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.
ELECTION UPDATE!!!
1. Hillary Clinton coughs! Also she is definitely not one of the hardest working and most accomplished women on the planet: She is actually "the Queen of Coasting" who is probably going to totally blow it because of her laziness. Boo! Women, amirite? Maybe she should spend less time writing very personal and inspiring letters to ladies and more time proving to men that she's presidential material. GET IT TOGETHER, HILLARY.
2. Donald Trump doesn't cough! No siree. The only noise you'll hear coming out of his very healthy throat is the sound of ceaseless disgorgements of fetid chunks of obscene bigotry! He tells it like it is and won't be cowed by your PC bullshit, man. He's so contemptuous of your rules that he has spent his entire life breaking them. IT'S CALLED BEING A MAVERICK. Look it up.
3. Our national media is garbage.
4. Tim Kaine continues to be very delightful and also makes good and serious points about how Donald Trump is a terrible candidate. I hope he's never sent or received any emails or started a foundation that has saved millions of lives. Although it probably doesn't matter, because he's a dude.
5. Mike Pence continues to be the absolute fucking worst.
61 more days of this shit.
That about sums it up! Discuss.
Have I Mentioned I Like Tim Kaine?
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
Yesterday, Tim Kaine did an interview with PBS' Gwen Ifill, during which she asked him about Donald Trump's comments about Hillary Clinton not "looking presidential." And his response was awesome.
Ifill: Let me ask you another question about something Donald Trump had to say over the weekend. He said that Hillary Clinton didn't look presidential. And then he was asked about that, and he didn't quite answer what he meant. What do you think he meant?A+
Kaine: Well, Gwen, I'll quote it precisely. He said: "Hillary Clinton doesn't look presidential, does she, fellas?" Does she fellas. And, ah, to me, I didn't have a hard time figuring out what that meant. He was basically saying that, because she's a woman, ah, that she somehow didn't meet his standard of what a president looks like. And I think that is very, very easily understood by the vast majority of people who heard him make that comment, and they find it offensive.
Ifill: Does it help or hurt you when there are veiled, or unveiled, comments referring to your running mate's gender?
Kaine: Um, well, you know, whether it helps or hurts us, it's bad for our country, um, because we live in a country where we put our North Star out there in 1776, and we said that North Star was going to be equality; took us 144 years to make the decision that that meant women could even vote. And now we're 96 years after that and, thank goodness, we've broken a glass ceiling, and a major party has nominated a woman for president.
But for Donald Trump to suggest—and he's suggested it before—that for some reason Hillary Clinton couldn't cross over the hurdle because of her gender, when we've stated that our principle is the equality principle, and nations around the world have been able to elect women as heads of state, I think that shows that he's living in a different time—a time that is not a match for what Americans now believe about who our leaders should be.
I love that Kaine is willing to bluntly call out this "doesn't look presidential" garbage as the straight-up misogyny that it is. LOVE.
I also deeply appreciate the matter-of-fact construction he uses here. It's "very, very easily understood" what Trump means. And anyone who doesn't understand it is making a real goddamn effort not to.
I'll tell ya what: If Tim Kaine gives me a reason to write a happy post about him every day, I won't be mad.
Here's a Thought
Maybe Hillary Clinton has occasional coughing fits because her throat is dry from constant air travel, which is really dehydrating, between venues where she has to give very long speeches in front of big crowds, in between which she talks to lots of voters individually, and then spends a large part of the rest of her days discussing policy with her team, rehearsing debates, and all the other shit running a massive national campaign demands, which tends to require lots of talking, and has been doing this for eighteen months and counting...?
Not everything is a conspiracy theory. Sometimes humans just do human things.
I know it's not fashionable to treat Hillary Clinton as a human being, but maybe the media could try it for one fucking day and see what happens.
The Tuesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by green markers.
Recommended Reading:
stavvers: [Content Note: Fat hatred; disablism; classism; heterocentrism] Blocking Fat People and Smokers from Accessing Healthcare Hits Our Most Scapegoated Punchbags
Shane: The Paralympics Isn't Great Sport with Caveats; It's Great Sport
Somer: [CN: Marginalization] Creating Spaces for Black Feminists
Fannie: [CN: Misogyny] Another Men's Issue for MRAs to Solve: Workplace Feedback!
Sean: Maybe We Do Not Live in a Simulation: The Resolution Conundrum
Kath: Ashley Nell Tipton and JC Penney: Still Smashing It out of the Park
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Best Dining Experiences.
To be clear: This doesn't necessarily mean five best meals, or five fanciest restaurants at which you've eaten, or anything specific at all. Define it however you like, in whatever combination. It could include best things you've eaten, favorite restaurants, best dining companions, most successful meal you've cooked, whatever!
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.
In the News
Here are a couple of links of interest from the news today:
[Content Note: Video autoplays at link] This is just an amazing video from the team at Shareblue (future permanent home of BNR!): The untold story (by the media) of the hidden Hillary. Love love love love love.
[CN: Rape threat] A Republican candidate tells a female journalist he hopes she gets raped. And the GOP apparently wants us to believe it was because he got hacked, despite the fact he's been harassing her for some time.
WHAT IS GLENN THRUSH EVEN DOING. "Five reasons Hillary could be blowing it." For cripes sake.
[CN: Sexual harassment] Welp: "Fox Apologizes to Gretchen Carlson and Pays Her a Reported $20 Million—Then Announces Greta Van Susteren Is Leaving." $20 million, huh? That's half of what Ailes got as he was shoved out the door.
"Jurassic 'Sea Monster' Emerges from Scottish Loch." Insert your Nessie jokes here.
