Tag: Politics

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture

Weekend Links

“Every person needs to take one day away.” 
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

It’s a long weekend this week and I took an extra day off for my first holiday time since Christmas so links are landing early, kittens. Forgive the short intro, but I’m on break mode!

Scene of the crime.

This take on the Duchess of Sussex’s wedding dress was my favorite. Her evening reception frock was a lovely, lovely number as well!

Yay, heraldry!

One last take on the Royal Wedding from the great and good Linda Holmes.

This man was not prepared for the replies to his tweet.

It’s the guns.

Much surprise, such shock, wow.

More shock. This is one hell of a FARA violation. 

Yet more shock. (ETA: he might not know what he’s talking about. Super shocking.)

Yet more shock still. Such a shocking week this has been. Please read this and the past four links in a devastatingly monotone voice.

We live in such weird times…

I have to stop falling in love with brands. One will always break your heart. The Deciem weirdness continued this week.

Speaking of skincare, though, this is 100% how I lured Jeff in.

Also this week in awful, an organisation with almost 100% white ownership and a 70% black workforce told its members that they couldn’t engage in certain acts of civic protest over police brutality. I refer of course, to the NFL. There is some hope, however.

“They may have a different version of the truth than we do.” This year’s version of “alternative facts.”

ARE THERE NO HEROS LEFT?! Also Weinstein has turned himself in on rape charges. Good.

Two bad ICE stories in the news. Both horrifying.

Here, something good in the world.

Good dog.

#RepealTheEighth

I’m not dwelling overly long on the various political dramas of the White House week, but I’m conflicted about that choice. Because in part I think that it means the perceived tactic of this White House is working: they are sowing so much chaos, unreliable information, or outright conspiracy theories that it’s almost impossible to land any kind of blow on them no matter how necessary. The president is in tone (and who knows, I’m typing this on Wednesday, this could total expand by the end of the week) suggesting that the FBI planted evidence against him. This is farcical. He’s tried this tactic before, claiming that the game was rigged against him and his messaging was rather thrown off course when he actually won the election. Meaning that the long term scheme was for the government to plant a spy in his organization to gather information that they didn’t release while simultaneously investigating his opponent’s campaign organization and holding press conferences about that, so that he would win the election to install an administration of his own supporters….to then start undermining him?

The alternative option on this Occams Razor edge is that at some point Mr. Trump or people around him came to FBI attention due to the various shady dealings in his business past. But hey, why be simple when you can start another conspiracy theory. The president lies constantly and no one cares.

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Oops. I dwelt.

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture

Weekend Links

And we’ll never be royals
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain’t for us
We crave a different kind of buzz
– Lorde

Another long week, kittens, but the weekend is upon us and on Saturday we are setting up shop on my mate Chris’s terrace to watch Royal Wedding 2.0. We like to think we represent the rowdy and awkward colonist cousin contingent. The news is terrible again this week, so excuse me while I enjoy a little basic pageantry.

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“History” is so much closer to us than most people realize.

We’re getting a new princess/duchess this weekend and she’s quite deft in managing her own style straight out of the gate.

She’s marrying into a strange family, but she’s from a strange family…and truly, aren’t we all?

Oh man, I added this on Monday and things are already getting weird.

ETA, its only Wednesday and I’m grossed out by the whole news cycle around Ms. Markle’s family and their shenanigans. Sali Hughes says it better than me.

ETA again, it’s Friday and this woman is clearly controlling her own messaging straight out of the gate. More power to her. I would never want the life she’s choosing, so I hope this is a signal of being able to set terms and boundaries that will make the requirements of her new role manageable for a person who may chafe under cultural expectations she was not raised with or born to. Good luck, future-presumable-duchess. I’m rooting for you!

The annual Tiny Desk Contest winner performs!

EIC of Vox, Ezra Klein argues the republic has faced worse than Mr. Trump…but also argues as sure as he is about this, he’s not 100% sure.

Whatever your opinion on the move, the difference in the photography is pretty striking. Also…people are dead.

Actively bad news from Jeff’s home state. This newsroom JUST won a Pulitzer.

Oh dear. I have long lusted after Lisa Eldridge’s jewels and now this?

Yanni v. Laurel.

Quick question, when does Ronan Farrow sleep?

Wow…this is quite a statement from the bishops.

The marketing team for this is very, very good.

