In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism] READ THIS: "To be Black in America is to be afraid."

Hillary Clinton wrote an op-ed for the New York Times on her plans to address poverty: "My Plan for Helping America's Poor."

[CN: Racist slur] At a Trump campaign event in Cleveland Heights billed as a "town hall meeting on African American concerns," Don King used the n-word while introducing Donald Trump. While I'm not about to police whatever words King wants to use, seeing Trump chortling away about it in the background is deeply disturbing.

[CN: Video autoplay at link; hostility to consent] Joss Whedon and a bunch of celebrities put together a video about the importance of voting in this election, with a pretty clear message about for whom to vote. Two big problems: One, I don't find the joke (even though he's clearly in on it) about Mark Ruffalo getting naked funny, since the joke is still premised on the appearance of non-consent. Two, I don't really think this works to convey the seriousness of this election. Too clever by half.

GOOD: "Congressional Democrats Campaign to Prove Hyde Amendment's Undue Burden."

[CN: Domestic violence; death] Another family annihilator "is in custody after a quadruple homicide left his four children dead and their mother in critical condition from an apparent stabbing." (But let's continue to not have a public conversation about toxic masculinity.) My condolences to the woman who was harmed herself and has lost all four of her children. I don't even know how one could begin to process the scope of that sort of violence and loss. I ache for her.

"On Wednesday morning, 31 countries officially ratified the Paris climate agreement, pushing it over one of the required thresholds needed for the agreement to enter into force. Sixty parties, representing 48 percent of the world's emissions, have now officially joined. For the Paris agreement to enter into force, at least 55 nations, representing at least 55 percent of global emissions, must formally ratify. That means that the agreement needs just 7 percent more greenhouse gas emissions before the agreement can enter into force."

"Clever Dog Saves the Life of a Newborn Puppy Abandoned on a Garbage Pile." Awwww good dog!

What have you been reading?