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
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Crickets.
[Content Note: Incitement of violence.]
I've got a new piece up at BNR about the loathsome corporate media coverage of Donald Trump's comments yesterday:
When Joe Scarborough, whose coverage of Hillary has been abysmally bad, becomes the media's conscience, things have officially derailed.Head on over to read the whole thing.
The Morning Joe roundtable is the best coverage of Donald's horrendous comments that I have seen on cable news. And yet.
And yet.
During that entire 22-minute segment, virtually the entire focus is on Donald and what his comment means for the Republican Party.
None of the panelists express concern for Hillary. The person against whom the incitement was made.
None of the panelists express concern for the Secret Service agents tasked with her protection. Nor for Tim Kaine, who often shares the stage with her. Nor for her family, or Kaine's family. Nor for her supporters, who could be harmed if someone tries to harm her at a campaign event.
None of the panelists say that Hillary does not deserve to be the target of such vicious, reckless hatred.
None of the panelists give voice to the reality that, after her opponent called for her assassination, Hillary had to wake up this morning, and get ready, and hit the campaign trail again.
None of the panelists even wonder, in passing, what it might mean for her that Donald said these things; what it might be like to have to carry on with this new and exponentially escalated threat hanging over her.
None of the panelists mentioned that Donald has now obliged Hillary to face in three debates (provided he has the courage to show up) an opponent who has openly called for her to be killed.
Even though all of these panelists condemned Donald's words, they never actually explored what they mean for the person who was their literal target.
And this is the best we've got in the media. People who will condemn Donald's exhortation to an assassination, but show zero compassion for the woman whose life he tacitly admonished someone to end.
That is not good enough. It is not good enough at all.
And riffing on my point about the lack of concern for the agents obliged to protect Hillary Clinton, my colleague Peter Daou writes: "Trump Has Endangered the Life of Secret Service Agents Protecting Hillary." Yup.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Police force; sexual assault; racism; video may autoplay at link] AP: "Federal report blasts Baltimore police over bias, force." Federal report confirms what Black people have been saying about their lived experiences for decades, but has been ignored because we don't regard marginalized people as authorities on their own lives. Don't get me wrong: This report is necessary so that meaningful changes can be implemented. Still. It is horrifying and infuriating that it took so long for officials to listen. The Washington Post has excerpts from the report, and they are deeply troubling and rage-making and difficult, but important, to read.
[CN: Police brutality; death] Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of Michael Brown being killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri. I highly recommend this October 2015 piece by Sarah Kendzior: "Ferguson in Focus." And, at Colorlines, Akiba Solomon has a Q&A with Marc Lamont Hill on "Michael Brown, Imperfect Victims, and Getting Past Survival Mode."
[CN: Racial wealth gap] Goddamn: "The wealth gap between blacks and whites in America will take hundreds of years to close—if ever. If current trends persist, it will take 228 years for black families to accumulate the same amount of wealth as whites, according to a report released this week from the Corporation for Economic Development and the Institute for Policy Studies. For Latino families, it will take 84 years. Over the past 30 years, the average household wealth of white families has grown 85% to $656,000, while that of blacks has climbed just 27% to $85,000 and Latinos 69% to $98,000. 'We're seeing wealth concentrating in fewer and fewer hands and those hands are overwhelmingly white,' said Josh Hoxie, who leads the project on opportunity and taxation at the Institute for Policy Studies."
[CN: Police shooting; death] How the hell did this happen? "A 73-year old woman was killed during a police community seminar on Tuesday in Punta Gorda, Florida, during a routine training exercise. Mary Knowlton was taking part in a police-hosted informational meeting by the Punta Gorda police academy, when she was fatally shot during an exercise that was supposed to simulate a hypothetical crisis situation. The 'shoot/don't shoot' scenario—a demonstration that was part of a two-hour-long citizens' police academy event—is intended give guidance about how police determine when to use lethal force in a potentially deadly, real-world confrontation. ...It is not clear why a loaded weapon was used in the exercise, given that such demonstrations are often conducted with fake or unloaded weapons." Incompetence? Carelessness? Indifference?
