What is your favorite anytime snack?
Baby carrots. Even though they give me the hiccups. Tied with chips and guacamole. (Which I'm usually too lazy to make for a quick snack, lol. So I end up eating baby carrots a lot more often!)
Question of the Day
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There is a strobe light effect in this video.]
Whitney Houston: "I'm Your Baby Tonight"
GOP Veepstakes
I honestly don't know which would be worse: Donald Trump choosing Mike Pence as his veep; choosing Chris Christie as his veep; or Newt Gingrich as his veep. Either way, it's a ticket full of hot garbage breath and melancholy.
Anyway. Blah blah news:
Fox News on Tuesday suspended Newt Gingrich as a political contributor over speculations that Donald Trump is considering the former House Speaker as a possible pick for vice president.Whatever.
The news channel said in a statement it is has "mutually agreed to suspend its contributor agreement" with Gingrich "effective immediately," CNN Money reports.
"Due to the intense media speculation about Gingrich's potential selection as Donald Trump's vice presidential candidate, we felt it best to halt his contributor role on the network to avoid all conflicts of interest that may arise," executive vice president for news Jay Wallace said in the statement.
I wish I gave a shit, but, honestly, whoever he chooses is going to be the worst. It's just a matter of which flavor of the worst will be scooped into this trash sundae.
Daily Dose of Cute
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: Death; violence; racism; police targeting; police brutality] President Obama has just given an address in Dallas at the memorial service for the five police officers killed in a mass shooting. People will certainly have varying opinions on whether he struck the right tone, but, irrespective of those assessments, this is another one of those days when I am glad he is our president.
[CN: Gun violence; injury] Fucking hell: "A gunman opened fire minutes into a vigil Monday evening for a homicide victim in West Baltimore, wounding five people. Four women and one man were shot, police said, before the gunman ran away. The crowd scattered into the North Avenue traffic; it was about 6:30 p.m. The five victims, shot in their legs and feet, one woman grazed in her stomach, were all expected to survive. ...The vigil was for Doreen Scofield's 24-year-old son, who was killed Sunday. 'We only wanted to celebrate my son, and they're shooting at us,' said Scofield, whose family escaped without injury. 'What else is it you want? What else do you want? You got my son ... and you're still shooting at us because we have a candlelight vigil? When will it end?' Her son, Jermaine, was shot to death in the 1800 block of W. North Ave. about 1:15 a.m. Sunday. He had two children. 'I'm tired. I'm tired,' his mother said after the vigil. 'It's innocent people being shot. Enough is enough.'" Sob.
[CN: Racism; death; police brutality; class warfare] This is such an important read in the New York Times by Christopher J. Tyson on Baton Rouge, its history and present, and how it "is essentially two cities. One is south Baton Rouge: a prosperous and amenity-filled, predominantly white and middle-class network of cul-de-sac neighborhoods and upscale shopping centers. The other is north Baton Rouge: a marginalized and forgotten collection of the city's older neighborhoods and neglected infrastructure. It is largely poor and black and it is where Mr. Sterling's life came to a tragic, unnecessary end."
[CN: Rape culture; victim-blaming] Because the Republicans are always coming up with cool new ways to fail women: "GOP Platform Draft Includes Hostility to Campus Rape Survivors." Yeah.
[CN: Rape culture; sexual abuse] In an act of self-care, I am not reading this, but here it is, since it's news: "Joe Paterno knew of Jerry Sandusky abuse in 1976 per testimony in newly unsealed records."
[CN: Racism] What the absolute fuck: "On Saturday night, four off-duty Minneapolis police officers walked off their jobs working security at a WNBA Lynx game when the players wore T-shirts with the phrase 'Black Lives Matter' and held a press conference focusing on healing the divide between law enforcement and the black community. The president of the Minneapolis Police Federation, Lt. Bob Kroll, praised the action of the officers. 'I commend them for it,' he said, as reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune."
I just wish Ruth Bader Ginsburg would tell us what she really thinks about Donald Trump. She's so shy.