Speaking of religious news, there was a Mormon news story this week that needs some unpacking. An elaborate fake message, designed to look like an official statement of apology for the church’s racism, briefly blew up on social media before being exposed. Zealous and pious mormons decried the fake news making the church look bad, zealous and irreverent exmormons gleefully opined at the twists and turns the organization was having to make to explain that they weren’t in fact apologizing for past racism. For those not in the know, the LDS church forbade the ordination of black men to the priesthood and the participation of black members in services and ceremonies in mormon temples (which are considered essential to salvation, so…). The most succinct take on why this whole story is gross, regardless of your religious beliefs, can be found here.

It’s been fascinating to watch the party of “law and order” turn on law enforcement.

And a developing story, but another heartbreaking school shooting has taken place. Details are still coming out so I won’t say more than: enough.

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Weekend

Weekend Links

“Maybe you guys should ah, get a sense of humor and try it sometime… but, ah, he simply made a joke.”
-Sarah Huckabee Sanders, October 10, 2017

Woof, the news this week again should have lasted us a month, but it’s 2018 and the space time continuum doesn’t make sense anymore. Between Rudy Giuliani, that weird doctor, the ongoing issues with porn stars, another shake up to the president’s legal team, leaks of questions in the Mueller probe, and Kanye West, I JUST CAN’T. I didn’t even reference most of these stories in the links because at time of writing, the news is flying so fast that anything I post will likely be invalid within ten minutes. I will say that unless the plan is to simply declare that Mr. Trump is above the law (and let’s face it, that doesn’t feel beyond the realm of possibility), Mr. Giuliani isn’t striking me as a particularly good lawyer right out of the gate…

It’s Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and I’m logging off for a good while to celebrate. Share your weekend plans with me in the comments!

The “furor” over the White House Correspondents Dinner exhausted me. Organization hires comedian to roast the media establishment including those in the room, comedian does that job, establishment who offered invitation and knew what the job entailed wrings hands at being roasted. Side helping of virtue signalling from those who have either turned a blind eye to or actively participated in the coarsening of our public discourse by defending the most coarse and crass person in it: the actual man in charge–who coincidentally spent the evening ranting falsehoods about said establishment to his base. Spare me. She did her job and the performance of disappointment over it is annoying.

ETA. Ha, all we had to do was wait a couple of days to be reminded that Ms. Sanders is either badly out of the loop in her own place of work or willfully misleading the press. Either of which makes her badly placed to do her job and probably not deserving of a huge heap of defense.

I was a child bride who got married before the world of Tinder and I routinely joke that if Jeff dies young on me, god forbid, I’m calling it. Done. I’ll buy fourteen cats and be done with the world, because the world of dating just seems cripplingly complicated to me.

Or I could just schedule an appointment with this woman. What a story!

We can’t win.

Everyone has a problematic fave. (ETA: good lord, Kanye, shut up.)

Busy Phillips, meanwhile, is a non-problematic fave who we should enthusiastically support!

Okay, what do we mean when we say toxic masculinity? Believe it or not, there are actual organized “movements” or “tribes” who embody and proselytize for institutionalized misogyny. The “incel” subgroup has been getting some attention (finally) and its online presence is both horrifying and morbidly fascinating to read about because it so ugly and so blatant of its ugliness. There needs to be a lot more attention towards the radicalization of young men online across the world and across ideologies; people are dying from it.

Speaking of, let’s discuss some of the terminology of this movement. Let’s also dwell on its idealized version of femininity and how I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist in nature…

WOW, bad optics.

Someday bad editing from this administration will tweet us right into a war.

WHO ASKED FOR THIS?!

These drawings are incredible.

How does this man still have a job?

The analytics company is dead…long live the analytics company?

Yes, for the love of god, stop doing this.

Also, stop writing pieces like this. Just stop. Everything about this is dreadful and makes me want to scream into the howling void.

The only redemption, and it’s cold comfort, is the twitter jokes.

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And possibly this Twitter rebuttal.

Wow, memories of this hysteria are flooding back.

Time. Is. Up.

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Weekend

Weekend Links

“He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.” 
― George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara

We’ve had a month of news in a week.

The royal baby has a name (Louis!), Kanye West had a meltdown (again!), and ABBA is reuniting for the first time in three decades (what?!). North and South Korea had a pretty dramatic meeting, the president of France played good cop with President Trump and tough cop with Congress, Dr. Ronny Jackson’s professional reputation (rightly or wrongly) was unmade in about 48 hours because everyone Mr. Trump touches seems affected by his anti-Midas properties, and Mr. Trump actually had to be politely shooed off of Fox News when he shot off at the mouth for too long.

