay Day. Based on an analysis of U.S. Census data, the national survey found that women who are employed full time earn, on average, 79 cents to every dollar paid to their male counterparts, amounting to an annual pay gap of roughly $10,762. This means that every year, women in the workforce are 'losing' nearly $500 billion to unfair payment practices that persist in every state and 98 percent of the country's 435 congressional districts. ...If women had received equal pay in the year 2015, they could have secured 83 more weeks of food for themselves and their families, 11 additional months' worth of rent, or nine more years of birth control, according to the survey." Damn.
[CN: Police brutality; racism] The Guardian continues their excellent coverage of Chicago police's "black site" Homan Square: "[A] Guardian transparency lawsuit has revealed [Jaime Galvan] as the second person known to have died in police custody at Homan Square. Internal police records show that between late 2004 and mid 2015, Chicago police detained more than 7,351 people at Homan Square, more than 6,000 of whom are black, but only permitted lawyers access 86 times. The records are still incomplete."
[CN: Racism] Yesterday, Hillary Clinton appeared with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and participated in a skit that contained a "joke" which played on the concept of "colored peole time." de Blasio, whose wife and children are black, attempted to defend the joke on the basis that it was intended to be satirical, but, as Imani Gandy noted, which I am sharing with her permission: "You gotta be Black to make jokes about CPT. You can't be married to a Black person or Black-adjacent. You have to actually be Black." Yup. And, you know, intent ain't magic. If Clinton has made any comment on it, I have not been able to find it.
[CN: Misogyny; fat hatred; bullying] Jane Sanders is increasingly playing a more visible role in Bernie Sanders' campaign. Last night alone, she did two different interviews on MSNBC, during which she made some curious comments about their tax returns which are getting a lot of scrutiny. That's fair enough. What isn't fair is that a number of people who don't support Sanders have not stuck to valid criticisms, but have begun to attack Jane Sanders' appearance. I'm not going to link to any of it; it's easy enough to find if you're so inclined. Jane Sanders' appearance is utterly irrelevant to this campaign. I can't put it any more plainly than that.
[CN: Terrorism; child abuse] Boko Haram continues to engage in some of the most heinous tactics anywhere around the globe: "Boko Haram's use of child bombers has increased over the last year with one in five [redacted] attacks now done by children, the UN's child agency says. Girls, who are often drugged, were behind three-quarters of such attacks committed by the militant Islamist group in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Chad. It is an 11-fold increase with four attacks in 2014 compared to 44 the next year, including January 2016. ...The seven-year insurgency, which has mainly affected north-eastern Nigeria as well as its neighbours around Lake Chad, has left some 17,000 people dead. Unicef says up to 1.3 million children have been forced from their homes across four countries: Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, and Niger." I continue to refuse to use the phrase "suicide bomber" to refer to children who are abducted, drugged, and forced to strap explosives to themselves. Fucking hell.
[CN: Homophobia] Haha welp! "Conservatives have long squawked that the studies showing positive outcomes for the children of same-sex couples are lacking methodologically, instead offering their own flawed studies to claim negative consequences. A new study, however, uses their preferred methods—minus the flaws—and proves what the medical community has already long known: same-sex couples make great parents." Does this mean we can put an end to the homophobic fearmongering? Probably not! Because homophobic fearmongers are terrible!
[CN: Sexual violence; abuse; hostility to marginalized people] Shut the fuck up, Stephen Fry. Just shut the fuck up.
[CN: Misogyny; harassment] The Guardian has done an analysis of its own comment threads and found (to the shock of absolutely no one reading this, I imagine) "that articles written by women attract more abuse and dismissive trolling than those written by men, regardless of what the article is about."
[CN: Misogynoir; sexual harassment] This interview with Anita Hill, ahead of HBO's Confirmation, a fictionalized account of her role in Clarence Thomas' SCOTUS confirmation hearings, is so terrific. I was so struck by the fact that Hill was only 35 at the time, because I was so young when it happened, and now I'm 6 years older than she was when she testified. She was so damn young. Not that being put through that at any time would have been easy, but still. She was so young.