Today in Ghostbusters news! 1. This review's headline, lolyay: "Ghostbusters takes aim at misogyny and scores." 2. This is soooo amazing: "Let's get another look at that little girl's face, shall we? Yep, it's just as we thought. That awestruck smile. The hope shining in her eyes. Beyond repair." Her childhood RUINED! 3. And this! Paul Feig addresses whether Kate McKinnon's character is gay. (Spoiler alert: She is!)
"Astronomers discover distant dwarf planet beyond Neptune: A dwarf planet half the size of Britain has been found tumbling through space in the most distant reaches of the solar system. The giant ball of rock and ice lies nine billion kilometres away on an orbit that swings far beyond the realm of Neptune, the most remote of the fully-fledged planets in our cosmic vicinity." NEW HOME PLANET. Who's coming with me?
And finally! "A feral cat and a black bear are the best of friends at the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary. For the past seven years, a bond has formed between Sequoia, a lumbering, aged bear, and a black cat with a clipped ear nicknamed 'Little Bear' by zookeepers. They lounge in the shade next to each other, wander together through the bear enclosure and even share a meal." Aww. ♥
A Moment of Indulgent Gloating
[Content Note: Bigotry.]
I've got a new piece up at BNR in which I indulge in just one moment of gloating at the Republicans' expense: "Dems Throw Down the Gauntlet to Republicans: We're Unified, You're a Mess."
This is the moment we've been waiting for: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have worked through their policy differences and come together onstage as a unified team, determined to defeat Donald Trump and lead the nation into a new era of progress.Head on over to read the rest! And share one rare and precious moment of gloating with me. We deserve it!
Bernie has given Hillary his unqualified endorsement. Hillary will soon officially accept the Democratic Party's nomination. After a long and often contentious primary, we can breathe a sigh of relief. We are coming together. We are united.
I hope Republicans are watching—because this is the closest they're going to get to unity in this election.
After a dumpster fire of a primary in which 17 bozos crawled into a clown car and one nightmare clown emerged with a flower pinned to his lapel squirting liquefied bigotry, the Grand Old Party is truly a nine-ring circus.
Donald's campaign is a disaster; Republican donors would rather shred their money for the cat box; elected Republicans are fixing to avoid the convention like it's a feminist retreat; what endorsements Donald does have are begrudging at best; and a "Never Trump" campaign is still trying to figure out how to 86 the nominee and install some other joker without alienating Donald's base.
...Hillary's case, all along, has been: "Vote for me because I care about you." Donald's has been: "Vote for me because I care about me."
That's not a call for unity. It's a call for sycophancy, made by an insecure lout who isn't running for president for what he can do for the people, but for what they can do for his ego.
Donald Trump Is Fomenting Violence. Full-Stop.
[Content Note: Racism; violence; incitement.]
Yesterday, my BNR colleague Eric Kleefeld wrote a great piece about a heinous new advert from Donald Trump's campaign, quite rightly saying the despicable ad "presses just about every button to offend people, and to make the cultural dialogue in America even more difficult than it's already been. This should make perfect sense, as Trump's campaign is based entirely on cultural upheaval; peace and reconciliation would be the worst thing that could happen to him."
Later in the day, during an interview with AP, Trump said "he believes relations between police and the nation's African-American community are 'far worse' than people think, predicting that protests against police violence that followed last week's slaying of five police officers in Dallas 'might be just the beginning for this summer.'"
Then, after pronouncing that "our country is losing its spirit; African-Americans are absolutely losing their spirit," he went on to demonize the Black Lives Matter movement:
Trump also had harsh words for the Black Lives Matters movement, which has organized some of the protests. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump adviser, labeled the group "inherently racist" over the weekend in an interview with CBS News.I am so incandescently angry that I don't even know where to begin to focus my thoughts into coherent commentary. This is wrong. It is dangerous. It is incendiary. It is cruel. It is dishonest. And it's going to get people hurt.
...Asked whether he agreed with Giuliani's assessment, Trump said the group's name is "divisive."
