In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Rep. Louie Gohmert is challenging Rep. John Boehner for the position of Speaker of the House today, and he says that the US will be "devastated" if he doesn't win. Hahahahahaha okay player.

Speaking of elections, you might have heard we have another presidential election fully one million months from now, so let's see what's happening with that! Jeb Bush is ramping up his fundraising apparatus. Give him all the money, old white people! Chris Christie hugged someone from Texas, so we have our first scandal of the 2016 election, involving someone who isn't even running, because no one is running yet, since it is like three centuries away. And Jim Webb is for sure white and for sure a dude. You heard it here first!

[Content Note: Misogyny] Tom Watson makes the argument that Hillary Clinton's greatest credential for the US presidency is putting "the interests of women and girls atop the global development agenda." The fact that Clinton having made safety and opportunity for women and children globally a centerpiece of her career is widely ignored as a meaningful legacy and leadership credential is one of the most pointed commentaries on how little women and children are truly valued.

The 114th Congress is 80% white, 80% male, and 92% Christian. The representative democracy of the world's melting pot!

[CN: Police brutality; racism] Los Angeles police have shut down a protest outside LAPD headquarters, because of course they have: "The protesters set up a camp of makeshift tents and a kitchen about a week ago, prompted by the release of the autopsy report on Ezell Ford, a mentally ill 25-year-old shot dead during a confrontation with police in August. ...On Monday, the Times reported, police ordered the protesters to pack up their encampment and leave the sidewalk. The protesters complied peacefully, although they traded shouts with police. Two protest leaders, Melina Abdullah and Sha Dixon, were arrested after trying to deliver letters with their demands to police chief Charles Beck. The women, a professor of pan-African studies at Cal State and a television producer respectively, attempted to bypass the police line and enter the building, at which point they were detained. Both Abdullah and Dixon were released hours later." I continue to think it's just terrific (not terrific, not at all) that black people can be arrested for protesting, but white people aren't arrested for killing black people.

Meanwhile, in New York City, both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton have said that officers who used the occasions of the funerals of slain Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos to turn their backs on de Blasio made asses of themselves. Not the time, not the place.

[CN: Homophobia] Indiana's proposed "Religious Liberty" bill is really a "sure, same-sex couples can get married here now, but we don't have to like it" bill. Fucking bigots. Jesus Jones.

Jourdan Dunn is the first black model to appear solo on the cover of British Vogue in twelve freaking years.

RIP Christine Cavanaugh. "She was able to do incredible and amazing things with her voice and bring lots of smiles and many laughs to many people."

And finally! French Bulldogs in a ball pit. I repeat: French Bulldogs in a ball pit.