Here are you links, kittens, let’s catch up in the comments.

I look forward to the Lifetime Original Movie.

Is anyone truly stylish in the age of the algorithm?

Restorative, conservationist farming is an option? You bet!

What a story…

Apology after damn apology.

Royal baby news this week, and hey, who does like babies?!

Why no, I’m NOT sick of thought pieces about Beyonce yet.

This take from Vox, that the fantasies of a dramatic and corrective end to the Trump presidency are delusional and unhelpful, feels horribly correct. I am still standing by my wager that Trump will probably not last a full term. On the other hand, I now suspect that if he does, he’ll probably be reelected. “Ending the Trump presidency will not fix, or even substantially ameliorate, most of the problems plaguing the American political system. They were mounting for years before he took office — indeed, they made him possible — and they will continue to plague us for years after he leaves.”

Meanwhile, over at Politico, a former Clinton aide makes the point I was trying to make last week much more articulately, “There is no telling the damage one can do in a republic when you mistake your will to do good with an authority to do what you judge to be right.”

Roxanne Gay’s Unruly Bodies series has been intense to read and her latest own personal essay is definitely worth a read.

Janelle Monae dropped a visual album and it’s a stunner!

First Lady Melania Trump was in command of the first State Visit for the President of France and she did a meticulous and stylish job. I wonder if this signals a more high profile role for her, as she’s been very low key to this point. In the more traditional mode of a first lady, through style and entertainment in the role of hostess of the nation, she may be an as yet untapped asset to the administration which badly needs some kudos where it can get them.

The Toronto van attack story is awful, but there are some positive aspects like the fact that the officer was trained in and able to deescalate the situation in a genuinely heroic way. Alternatively, I’m not surprised at all to read that a crisis of masculinity and hostility to women may have been a factor.

This memorial opened and kicked me in the gut. There is so much ugliness and wrong to redress.

Speaking of…NFL owners would really like people to stop kneeling for the national anthem. Doesn’t sound likely.

WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I HATE THIS.

Angry women have the answers.

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture

Weekend Links

“We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late. ” 
― Edward R. Murrow

Guys, what a week.

In any other day or time, any one of the news cycles of this past week would have been an administration defining set of stories. But it’s 2018 and the backbreaking pace of news continues unabated. Let’s run through the political news in one fell swoop shall we?

Monday: FBI raids. Yeah, this guy is Mr. Trump’s lawyer…but he’s also the deputy Finance Chair of the Republican Party. Maybe formerly, it looks like the GOP website was updated

Tuesday: Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress this week and, um, it went surprisingly poorly for our elected leaders in the Senate who came off looking badly out of their depth with kids today and their technology. The House did much better in their questions the next day.

Wednesday: Paul Ryan announces his resignation. I’m not surprised, he got what he wanted for years: a major tax cut. Now he’s now ducking out to avoid the eventual questions that will come over having ballooned national debt, and without having to face the long term consequences of the policies he’s driven forward. I suspect he also feels that the current administration is doing damage to his party’s brand and he doesn’t see immediate solutions…or at least ones he’s willing to support. This is a man who has failed. He preached tax reform and smaller government; he’s leaving office with dramatically expanded government spending and a nationalist takeover that helped oust him. There’s pathos in that, I guess, but darned if I have much sympathy. Obviously I have a very ungenerous and petty take on this situation, PBS Frontline has more responsible journalism on the bigger picture. The interactive documentary they did is also very good.

Thursday: Syria crisis escalates, hearings for Mr. Pompeo as potential Secretary of State, and suddenly the president wants back in the TPP. And he might have a secret love child? What even is life now…

Friday and Saturday: Comey’s book launch begins, the RNC have crafted an entire campaign around discrediting Comey (the pop up when I visited this official website urged me to “Stand with President Trump!” which is an odd message from a party who heretofore has built their identity around loyalty to the constitution rather than individuals. The Democratic party has a much longer history of the cult of personality), the president pardons Scooter Libby in what may be signalling protection to those of his allies who may be facing legal consequences, and a coalition launches missiles at Syria. Let us remember a couple of things, first that the power of the presidency should be limited when it comes to military action and we should expect congress to determine when and if we pursue long term military force. Second, that the chemical attacks to which we are ostensible retaliating happened a week ago and the administration sure could use a wag the dog distraction right about now.