Today, President Obama has made a presidential proclamation establishing the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. There's a lot of interesting history at the link!
Woot! "Rihanna's 'Work,' featuring Drake, posts an eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated April 23). With her latest frame on top, Rihanna has now tied The Beatles for the second-most total weeks spent at No. 1 (59) and trails only Mariah Carey, the leader with 79." Congratulations, Rihanna!
And finally! I love dogs so much: "The researchers made several other interesting discoveries when analyzing the videos of how people interacted with their pets. They found that women touched dogs more during playtime, while half of all men in the study were completely hands-off. Humans were also happier the closer they were to their dog. 'I was surprised to see that different types of play (and different levels of activity and contact between person and dog) were correlated with different emotional experience for the persons: they had very positive affect in games like tug or wrestling play; much more neutral affect in fetch,' Horowitz told CBS News in an email. However, these distinctions did not appear to make much difference to the dogs themselves. 'Dog affect was overwhelmingly positive' the whole time, the study reported." Dog affect was overwhelmingly positive. IT'S A DAY!
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Fat hatred; bullying; harassment; abuse.]
"It's astonishingly rare to see a thin person intervene in the kind of commonplace bullying of fat people that happens. Even rarer to see a non-fat person say something proactively about accepting fat people. I can understand why. Some think poor treatment of fat people is warranted: if fat people don't want to be shamed, rejected, excluded, they should just lose weight. Poor treatment is the price of admission for having the body you have. Others become uncomfortable when they see a type of behavior they wouldn't otherwise tolerate. They shrink back, feeling a knot in their stomach as they witness something harsh and unwarranted—something they wouldn't otherwise tolerate. And what would they even say? And who would back them up? It's unnerving to witness, and isolating to interrupt. But that isolation, dear friend, is where fat people live every day. When we decide to stand up for ourselves, we are deciding to go it alone."—Your Fat Friend, in an extraordinary piece, "A call to action: your fat friend is going it alone."
The "Lone Madman"
[Content Note: Anti-choice terrorism; disablism; misogynist apologism.]
When news first broke about Robert Dear killing three people at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs last year, there was an effort, as is there always, to cast him first as a "gentle" man and then, when that failed, to cast him as a "lone madman."
In the days following his arrest, I wrote:
The coverage of the man, since the earliest moments when his name was released, has been troubling. Despite the fact that he made it clear what his motive was, by muttering about "baby parts," the media has played the most appalling game of Occam's Big Paisley Tie ever, treating his motive like a fucking mystery.The next day, we learned Dear had a history of anti-choice interference, including having "put glue in the locks of a Planned Parenthood location in Charleston."
Early reports on who Robert Dear is looked more like dating profiles than they did profiles of a domestic terrorist. The New York Times reported that acquaintances described him as "a gentle itinerant loner who occasionally unleashed violent acts toward neighbors and women he knew."
...Soon we learned that Dear had been reported for at least one incident of domestic violence, and that he was known to abuse animals. Less and less "gentle," it seemed.
Dear was also married three times, and his second wife has described him as someone who "erupts into fury in a matter of seconds," saying she "lived in fear and dread of his emotional and physical abuse."
Further, it has now emerged that Dear was "charged with rape in South Carolina more than 20 years ago." After harassing and stalking a married woman who was not interested in his advances, he went to her house and then beat and sexually assaulted her at knifepoint.
Not so much a "gentle loner," then.
He was not gentle, and he was not a loner. And he was explicitly motivated by anti-choice ideology.
Now, as a hearing to determine whether he is competent to stand trial approaches, the AP reports that Dear "told police he admired Paul Hill, a former minister who was executed in 2003 for the 1994 shootings of abortion provider Dr. John Bayard Britton and his bodyguard, a retired U.S. Air Force officer named James Herman Barrett, outside the Ladies Center in Pensacola, Florida."