[CN: Street harassment] "You can now call into a hotline and talk to someone about your experience with street harassment, in the same way as you might call a national hotline to turn to someone for support after a sexual assault. The organization Stop Street Harassment has partnered with Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) and Defend Yourself to create the first-ever national street harassment hotline. The phone hotline launched last month and the online hotline, which you can find on the SSH website, launched on Wednesday. The new tool is evidence of how much the conversation around street harassment has recently changed—from one that accepts harassment as a fact of life (mostly for women) to one that challenges the assumption that harassment is simply an inevitable and harmless part of life."
[CN: Homophobia] Seethe: "Female athletes at the Olympic games in Rio are being taunted by crowds chanting 'bicha,' a homophobic slur comparable to 'faggot.' According to the LA Times, journalists said it was the first time they heard 'bicha' being used at a women's game in Brazil. During the opening games of the soccer tournament on August 3rd, fans on the sidelines chanted the slur—often used during men's soccer in Brazil—directed at Australian keeper Lydia Williams, Canadian goalie Stephanie Labbe, and other players."
Submitted without comment: "Bernie Sanders now has one thing in common with the millionaires and billionaires and other 1 percenters he so frequently attacked on the campaign trail: he now owns his very own summer home. Vermont magazine Seven Days reported Tuesday that the 74-year-old senator and his wife, Jane Sanders, have purchased a four-bedroom house on the shore of Lake Champlain for roughly $600,000. Jane told Seven Days that they had recently sold a house in Maine that had belonged to her family since the 1900s, and used the proceeds to purchase the new property, which is located in North Hero (population 803, as of the 2010 census). With this purchase, Sanders now owns at least three houses, the others being in Burlington, VT, and Capitol Hill in D.C."
Whoa: "Surviving in the wilderness of space takes more than a sleeping bag and a packet of wet wipes, and so to explore how humanity can stay alive in the cold dark beyond, NASA is canvassing designs for new deep space habitats. The agency's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program ask private companies to build ground-based prototypes of various modules, meeting a number of criteria from basic life support to fire safety tech and radiation mitigation. ...NASA is hoping these habitats will eventually be part of its crewed mission to Mars in the 2030s, an ambition that has occupied the space agency for the last six years."
And finally! This is wonderful: "A missing Kansas City dog was recently reunited with her family largely thanks to herself. ...Tabitha was safe and being cared for by a family who believed she didn't have a home. As fate would have it, the woman caring for her had the news on when this story aired, and Tabitha heard it. She started going bonkers, responding to Kelly's description of how she called for Tabitha. The woman knew instantly because of the dog's reaction and her photos that this was definitely Tabitha. The temporary caregiver contacted the Schaefers and a reunion was soon underway." ♥
Top Five
We haven't done a Top Five in foreverrrr, so let's do one, shall we?!
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Sounds.
In no particular order:
1. Joyful laughter.
2. Lapping water.
3. A distant train.
4. Cats purring.
5. Dogs talking in their sleep.
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
The Olympics Thread
Katie Ledecky goes beast mode & doesn't check the rearview at the #Rio2016 #Olympics for #TeamUSA #Swimminghttps://t.co/3PnzWzuXja
— Truth Reigns (@FrReigns) August 8, 2016
Holy lord.
I (still) haven't had time to watch even one second of the Olympics, but here's an open thread for discussion, and both excited celebration of the athletes and criticism of the corporate games are on topic for this thread.
Racism + Guns = Death. Again.
[Content Note: Racism; eliminationism; guns; death.]
This fucking George Zimmerman wannabe piece of shit right here:
A white man who apparently called police to complain about "hoodlums" near his house was charged with murder after he shot and killed a black man outside, authorities said.So, let's pause right there to make sure we're all on the same page. This white guy sees some Black men outside his house. He immediately decides they are "hoodlums," and feels as though he is endangered by their very presence. So he calls police, which itself is unnecessary (and possibly dangerous for these young men, depending on which cops show up), and then doesn't even bother waiting for police to arrive before heading out with a loaded weapon.
The shooting happened early Sunday morning when 39-year-old Chad Cameron Copley fired a shotgun from inside his garage and hit the victim, according to a Raleigh Police Department news release. He was arrested hours later on a murder charge.
Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, 20, suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Police spokeswoman Laura Hourigan said Thomas was black.
...Police released an audio recording of a 911 call that came in shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday in which a male caller tells a dispatcher that he's "locked and loaded" and preparing to go outside. Saying there are people outside with guns, he tells the dispatcher he is on neighborhood watch and asks them to send police.
"We've got a bunch of hoodlums out here racing," he said. "I am locked and loaded. I'm going outside to secure my neighborhood."
