Suggested by Shaker neena3: "What books written by feminist, progressive authors would you recommend to kids?"
Throwback Thursdays
A photo of the high school German Club. 1990. LOL. This photo is from the yearbook, and a friend sent it to me after my yearbooks got destroyed in a flood. (Sadface!) I was so happy to remember how SUPERCOOL I was in 1990! As were we all.
(Unless you weren't born yet, obvs.)
[Please share your own throwback pix in comments. Just make sure the pix are just of you and/or you have consent to post from other living people in the pic. And please note that they don't have to be pictures from childhood, especially since childhood pix might be difficult for people who come from abusive backgrounds or have transitioned or lots of other reasons. It can be a picture from last week, if that's what works for you. And of course no one should feel obliged to share a picture at all! Only if it's fun!]
"I say that not just as President but also as a feminist."
Today is President Obama's birthday. And, because it's just the kind of guy he is, he gave us a gift for his birthday.
President Barack Obama Says, "This Is What a Feminist Looks Like."
I was decidedly dubious 8 years ago. I am not dubious anymore.
That should not be misconstrued as my saying he's a perfect feminist. I'm not a perfect feminist! I just see that his time as president, and as a father of girls becoming women, has changed him. Because he, like his friend Hillary, listens.
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...
Good grief this guy: Donald Trump claimed that he'd seen a "top secret" Iran video, which he described in detail at a campaign event, but: "A Trump campaign spokeswoman told The Washington Post late Wednesday that the businessman was, in fact, talking about the months-old video from Geneva. She did not explain why Trump claimed it was a top secret video from Iran." What is even happening.
[Content Note: Racism; misogyny; xenophobia; classism] Clint Eastwood and his son gave a joint interview to Esquire, in which Clint said all kinds of deeply heinous things. I'm not going to link directly to the interview, because fuck that, but A.V. Club has a good basic summary, and the Guardian has an even more detailed summary. He should have stuck to talking to an empty chair.
[CN: Misogyny; anti-choicery; Christian Supremacy] Rage seethe boil: "The patient learned she had brain cancer in her first trimester of pregnancy. She needed chemotherapy and abortion care. 'I've got a woman whose life is threatened by brain cancer,' her doctor, an OB-GYN at a Catholic hospital, told authorities there. 'I need to do a termination.' ...The hospital refused the treatment, telling the OB-GYN to refer his patient elsewhere. ...The case is among many contained in a new paper, 'Referrals for Services Prohibited in Catholic Health Care Facilities,' which will be published in the September issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. The study explores whether Catholic hospitals make timely referrals, provide complete and accurate health-care information, and supply emergency treatment when needed. ...'Until now, there hasn't been a study asking about referral patterns in Catholic hospitals,' lead author, Dr. Debra B. Stulberg, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Chicago, said in a phone interview with Rewire." I seem to recall a similar study a few years ago, but, in any case, this is really important, as Catholic facilities now comprise "one in six hospital beds nationwide."
[CN: Transphobia] Grrrrr: "The supreme court on Wednesday blocked a court order giving a transgender student access to the boys' bathroom at his Virginia high school, in what is the high court's first ruling on an increasingly contentious topic. The ruling permits the Gloucester county school board to continue barring Gavin Grimm, a trans boy, from using the boys' restroom until the supreme court decides whether or not to hear Grimm's challenge to the school board. The decision is a major setback for the teenager and will bar him from using the bathroom consistent with his gender identity when he begins his senior year of high school. ...The court's four conservative justices and Justice Stephen Breyer voted for Wednesday's ruling on the basis that it 'will preserve the status quo' as Grimm's court fight continues. Breyer joined the majority 'as a courtesy.' Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan indicated that they would have allowed Grimm to have access to the boy's restroom while the case is on appeal. 'We are disappointed that the court has issued a stay and that Gavin will have to begin another school year isolated from his peers and stigmatized by the Gloucester County school board just because he's a boy who is transgender,' said Joshua Block, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who is representing Grimm. 'We remain hopeful that Gavin will ultimately prevail.'"
[CN: Violent imagery] Just perfectly normal campaigning: "Two tweets from the official Twitter account for the Riverside County Republican Party featured illustrations of a hangman holding a noose with the words, 'I'm Ready for Hillary.' The portrait of the masked hangman features gallows with two other empty nooses in the background. The hangman wears an axe at this side and blood is visible on his shirt and apron." Goddammit.