Dear often talked about Hill, including once when he drove past a North Carolina abortion clinic and again when he learned that Colorado Springs had a clinic, his girlfriend told police. Dear's comments after the gunbattle even seemed to echo Hill, who spoke of being rewarded in heaven for his actions.Robert Dear was a not a loner, in any sense of the word. He saw himself as part a movement. He saw that he could be a hero of that movement.
During an interview in which he repeatedly recited Bible passages, Dear told police he dreamed he would be "met by all the aborted fetuses at the gates of heaven and they would thank him for what he did because his actions saved lives of other unborn fetuses," the documents say. "He was happy with what he had done because his actions ... ensured that no more abortions would be conducted at the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs," which has since reopened.
Before the shooting, Dear frequently posted messages online about his anti-abortion views, he told police. In 2009, he emailed his son a link to a website that has the stated purpose of "honoring heroes who stood up for the unborn," with links to information about Hill and others who had targeted abortion clinics.
This heinous act of anti-choice terrorism didn't emerge from a vacuum. Dear is the precise opposite of a "lone madman." He is a calculating killer who was inspired by, and hoped to inspire, people who share his ideology.
This flagrant, shameless, decades-long campaign of intimidation, harassment, and threats and acts of violence against healthcare providers who offer abortion services to pregnant people (or are even presumed to offer abortion services), and the spaces in which they offer them, in defense of an inherently violent ideology, is a comprehensive terrorist movement which, from just 1977 to 2011, included multiple assassinations, multiple attempted assassinations, and over 200 arsons and bombings.
Robert Dear could only be said to be "acting alone" if one ignores this vast terrorist network and its unifying ideology, which is so central to public life in the US that it's a centerpiece of the platform of one of the nation's two major political parties.
This didn't happen in a void, and it will happen again and again, until we stop pretending that acts of anti-choice terrorism are disconnected acts committed by lone madmen.
"Look, I'm excited about this stuff. I'm kind of a wonky person. I'm excited by it."
Yesterday, the editorial board of the New York Daily News published the transcript of its interview with Hillary Clinton.
This was the same long-ranging interview for which Bernie Sanders got so much grief, after not being able to provide details of his plans to break up the banks and admitting he hadn't studied the legal implications of a relevant case.
The contrast in Clinton's responses on the economic questions are striking. She is, as always, the biggest nerd (which naturally I intend as a compliment; I mean, "So in that tripartite prescription..." has to be some of the all-time greatest nerdery I've ever read!) and her answers are suffused with precisely the kind of detail we've come to expect from her—and which were sorely lacking in Sanders' answers.
The thing that stuck out most to me was the impressive level of sophistication in her analysis, embedded throughout the economic portion of the interview, of the changing modern economy.
It's not just that she has detailed economic plans, but also that she has a remarkable grasp on the emergent problems for working people in the current economy. And I don't mean just compared to Bernie Sanders; I mean that I've rarely seen this sort of detail from any presidential candidate, ever.
This section, where she talks about the "gig economy," and how companies conspire to keep employees under the number of hours above which they'd be obliged to provide benefits, is great:
Daily News: So how do you get raises for people? How do you do that?Emphasis mine. Immediately following came this section, in which there are lots of highlights, but I particularly liked the bit on "quarterly capitalism," which is a fundamental change in modern business, because I haven't heard that yet from her in this campaign (which doesn't mean she hasn't spoken about it elsewhere, but it was new to me):
Clinton: Well, I think several things. There is an uptick right now. In the latest reports, we're seeing a slight uptick because the labor market is getting somewhat tighter. I am withholding judgment about, you know, how strong it is because I think I see more indicators that we're heading in the right direction. I will always be alert to those that are not. But when it comes to how we get raises, we have got to take a hard look at how work is being performed today and what are the drivers of companies cutting hours back.
