This blogaround brought to you by whale songs.
Recommended Reading:
Monica: It's Trans Awareness Month 2016!
Katie: Everything Wrong with Bono's 'Woman of the Year' Honor
Sameer: ICYMI: Hillary Clinton Pledges $25 Billion Investment in HBCUs
Veronica: Why I Brought Ida B. Wells Flowers
Keith: [Content Note: Racism] Study Reveals Uber, Lyft Drivers Discriminate Against Passengers
Reina: [CN: Intersectional misogyny; abuse] Why Are People Horrible to Women on the Internet?
Andy: Another James Franco 4 Hillary Ad!
Dan: Paul Feig Still Wants a Ghostbusters Sequel, and There May Yet Be Hope
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
The Wednesday Blogaround
TV Corner: This Is Us
Is anyone else watching the new NBC show This Is Us and keen to talk about it? I hope so! Because I have been watching it, and I have lots of thoughts about it!
(No major spoilers below, so anyone who is considering watching it won't have anything ruined for them.)
I'm not going to say I love the show, because it's only been a few episodes, but I think I could love it.
So far, I really like the way the story is unfolding, the way the timeline shifts to reveal how experiences in the siblings' childhood inform their adult lives and selves.
I am deeply connecting with Randall, played by Sterling K. Brown (who was sooooo good as Christopher Darden in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story), and also with Kate, played by Chrissy Metz. I could write an entire book on how I'm connecting with Kate, even though our own personal experiences with fatness are very different in many ways.
I've also been quite fond of the writing for Rebecca, played by Mandy Moore, and how complex and complicated and conflicted and well-meaning but hurtful and stubborn and hard-loving she is.
Really, the only weak points for me so far have mostly been around Toby, played by Chris Sullivan, whose pushiness and passive-aggressiveness masquerading as romantic gestures is rubbing me the wrong way big time.
Anyway! Are you watching? What do you think?
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Violence; death; guns; racism; domestic violence. Video may autoplay at second link.] Two police officers in Des Moines, Iowa, were ambushed and fatally shot yesterday. My sincerest condolences to their family, friends, and colleagues. Immediately, a number of people presumed it was an attack by a Black activist, but it turned out to be a white man with a history of racist confrontations and domestic violence.
YES: "President Obama criticized the decision by his F.B.I. director to alert Congress on Friday about the discovery of new emails related to the Hillary Clinton server case, implying that it violated investigative norms and trafficked in innuendo. 'We don't operate on incomplete information,' Mr. Obama said in an interview with NowThis News, broadcast Wednesday. 'We don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made.'"
[CN: Racism] "Barack Obama has suggested the Dakota Access pipeline could be rerouted around sacred Native American lands in comments that are the president's first on the controversial oil project since police arrested hundreds of indigenous protesters during violent clashes. ...Asked about the high-profile demonstrations against the $3.8bn pipeline, Obama told news website NowThis: 'We're monitoring this closely and I think as a general rule, my view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans, and I think that right now the army corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline.'" Good.
[CN: White male privilege; classism; racism; patriarchy] Stacey Patton for Dame Magazine: "Why I Have No Sympathy for Angry White Men."
[CN: Bigotry] Ana Marie Cox for MTV: "Me of Little Faith: How the Threat of a Trump Presidency Threatens My Faith in God."
[CN: Misogyny] Eric Boehlert for MediaMatters: "How the Media's Email Obsession Obliterated Clinton Policy Coverage."
[CN: Voter disenfranchisement; carcerality] Chelsea Manning for the Guardian: "I can't vote. If you can, you must."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] "Hillary Clinton is nothing if not prepared. And part of her preparation for the three presidential debates this year involved anticipating the actions of her 'aggressive' and unpredictable opponent—and mastering her 'listening woman' face. ...'It is something that I really was conscious of because this is the first time a woman had ever been on a debate stage in a general election,' she says. ...Clinton credits her campaign staff with getting into Trump's head and helping her shadowbox her opponent. 'I had a team of people who were relentless, totally in the head of what Trump might do,' she says."
LOVE: "Emergency Doctor Uses CPR on Stray Cat to Save Her Life; Adopts Her Afterwards."
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.
Discussion Thread: NaNoWriMo
I meant to post this yesterday, and it totally slipped my mind, so my apologies! Here is a thread for anyone who has decided to participate, or is considering participating, in National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo.
