In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Union-busting] Fuck: "The Supreme Court left little doubt Monday where it stands on the issue of requiring all workers in a bargaining unit to help support its public employees union: It's ready to strike the requirement down. The court's more conservative justices sharply criticized the current system whereby public employees in 23 states and the District of Columbia must contribute to the cost of collective bargaining, even if they disagree with their unions' demands on issues involving public policy. ...The case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, represents a major threat to public employee unions. Memberships in all unions have been in decline since the end of World War II, when 35% of American workers were in unions. By 2014 that number had dropped to just 11%."

[CN: Sexual violence; guns] Goddammit: "Four teenagers were in police custody in New York on Monday and a fifth suspect was being sought in connection with an alleged group rape of an 18-year-old woman in Brooklyn. The NYPD said two teenagers surrendered and two were apprehended. Charges were pending against the 14-year-old, 17-year-old, and two 15-year-old suspects. Authorities said the victim was accosted on Thursday night as she and her father walked inside Osborn playground in the Brownsville section. Police said one of the suspects pointed a gun at the father and told him to leave. Authorities said each man raped the woman. The attackers had already fled when the father returned with two police officers." I hope this survivor has access to the resources she needs to heal and will get something that looks like justice, however she may define it.

[CN: War on agency; racism; appropriation] Rage seethe boil: "The flurry of anti-choice proposals coming in the 2016 Missouri legislative session includes one policy that appropriates the Black Lives Matter movement to create a so-called personhood law designed to effectively end legal abortion in the state. ...HB 1794, sponsored by Rep. Mike Moon (R-Ash Grove), would establish the All Lives Matter Act, an example of what activists view as anti-choice legislators using the Black Lives Matter movement for their own restrictive agenda. It would amend state law to define a fertilized egg as 'a person' and life as beginning at conception."

[CN: Worker exploitation] And from the race to the bottom: "Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich doesn't think employers should be required to let their workers take paid time off for a new baby or serious illness. At a town hall on Friday in Hampton, New Hampshire, he was asked what he thinks about paid family leave. Rather than a government mandate ensuring that all Americans can take paid leave, Kasich said instead it should be 'up to employers to try to be creative about this,' reports The Columbus Dispatch." Oh fuck off.

The White House is now on Snapchat. If you give a shit.

Gallup: "Democratic, Republican Identification Near Historical Lows." Gee, I can't imagine why, what with the awesomeness emanating from these two institutions on the daily.

Hmmmmmmm: "Physicists around the world were puzzled recently when an unusual bump appeared in the signal of the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, causing them to wonder if it was a new particle previously unknown, or perhaps even two new particles. The collision cannot be explained by the Standard Model, the theoretical foundation of particle physics."

"In 1977, there was no positive gay imagery in American culture. No movies or television shows had gay characters. 'Coming out' was not a thing. I had no idea what homosexuality was. So...Luke became my boyhood hero, my role model. He was someone who feels different and has a secret, like me. Luke learns to accept who he is and achieves great things."

And finally! "People Stick Their Head Through a Hole and Are Surprised with Puppies." As advertised.