[CN: Anti-immigrationism] As you know, I am not inclined to go after spouses of political candidates, but this story about Melania Trump's possibly breach of immigration law is relevant by virtue of her husband's hardline on undocumented immigrants. Knowing quite a bit about the immigration and visa process, by virtue of having gone through it with Iain, I have to say, everything suggests to me that she broke the law. And you know what? The only consequence of that I want is for Donald Trump to develop some fucking compassion for other people in a similar situation.
Oof, Sarah Jessica Parker, oof. I pretty much second all of Kaiser's commentary. Including that SJP's new show looks like pants.
"Billionaire Entrepreneur to Send World's First Private Landing Craft to the Moon." Sure.
And finally! "These Cats Outgrew Their Bed, But They'll Never Outgrow Each Other." Awwwwwwww. Oh cats. ♥
Quote of the Day
"Wouldn't that be embarassing" Trump asks the crowd in Florida, to lose to Hillary Clinton? https://t.co/eBDDzCu9Hl
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 3, 2016
"We're gonna get rid of Obama; we're gonna get rid of Hillary. We're gonna get rid of Crooked Hillary Clinton. Gonna be gone. So. Wouldn't that be embarrassing?! To lose to Crooked Hillary Clinton?! That would be terrible!"—Donald Trump.
Yes. I think it would be significantly humiliating for a man who believes that women are his inferior to be bested by a woman.
And, frankly, I'm really looking forward to it.
Principles!
This is hardly surprising, but it's nonetheless overwhelmingly revolting:
Prospective donors are now having second thoughts about getting involved, while those who convinced themselves to get behind Trump, like [Stan Hubbard, a Minnesota-based top donor to a pro-Trump super PAC], are at their wits' end over the presidential nominee's behavior.Good grief. How about you just save the millions of dollars you have to spare funding the presidential campaign of a white nationalist authoritarian wannabe despot and stick it in the bank, and I'm sure you'll be able to weather whatever NIGHTMARE OF SOCIALISM you imagine Clinton will be passing that might slightly increase your taxes.
...Some donors who are eager to defeat Hillary Clinton say they have no choice but to back Trump even though they are losing their patience with the nominee. And Mica Mosbacher, a former national RNC finance co-chair who helped organize fundraisers for Trump in Texas last month, said frustration from donors won't necessarily affect their giving. "While donors don't always agree with his rhetoric, Trump reflects strength and represents a better economic future," she said.
For fuck's sake.
Twenty Years. TWENTY YEARS.
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
A terrific piece by my BNR colleague Peter Daou:
I've probably spent as much time analyzing and writing about coverage of Hillary as anyone in politics. But this video of Hillary being interviewed on CNN in 1996 really stunned me. Seeing the identical questions about her honesty, asked with the same accusatory tone, hit home.Please, head on over and read the whole thing.
There's no way to watch the clip below without appreciating how long Hillary's integrity has been under attack.
Read this quote: "Once again you find yourself mired down in the credibility cloud … a new CNN poll shows that most Americans don't think you're telling the truth."
...My colleague Melissa McEwan offers a profound insight:
The thing we have to understand about these interviews is that they're not about trying to establish facts about Hillary's fundamental truthfulness or integrity. They're about an attempt to hurt her on camera and capture her pain. The persistent exploration of negative feelings toward Hillary is about shaming her, about replicating the visceral responses many people have to women seeking power....The national media, however, are singularly focused on presenting a distorted caricature of Hillary. What they fail to admit is that in asking questions about Hillary's honesty with such singular focus, they are creating the very misperceptions they're reporting on. It's a vicious loop that they exploit with unnerving skill.
This is the truth of it: The media is acting as stand-in to people who look at her and think: How dare she. Who does she think she is? They are not on a crusade to extract some truth about Hillary Clinton's character. They are amplifying reflexive, misogynist distrust of ambitious women.
Welp
[Content Note: Disablist language.]
Once you understand that basically everything he disgorges from his trash-mouth is projection, it all starts to make a lot more sense.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker LabTech: "Does someone call you by a pet name? Who gave it to you? Do you still use it?"
Iain has one million different pet names for me, and he uses each of them at least once a day, lol.
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by whiskers.
