In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: War] In Iraq: "The Obama administration has begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces, who have started to make gains against Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday. The United States previously had insisted on only selling arms to the Iraqi government in Baghdad, but the Kurdish peshmerga fighters had been losing ground to Islamic State in recent weeks. ...U.S. officials would not say which agency is providing the arms or what weapons are being sent in its ramped-up military support role, but one official said it is not the Pentagon. The CIA has historically done similar arming operations. A senior State Department official would only say that the Kurds are 'getting arms from various sources. They are being rearmed.'"

[CN: Sexual violence] I don't even know what the fuck the Wendy Davis campaign is thinking with this move: The campaign has made an advert which highlights a case in which Greg Abbott, her Republican opponent for the Texas governorship, did not support allowing a survivor of rape to sue the company whose door-to-door salesman raped her, as they failed to do a routine background check, which would have revealed a history of sex abuse. The woman won, but Abbott, then a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, dissented. The ad (viewable at the link) asserts that Abbott doesn't care about survivors, but it was made without the woman's consent, and it further depicts a recreation of the assault. Wendy Davis: You don't get to claim that you care about survivors when you borrow their stories for campaign adverts without their consent and run ads with imagery that stands to trigger survivors. This is some real bullshit.

[CN: Anti-immgrationism] Welp: "President Barack Obama's pledge to fast-track the deportation of migrant children from Central America is out of step with the opinion of a majority of Americans, who say the children should be allowed to stay in the United States, at least for a while. ...The [Reuters/Ipsos] poll, conducted on July 31-Aug. 5, found that 51 percent of Americans believe the unaccompanied children being detained at the U.S.-Mexico border should be allowed to remain in the country for some length of time. ...[Only] 32 percent said the children should be immediately deported." Which is pretty much the exact percentage of diehard rightwingers who will never vote Democrat, so maybe rethink this policy, Mr. President.

[CN: Racism; misogyny; objectification] I'm sure we're all definitely shocked to hear that a new report has found that music videos are rife with racism and misogyny, and that "especially black women were routinely portrayed in a hyper-sexualised fashion." The report says, in part: "We believe in women's right to self-expression and freedom of movement. Our concern is how the music industry uses music videos as yet another vehicle to colonise and commodify black women's bodies. We urge the music industry to consider what young women and the evidence are telling them." Right on.

Today in Awesome Kids: "Mo'Ne Davis led her team into the Little League World Series, throwing a three-hitter Sunday to lead Taney Youth Baseball Association Little League of Philadelphia to an 8-0 victory over a squad from Delaware. Mo'Ne struck out six in the six-inning game in the Mid-Atlantic Regional championship game. The 13-year-old will become only the 17th girl to play in the Little League World Series in 68 years." Wow.

Here are some terrific photos of the supermoon, if you want to look at them!

And finally! This is a good story about a neat lady who is helping save harder-to-place shelter pets by serving as a temporary home until those pets can find a place with a rescue organization equipped to help them. Amazing. ♥