#1550

A great amount of privilege goes into enabling a project like this–which despite frequent artsy aspirations, is effectively a sex/porn Tumblr. Bearing this in mind, I pause things every 50 posts to touch on the reality of the broader context in which this blog–for better or worse–exists.

Like so many of us, I’m completely overwhelmed when it comes to keeping up with current events. It was a Herculean undertaking before this year but the present regime in my country–it is virtually impossible to keep all the whirring chainsaws of day-to-day news in the air without dropping a baker’s dozen in the process. It’s goddamn fucking exhausting.

Here are some stories that I feel were either under-reporter or deserve to be borne in mind going forward.

Next, the president gave the key note address to the Value Voters Summit last month. For those that do not know, the Value Voters Summit is organized by the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ hate group. During his statement he once again concept-checked his intention to “stop cold” (non-existent) attacks on Judeo-Xtian values.

Shortly after that the story about Harvey Weinstein’s predatory history dropped; this, in turn, spurred the #MeToo movement. I’m pretty sure if you’re reading this you are aware of this story but I did want to take a point to remind everyone that when accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assault: you should always believe women. Additionally, I think that the conservative backlash over this is endemic of everything I loathe most about that particular prism, they completely overlook the fact that a number of women have accused the Predator-in-Chief of sexual assault–most publicly.

The White House has taken the official position that all these women are lying–despite the fact that much like Weinstein there is a clear pattern of overlap between the accusations.

Also, while we are on the subject it’s probably a good time to revisit the episode of Last Week Tonight that aired immediately after the 2016 election–where Oliver points out that essentially the conservative ideology increasingly demands acknowledging of “alternative facts”, or: opinion are more factual than actual facts. (Consider these two Vice stories on a right-wing militia and Antifa in Philadelphia. Vice is certainly not unbiased. But they do give the former group the benefit of the doubt that they are ‘intelligent’ despite their counter-factual interpretation of history and complete detachment from present day social reality; whereas, the Antifa group are depicted as pretentious and a bit histrionic.)

Another big story has been how the Predator-in-Chief botched a call to the widow of La David Johnson. (Keep in mind that this is the same man who somehow managed to co-opt sports stars kneeling during the national anthem and transform it from a campaign to promote awareness about police brutality toward PoC into an anti-military, anti-American protest that it never was.) A lot of the public wrestling over this is to cover for the fact that by all accounts what happened in Niger is actually far, far more fucked up than Benghazi.

As everyone knows, the first indictments from Mueller’s special prosecution into collusion between the Predator-in-Chief’s campaign and Russia have emerged. I’m not going to get into that. But there have been some interesting developments with the how Russia meddled with the election. If you read between the lines in this article, the implications are fucking chilling.

In two local bits of news, there was an attack in NYC. A guy in a truck entered a bike path and killed 8. The NYTimes did something I found remarkably astute–acknowledging the current climate of fomented Islamophobia but reporting the assailant screamed “God is great” in Arabic. I’m increasingly disappointed with the NYTimes’ centrism, but that was a good call on the part of the editorial board.

Also, independent media here in NYC took a big hit on Thursday. Gothamist and DNAinfo were shuttered on November 2nd. As of this writing, the archive of stories they’ve published still remains unavailable. It’s widely scene that this move was made more in retaliation for the staff voting to unionize and less for the PR reasons of the businesses not being profitable.

There’s a draconian abortion bill that’s been introduced to the US House or Representatives (on top of the reverse Robin Hood tax plan that’s seemingly DOA, like all the rest of the Predator-in-Chief’s legislative efforts thus far–thankfully); it would outlaw abortions after 6 weeks. In practice, this would mean–assuming the person is especially conscientious–they would have two to three weeks to seek an abortion after learning they were pregnant; in most cases, you would find out you were pregnant and have days to make a decision–in certain states without reliable access to abortion, this would mean you would be required to carry the fetus to term.

And, with the hundreds upon hundreds of reasons to justifiably criticism Sarah Huckabee Sanders, fat shaming her should never be one of them. (I’m 0% surprised that it was a man who thought it was a good idea to attack Sanders for being ‘fat’.)

Enough with this shit sandwich on turd bread, I have actually saved too feel good stories to help ameliorate this gloom and doom.

Califonia voted to recognize a non-binary third gender!! :::blowing kisses to my future home state:::

And, in a down ballot race I’m watching closing, trans person and metal band front woman Danica Roem is running for the Virginia state House of Delegates. Noisey did a profile on her and she sounds like someone I’d adore. I’m super rooting for her. EDIT: FUCK  YEAH!!!! SHE WON!!!