National Novel Writing Month is an annual, Internet-based creative writing project that takes place during the month of November. NaNoWriMo challenges participants to write 50,000 words (their minimum number of words for a novel) from November 1 until the deadline at 11:59PM on November 30. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to get people writing and keep them motivated throughout the process.Anyone participating? Anyone participated before, and have tips or advice for other participants?
I've always wanted to do this, but Novembers always tend to be too busy for me. (And this one is no different haha.) But I'd love to hear from anyone who is doing it, and, if there are Shakers who would like a regular thread for discussion, let me know in comments!
Words and More Words
[Content Note: Misogyny; disablism.]
Clinton vs Trump in one word, according to Trump voters. https://t.co/ST4JpVMFp6 pic.twitter.com/5ojPgvVrid
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) November 1, 2016
Clinton vs Trump in one word, according to Clinton voters. https://t.co/ST4JpVMFp6 pic.twitter.com/K3jsH59Mxr
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) November 1, 2016
In case you can't view them, the images in the above tweets show four word clouds: Trump supporters describing Clinton (1) and Trump (2) in one word, and Clinton supporters describing Trump (3) and Clinton (4) in one word. The most prominent three words in each are, respectively: Liar, corrupt, and criminal; patriot, leader, and strong; narcissist, asshole, and dangerous; qualified, smart, and presidential. Each of those words are then surrounded by lots of other descriptive words.
There are a lot of things I find interesting (a word hovering between the ends the spectrum from awesome to distressing) about these word clouds.
Foremost, I find really fascinating the difference between the positive descriptions: "Patriot" vs. "Qualified."
I'm also intrigued by how many fewer words Trump supporters use to describe Hillary. That word cloud is observably smaller than the others, which means the same words were repeated over and over. Which, of course, is an indication that people are much more likely to be repeating talking points and internalized biases than they are offering individual, thoughtfully considered assessments of her.
Anyway! There's a lot to explore here, and I could honestly spend another three hours picking these things apart, but I won't be greedy, lol. Have at it in comments!
Three Things
[Content Note: Racism; white supremacy; arson; intimidation.]
Three things I read nearly back-to-back this morning:
1. Greg Sargent in the Washington Post: "Here's the Election Day Nightmare Scenario That Should Terrify You."
But plainly, the race is tightening, and it's increasingly possible we'll see a very close finish. Which means that it's time to start pondering an Election Day nightmare scenario that is made up of two parts. First, the tight finish produces an outcome that is contested well beyond Election Day, with Trump (should he lose) claiming the results are rigged. Second, Trump supplements his claim about the rigged outcome by continuing to point to the FBI's latest discovery of emails as proof of an ongoing cover-up of Hillary Clinton's criminality.2. Ben Schreckinger in Politico: "White Nationalists Plot Election Day Show of Force."
This morning, election rules expert Michael McDonald argues in USA Today that if the outcome is close, the election could very well "go into overtime," adding that "in this environment," this could "rip this country apart."
Neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin plans to muster thousands of poll-watchers across all 50 states. His partners at the alt-right website "the Right Stuff" are touting plans to set up hidden cameras at polling places in Philadelphia and hand out liquor and marijuana in the city's "ghetto" on Election Day to induce residents to stay home. The National Socialist Movement, various factions of the Ku Klux Klan and the white nationalist American Freedom Party all are deploying members to watch polls, either "informally" or, they say, through the Trump campaign.3. Morgan Howard at MS News Now: "Greenville Church Burned; Spray Painted 'Vote Trump'."
The Oath Keepers, a group of former law enforcement and military members that often shows up in public heavily armed, is advising members to go undercover and conduct "intelligence-gathering" at polling places, and Donald Trump ally Roger Stone is organizing his own exit polling, aiming to monitor thousands of precincts across the country.
Energized by Trump's candidacy and alarmed by his warnings of a "rigged election," white nationalist, alt-right and militia movement groups are planning to come out in full force on Tuesday, creating the potential for conflict at the close of an already turbulent campaign season.
"The possibility of violence on or around Election Day is very real," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. "Donald Trump has been telling his supporters for weeks and weeks and weeks now that they are about to have the election stolen from them by evil forces on behalf of the elites."