And a lot of people say it was the Affordable Care Act, because above 30 hours, there's going to be certain expectations. Well, it's also because a lot of companies don't want to pay benefits of any kind, so trying to keep employees below whatever the threshold is. We have to take a hard look at that. That is just making it nearly impossible for so many working families to get ahead.
And look at what's happening with scheduling. And I'm particularly sensitive to this because I hear about it from a lot of young people. They are having to take one, two, sometimes three jobs, and they're at the mercy of unpredictable scheduling. So I think the federal government, through the Department of Labor, we have to look at how we enforce the existing laws. Overtime laws are a perfect example. And then, what do we need to do to try to adjust our laws to the so-called gig economy, which is ripping away the safety net from so many working people?
Daily News: But going back to something more basic, I think your theory is: promote growth, increase growth, will increase employment, will increase the upward pressure on raises, on salaries, right?So great.
Clinton: Yes, right.
Daily News: That I think is the fundamental theory of your economic plan.
Clinton: Right, but I also want to change...I didn't get to the long-term part, but let me just finish on fairness quickly. I support the increase in minimum wage. I supported the Fight for 15. I think the way New York has done it makes a lot of sense, because, you know, applying it more quickly in New York City, having a more phased-in application upstate, keeping an eye out for unintended consequences. California's doing something similar.
So I think raising the bottom historically has meant you also bump up those above the bottom. We also have to guarantee equal pay for women. And you know, people look at me when I say this like, "Well, that's a luxury." It's a necessity. It goes into the wage base. It goes into the pocket book, and we have a continuing big problem about unequal pay for women. And the women's soccer team is just the latest example. There's a lot of issues around this because we have a lack of transparency.
So this is a big deal to me. I point out all the time, because when I'm speaking to big crowds, I say we have to guarantee equal pay for women. The women all applaud wildly, and a lot of the men are just sort of looking at me. And then I quickly say this is not just a women's issue. It's a family issue. If you have a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter who is not being paid fairly, she does not get a gender discount when she's checking out at the supermarket. You're a white woman, therefore you only have to pay 78 cents on the dollar, or you're an African-American woman, you only have to pay 68 cents, or you're a Latin[a], you only have to pay 58 cents. That doesn't happen, so it is a family issue and it's a broader issue of economic fairness and I would argue growth.
And then long-term, we've got to look at capital gains as well as corporate tax. I want to reward patient capital. I think the more we can try to nudge our business leadership into looking at what will grow their companies and grow their employment base.
And the final thing I'll say about this, because I could talk on for a long time. When I was giving one of my economic speeches and I was looking through a lot of the reporting, there was a survey that had been done with leaders of major American corporations, people in the top 100, right? And they were asked a question, to paraphrase, that went like this, "If you could make an investment today in plant and equipment, in research, in training and education for your workforce and you could be guaranteed it would pay off in five to 10 years in your bottom line, but it would knock a penny off your share price, would you do it?" To a person, they said no. And I guessed that one of the people saying no is somebody I know who heads one of these big corporations. So I called that person up. I said, "Were you part of this?" "Yes," the answer was. I said, "You really said no?" and the response was, "You have no idea. The activist shareholders, the market would destroy me. I can't make those kinds of long-term investments."
So we're looking at the incredible cost that quarterly capitalism is imposing on our economy. And if we aren't smart enough to figure out how to look at that and deal with it, shame on us.
There's a lot more in the interview; I'm sticking to the economic stuff because that was on what I primarily focused in Sanders' interview, too.
Basically, the juxtaposition of these two interviews is exactly why I am supporting Clinton. It's not that I hate Bernie Sanders. I just think that Hillary Clinton is better prepared for the job.
[Relatedly, I've got a new piece up at Blue Nation Review: Report: Hillary Was Much More Effective in the Senate than Bernie.]
Question of the Day
How would you tell your life story in only six words?
She came, she saw, she teaspooned.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There are some twinkly lights in this video.]
Roxette: "Listen to Your Heart"
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by a taco emoji.