Good. Lord. On to other links!

That’s right, we’re being positive!

“The lone wolves are actually a pack.” This is a couple of weeks old but I think is valuable reading in the discussion of domestic extremists in the US. These mostly white male actors are very seldom operating in a vacuum from one another, and we need to confront this radicalization as a society.

My spirit animal.

Our issue with data is bigger than just Facebook, guys. This has been a conversation a long time coming.

Seth Meyer’s and Alexi Ashe’s children have pretty intense arrival stories.

This piece on Man Repeller is about how performed disdain around pop culture is problematic, and usually gendered to boot.

I really want to see this exhibit at the V&A.

This is a pretty loaded “review” of Taylor Swift’s latest single…

Black mothers and babies are dying in America at an alarming high rate compared to other racial counterparts.

Would some good soul please get me this ring?!

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture

Weekend Links: The Kids Are Alright Edition

“Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?” 
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

Another week, another round of White House staff shakeups, another batch of violence to confront as a society, another round of nationwide protests…you know. The usual. I’m actually following the news with a lot of hope this week because in spite of a lot of really, really bad news, I believe that engagement and knowledge are the sunlight cures for cultural infection.

A bit over a year ago, the Women’s March happened, millions participated. Later that same year, courageous reporting and a refusal to allow our attention be turned from it exposed corrupt systems across industries that had enabled powerful men to prey on women. This year young people are marching against a culture of violence. What changes will we see this year as a result?

Here are your links, kittens, share your favorite posts and stories of the week in the comments!

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OF COURSE after I scheduled last week’s post, this incredible dump of reporting about Cambridge Analytica dropped across a number of platforms. The whistleblower speaks. How they did it. 50 million profiles harvested and weaponized. “If you want to fundamentally change society, you first have to break it.” On Sunday, further reporting on this in the UK was teased leaving both CA and Facebook scrambling. I’ll be updating this as the week goes on I’M SURE.

Channel 4 reports: here’s the full series.

But how significant is this story, really? This episode of On The Media delves into how useful this kind of data harvesting really is, and how this is not a new problem so much as an ongoing conversation with technology and the role of agency in the tech/human experience.

Lest you think this is just about a single social media platform…

And while we’re ranting, Instagram! Get it together!

Reddit, you’re not getting off light either.

Okay, time for a palette cleanser with National Puppy Day.

Victoria Beckham is doing more cosmetics, and I just need to hand her my wallet now…

One of the best stories I found on the internet this week! May we all be blessed with such hype teams in our lives.

A gorgeous long read on the complexity of language through an unexpected object.

Damn it.

This week in Mormon news…a disheartening but (to me) unsurprising story of ecclesiastical abuse. There is complexity here because it seems the video in this story was leaked without the victim’s consent, and the LDS church thus far has responded with a piss poor manner from a PR point of view. I’m sorry to say that I’m personally positive there are plenty more stories like this to be told within the LDS community and a whole culture change is needed to address the circumstances that make this sort of abuse all too possible. Women did come forward about this man, it seems, and were simply not believed at the time. It’s been fascinating to see the knee jerk reaction towards trying to discredit this woman (at time of writing, she’s been accused of all kinds of a checkered past by believers who are quick to tribal defense as a group). Especially given that regardless of her personal convictions and life choices…the guy confessing to the crimes in question on camera. 

Utah, whenever I almost give up on you, you do something right.

I. Want. This. Jumper.

Well, this is interesting.

No shit.

I love everything about this woman and want to be her friend.

Another awful story of a POC losing their life to police. Meanwhile the latest in a long ling of white male domestic terrorists who became a serial bomber and blew himself up to avoid arrest this week is being described in some corners of the press as a “challenged young man. His victims were a rising young student and a devoted father. Another toxic male shooter was referred to as a “lovesick teen.”  His victim was taken off life support this week. Society is broken. Here’s a GoFundMe set up for Mr. Clark’s family if you are so inclined. I haven’t seen confirmed donation pages for Mr. Mason’s or  family but I will update the post when I do.

Brilliant.

Cannot wait to read this memoir.