"A lot of people agree with that. A lot of people feel that it is inherently racist. And it's a very divisive term," he said. "Because all lives matter. It's a very, very divisive term."
Trump added that has heard some Black Lives Matter activists say "horrible, horrible things about police and about others."
"And certainly if they're going to allow that to go along rhetorically, this is not a good thing for our country," he said.
Not only is this man not fit to be president; he's not even fit to run for president. He is totally irresponsible and unfathomably dangerous.
Of Course
As promised threatened, House Republicans have formally requested that Hillary Clinton be investigated for perjury.
You can see their supercool letter here, if you are so inclined!
Recall this exchange during FBI Director James Comey's testimony before a Congressional committee last week, during which Rep. Jason Chaffetz erased any lingering doubt that it was nothing more than a fishing expedition to find any reason to protract this ludicrous partisan spectacle:
Comey to Chaffetz: We have no basis to conclude Hillary Clinton lied to FBI. #ComeyHearing https://t.co/CZskUShETI https://t.co/eiF6H9Lx0X
— New Day (@NewDay) July 7, 2016
Chaffetz: Did Hillary Clinton lie?So here we are.
Comey: To the FBI? We have no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI.
Chaffetz: Did she lie to the public?
Comey: That's a question I'm not qualified to answer. I can speak about what she said to the FBI.
Chaffetz: Did she—did Hillary Clinton lie under oath?
Comey: Not to the FBI. Not on a case we're working.
Chaffetz: Did you review the documents where Congressman Jim Jordan asked her specifically, and she said, quote, "There was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received," end-quote?
Comey: I don't remember reviewing that particular testimony. I'm aware of that being said, though.
Chaffetz: Did the FBI investigate her statements under oath on this topic?
Comey: Not to my knowledge. I don't think there's been a referral from Congress.
Chaffetz: Do you need a referral from Congress to investigate her—her statements under oath?
Comey: Sure do.
Chaffetz: You'll have one! [laughs] You'll have one in the next few hours!
It's good that the country is in perfect shape right now, so that Republicans can keep their focus on what matters.
Clinton and Sanders to Campaign Together in NH
IT'S HAPPENING!!!
After Bernie Sanders supporters have led the way in uniting behind Hillary Clinton, at a remarkable pace, Sanders himself is getting on board, and will campaign with Clinton today for the first time in New Hampshire.
Today's the day, New Hampshire: Get ready for Hillary and Bernie Sanders in Portsmouth at 11:00am! pic.twitter.com/xWCMiUp6NX
— Hillary for NH (@HillaryforNH) July 12, 2016
Sanders still hasn't promised to endorse her, but it's expected that he will. And then it will be ALL ENGINES GO on defeating Donald Trump in a most spectacular fashion. Huzzah!
UPDATE: You can access the live stream of @HillaryClinton and @SenSanders campaigning together here.
This False Equivalency Can Get Lost for Good
[Content Note: Bigotry.]
I've got a new essay up at BNR about the false equivalency embedded in the narrative that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both historically unpopular candidates:
There is literally not a single one of all 62 of Gallup's demographic categories in which Donald is above 50 percent favorability—not even white men 50 and over.There is much, much more at the link.
Just in sheer numbers, the disparities between Hillary's favorables and unfavorables are fundamentally different. But the context of those numbers is critically important, too: She is liked by a majority of the very same groups who are consistently under attack by Donald, his surrogates, and his supporters.
Donald is disliked, in large part, because he is a bigot and a bully. And Hillary is disliked, in some part, because she refuses to alienate the same marginalized people that Donald targets.
...The modern Republican Party didn't invent the identity-based divisions in this country, but they have ruthlessly exploited them, fomenting profound resentments against marginalized people—resentments which Donald has now made the centerpiece of his campaign.
Hillary, on the other hand, has spent her campaign talking about what she is going to do to help the marginalized people harmed by these resentments and the institutional systems of oppression that have been erected to safeguard privilege. "Breaking down barriers" is central to her message. Opportunities, access, justice for people who are denied these things.