Recommended Reading:
Jessica: [Content Note: Anti-choice terrorism; violence] Dr. Tiller's Murderer May Have New Chance to Argue That Anti-Choice Violence Is Justifiable
Fannie: [CN: Religious bigotry] All I Want to Say About Bernie and the Pope
Monica: [CN: Transphobia] I'm Exactly What God Wanted Me to Be
Ragen: [CN: Fat hatred; pranking] American Eagle Thinks Body Positivity Is a Joke
Casey: [CN: Racism] The Whitewashing of the Opt-Out Movement
Teresa: [CN: Potential spoilers] The First and Last Frames of TV Shows Give Us All the Feels
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Racism; self-harm; institutional neglect.]
"Our young people need hope and inspiration. They don't see that right now. We've got to make those key strategic interventions now. It's a life-and-death situation."—Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
Chief Bellegarde was quoted in this article about the Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario, Canada, declaring a state of emergency after 11 people tried to take their own lives in a single night.
Chief Bruce Shisheesh and council declared a state of emergency on Saturday. The designation has meant that a Nishnawbe Aski Nation crisis response unit is being sent to the community. The federal and Ontario health ministers said the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority hospital was immediately flying in a crisis team, including mental health nurses and social workers. Meanwhile, Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said he has offered Chief Shisheesh his support and is pressing for long-term help for the community in addition to immediate action, adding that the crisis is a "national tragedy."I feel extremely impotent to do anything impactful or say anything meaningful. I take up space in solidarity with First Peoples, in Canada and the US, and I hear you.
...Previous studies have suggested suicide and self-inflicted injuries are among the leading causes of death among First Nations, Métis and Inuit people. Waves of suicides like the one in Attawapiskat are not new, but several others in recent months have gained renewed attention – such as a string of deaths in northern Manitoba's Pimicikamak Cree Nation, also known as Cross Lake, which has also declared a state of emergency.
...Problems with suicide on reserve can be more acute, though, due to challenges of distance and availability of mental-health services. Charlie Angus, the MP for the Attawapiskat area and NDP indigenous affairs critic, said northern communities aren't given the resources to deal with complicated grief. "When a young person tries to commit suicide in any suburban school, they send in the resources, they send in the emergency team. There's a standard protocol for response. The northern communities are left on their own," he said. "We don't have the mental health service dollars. We don't have the resources."
Conditions on reserves lag behind those in the rest of Canada in more respects than just suicide and health: Unemployment, lack of access to education, and substandard infrastructure are factors too. ...Studies have pointed to economic hardships and the legacy of colonialism as key factors in high indigenous suicide rates.
...Youth from Attawapiskat and neighbouring communities held a healing walk last week to create awareness of the current suicide crisis, Jackie Hookimaw told The Canadian Press. "They said, 'We will not give up, because our youth are killing themselves …We will not be defeated.'"
[H/T to Aphra_Behn.]
Women
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
There's an interesting piece in today's Washington Post about the difference in support Hillary Clinton gets between younger women and older women who vote Democratic.
Two caveats:
One, this isn't broken down by race, and it may well be that, like many discussions of millennial voters, there are significant differences between white voters and voters of color. I also refer you back to Janell Ross' article about how Clinton's support among women of color is stronger than than among white women. Black women, in particular, have been driving her commanding lead.
Two, I just want to reiterate my stance that I don't believe there's such a thing as a universally best candidate for women, because women are not a monolith. There are feminist women who support Sanders, or Jill Stein, or no one currently running, for valid reasons.
So, back to the article. Its essential point is that women "who said they had been discriminated against because of gender were more likely to choose Clinton over Sanders, even after accounting for ideology, age, and income."
Women who agreed that gender discrimination had affected their education or career prospects were nearly 20 points more likely to vote for Clinton than those who disagreed with that statement.The key here is that it's not just that the world has changed for (more) younger women, nor just that (many) women's experiences change as we move through our lives and careers, but also that individual women change during our lives.