Tuesday night sometime after 11 p.m. authorities responded to a call about a church burning.I'm extremely worried about this election. I'm very worried about the safety of marginalized people during and after this election. I'm worried for Hillary Clinton's safety. I'm worried about the future of this nation. I wish that were hyperbole.
Local Black church Hopewell M.B. Church was not only burned but also vandalized with the words "Vote Trump" spray painted on the side of the building.
ELECTION UPDATE!!!
1. Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person ever to run for president in the history of the nation. She's made some mistakes during her four-decade career, of varying degrees of magnitude, and has meaningfully apologized for them. She is clearly a person who learns and evolves. She really likes listening to people and turning their needs into policy initiatives. She is imperfect, but pretty damn great. Therefore, she must be stopped by the Republican Party, the media, the FBI, and Russia, just to name a few of the bigger players. She is also a woman. FYI.
2. Donald Trump doesn't know shit about shit. He has never served a day in public office, has no interest in policy, and has used his presidential campaign to personally enrich himself. He never apologizes and never learns. Therefore, let's elect him! At least he's not a woman!
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 or coughed or sat on a stool or felt faint from a combination of heat and pneumonia or rested against a pillow or SUSPICIOUSLY wore his purse on a different shoulder than usual one day or changed his hairstyle or worn something unflattering or told a joke about Pokémon Go or carried hot sauce in his bag. Although it probably doesn't matter, because he's a dude.
5. Mike Pence continues to be the absolute fucking worst.
Six more days of this shit.
That about sums it up! Discuss.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker invisibilia: "What lessons did you learn from your grandparents or other elderly friends or relatives? Good and bad lessons. From Granny taught me to bake cookies, to Great Aunt X is the reason I love forest walks, to my granddad's horrible views taught me how NOT to think of other ethnicities."
This Cricket Insolence Will Not Stand
So, Matilda—the fuzzy dingus pictured above—hates crickets. She hates them.
Occasionally, a cricket shows up in the lower level of the house, making its crickety noise and hopping about like a sproingy thing, as crickets do.
This infuriates Matilda.
She cannot brook their noise, and she absolutely refuses to brook their hopping about, particularly in such an unpredictable manner.
But what Matilda will not do is kill the cricket. Instead, she will stand near the cricket and yowl at the top of her lungs until I come and remove the cricket from her view, whether by relocation or murder.
(I always try for relocation, but some crickets regrettably refuse to cooperate.)
The other day, I was in the bathroom on the lower level, when a cricket went hopping by, with Matilda in hot pursuit. There's a corner right outside the bathroom door, and Matilda came tearing around it after the cricket. She slid right into the far well and kept going, like she was in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
I burst out laughing, because this is typically ridiculous Matilda behavior.
She then apparently cornered the cricket, and began her irate yowling. When I failed to immediately appear to remove the interloper from her territory, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
A moment later, she strolled into the bathroom and dropped the cricket at my feet, then put her paw on top of it to hold it in place. She looked up at me with an expression of focused indignance, and gave the longest, most plaintive meeeeeeooooowwwwww I've ever heard.
"Okay," I responded through laughter. "I will take care of the cricket."
She gazed at me with narrow eyes. Waiting for me to make good on my word. She wasn't about to leave that cricket until she was absolutely certain I would dispatch it from her view.
Nothing, but nothing, raises Matilda's ire like crickets, you see.
I reached down toward her and only when my hand was within millimeters of her paw did she harrumph away, leaving me to flush the cricket down the toilet.
Photos of the Day
I just want to hang out with this lady and have her tell me ALL THE STORIES. About everything.
And, yes, by the way, she got to meet Hillary. ♥
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Racism; violence; guns] Your first must-read of the day: "The everyday trauma of being a black man in America." Jonathan Capehart is always a must-read, but this one in particular. Every word.
[CN: Misogyny; objectification] Your second must-read of the day: "Stronger Together." A statement written by the incoming recruits on the Harvard women's soccer team, in response to a "scouting report" written by the men's team, sexually objectifying and ranking them. "[T]o the men of Harvard Soccer and any future men who may lay claim to our bodies and choose to objectify us as sexual objects, in the words of one of us, we say together: 'I can offer you my forgiveness, which is—and forever will be—the only part of me that you can ever claim as yours.'"
[CN: Segregation; racism; classism] ICYMI: At Colorlines, Kenrya has the full clip of John Oliver's terrific weekend segment on school segregation.