I cannot put this any more plainly: Donald is polarizing because he traffics in bigotry. Hillary is polarizing because she advocates eradicating it.
And, of course, because she has herself been subjected to decades of public personal attacks on the basis of her identity. To conflate Hillary's unpopularity with Donald's while casually eliding her womanhood is deceptive in the extreme.
We still live in a culture where being a woman matters. A lot.
The truth is, Clinton's unfavorable ratings are largely driven by people who are angry that she's failing to exclusively center the concerns of straight, white, cisgender men—many of whom are under the misapprehension "that they, the others, enjoy privileges, resources, and status to which we are denied access."
It is a misapprehension carefully and deliberately cultivated by conservative politics, whose thought leaders cravenly offered up marginalized people as scapegoats, attentively nurtured their base's hatred of those scapegoats, cynically peddled a dangerous obfuscation between rights and privilege, then held themselves out as heroes who offer to stand on the line between their base and all of those people who are supposedly clamoring to take away their "rights."
The Republican Party has built its messaging very explicitly around hating people like her, and the people whose interests she represents. And that's reflected in the way people talk about her—even self-identified progressives who sound like they're reading a transcript of a 1990's Rush Limbaugh episode when they talk about her.
Trump, meanwhile, isn't disliked because of decades of unfair tropes and personal attacks repeated ad infinitum for decades. He's disliked because he says and does terrible things so publicly and unabashedly that even tilted media coverage can't help him.
To be abundantly clear: I'm not saying that there are no valid reasons to dislike or not support Hillary Clinton. What I'm saying is that the unique (as we keep hearing) levels of dislike for her are not simply attributable to policy differences. And that the reasons she is disliked to the degree that she is are not at all the same reasons for why Trump is.
And I really wish the media would stop pretending otherwise.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Karma Kaze: "What is your foible? (One of my favorite words.)"
Can my answer be that my personality sometimes seems to be comprised of a collection of variously eccentric and idiosyncratic foibles? LOL.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There are some flickery lights and editing in this video.]
Bruce Springsteen: "Born to Run"
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by owls.
Recommended Reading:
Feminewbie: [Content Note: Racism; police harassment; ref. to Holocaust] I Just Saw This Picture and I'm So Disturbed. Because It's Me.
Andreana: [CN: Racism; misogyny; homophobia; violence; ref. to self-harm] For Those of Us Who Were Imprinted with Fear: Raising a Black Boy in the Mouth of a Racist Sexist Suicidal Dragon
Beyoncé: [CN: Racism; violence] Freedom
Michelle: [CN: War on agency] ACLU of Indiana Sues State Health Department, County Prosecutors Over Ultrasound Law
Ashley: [CN: Fat talk] Fat Talk as a Microaggression
Charlotte: Rethinking Say Anything and the Film's Actual Protagonist Diane Court
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
THESE TWO
Hey, remember when Hillary Clinton and President Obama campaigned together and it was awesome?! Here are some pix, care of Hillary's Flickr account, which is full of amazing pictures of that day, but these are my favorites. (Be impressed that I was able to narrow it down to five!)
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!
Daily Dose of Cute
I was snuggling Sophie's belly, as she'd subtly requested by lying on top of my hand, when I noticed she'd fallen sound asleep. With her tongue hanging out. Obvs.
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: Police brutality; death; racism] And again: "Another black man was shot and killed by police in Texas early Saturday morning. Houston Police said Alva Braziel was waving a gun around and pointed it at them when they opened fire. But surveillance footage from a nearby gas station suggests otherwise. The video, which began circulating Saturday night on Twitter, shows Braziel walk out toward an intersection. When the squad car arrives, he appears to put his hands in the air and turn around, standing still for a few seconds before police shoot him. Both officers involved reportedly had body cameras on them, but the footage has not yet been released. ...It's not yet clear whether or not Braziel had a gun or if he threatened police. Police protocol in most U.S. cities encourages officers to use lethal force if they feel someone is threatening them, but there are often many other tools and opportunities to de-escalate a situation. For example, in a majority-white neighborhood of Houston this weekend, an armed suspect fired seven rounds at police officers. Yet police managed to end the standoff with gas and other non-lethal means without killing the man."