Older women are more likely to report that their education or career had been affected by gender discrimination and caring for children. So it's no surprise they are voting for Clinton in higher numbers.
...Fewer younger women have seen their prospects limited by discrimination and child-care responsibilities. Here's what they have faced personally: being part of the generation hardest hit by the Great Recession, and seeing student debt and poor job prospects as major career obstacles.
Women both outnumber and outperform men in college. Their path to early career success has been smoothed over by the feminists who came before them. They haven't yet hit the point in their careers where they can see an egregious gender gap in pay or when older men stop mentoring them and start treating them as competitors.
Meanwhile, the older women who paved their way were more likely to face overt discrimination in college and in the workplace and to have seen their careers knocked off the fast track when they became parents. Older women have also had more time to serve in leadership positions and wield authority – and to face overt discrimination and harassment as a result.
There are a whole lot of things that I would now immediately recognize as sexism, through the wisdom of experience, that I would not have immediately identified thus in my 20s.
Because I, like most women, are socialized to mischaracterize discrimination against us (and other women) as an individual failing. And there was a time when I did imagine, naively, that I could bootstrap and Exceptional Woman myself out of being held back by sexism.
Whoooooooops!
So it matters, too, when (or if) individual women have that awakening moment at which they start to call discrimination what it is.
And it's no surprise that, the more privileged a woman is, the more able she may be to delay that moment, because she isn't obliged to navigate multiple axes of oppression.
[H/T to Aphra_Behn.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Dudley gives me The Eye, while Zelda subtly backs him up.
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...
Congratulations to Senator Bernie Sanders for winning the Wyoming caucus! He is the first Jewish presidential candidate ever to do so! Wyoming has only 14 delegates, and Sanders and Hillary Clinton each walked away with 7 of them. Here's an explanation of how that happened, for anyone who's interested in how the process works.
I haven't been mentioning a lot of endorsements for Clinton and Sanders, for a number of reasons, but I think this one is newsworthy: "Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) endorsed Hillary Clinton on Sunday, after months of staying neutral in the presidential contest because of his post as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform." It's notable (to me) not so much in that Cummings is endorsing Clinton over Sanders, but because he was the ranking Democrat on the Congressional Benghazi panel that questioned Clinton for 11 hours, and his endorsement ought to matter to people for whom that's an issue. (But probably won't!)
Whoooooooooooooops! "While plenty of New Yorkers say they'll cast their votes for native son Donald Trump in next week's Republican primary contest, two of Trump's own kids won't be among them. Trump confirmed in a Monday call-in to Fox News his children Ivanka, 34, and Eric, 32, never registered to vote in New York's closed primary." Sad trombone!
[Content Note: Class warfare] This is what class warfare looks like: "The Rich Live Longer Everywhere. For the Poor, Geography Matters." And, of course, it's not just geography, but the specific reasons that certain locations in the US are more conducive to supporting poor people's health (and which poor people).
[CN: Racism; class warfare] A report out of California details yet another example of how the (over)use and enforcement of municipal violations disproportionately affects people of color: "African Americans and Latinos in California are more likely than others to lose their driver's licenses because of unpaid tickets and then to be arrested for driving with suspended licenses, according to a report released Monday. The report, by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, examined U.S. Census Bureau data, records from the California Department of Motor Vehicles and information from 15 police and sheriff's departments in the state to document by race the impact of unpaid traffic fines. 'Individuals who cannot afford to pay an infraction citation are being arrested, jailed, and prosecuted, and are losing their licenses and their livelihoods,' the report said. 'The communities impacted by these policies are disproportionately communities of color.' Black drivers were found to be arrested at higher rates than whites for driving with licenses suspended because of unpaid tickets, the report said. The highest suspension rates in 2014 were found in poor neighborhoods with large percentages of black and Latino residents."
