In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Militarism] Shit: "North Korea has test-fired two ballistic missiles, the latest in a series of rocket launches. US officials said the medium-range missiles, launched off the east coast, flew about 800km (500 miles) before falling into the water. Afterwards, the US called for Pyongyang to refrain from raising tensions. It comes a day after US President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions, following North Korea's 'illicit' nuclear test and satellite launch. ...The 6 January nuclear test and 7 February satellite launch were violations of existing UN sanctions, as are ballistic missile tests."

[CN: Privilege] Here's an interesting juxtaposition of articles: Rollcall's "Clinton Owes Her Commanding Lead to African-American Women." (No kidding!) And the NYT's "As Hillary Clinton Sweeps States, One Group Resists: White Men." It's pretty cool (ahem) how all the stories about Clinton not winning among white men are framed as though that's a problem with her and not the white men who are aggrieved that she pays too much attention to people who aren't white men.

[CN: Misogyny] Hahaha! "Sen. Elizabeth Warren has a message for the GOP lawmaker who compared her to Star Wars villain Darth Vader: The force is not strong with you. Rep. Blaine Leutkemeyer (R-MO) reportedly told an audience at the American Bankers Association on Wednesday that they should 'find a way to neuter' the Massachusetts senator and referred to her as the 'Darth Vader of the financial services world.' On Thursday, Warren, who is widely known for her commitment to curbing corruption on Wall Street, struck back via a fundraising email in which declared she has always seen herself as 'Princess Leia-type (a senator and Resistance general who, unlike the guys, is never even remotely tempted by the dark side).'"

[CN: Rape culture] It continues to be a real mystery while Republicans aren't connecting with a majority of female voters: "A Georgia Republican state senator is blocking a measure intended to speed up the handling of sexual crime evidence, accusing the bill's Democratic sponsor of playing politics. The bill, HB 827, requires hospitals and clinics to turn over physical evidence of a sexual crime—commonly called a rape kit—within 96 hours and for law enforcement agencies to deliver the evidence to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation within 30 days. The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Scott Holcomb (D-Atlanta), said the measure institutes a process to tackle a backlog of hundreds of rape kits discovered in recent investigations. ...But state Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), chair of the state's Senate Health and Human Services Committee, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she won't allow the legislation, which won unanimous approval in the state's GOP-controlled house, to advance to the state senate floor for a vote. ...'If there was a problem, I would be Johnny on the spot and I would have written the legislation,' Unterman told WSB-TV. 'I think [Holcomb] really overly politicized it in an election year and I've got a problem with that.'" GOOD FUCKING GRIEF.

[CN: Water contamination; class warfare] "Rick Snyder Testified Before Congress on the Flint Crisis. It Didn't Go So Well." Whoooooooooops! "Democrats repeatedly berated Snyder about what he did or did not know during the time of the crisis. 'I'm not buying you didn't know about this until October 2015,' Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) said. 'You were not in a medically induced coma.' They also repeatedly called for him to resign."

[CN: Body/appearance/choice policing] What the absolute fuck: "A Des Moines waitress was stiffed Tuesday night at Zombie Burger when a customer wrote, 'Tips are only for normal looking people,' on the receipt's tip line instead of leaving a gratuity. The server, Taelor May Beeck, whose Facebook photo shows her with pink hair and a nose piercing, posted a photo of the receipt to her profile and wrote: Shout out 'to this girl for stiffing me cuz I look like a weirdo~hope she feels better about herself.'" I'm pretty sure anyone who behaves like that feels pretty terrible about themselves, so I hope someday that assholes really does feel better about herself, so she can start treating other people with respect and kindness.

[CN: Violence; guns] Well, this is one way to try to ingratiate yourself with a judge: "Convicted felon sings Adele-inspired 'sorry' to judge at sentencing."

Neat! "Some of the biggest and brightest stars in the universe are packed within a single cluster, a new study reveals. Researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope to image the young star cluster R136 in ultraviolet (UV) light for the first time. The cluster is located in the Tarantula Nebula of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, about 170,000 light-years away from Earth."

[CN: Breed prejudice] And finally! A happy win over terrible breed-specific laws: Scrappy can stay with his family.