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture

Weekend Links

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” 
― H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

Okay. *cracks knuckles*

Rex Tillerson was fired by tweet, student walk outs nationwide show that the kids will lead us, Britain expels Russian diplomats in retaliation for what is almost universally believed to be an assassination of a former spy on British soil, Russia has expelled diplomats in response, the deputy head of the FBI was fired two days before his scheduled retirement, and a whole bunch of cabinet secretaries’ jobs and White House appointments are apparently on the chopping block. We can apparently lay to rest the idea that General Kelly is one of the “adults in the room,” after putting a couple of stories in the news this week, one that feels crass, cruel and unnecessary, and the other which seemingly underpins the narrative that he’s not at all in control of anything. Cruelty and pettiness are the defining characteristics of everything about this administration and everyone who touches it either becomes a victim or a perpetrator. As McKay Coppins at The Atlantic suggests, I feel correctly, Mr. Trump is scripting entertainment, not running a government and he likes this narrative about himself.

Woof. Here’s some other news and links to get you through the weekend.

A bit of Mormon news for those of your interested. Five years ago a blog post went sort of (in a Mormon sense) viral in which a couple “came out” about their mixed-orientation marriage that they were committed to making work. Recently, the couple announced they were separating. Both pieces of writing are well worth the read if you want to understand why marriage, sexual orientation, and family are fundamental and critical to the Mormon experience and how hard (I’d say impossible) it is for believers to operate in any kind of queer space. I have no doubt that some people make such relationships work but I have no idea where you have to fall on the Kinsey scale for it to be possible or probable. In any case, if you are interested in deeply thoughtful reads on love, life, loss, and sexuality, this one is pretty poignant.

The New Yorker deep dives into the identity of Christopher Steele.

Stupid, stupid idea.

Mr. de Givenchy has passed away.

As has Mr. Hawking.

Why do I want this overpriced thing so much?!

An update to an old but depressing story.

Girl gangs 4evah.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and the great and good Marian Keyes is here to talk to you about kelly green!

People really underestimate how much Prohibition affected American public, political, and cultural life. All kinds of delightfully quirky stuff came out of it.

Humor, Links, London, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Weekend

Weekend Links

“You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it.”
— Edith Head

London is still freezing, kittens, and I’m putting the finishing touches on this post from bed. I report to you live, swaddled in two layers of loungwear and four layers of blankets.

It was another wild week of news: the White House is still chaotic, the Brexit process is as opaque as ever, and apparently trade wars are good now? I’ve forced myself to not pile on the gloom for you in the links this week, however, so here is a lovingly curated batch of reading to take you through your weekend, no matter how cold it is outside or how weird your newsfeed is. I’ll be bringing you our favorite fight of the year, the Oscars Gown Rundown as soon as I can get it up!

Happy Women’s History Month, let’s celebrate with the most badass board game I can’t believe I had never heard of!

We LOVE a good missing-art-piece-turns-up-in-an-unlikely-place story around here!

This is a couple of weeks old now, but I just found it and it’s worth a read: what’s been happening over at Facebook for the last couple of years, both in terms of business and technology, and why it all matters to us as a society.

This profile in GQ on the popularity arc of Brenden Fraser answers a question I didn’t realize I’d been asking myself for years.

Well bloody deserved!

Long live the king!

Beauty Instagram has teased a launch from an eyeshadow brand that I love that I can already tell is going to test my willpower not to buy it. I’ve seen a decided uptick in green shadows lately and it’s none too soon as far as I’m concerned.

This is absolute trash. Do better, South.

I have been waiting for this since 9th grade.

Monica Lewinsky has something to say, and it’s well worth the read.

Want to know how to expertly cook salmon? The NYT is here to help!

Hicks is out.

This is heartening.

Girl Squad bat signal, my best mate wrote a thing!

This is dramatic and disheartening news about the scope and scale of foreign money that may be influencing powerful forces in our society: we need far, far more transparent money records in politics.

Long before Google, librarians.

Because librarians are bosses.

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture

Weekend Links

“And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations.
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.
― David Bowie, Changes

It’s been quiet around this parts, pumpkins, because work has gotten insane again. All of my routines are messed up right now, my organization and health are completely out of whack and the house is a mess. Jeff is in no better shape as we are in the thick of accounting busy season and the man is working absolutely painful hours at the moment. A+ adulting happening here in the Small Dog residence, let me tell you! However, the sun is out today and I’m determined to repair damages with several loads of laundry, a deep clean of the bathrooms, and a general prep for the coming week.