In fact, not only does he not wait for police, but he refuses to give his address and hangs up. Which means, by any reasonable interpretation, that he doesn't want this to end any other way. He is just looking for a damn excuse to kill some Black guys in his neighborhood, and called 911 only to try to establish justification.
Less than ten minutes later, "an upset female caller" called back, providing the address.
The dispatcher asks what happened.One way that Copley could have "protected himself and his family" was to simply stay inside the house. And, let's be clear: Although he claims the men had weapons, that doesn't actually mean they did. And even he doesn't claim they fired any shots, or tried to get into his house.
"I don't know I'm upstairs with our children," the female caller says.
She then gives the phone to what sounds like the same male caller from earlier.
"We have a lot of people outside of our house yelling and shouting profanity. I yelled at them 'please leave the premises.' They were showing firearms so I fired a warning shot," he said. "And, uh, we got somebody that got hit."
After the dispatcher asks if someone was shot, the male caller responds: "I don't know if they're shot or not. I fired my warning shot like I'm supposed to by law. ... They do have firearms and I'm trying to protect myself and my family."
After the dispatcher asks who was outside, the caller says: "There's black males outside my freaking house with firearms."
He conjured an imaginary threat in order to rationalize using his weapon to kill Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas. That's it.
I am relieved that police appear to see it that way, too, and that Copley has been charged with murder. (I hope prosecutors and a jury will agree with police.) But I am so, so angry and sad that Thomas is dead. A murder charge is a relief, because it means his life matters to the system, but he is dead because his life did not matter to a fearful and hateful white man with a gun.
My sincerest condolences to Thomas' family and friends. I take up space in grief with them.
(Countdown to the news that Copley has a history of domestic violence in 3...2...)
My Last Good Nerve
[Content Note: Incitement of violence.]
Although I shared some of my tweets on Donald Trump having recklessly incited violence against Hillary Clinton yesterday, I've Storified all my tweets for anyone who would like to read the entire thread.
I also have a new piece at BNR: "There's a Name for Trump's Violent Incitement Against Hillary: Stochastic Terrorism."
Donald's point about Hillary was unambiguous.There is more at the link.
What he was doing, as explained by feminist law professor and reproductive rights activist David S. Cohen, was engaging in "stochastic terrorism," which is "an obscure and non-legal term" meaning to use "language and other forms of communication 'to incite random actors to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable,'" a sort of incitement well-known among those familiar with anti-choice violence.
Writes Cohen: "Stated differently: Trump puts out the dog-whistle knowing that some dog will hear it, even though he doesn't know which dog."
The sort of diffused threats that are a feature of stochastic terrorism are, unfortunately, extremely familiar to me. As a feminist progressive woman with a public profile, these are the kinds of "not really threats – wink!" I get all the time: Hoping someone else will rape and/or kill me.
Or "warning" me that someone might – if I insist on keeping up my work. Being on the receiving end of those words for more than a decade: I know what Donald meant.
It is chillingly familiar.
...Thus, I have no patience for the aggressive indecency of not receiving and treating Donald's words with the gravity they deserve.
This man openly incited violence against a woman, who also happens to be a presidential candidate – which makes his exhortation possibly criminal, too.
I am, of course, concerned for Hillary. Additionally: This, like every iteration of gross misogyny and threats directed at her publicly, isn't just about Hillary, but about how we treat women culturally.
As I've said many times, I'm not just interested in seeing Hillary treated fairly; I am also deeply motivated by the long-term objective of making public service safe for women, especially women who don't share her privileges.
This is politically important. It is also presently personal. And it is critical to our future: I care about Hillary's safety, and my own safety, and about what we are communicating to every little girl watching this unfold, contemplating her own future.
When this campaign began, when Trump's opening salvo was to assert that undocumented immigrants from Mexico are rapists, I said that this man is terrifying; that he is dangerous. Over and over and over and over, I railed and warned against treating Trump like a joke, or a harmless bit of entertainment. And every time, I got pushback on social media (and occasionally in comments), from people who regarded me as a hysteric, a hyperbolic reactionary, a humorless feminist.
It gives me no fucking joy to be a Cassandra. I am not pleased in the slightest to have been unheeded. I don't have any inclination to say, "I told you so," because I wasn't trying to be right; I was trying to get people to pay attention.