Recommended Reading:
Sameer: [Content Note: Islamophobia; misogyny] Muslim-American Women Clap Back at Trump's Islamophobic Rhetoric With #CanYouHearUsNow
Jenn: [CN: Racism; disenfranchisement] How Felony Disenfranchisement Harms Black Communities
Maddie: [CN: Environmental toxins; human waste and remains] How Olympians Can Survive Swimming in Sewage
Angry Asian Man: The Sikh Project
Teresa: [CN: Misogyny; harassment; entitlement; guns] Internet Trolls Chase Daisy Ridley off Instagram, Forgetting That Celebrities Are Actually People
Fannie: [CN: Bigotry] Quote of the Day
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
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.
Donald Thinks Hillary Isn't a Fighter LOL
[Content Note: Misogyny; Islamophobia.]
Buried deep in the transcript of the Washington Post's interview with Donald Trump is Trump saying—twice—"Hillary's not a fighter." Oh, Trump. Have I got news for you.
Every woman I know is a fighter. To walk out into the world every day, facing every iteration of sexism, from microagressions to a heightened risk of sexual assault, is to be a fighter, even if the battle has not been engaged by choice.
I'm not surprised that Trump doesn't understand even this elementary reality of women's lived experiences, since he is less disposed toward trying to empathize with our lives than he is adding to the sky-high pile of fetid garbage we encounter every day.
But even Trump, with his catastrophic lack of knowledge about women's humanity, should be acquainted with one of the most basic facts on Hillary Clinton's résumé.
She is not just a fighter—she is indomitable.
What she has been obliged to navigate on the journey to her historic nomination is unfathomable in its genuinely epic scope.
And unlike Trump, who imagines he has been "viciously attacked" by the Muslim parents of a fallen soldier because they criticized his Islamophobic policy proposal, she has had to fight her way through legitimately vicious attacks—on her, her family, her staff, and her supporters—from her ideological opponents and from the media.
There are people who say that Clinton is courageous to keep going, despite the enormity of what she faces. But courage is doing something tough you don't have to do, and doing it anyway. Clinton does not have the luxury of that choice. To get the job where she can have unique influence to effect the change she wants to see, she has had to run this gauntlet of petty debasements, character attacks, mischaracterizations, dog whistles, and unfiltered sexism. There is no choice. There is only facing it, every day.
That is not to say she lacks courage. It is only to say that what she's doing requires more than courage. It requires a fearsome tenacity to keep going, because there is no choice to avoid the horrors that await women who reach for more, except for quitting.
Trump, in his cloistered life of privilege populated by obsequious sycophants, has never been required to have the remarkable fortitude that Clinton demonstrates, day after day.
Although he says she's not a fighter, I don't believe for a moment he believes that to be true. After all, a coward knows better than anyone a fighter when they see one.
And if he really doesn't know that what he's saying is patently false already, he'll find out soon enough at the first presidential debate.
That is, if he doesn't prove that he's the one who's not a fighter by weaseling out of the debates altogether.
In the News
Here are some things in the news today...
[Content Note: Terrorism; video may autoplay at link] Well, I have long feared that IS and Boko Haram would continue to get cozier, and so they have, or maybe there's an emergent third group of horrific nightmare terrorists: "The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has reportedly announced a new leader for its West Africa branch, which is closely associated with the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram. Abu Musab al-Barnawi [is named in an interview which] does not mention the fate of Abubakar Shekau, who has led Boko Haram in recent years... Shekau pledged allegiance to the ISIS caliph, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, in 2015, and Boko Haram renamed itself as the so-called Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). But United States officials claim to have seen little evidence of operational links between Boko Haram and ISIS's main territorial base in Syria. ...According to Ryan Cummings, director of African security agency Signal Risk, it is wrong to equate Boko Haram with ISWAP, which includes other pockets of militants loyal to ISIS in West Africa. 'There could potentially be a situation where Shekau, for example, is head of Boko Haram and remains as the emir of the group, but that ISWAP is a more composite movement of which Boko Haram is just one of the factions, and they would effectively still be submissive to an [ISIS]-appointed emir,' says Cummings." Fucking hell.
[CN: Nuclear warfare] I don't even have words: "A stunning revelation on Morning Joe this morning. During an interview with former NSA director Michael Hayden, Joe Scarborough unleashed a frightening nugget of information. He quoted an unidentified foreign policy expert who told him that during a one-hour briefing, Donald asked him three times: If we have nuclear weapons, why can't we use them?"