Again I will recommend [CN: video autoplays] this John Oliver segment on municipal violations if you haven't yet seen it. It does a really good job of explaining how municipal violations are (mis)used, are unequally enforced, and can ruin people's lives, just because they don't have the money to pay the original fine.
[CN: Misogyny; rape culture] Fucking hell THIS AGAIN: "Teenage girls at a New Zealand high school have reportedly been told to lower their skirts to knee level so as not to 'distract' male students and teachers. Around 40 students in year 11 at Henderson high school in Auckland were called to a meeting and told by deputy principal Cherith Telford that their skirts would need to be lowered to knee level, Newshub reports. Telford said the move was designed to 'keep our girls safe, stop boys from getting ideas, and create a good work environment for male staff.'" Insert my usual commentary about tasking girls with the responsibility to prevent sexual assault and about communicating to boys that they can't and needn't control themselves. And what the FUCK is going on with the "male staff" at that school? And why are we worried about girls "creating a good work environment" for them, instead of about them creating a safe educational environment for girls?!
[CN: Video may autoplay] Melissa McCarthy's new film The Boss, which I haven't seen, won the box office this weekend, beating Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice in its third weekend. That's pretty amazing! I think it's safe to say she's a genuine box office star, at this point.
Wow, this is such good news: "The world's count of wild tigers roaming forests from Russia to Vietnam has gone up for the first time in more than a century, with 3,890 counted by conservation groups and national governments in the latest global census, wildlife conservation groups said Monday. ...But while experts said the news was cause for celebration, they stopped short of saying the number of tigers itself was actually rising. In other words, it may just be that experts are aware of more tigers, thanks to better survey methods and more areas being surveyed." In either case, the point is, there are more tigers than we'd thought, though they are still critically endangered.
[CN: Animal cruelty] This is huge news! The USDA has proposed historic welfare standards for animals raised under the "organic" label: "The announcement marks the first, comprehensive set of regulations governing on-farm treatment of animals ever proposed by the federal government. ...The proposed rule would, for the first time, specify minimum indoor and outdoor space requirements for all species and prohibit certain physical alterations of animals. The ASPCA is in good company welcoming these momentous changes. We joined our voice with 13 consumer advocacy, health, environmental, and animal-protection organizations to demand stronger animal welfare regulations under the organic program; together with our friends at the Animal Welfare Institute and Farm Animal Concerns Trust, we amassed the support of over 60 farmers who believe that high animal welfare is a benchmark of organic production; we rallied more than 30 ASPCA veterinarians who urged USDA to release meaningful animal welfare standards; and we heard from a world-renowned animal welfare expert attesting to the importance of outdoor access. Today's proposed rule marks a major milestone in the legal protection of animals raised for food."
And finally! What an amazing idea: "The Westin Ottawa is known to guests as being very accommodating and dog-friendly, so its recent initiative comes as little surprise to many: A few months ago, they partnered with Ottawa Dog Rescue and turned the lobby into a foster home for shelter dogs until they are adopted." Love.
These Two ♥: Part Two
Confession: When I am feeling depressed about the state of US politics, I look at pictures of President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton working together.
Some days, these two give me the spoons to keep going.
These Two ♥
Bernie Sanders has a rough road to victory in the Democratic primary. It doesn't look likely.
But, as I've said before, I hated it when people were calling for Hillary Clinton to drop out in 2008, so you won't see me replicating that dynamic now. I wish that Sanders, if he's indeed going to keep campaigning, would do it in a way that doesn't hand talking points to the GOP, but I don't begrudge his desire, and right, to keep campaigning.
And, if Sanders does become the eventual nominee, I will support him. Because he is an infinitely better candidate than anyone the GOP could run, and because, if my preferred candidate loses, she will ask me to support him.
All of which is prelude and caveat to my saying that I think Clinton will be the eventual nominee. And one of the things to which I am very much looking forward if and when she is, is President Barack Obama being able to campaign with and for her.
I am looking forward to that SO MUCH!