It’s not all stress and poor self care, though! We’ve actually carved out some fun time over the past two weeks that has been much needed. I loved Black Panther and wanted at least another half hour of Winston Duke’s character cracking jokes and telling Martin Freeman to stop talking. In other news, teenagers will save us from ourselves, and maybe society isn’t falling into wreck and ruin!

Here are your links and tell me how your are spending your weekend. Plus, if you have any self organizational tips that I may benefit from, share them in the comments!

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The only cure for misinformation is education.

I love Fashion Weeks across the globe, but this piece from The Cut asks an important question about the (predominantly) women not on the catwalks.

This cow took its life into its own hooves.

The intensity of the conspiracy theorists active in the world today genuinely terrifies me. Some people are actual garbage.

The FT reports that American arms manufacturers bet wrong.

There is a lot of writing about there about the crisis of modern masculinity (some of it really smart, some of it really bad) but this editorial in the wake of the Parkland shooting is still pretty affecting.

Ugh, I need to stop falling in love with brands. They inevitably sink into mess!

 

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Weekend

Weekend Links: Over and Over Again

“It’s very dramatic when two people come together to work something out. It’s easy to take a gun and annihilate your opposition, but what is really exciting to me is to see people with differing views come together and finally respect each other.” 
― Fred Rogers

Another successful Infrastructure and Immigration Week for the White House and its policy agenda, gone off without a hitch.

Pardon the dark humor, darlings, it’s just that sometimes it feels as though Everything Is Terrible. Another awful school shooting captured in real time by the children who experienced it, another week of sex and abuse scandals that rocked everything from charities to the White House, another week of an intransigent Congress, another batch of news about what is now being termed “informational warfare” against my country.

I’ve tried to keep some good news and fun links mixed in here, but it’s been a rough week, kittens, and we need to sit with that. Our society suffers from extensive abuse and systems that enable abusers. We have powerful veins of violence running through our core and the people who most represent those veins have been strategically armed. We have money speaking louder than people. We have big problems. And then we need to get off our asses and do something to make things better even if it’s small. This weekend, I’m donating some clothing and home items to a charity I have researched and support, donating to a cause I care about, spending some time keeping my body and our finances healthy, and going to see Black Panther. How about you guys? What are you doing in your own corner to take care of yourself or your patch?

There was another mass shooting this week and at time of writing, 17 victims have died including children. Three out of ten of the most deadly mass school shootings in US history have happened in the last 6 months. This is grotesque, it’s unacceptable, it’s horrific. It’s awful how little I’m convinced that this culture of violence with easy access to military grade killing machines is going to change as a result. The only bright spot has been the ability of the children involved to avoid being used as totems by interested parties and staying in control of their own voices, stories, POV, and narratives. The coming generation gives me much hope.

How much of what you read do you remember?

NYFW is over (London is next!) and Into The Gloss runs down their picks for the best beauty looks. If Tom Ford and co. could kindly run me one of those leather headbands, that would be great.

Swipe left.

Another excellent episode of Drunk History for your delectation.

A perennial topic of interest to me: changing trends in clothing. Front production to sales to consumer habits to start ups, Americans are buying less and that has some wider implications across the industry.

Loved this Black Panther review at NPR, with particular emphasis on how certain heroes are created or achieve resonance due to certain cultural moments.

This is…a hobby…?

It was yet another busy Friday afternoon when the DOJ released an indictment of Russian individuals travelling to the US, setting up VPNs to mask the origin of their content, and then spread derogatory content about some politicians (guess which ones) while promoting others (GUESS WHICH ONES). This dates as far back as 2014 according to what I’ve read, item 6 on page 4 states that some of these operatives communicated with “unwitting” members of the Trump campaign. Of no surprise to me was the information that after the election, the activities turned towards inflaming anti-Trump sentiment in some cases. They had one aim. It’s worked. They tried to divide along religious, racial, and regional lines, and it worked. They did their homework, investigated the weak points of our civil society, and went after those points with precision. This thread sums up my feelings (also, I’m more convinced than ever that Facebook is bad for us). Where we go from here, who we hold responsible, and how we choose to come together across divides is up to us.

Oh Mitt,you suffer from terrible timing. Friday in Trump’s America is not the time to be doing this sort of thing, you will always be upstaged.

I haven’t been following the Olympics this year, but figure skating will save us all.

Here. Have a vid of a dog eating pizza, just because.