[CN: Police brutality; racism] A must-read from Imani Gandy: "The Department of Justice (DOJ) has already announced it will be investigating the death of Sterling. No word yet on whether or not a similar investigation will be forthcoming in Castile's case. ...Both shootings certainly seem unjustified. Extrajudicial. Unlawful. But as bad as they may sound, they are unlikely to be enough to trigger a federal grand jury indictment. Because the truth of the matter is—as my colleague Jessica Mason Pieklo pointed out in the wake of the Mike Brown and Eric Garner killings—the grand jury system, which was originally designed to protect British colonists who had emigrated to the United States from abuses by the Crown, has become a tool that protects officers from accountability rather than protecting citizens from police brutality. And federal law, due to the way the statutes and system operate, doesn't provide a lot of help when it comes to individual police brutality cases, although it has proven to be quite useful in reforming entire police departments and forcing municipalities to take measures to stop over-policing of communities of color."
[CN: Conservatism; class warfare; misogyny] So, Britain is going to get its second female Prime Minister, when David Cameron steps down and Theresa May takes over. Good news for women's visibility aaaaaaaand that's about it. Because she's a Tory. And thus promotes garbage policies that harm vulnerable people, including and especially women with complex marginalized identities, e.g. women of color and disabled women. So she'll be shit for women, and simultaneously, the misogyny against her has already begun: She's not likeable, don'tcha know.
[CN: Misogyny; racism; economic injustice] Welp: "During their working years, women tend to earn less than men, and when they retire, they're more likely to live in poverty. These are women who raised children and cared for sick and elderly family members, often taking what savings and income they do have and spending it on things besides their own retirement security. The National Institute on Retirement Security, a nonprofit research center, reports that women are 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished at age 65 and older. Women age 75 to 79 are three times more likely. ...For minorities and women of color, the number is much higher. 'If we are talking about a 65-year-old black woman, she was born before desegregation,' says Karen Lincoln, a professor at the University of Southern California and director of a center for geriatric social work. 'This has a huge impact on things like the quality of education they receive, the employment opportunities available to them, and their ability to accumulate wealth,' Lincoln says. Lincoln points to additional census data showing African-American women are paid 64 percent that of white men, compared with 54 percent for Hispanic and Latina women."
[CN: Disablism] This article about public transport not being safe for disabled people is so enraging and so terrifying. (And although it's about the DC Metro, it could be about virtually any city public transport system in the country.) And I totally get it: Because of my fucked-up back, there were many days during the decade I was commuting on the train in Chicago that I had to pull myself up to the street slowly, stair by stair, using my arms to yank myself up by the rail, and people would be rushing by me, practically knocking me over, shouting at me to move, and that was scary enough; I always thought, if there were an emergency, I'd just get fucking trampled. Understatement of the year, I know, but THIS ISN'T RIGHT. There is so much goddamn money in this country. There is enough to build safe and accessible public transport. For fuck's sake. We just, as per usual, lack the priorities to do it.
Bernie Sanders will appear with Hillary Clinton tomorrow. Huzzah. "On Saturday, Mrs. Clinton also inched closer to Mr. Sanders on the issue of health care, encouraging Congress to add a 'public option' to the Affordable Care Act and calling for additional support for community health clinics. 'I congratulate Secretary Clinton for this extremely important initiative,' Mr. Sanders said in a statement, referring to her expanded health care outline." I MEAN.
Donald Trump is reportedly close to choosing Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate. LOLOLOLOLOL I didn't think I could possibly hate the Trump ticket any more, but THAT'LL DO IT.
Heh: "Pokémon Go Users Took Control of the Westboro Baptist Church and They're Not Pleased."
[CN: Racism; violence] In other Pokémon Go news: "Warning: Pokémon Go Is a Death Sentence if You Are a Black Man."