Variety has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, marking the first time in its 111-year history that it has made a presidential endorsement.
[CN: Racism; xenophobia; threats] Seethe: "For Helping Immigrants, Chobani's Founder Draws Threats." I guess I need to buy some Chobani yoghurt.
[CN: Appropriation; racism] An entire galaxy of NOPE: "Rachel Dolezal memoir to explore 'discrimination while living as black'."
[CN: Homophobia; misogyny] Goddammit: "Boy Who Wore Hillary Clinton Costume for Halloween Attacked by Trump Trolls and Homophobes."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] In better political Halloween news: Trick-or-treaters put on a dance performance to "Thriller" for President and First Lady Obama at the White House Halloween bash, and it was amazing!
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.
"The target is not Hillary Clinton. It’s us."
[Content Note: Misogyny. Video may autoplay at link.]
The bluntness of this essay by Professor Robin Lakoff is giving me life!
I am mad. I am mad because I am scared. And if you are a woman, you should be, too. Emailgate is a bitch hunt, but the target is not Hillary Clinton. It's us.Woo! Flames!
The only reason the whole email flap has legs is because the candidate is female. Can you imagine this happening to a man? Clinton is guilty of SWF (Speaking While Female), and emailgate is just a reminder to us all that she has no business doing what she's doing and must be punished, for the sake of all decent women everywhere. There is so much of that going around.
...Clinton's use of a personal server has not been found to be a crime. Then how is it that so many have found the charge so easy to make, and make stick? How has her use of the server made plausible all the claims that she is "deceptive" and "untrustworthy"?
It's not about emails; it's about public communication by a woman in general. Of course, in the year 2016, no one (probably not even The Donald) could make this argument explicitly. After all, he and his fellow Republicans are not waging a war on women. How do we know that? They have said so. And they're men, so they must be telling the truth.
(How to tell the genders apart: men are truthful; women are liars. Now you know.)
But here's Hillary Rodham Clinton, the very public stand-in for all bossy, uppity and ambitious women. Here are her emails. And since it's a woman, doing what decent women should never do—engaging in high-level public communication—well, there must be something wrong with that, even if we can't quite find that something. We will invoke the terminology of criminal law to account for our feelings. She's getting away with treason! Put her in jail! We can't quite put our fingers on it, but the words sure do make a lot of people feel better, so they must be right.
Here, Lakoff has identified something that I imagine a lot of women across the country feel, but can't necessarily articulate: That this is indeed an attack on women's ambition and thus it is implicitly an attack on all of us.
The gatekeepers are trying everything they can to retain the denial of access to the biggest, baddest boys' club in the nation, and many of us feel that. We recognize that resistance.
Even if we aren't steeped in the language of feminist analysis (and maybe even if we are!), we know in our bones what this is about and what is has always been about. A bitch hunt. Against a woman who is trying yet again to insert herself in a place that women "don't belong."
Two Stories
This stuff is so far outside my areas of expertise that I don't even know how to begin to comment on them, to be absolutely frank. But they are certainly important, and I strongly recommend reading both of them in their entirety.
1. Franklin Foer at Slate: "Was a Trump Server Communicating with Russia?"
2. David Corn at Mother Jones: "A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump."
What I can say is this: Donald Trump is unfit to be President of the United States. His connections to Russia, whatever they are, is just another on the laundry list of disqualifiers.
ELECTION UPDATE!!!
1. Hillary Clinton, I don't know if you've heard, made a bad decision, though a decision entirely in keeping with standard practice at the time, about an email server. She has apologized for it, on approximately eleventy occasions, but she's a known liar, so.
2. Donald Trump is a bigot and a sexual predator and a compulsive liar and a fraud who exploits and harasses and abuses people on a basis so frequent it's tough to keep on top of all the incidents of his harm. He also has no viable policies, and the temperament of a rabid wolverine, but he's entertaining, so.
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 or coughed or sat on a stool or felt faint from a combination of heat and pneumonia or rested against a pillow or SUSPICIOUSLY wore his purse on a different shoulder than usual one day or changed his hairstyle or worn something unflattering or told a joke about Pokémon Go. Although it probably doesn't matter, because he's a dude.
5. Mike Pence continues to be the absolute fucking worst.
One more week of this shit.
That about sums it up! Discuss.