I was hardly the only one ringing this alarm bell. And now, here we are, 17 months later, with Trump on the precipice of the US presidency.
"This isn't funny anymore," I see all over social media. Correction, you glib assholes: It was never funny in the first place.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Quinalla: "What did you used to dislike/hate that you now enjoy/love? (Category intentionally left vague!)"
Donald Trump Is a Dangerous Demagogue
[Content Note: Incitement of violence.]
There aren't even words strong enough to describe what Donald Trump said at a rally this afternoon:
Hillary wants to absolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick— [boos from audience] If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although, the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know.
Is the Secret Service going to investigate this? Because if some random person said it, they would. https://t.co/o9IKKOXjpS
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
And if Trump tries to claim he was being sarcastic, remember what @sarahkendzior said about that. https://t.co/PtyuTuaHob
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
No, Trump was not just making an offhand comment. No, he was not suggesting 2nd Amendment people organize. He was saying she should be shot.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
He pivoted from "she wants to take your guns away" to "maybe you can find a way to stop her." Can we not pretend that's innocuous? It's not.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
This is a dangerous man saying dangerous things. He LIED about her wanting to get rid of 2nd amendment, then appealed to its supporters.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
To stop her.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
Any news outlet trying to dismiss this as a "joke" needs to get its shit together. Violent "humor" against women isn't funny. Ever.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
It's amazing how the same media who parse Hillary's every word and GESTURE are suddenly disinterested in carefully examining language.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
Clinton puts her hand on her heart = call in body language experts. Trump suggests she be shot = nothing to see here! #HillaryCoverageIsCrap
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
LET'S BE CLEAR. This is what preceded Trump's comment: "Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment." THAT IS A LIE.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
Then he said: "By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is."
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
1. LIE to people that Clinton wants to take away their guns. 2. Suggest there's nothing they can do. 3. Except "2nd Am ppl" i.e. gun owners.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
If that's a "joke" where's the punchline? What is the "humor" in: Your rights will be taken away; nothing you can do; except maybe violence?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
Here's some History 101 for our intolerably indulgent media: LYING to ppl that their rts are threatened to foment violence turns out badly.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
There's a name for telling people we didn't hear what we actually heard Donald Trump say: It's called gaslighting. #HillaryCoverageIsCrap
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
I am so fucking angry I don't even know what to do with myself. This is not just indecent; it's criminal. If any other random person said something like this, they would immediately be investigated by the Secret Service. And rightly so.
Meanwhile, the media will keep talking about Clinton's emails, as her opponent just casually suggests people fucking shoot her because of a policy that doesn't even exist. HE IS LYING and HE IS INCITING. And this is gravely serious. It is not a joke.
Photo of the Day
At first glance, you might think the reason I chose this picture is because of the banner. And yes, that's terrific! But the real story of this photo is the little Black girl in the purple dress, sitting on (presumably) her mom's shoulders to get a picture of Hillary with her purple-covered tablet, and her mom is holding up the bottom of the girl's dress, peering out from under it with a huge grin on her face.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Contaminated water.]
"You try to keep going like everything's okay. But…it's not okay. It's not so much that you're like just walking around in fear, but it's always in the back of your mind—what will happen to me in later years that may be a result of the drinking of this water?"—Angie Thornton-George, 48, a resident of Flint, Michigan, who, like many others in town, are "experiencing mental health issues caused by the ongoing water crisis, including stress, anxiety, and fear over what the future holds as they continue to rely on bottled water and filters more than two years after problems first surfaced with the drinking water. A widespread concern for residents throughout the lead-poisoned city is not knowing how they, or their children and grandchildren, may be impacted because of exposure to the contaminated water."
Nothing about this is okay. Nothing. And there are communities all over the country who are experiencing the same thing—or whose residents are unaware that they're slowly being poisoned, but will suffer the same effects all the same. The not knowing only delays the anxiety.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
Hey, Republicans—are you listening? "On the heels of his campaign's worst week yet, Donald Trump suggested that it is his temperament that 'has gotten me here' and said he has no plans to change it. 'I think that my temperament has gotten me here,' Trump said in a Tuesday morning interview on Fox Business Network. 'I've always had a good temperament and it's gotten me here. We beat a lot of people in the primaries and now we have one person left, and we're actually doing pretty well there, but we'll see how it all comes out. ...I certainly don't think it's appropriate to start changing all of a sudden when you've been winning,' he said. 'I mean I've beaten many people, and now we're down to one. And we'll see how it all works out, but I think it's going to work out well.'" He's not changing; he's not pivoting; he's not rebooting. Trump is Trump.