[CN: Misogynoir; sizism] "A few weeks back, Leslie Jones went public with the clothing issue she was having. It seems that despite starring in one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, Leslie Jones could not find any designer willing to dress her. ...Thankfully, one designer stepped up to make a custom dress for Leslie: designer Christian Siriano. And Leslie wore the custom gown at Saturday night's premiere of Ghostbusters in LA." And looks stunning, obvs.
[CN: Moving GIFs] And finally! I did a little Tom Hardy tweeting over the weekend, for anyone who needed some Tom Hardy. The thread starts here and you can scroll down from there. (You'll probably have to click "Show More" to see them all.) Enjoy!
Democrats Finalize Party Platform
Here is an article about it. It is a very progressive platform! Huzzah!
Please feel free to talk about all the things in the platform and whether you like them.
That is all I'm going to say about that, because no one needs yet another rant from me about Bernie Sanders and taking credit and narratives about pushing leftward nominee Hillary Clinton, who supported a public option on healthcare during her 2008 presidential run for fuck's sake I'm stopping I promise see this is why I didn't want to write anything else omg flames on the side of my face.
I am very glad that the Democrats have a progressive platform.
Keep Talking (and Listening), Hillary
[Content Note: Police brutality; violence against police officers; death; guns; racism.]
Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton delivered an important address at the African Methodist Episcopal Church National Convention in Philadelphia, during which she talked about the ugly violence of the past few days. She urged communication, listening, self-reflection, and meaningful reforms. (Monica Roberts has video of the speech at her place.)
For those who worried Clinton would tack back to center on criminal justice/policing issues, this AME speech seems evidence she won't
— Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) July 8, 2016
Indeed, Clinton made clear that she is deeply concerned about police killings of Black people, deeply concerned about mass killings targeting police, and deeply concerned about gun violence more broadly. And she noted:
I know that, just by saying all these things together, I may upset some people. I'm talking about criminal justice reform the day after a horrific attack on police officers. I'm talking about courageous, honorable police officers just a few days after officer-involved killings in Louisiana and Minnesota. I'm bringing up guns in a country where merely talking about comprehensive background checks and getting assault weapons off our streets gets you demonized.They are all true at once—and they are related, in multiple ways: Via systemic racism; via a history of state-sanctioned violence against Black people; via our nation's unique history with and perception of guns; via our continued tolerance of funding police through municipal violations; and a host of other interconnected issues.
But all these things can be true at once.
Clinton doesn't pretend to have all the solutions. To the absolute contrary, she said straightforwardly: "No one has all the answers. We need to find them together. Indeed, that is the only way we can find them."
She urged listening, and that is important (as is it always). And what she said was important, too. Which is not to suggest that it is enough. No single speech, no serious of speeches no matter how many in number, ever could be.
It is only to say that I am grateful that she is talking about these issues frankly. And I need to express my gratitude because I want her to keep talking about them. I want her to keep listening, and keep talking, and keep developing better policy, and keep getting better and better at how she talks about these life and death issues.
I want her to know that I support her centering these issues. I want her to know they are important to me.
I don't merely "tolerate" her talking about these things: I expect it.
And I am a big believer in the concept that we don't have the right to expect of any other person something we've never told them we want. So here I am, telling Hillary Clinton, please keep talking about these things.
I don't expect her to have all the answers; I don't expect her to be able to solve entrenched injustice or a national obsession with deadly weapons on her own. All I expect is for her to use the biggest bully pulpit in the world, which comes with the job she's petitioning to hold, to its maximum potential on these issues, in both word and deed (policy).
I'm relieved to see she appears to expect the same of herself: "I want you to know the 24-hour news cycle moves on—I won't."
I want her to do the best she can to make the biggest difference she can in a complex set of deadly problems that demand a comprehensive set of solutions which are beyond any single person.
And I want the Republicans who will try to shame her for "saying all these things together" to know that her progressive base expects it. She is doing the will of her constituents.
Which, since Republicans seem to have forgotten it, is what politicians are elected to do.
