In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Breaking Clown Car News! [Insert circus music here!] Republican Governor of Ohio John Kasich has officially announced his candidacy for the US presidency, bringing the total number of major GOP candidates to 16! "I have the skills, and I have the experience. I have the experience and the testing—the testing that prepares you for the most important job in the world." He also has the speaking—the speaking of the words that mean things in language. Kasich is also yet another white dude in this race who has a "short fuse" and a "hair-trigger temper," i.e. an anger management problem. So that's awesome! Welcome to the race, Kasich. Can't wait to hear you scream about all your terrific ideas!

In other presidential race news, Hillary Clinton has introduced some proposals that are "aimed at a corporate culture that has fixated on the short term over longer-term investments in things like employee compensation," a fixation which "is a real problem for the economy." Last week, she debuted "a profit-sharing proposal that would give companies a 15 percent tax credit for sharing some of those earnings with employees. Then this week, she is expected to propose changing taxes on capital gains, which are currently subject to a 23.8 percent rate that is lower than the rate for most ordinary income, so that rates would be higher for short-term investments and lower for longer ones." This doesn't sound nearly as exciting as it actually is!

Also: Clinton did a Facebook Q&A, and Lauren Gambino has a good write-up of it at the Guardian, if you're interested. (Her response to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's "gender card" dig is pretty great.)

Meanwhile: Bernie Sanders is going all-in a $15 federal minimum wage. There are multiple schools of thought about this on the progressive side of the aisle: Some progressives support the across-the-board $15 minimum wage hike; some progressives support a minimum wage increase that's tied to a percentage of local cost of living (because $15/hour doesn't mean the same thing in NYC as it does in Smalltownville, Indiana). I am in the latter faction, because I think it should be more than $15 in a lot of places, and also because there are lots of small business owners in much of Middle America (especially small business owners who are white women or people of color who started with a minority business loan) who can't afford a $15/hour minimum wage, but could afford a locally livable wage less than that. But other people, like Sanders, support the flat minimum wage increase. And I will say this: At least we're talking about raising the minimum wage!

[Content Note: Abortion; tissue sales; hostility to consent] The Center for Medical Progress (fuck that name and fuck them) has released a second "undercover" video "of an official at a Planned Parenthood affiliate discussing the costs associated with harvesting fetal tissue for medical research." Still not illegal, unethical, or unusual. Meanwhile, RH Reality Check has published a comprehensive infographic detailing the connections between anti-choice radicals and Congressional leaders, who conspire to orchestrate these attacks on Planned Parenthood.

[CN: Homophobia] In good news: "Democrats in Congress plan to introduce a sweeping measure this week that would extend civil rights protections to LGBT Americans. The Equality Act—which is a revamped version of the failed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA—would prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in seven areas: credit, education, employment, federal funding, housing, jury service, and public accommodations." In bad news: It's probably not going to go anywhere, because the Republican Congressional majority is comprised of a bunch of bigoted dipshits.

[CN: Misogyny] I have allllll the questions about this study whose authors concluded, based on researching videogame play, that "low-status males that have the most to lose due to a hierarchical reconfiguration are [misogynists because they're losers while] high-status males with the least to fear were more positive [toward women]." Sure. This seems widely applicable to wider society. That's why highly powerful CEOs are renowned for their decency toward women. *that face*

This photo of Earth taken from one million miles away is absolutely breathtaking.

And finally! "Baby Horse Born with Horse-Shaped Marking." I repeat: BABY HORSE BORN WITH HORSE-SHAPED MARKING!