Over the weekend, I watched (again) one of my favorite political interviews of all time, in which President Obama and then-Secretary of State Clinton sat down together for an interview with 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft. The interview originally aired Jan. 27, 2013, at the beginning of Obama's second term, just as Clinton was wrapping up her tenure at the State Department.
[A complete transcript of the interview is available here. If you click through, you may be greeted by a subscription prompt at the top of the page; just scroll down to access the text.]
I love everything about this interview. The way they look at each other, the way they lean toward each other, the way they speak about each other.
I love its usefulness now, during another hotly contested Democratic primary, and how it provides us both the argument for coming together and the roadmap to do it.
I love the story of their friendship, and how it was built.
I seriously cannot wait to see these two on the campaign trail together. Again.
Welp
After a week of news focused on Hillary Clinton not saying that Bernie Sanders was unqualified to be president (after Joe Scarborough, by his own admission, tried to goad her into saying it and failed), Sanders saying that Clinton is unqualified and lying about her having said the same about him, then saying [video may autoplay] "of course" she's qualified, but only before saying [video may autoplay] "in a sense" she's both qualified and unqualified, now Sanders has pivoted to saying she merely lacks good judgment.
During talk show appearances [over the weekend], the senator from Vermont continued to zero in on Clinton's acceptance of special-interest money, her support for the Iraq War, and her past backing of international trade agreements.Okay.
"In many respects, she may have the experience to be president of the United States," Sanders said during an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. "No one can argue that. But in terms of her judgement, something is clearly lacking."
He made a similar argument during a segment of CNN's State of the Union that was broadcast Sunday, saying: "I have my doubts about what kind of president she would make."
...During a later appearance on CBS's Face the Nation, host John Dickerson also pressed Sanders on his views about Clinton's judgment.
"Maybe her judgment is not quite as high as it should be," Sanders said. "But, John, I want to get away from this stuff. I respect Hillary Clinton. I've known her for 25 years. What I want a debate on is the real issues impacting the middle class of this country."
I just want to note here that Sanders could make the case that he's got better judgment than his opponent (which he quite clearly wants to do, despite protestations to the contrary) without saying negative shit like "something is clearly lacking" and "her judgment is not quite as high as it should be."
He could, for instance, just straightforwardly say, "I think I've get better judgment than she does." Or he could do the more politic thing of saying, "We've got different judgment on a number of issues, which is reflected in our records, and I'll let the voters make up their minds about whose judgment they prefer."
But of all possible options, he went for the option where he basically just trashes her.
Meanwhile:
During a separate segment on [CNN's State of the Union], Clinton declined to criticize Sanders when asked by host Jake Tapper whether she has doubts about him.Welp.
"No, I don't," the former secretary of state said. "I don't have anything negative to say about him."
Game On
[Content Note: War on agency; racism; Islamophobia; reference to sexual assault.]
Hillary Clinton released a new ad this weekend ahead of the New York primary, going straight for Donald Trump and his despicable platform:
Male Voiceover, over clips of Donald Trump juxtaposed with images of people from the populations he attacks: He says we should punish women who have abortions. (Trump: There has to be some form of punishment.) That Mexicans who come to America are rapists. (Trump: They're rapists.) And that we should ban Muslims from coming here at all. (Trump: Total and complete shutdown.)LIKE. I especially like the framing that she's "tough enough to stop Trump," because I am keenly aware how much that's going to get under Donald Trump's thin skin. He is so invested in the image of himself as a tough guy, but he's terribly brittle and insecure. And he's extremely resentful of strong women.
Cut to clip of Clinton at a campaign event in New York saying: Donald Trump says we can solve America's problems by turning against each other. It's wrong, and it goes against everything New York and America stand for.
Voiceover: With so much at stake, she's the one tough enough to stop Trump. Hillary Clinton.
Clinton in voiceover: I'm Hillary Clinton, and I approve this message.
A woman coming at him with a message that she's tougher than he is will needle him good.
And, of course, there's the not-incidental fact that it's also true.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
