In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Pay attention to this one: "The Supreme Court Hears a Case Today That Could Give Corporations Even More Immunity from the Law: "If [a] company cheats you and you alone out of a few hundred dollars, you're probably out of luck. But if the same company illegally cheats thousands of people out of a few hundred dollars as part of the same scheme, class actions allow those thousands of people to join together in one grand lawsuit. Because their combined suit is now worth a lot of money, they are suddenly likely to be able to recruit excellent legal counsel to represent the class. Campbell-Ewald Company v. Gomez, a case the Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday, could deal a mortal blow to class action litigation, however. Indeed, if the defendant in Campbell-Ewald prevails, companies that engage in multi-million dollar lawbreaking could gain the power to shut down class action litigation altogether by paying out a tiny fraction of what they should owe." Fuck.

[Content Note: Racism; class warfare] This is an excellent report by ProPublica's Paul Kiel and Annie Waldman on "How Collection Suits Squeeze Black Neighborhoods."

[CN: Misogyny] Interesting: "The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has contacted several women directors in Hollywood in an effort to determine whether legal intervention is necessary to disrupt the industry's discriminatory hiring practices. In a letter sent to some 50 women filmmakers, the EEOC—which is responsible for protecting individuals from employment discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion and national origin through enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—requested interviews with them to 'learn more about the gender-related issues' women behind the camera face in both the film and television industries."

"Pope Francis has made a surprise public apology for recent scandals 'either in Rome or in the Vatican.' ...To thousands of people who had gathered for his weekly address, Pope Francis said: 'Before I begin the Catechism, in the name of the Church, I want to ask you for forgiveness for the scandals that have occurred recently either in Rome or in the Vatican. I ask you for forgiveness.' He also said: 'The word of Jesus is strong today, woe to the world because of scandals. Jesus is a realist. He says it is inevitable that there will be scandals. But woe to the man who causes scandals.' His words left Vatican observers scratching their heads in deciding exactly which scandals he meant." Okay. Wevs.

[CN: Anti-feminist tropes; transphobia] Alice Eve, last heard being a transphobic fuckhead, is the latest to jump on the "gender equality is great but feminists are man-haters" bandwagon: "I'm passionate about gender equality in the film industry. I think when anyone is asked if they're a feminist, it's natural that any woman is in defence of her sex. It can be dangerous when it becomes anti-male. I am not massively in support of attacking men, because I think we've moved so much into a place where we objectify them as well. For me, the struggle is really the pay gap—that's a reality that women in every profession are subjected to and that's not OK." Oh do shut up.

[CN: Misogynoir] This interview with Effie Brown is terrific: "What's your relationship with Damon now? 'Word on the street is I'm not his favorite person.'"

[CN: Racist slur] New Daily Show host Trevor Noah, who has been accused of joke stealing before, has been caught nicking a bit from Dave Chappelle. That bit is so famous! Why does he think he can get away with that?!

[CN: Bigotry] If you're interested in reading what Donald Trump had to tweet during the Democratic debate last night, here you go!

And finally! A photo series of wet dogs. That is a lot more adorable and moving that it sounds!