In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Human rights violations] Detroit's decision to turn off water to residents in arrears, at a rate of 3,000 residents per week, in the middle of summer is a human rights violation. It doesn't take the United Nations weighing in to recognize that, but they have. And now the Council of Canadians is stepping in to fight the turnoffs, because "our water is their water." This is an absolute fucking disgrace. The US is an absurdly wealthy country, and no one should have to go without water. No one.

[CN: Racism] A float featuring an outhouse labeled "Obama Presidential Library" won an award in a Fourth of July parade in Norfolk, Nebraska, over the weekend. Parade committee member Rick Konopasek defended the float and wants to know: "So should we deny the 95% of those that liked it their rights just for the 5% of people who are upset?" 1. Yes. 2. There is no guaranteed "right" to enjoy racist parade floats, dipshit.

[CN: Guns; violence] Chicago had another weekend of alarming gun violence, during which "at least 11 people were killed and 60 others wounded citywide." I strongly recommend checking out @Karnythia's TL for important commentary on violence (and the surrounding politics) in Chicago.

[CN: Terrorism; violence] Nigeria's military has claimed it killed "53 fighters from the armed group Boko Haram when it repelled an attack on a military base in the northeast Nigerian town of Damboa. A statement from defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade added that five soldiers and a senior military officer had also been killed in an exchange of fire Friday night. The military often reports high casualty figures for the rebels and relatively low ones on its own side. It is usually not possible to verify these reports independently." This ongoing battle with Boko Haram is just devastating for the region. In related news, the 200+ abducted girls still remain in Boko Haram's possession.

[CN: War on agency; misogyny] Dreading this big time: "The US Supreme Court will decide next term whether the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) requires an employer to provide workplace accommodations to pregnant employees if that employer also provides comparable accommodations to non-pregnant employees who become temporarily unable to perform their jobs without the accommodation."

[CN: Clergy abuse] Pope Francis met with survivors of Catholic clergy sex abuse in order to ask for forgiveness and promise accountability. Some survivors groups are rightly questioning whether this is just another publicity stunt from the Pope who, mere months ago, was still defensively quantifying how few priests have committed sex abuse.

[CN: Fat bias; misogyny] Andi Zeisler's review of Melissa McCarthy's new film Tammy is terrific: "Tammy Is Not a Great Film—But It Is a Radical One." I haven't seen the film yet, but I find it very interesting, ahem, that the complaints McCarthy is doing "the same character" have only arisen now that she's doing that character as a co-lead with an older and further aged woman (Susan Sarandon), instead of a beautiful thin woman (Sandra Bullock in The Heat) or a handsome thin man (Jason Bateman in Identity Thief). It's like suddenly time to criticize her when she's saying LOOK RIGHT AT ME. That's no coincidence.

Ten percent of USians are totally disengaged from politics: "Overall, 10% of Americans are what we call Bystanders, or the politically disengaged, according to Pew Research Center's Political Typology report. None of this cohort say they're registered to vote, and none say they follow government and public affairs most of the time (this compares with 48% of Americans overall). Virtually all of this group (96%) say they've never contributed money to a candidate running for public office." One part of me feels like how can anyone be so disengaged from politics when politics affects everything, and one part of me feels like I can't fucking blame them, lolsob.

Pink Floyd will be releasing its first album in 20 years later this year. Neat!

[CN: Fire; injury] Firefighter Major Kyle Durham adopted a badly injured puppy he rescued from a fire. All the blubs forever.

And finally: This USB Keyboard Will Bring Back the Nostalgic Clicks of a Vintage Typewriter. WANT!!!