And, at the moment, Trump is losing badly: "Let's say this plainly: The polls are not 'skewed.' They weren’t in 2012, and they aren't now. ...Right now, Clinton is leading in almost every single national poll. She leads in both our polls-plus and polls-only forecasts. That doesn't mean she will win. The polls have been off before, but no one knows by how much beforehand, or in which direction they'll miss. For all their imperfection, the polls are a far better indicator than the conspiracy theories made up to convince people that Trump is ahead."
[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] "Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said Monday night that she will attend all three general election presidential debates and challenged her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, to do the same. 'Secretary Clinton looks forward to participating in all three presidential debates scheduled by the independent debate commission,' John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, said in a statement." Ball's in your court, Trump!
The three presidential debates are scheduled for Monday September 26, Sunday October 9, and Wednesday October 19. The vice-presidential debate has been scheduled for Tuesday October 4.
[CN: Terrorism] "The parents of two Americans killed in the 2012 terrorist attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court Monday against Hillary Clinton. In the suit, Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, the parents of Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, claim that Clinton's use of a private e-mail server contributed to the attacks. They also accuse her of defaming them in public statements." As always, Clinton's response, via campaign spokesperson Nick Merrill, was very good: "While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton."
[CN: Police brutality] Wow: "Police departments will be required to give the US justice department full details of deadly incidents involving their officers each quarter, under a new government system for counting killings by police that was influenced by the Guardian. Announcing a new program for documenting all 'arrest-related deaths,' federal officials said they would actively work to confirm fatal cases seen in media reports and other open sources rather than wait for departments to report them voluntarily."
[CN: Racism] "In a recent study comparing pain treatment between white and black patients in the ER, [researchers surveying] national hospitals found that black patients with back or abdominal pain were consistently less likely to be given or prescribed opioid-based pain medication than white patients with identical symptoms. For each case, the University of California San Francisco researchers noted, 'pain severity' was the leading factor determining whether or not a patient received pain medication. This determination is entirely up to the doctors, said one of the study's authors, Renee Hsia. 'Whether or not someone 'needs' opioids is a very subjective decision—there isn't an objective test,' she said. Her team's conclusion points to a few gaps in the medical system, including implicit biases among ER doctors and a dangerous inability to assess patient pain."
[CN: Racism; classism] Relatedly: "Philadelphia has plenty of primary-care providers overall, but there is far less access to care in communities with the highest concentrations of African American residents, according to a new study. While the general findings were not a surprise—highly segregated black (and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic) areas were known to have fewer medical practitioners—the difference was bigger than the researchers had expected. The effect was independent of neighborhood poverty rates, which turned out to be less significant than anticipated, although it is not clear why." I bet we can take a good guess, though!
Neat: "Trans triathlete Chris Mosier stars in a new ad for Nike's 'Unlimited' campaign, which showcases everyday and professional athletes who push themselves to the limit. ...Mosier in 2015 became the first openly transgender athlete to win a spot on a U.S. National team. He also challenged the international transgender competition policy which resulted in a completely new set of guidelines for trans athletes."
Phew! "The spectacular Perseid meteor shower, peaking Thursday night (Aug. 11–12), lights up Earth's sky every summer as Earth passes through the trail left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, a miles-wide behemoth that swings by Earth every 133 years. Swift-Tuttle, whose nucleus is 16 miles (26 kilometers) wide, is the largest solar system object to pass close to Earth repeatedly, NASA has said, and researchers once thought it was likely to hit Earth in 2126—but the last time it passed Earth, in 1992, astronomers took more precise measurements and calculated that its next pass wouldn't be so dangerous after all. 'Its orbit passes very close to the Earth's orbit, so that it has been viewed as a hazardous object over the years,' Paul Chodas, NASA's manager for the center of near-Earth object studies, told Space.com. 'Now, we know its orbit very well, well enough to say that we are safe from an impact for many thousands of years.'"
Wow: "NASA just dumped a trove of photos of Mars' dunes, craters, and mountains." The extraordinary photos were taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
And finally! OMGGGGGGGGGG: "Flight Attendant Adopts Stray Dog Who Wouldn't Stop Waiting for Her Outside Hotel." LOVE!
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.
