In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Today is Malcolm X Day, and would have been his 91st birthday. To mark the day at Colorlines, Kenrya has compiled nine of his "Most Important Quotes About Freedom and Justice."

RIP Morley Safer. The 60 Minutes mainstay has died at age 84. My condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, and fans.

[Content Note: Carcerality] "Chelsea Manning has formally appealed against her conviction and 35-year prison sentence for leaking a huge cache of government documents, arguing that her punishment was 'grossly unfair and unprecedented.' Describing the sentence as 'perhaps the most unjust sentence in the history of the military justice system,' attorneys for Manning complained that she had been portrayed as a traitor to the US when 'nothing could be further from the truth.' 'No whistleblower in American history has been sentenced this harshly,' states the appeal, which also alleges that Manning was excessively charged and illegally held while awaiting trial in conditions amounting to solitary confinement. It suggests that her sentence be reduced to 10 years."

[CN: Homophobia] Good grief: "In a chaotic floor vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, an amendment to a defense authorization bill that would have blocked funding from anti-LGBT government contractors was rejected after a last minute rally from Republicans. The amendment was put forth by openly gay Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney. He initially had the votes to pass the measure until Republicans made a last ditch effort to block it, which they did narrowly by one vote. Maloney's amendment would have voided a provision in the defense authorization bill passed Wednesday by Republicans which provides broad 'religious freedom' exemptions for religious and religiously affiliated organizations that receive federal contracts. Those exemptions can be used to discriminate against LGBT people." I am so sick of "religious freedom" being invoked to cloak bigotry.

[CN: War on agency] Goddammit: "Lawmakers in the US state of Oklahoma have passed a bill that would make the act of performing an abortion a crime. Under the bill, a doctor who performs an abortion could be sentenced to up to three years in prison and be barred from practicing medicine the state. Abortion is legal in the United States and abortion-rights activists say the bill is unconstitutional." And they "say" that because it is.

[CN: Abortion stigma] "Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a New York Times Magazine interview published Wednesday tried to spin his controversial suggestion that abortion patients should be punished if the GOP outlaws the procedure. 'I didn't mean punishment for women like prison. I'm saying women punish themselves,' Trump claimed when questioned about saying in March that patients should face 'some form of punishment' for receiving abortion care. 'I didn't want people to think in terms of 'prison' punishment. And because of that I walked it back.'" 1. Bullshit. 2. Fuck you.

In totally not breaking news, Trump's a liar: Although he claims to never settle his court cases, Think Progress found 13 times he did.

[CN: Misogyny; fat hatred] I mean: "A [Louisiana] state representative proposed—then pulled—a measure in the state House Wednesday that would have required strippers in Louisiana to be no older than 28 and weigh no more than 160 pounds. Associated Press Capitol reporter Melinda Deslatte reported via Twitter that the House was discussing a bill to raise the age minimum for strippers to 21. During the discussion, state Rep. Kenneth Havard, R-Jackson, proposed an amendment to the bill that would make it against the law for strippers to be older than 28 and weigh no more than 160 pounds. According to Deslatte, state Rep. Julie Stokes, a Kenner Republican, was outraged by the amendment, telling her colleagues that she's 'never been more repulsed to be a part' of the Legislature." I can't imagine why. There's so much dignity in being part of a legislative body where your colleagues are submitting legislation based on what gives them a boner.

[CN: Video autoplays at link] In better news: NEW GHOSTBUSTERS TRAILER!!!

Whoa: "Traces of tsunamis on Mars are the newest clues yet that the Red Planet once had oceans, which could have supported life, researchers said. These killer waves might have been triggered by giant meteor impacts, scientists added. Although the surface of Mars is now cold and dry, there is a great deal of evidence suggesting that an ocean's worth of water covered the Red Planet billions of years ago."

Neat! "A new species of horned dinosaur has been unearthed by scientists in southern Utah. Remains of the animal, named Machairoceratops cronusi, suggest it was about 26 feet long, weighed two tons and ate plants. The first traces were found a decade ago in an area rich with the remains of centrosaurines—large-bodied, plant-eating dinosaurs that roamed North America and Asia 77 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period."

And finally! Looooooove: "Stray Dog Walks into Police Station, Gets a Job: 'Everyone loves him. He will have everything he needs for as long as he lives.'" ♥