[CN: War; injury] Damn: "Responding to Donald Trump's claim that he 'always wanted to get the Purple Heart,' Rep. Tammy Duckworth on Tuesday tweeted a picture of her injured self in a hospital with her own medal, adding: 'Nothing easy about it.' ...Duckworth was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries sustained while co-piloting a Black Hawk helicopter on Nov. 12, 2004, in Iraq, when a rocket-propelled grenade struck the lower half of her body. The blast cost her both her legs and also caused serious damage to her right arm." I don't know how Trump lives with himself. I really don't.
[CN: Abortion stigma] "Six years ago, reproductive justice advocate and North Carolina resident Kelsea McLain put herself 'through hell' because she needed an abortion. McLain said she was ashamed she forgot to take her birth control pill after spending so many years educating her peers about safe sex and reproductive health. In the story she shares at We Testify, a new storytelling and leadership initiative launched by the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) Monday, McLain explains how she battled internalized stigma...one of more than a dozen individuals who make up We Testify's first cohort."
[CN: Transphobia; ciscentrism; choice policing] Julia Serano, who's just one of the best writers working today, has written another amazing piece: "Detransition, Desistance, and Disinformation: A Guide for Understanding Transgender Children Debates." Go read the whole thing.
For the stargazers among us: "Perseid meteor shower: Why, where, and when to see it."
In one bright spot in otherwise dire Olympics news: "In 2008, 12 [out] LGBT athletes participated in Beijing. In London in 2012, that number rose to 22. Now, in Rio, there are 43. And that number is expected to grow even higher in the future." It's good to remember that there have always been LGBT athletes competing at the Olympics. The progress is not necessarily their participation, but that they feel safe to be out.
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] Whoa: "Cepheids [young stars which are only between 10 to 300 million years old], also referred to as pulsating stars for their ability to throb in brightness over a regular cycle, are monitored to gauge their precise brightness and the data is then compared with what is visible from Earth to work out a distance. Now, an international team of researchers from Japan, South Africa, and Italy have discovered a large area at the center of the Milky Way that is completely devoid of these pulsating stars. The lead author of the study, Noriyuki Matsunaga, from the University of Tokyo, said in a press release: 'We already found some while ago that there are Cepheids in the central heart of our Milky Way (in a region about 150 light years in radius). Now we find that outside this there is a huge Cepheid desert extending out to 8000 light years from the centre.'" Fascinating!
Do you want to see a video of some wild things that have happened on live TV this year? Well, here you go! But please be warned that there is one video of someone appearing to get hurt. The injury itself is not visibly graphic, but it definitely made my butt clench! (It may not be real? I can't tell if it's part of a gag. Either way: YIKES.)
[CN: Animal endangerment] The loris are beautiful and adorable animals, and it's understandable why we might want to cuddle them, but they are not pets!
And finally! "Glider Joey Gets Special Care at Taronga Zoo." Awwwww. Baby and mama were injured when they had a collision with a barbed wire fence, but they're both on the mend now. Yay!
I Write Letters
I've got a new piece up at BNR, which is an open letter to the New York Times public editor, in response to her essentially apologizing for not running dishonest coverage about Hillary Clinton:
Dear Ms. Spayd:There is much, much more at the link.
Hillary did not lie about her emails. Nor did she lie when she asserted that FBI Director Comey hadn't said otherwise.
As someone who is preoccupied with words for a living, surely you can appreciate the difference between "a lie," intended to deceive, and "a false statement," offered unknowingly.
This morning, as every morning, my husband woke up, showered and dressed, drank a cup of coffee, and kissed me goodbye before he left for work. If someone called the house looking for him, and I told them he's at work, and then they try him at work, but he's not there, either, because he's at a deli getting a sandwich for lunch, would I be lying?
No, I would have made an incorrect statement; told a falsehood. But I would not be lying. Because I was not intending to deceive anyone; I was simply providing what I thought to be a true statement based on the best information I had at the time.
This is not an insignificant distinction.
And it is a distinction that Comey recognizes. It is a distinction the law recognizes. Even if media outlets who are insistent on handing out "Pinocchios" refuse to make.
...The implicit premise in your column, Ms. Spayd, is that the New York Times was trying to conceal some nefarious claim made by Hillary, but the truth is that the Times quite rightly regarded it as a non-story, while other news outlets irresponsibly ignored the facts and crucial distinctions that, in fact, demonstrate Hillary did not lie then. Or now.
And it is frankly incredible to me that this – this! – is the hill you want to fight on, when it comes to the Times' coverage of Hillary.