I Love This Video So Much
Look, y'all know I'm the Blubmaster General, but watching this video, and thinking about how Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine regard this country, versus how Donald Trump and Mike Pence regard this country, I was just a heap of emotions. Damn right #ImWithHer.
Video Description: Set to uplifting music, the video follows Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine (with their spouses) on the "Clinton Kaine Bus Tour 2016." Their blue bus drives across the US—on highways, on back roads, on side streets. In voiceover, Clinton says, "We've gotta fight for our vision of the future." At a campaign event, Kaine says: "We're on this tour so that we can talk about the American economy." Video of Clinton walking through businesses, speaking to people. Kaine continues in voiceover: "To talk about manufacturing, to talk about the way to grow jobs, and make sure that everybody benefits."
Video of Clinton being hugged by her smiling husband; video of people along the bus trail. Clinton, in voiceover: "I believe with all my heart that the economy should work for everyone, not just those at the top. We are going to get on a bus and drive where people are making things!"
Scenes of the bus tour arriving in Philadelphia; Hatfield, PA; Harrisburg, PA; Johnstown, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Youngstown, OH; Cleveland, OH; Ashland, OH; and Columbus, OH. Meeting people; walking through manufacturing plants and ice cream shops and other businesses; walking to the stage through cheering crowds; taking selfies.
In voiceover: Kaine: "Hello to Philadelphia!" Clinton: "In America, if you can dream it, you should be able to build it." Kaine: "Thank you for this warm, warm Ohio welcome." Clinton: "We're going to do more to help small businesses start, grow, and succeed... So that's why I've laid out very specific plans."
Text onscreen: "Invest in infrastructure. Modernize our electric grids. Support advanced manufacturing. Raise the national minimum wage. Help small businesses grow and hire. Ensure equal pay for women." A black woman and a white woman in a crowd turn to each other and hug each other. "Modernize American education. Kaine poses for a picture with two little girls. In voiceover, he says: "I've got details, but remember: If it's about your own kid, or it's about your own business, it's not a detail—it's a big deal. And you oughta have to tell people what you're gonna do."
Text onscreen: "Make public college debt-free for working families." Two little girls run to Clinton and hug her. "Support apprenticeship programs. Secure high-speed internet across America."
Video of the two couples on the bus. Clinton looks out an open window and says, "Nice to see you!"
Blub.
"They're Poor"
[Content Note: Classism.]
This is such a good piece: "The Unsexy Truth About Millennials: They're Poor."
Millennials are not some vast unsolvable mystery. According to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau (PDF), they earn $2,000 less than their parents did at a comparable age, they are more likely to live in poverty, and they are more likely to live at home.I highly recommend reading the whole thing.
But Baby Boomers and Gen Xers still seem to find it hard to believe that basic economic math can explain much of the younger generation's behavior.
...The truth is that lower wages and poverty can account for so many of the things that older generations find so mystifying about millennials.
As I have said many, many, many times in this space: There are so many expenses now that previous generations simply did not have.
Computers, internet, cable, mobile phones, mobile phone plans... None of which are "luxuries." You need those things to survive. And they're expensive.
Combine those expenses with wage stagnation and the increased cost of everything from groceries to homes, and it's a recipe for struggling to survive, no less thrive.
Okay, But.
[Content Note: Bigotry.]
Republican US Senator from Maine Susan Collins has written a piece for the Washington Post in which she says that she cannot support Donald Trump's candidacy. She does not endorse Hillary Clinton; she merely says she won't support Trump.
She lists three incidents that have led her to this decision, fully 17 months after he announced his candidacy. "The first was his mocking of a reporter with disabilities... The second was Mr. Trump's repeated insistence that Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge born and raised in Indiana, could not rule fairly in a case involving Trump University because of his Mexican heritage... Third was Donald Trump's criticism of the grieving parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan..."
Yep, those were all very terrible! But.
The thing about Susan Collins' column is that it doesn't even mention Trump came out the gate calling undocumented immigrants rapists day 1.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
THAT DAY, anyone with any decency should have disavowed him as a person fit to be president. Literally the first day. The first speech.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
You decide to tolerate that, you've already tolerated too much.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2016
Forgive my cynicism (actually, don't), but I just don't think you get credit for saying Trump is too nasty to endorse now, when he's fixing to lose spectacularly and it's politically expedient to distance oneself, because he was the same kind of nasty a year a half ago.