What have you been reading?
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.
Tim Kaine
I like Tim Kaine. I was an early Kaine adopter. If I'm totally honest, a big part of that is because I immediately recognized in him a particular kind of goofiness worn comfortably as a way of greeting a world that is often hard and cruel. That is a familiar posture to me. Being a person who cares hard, in a way that can crush you, if you don't balance it with silliness and cultivated joy.
I also like him for a reason that is not so intimately relatable to me, but that I nonetheless appreciate just as deeply. He models a version of manhood that is the complete opposite of that modeled by Donald Trump.
To be honest, there was a big part of me that was hoping Hillary would choose a female running mate. I was looking forward to the executive branch of the U.S. government passing the Bechdel Test for the first time.
But I understand why she chose Kaine, and I'm not disappointed. Especially as I have had time to watch him on the campaign trail and see the value of this dude—not any dude, but this dude—providing an implicit condemnation and rejection of the retrograde toxic masculinity of Trump.
Kaine is every bit as kind as Trump is cruel. His strength is not rooted in fearmongering bluster, but in optimism and an authentic regard for people and their potential.
He is not a man who foments division, but nurtures the things we all share—our hopes and dreams and desire for a better world.
He is not a man who masks deep insecurities with testosterone-fueled bragadoccio, insulting people who do not share his privileges, but walks among people he meets along the campaign trail with a quiet confidence that inspires trust, listening to them rather than shouting at them.
He is not a man who wants people to envy him because his wife is a hot piece of ass, but wants people to know he loves and respects his wife as his equal.
And he is not a man who believes you have to treat women like shit, but a man who speaks frankly about his willingness and enthusiasm about supporting a strong female candidate.
A lot of strong women have helped me in my career. I'm honored to serve as a strong woman's running mate.https://t.co/3oz1z8Fi2H
— Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) August 14, 2016
Transcript: Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine sits at a table speaking with a Black woman and a Black man.These are words that we will never hear from Trump. Or his running mate Mike Pence, for that matter.
The woman says: "And I really respect the fact that you accepted the candidacy. Kaine says: "I'm so honored." The woman says: "And I tell you: It is going to be a historic day." Kaine says: "I said one of the reasons that I was so honored—obviously, she's super qualified and she's going to be a great president—but when she asked me, what flashed through my head is: When I think about all the strong women who have helped me, from my wife to campaign managers to volunteers to my financing, all these strong women leaders who enabled me to do what I do— If I can be a supportive VP candidate to help Hillary Clinton win—and then, you know, I've got a lot of experience, so I think I can help her govern, too—and I'll feel like, you know what? Strong men ought to support strong women, just like throughout our, you know, history—strong women supported strong men.
Trump, with Pence at his side, is running a campaign that is making a very explicit appeal to straight white cis men who favor a very particular type of masculinity. Whose identities exist at the intersection of white nationalism and the patriarchy, which are inextricably linked, reinforcing each other in a recursive loop to uphold the dominance and privilege of white men.
Kaine, despite bearing the identity markers of the men to whom Trump is primarily appealing, does not share their interest in fiercely protecting a toxic masculinity which is harmful to women, and to men, and to nonbinary folks. His rejection of these patriarchal traditions, no less in support of a female candidate at the top of the ticket, is an important model, at an important juncture in the nation's history.
And I think he's very aware of that.
This election is about looking in the mirror. Do we see a nation that respects people or divides people? pic.twitter.com/uQZLNiBd5m
— Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) September 1, 2016
* * *
To insert the requisite caveat: I do not think Tim Kaine is a perfect candidate. For instance: I want him to move left on Hyde (and I believe that Hillary Clinton will persuade him, not just because she is persuasive, but because he has shown himself to be persuadable). But I like him a lot. And I trust him. I trust him most of all to listen, even and especially to women, which gives me a lot of optimism that he will become an even better candidate, the more voices he hears.
Trump Never Stops
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
CLEVELAND --
— Kevin Cirilli (@kevcirilli) September 5, 2016
TRUMP on Clinton:
"Does she look presidential, fellas? Give me a break."
Said my pal Jamison Foser: "'Fellas' is doing a lot of work here." And how.
Phyllis Schlafly Has Died
Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative activist who aggressively crusaded against women's, LGB, and trans equality, has died at age 92. Her New York Times obituary is here.
My condolences to her family and friends.
You know the old adage: If you don't have anything nice to say.
...
Note: As celebrating Schlafly's death is not welcome in this space, if you, like me, have nothing nice to say about her, but feel obliged to recognize her death, please feel welcome and encouraged to simply leave an ellipsis in comments.
...
Open Thread
I am feeling marginally better and am slowly beginning to regain my human shape. Things might be slow today, depending on how much energy I've got. Thanks for being patient with me.
Open Thread + Update
I'm still sick as hell, so I am taking today off, too. There's never a good time to be this ill, but I feel especially bad given that I just came back from vacation. So, my apologies. I'll take the long Labor Day weekend, and hopefully I will be back in fighting form by next Tuesday.
In the meantime, if you need me, I'll be in my bed.
Open Thread + Blog Note
I've very suddenly come down with an absolutely horrendous flu. Chest congestion, sore throat, hacking cough, fever, cold sweats, the whole nine yards. I felt fine and then woke up feeling dreadful. So I'm going to try to get some rest and hopefully this will be over quickly. I'll keep you posted.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Ginger: "What empowers you?"
Safety. Contentment. Security. A general lack of anxiety. Also: Focused anger and restlessness caused from wanting and expecting more.
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!