Can you picture my face right now? I bet you can picture my face right now. Ughhhhh.
Hillary's Presidency Will Be Good for Boys, Too
There has, naturally, been some much-deserved and important focus on how Hillary Clinton's candidacy is—and her presidency would be—good for girls. But make no mistake: Her candidacy is good for boys, too.
Awhile ago, I was reading this terrific piece by Amanda Terkel and Christine Conetta on the history of women in the Democratic Party, when I came to this delightful anecdote:
At a meeting between Clinton and House Democrats in June, Pelosi told a story about three little boys who attended a recent White House reception. One of them pointed to a painting on the wall and asked, "Who is that a painting of?" His friend told him it was Bill Clinton, but he didn't know who that was. "That's Hillary's husband," replied the third child.This is the sort of story that often gets told because it's about what kids don't know. But this particular story is also about what kids do know: Hillary.
She is a fixture on the national stage in the lives of these three little boys. Hillary. That lady running for president.
Visibility of women is important for girls for a whole lot of reasons, not least of which is because, when we tell girls that they can grow up to be anything they want, it matters there is tangible evidence of that possibility. How we value women (or not) registers to girls sometimes even before we are old enough to articulate how it makes us feel—about our opportunities and about ourselves.
And visibility of women is important for boys, too.
Seeing a woman run for president and capturing her party's nomination is a crucial formative experience for boys who are growing up in a world of increasing gender equality. Many of them will work for female bosses someday—and men who don't reflexively recoil at the notion of female authority tend to do better with female bosses than men who regard them with suspicion or hostility.
Hillary's candidacy also gives boys a big opportunity to have a role model who is not a man. There are boys for whom the rigid definitions of masculinity and manhood proscribed by patriarchal norms don't fit and never will. Such a public alternative to the narratives of masculine leadership is critically important for all boys, but especially those who might deviate in one or many ways from the expectations of men prescribed by their culture.
Supporting a female presidential candidate may be the first green light a boy has ever had to like a female person other than his immediate family members. And further: To like her in a non-objectified way. Boys are taught, in overt and covert ways, that simply liking girls and women as human beings is unacceptable—and a female presidential candidate may present an exception to that rule.
Hillary's candidacy communicates to boys that women are capable—that women are their equals—and implicitly challenges ubiquitous messaging to the contrary. They may hear that "girls are stupid," but a qualified female presidential candidate is a pretty compelling counterargument.
Sexist messaging, even if it isn't delivered at home, penetrates early. [Content Note: Video autoplays at link] This Jimmy Kimmel clip from last fall, in which Kimmel talks to two boys and two girls about gender and politics, makes that abundantly clear.
We have a responsibility, for their own sake, to teach boys that girls aren't their inferiors—and we have a responsibility to girls to teach boys that, too.
Because, in the end, boys (and men) respecting women ultimately benefits girls (and women).
And getting to see women in positions of leadership is a major part of that process.
Plus, you know, Hillary just makes a lot of boys pretty darn happy. And that's pretty awesome, too.
[All photos via Hillary for America.]
Are the Dominos Beginning to Fall?
Meg Whitman—Republican, former California gubernatorial candidate, business executive, and major Republican fundraiser—has said she will not be supporting Donald Trump and will be supporting Hillary Clinton:
Meg Whitman, a Hewlett Packard executive and Republican fund-raiser, said Tuesday that she would support Hillary Clinton for president and give a "substantial" contribution to her campaign in order to stop Donald J. Trump, whom she berated as a threat to American democracy.Welp.
"I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her," Ms. Whitman said in a telephone interview.
She revealed that Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic nominee, had reached out to her in a phone call about a month ago, one of the first indications that Mrs. Clinton is aggressively courting Republican leaders. While acknowledging she diverged from Mrs. Clinton on many policy issues, Ms. Whitman said it was time for Republicans "to put country first before party."
Using remarkably blunt language, she argued that the election of Mr. Trump, whom she called "a dishonest demagogue," could lead the country "on a very dangerous journey."
I never thought I'd find myself saying the words: I agree with Meg Whitman.
Donald Trump really is a uniter. In the worst fucking way possible.
I would like to think that the dominos are beginning to fall, that Whitman is just the second in a long line of Republicans who will prioritize country over party and resoundingly reject Donald Trump, and, frankly, the entire direction of the Republican Party which he has laid intolerably bare.
