Tag: Politics

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture

Weekend Links

“Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.”
– Mark Twain

This week President Trump asked for a military parade and had an extraordinarily bad hair day. The Winter Olympics kicked off in South Korea, which is a nice thing. Elon Musk shot a car into space which is both an achievement and kind of Disney-villain-esque. A corgi and a pony gave the internet a small measure of hope. It was a wild ride.

Here are your links, darlings, have a good weekend and try to stay off the news

Read this: How Not to Die In America, over at Splinter.

I failed to link to this last week, but the Black Panther film premier red carpet was a smorgasbord of beauty and color. Go forth and partake.

This honest piece by noted stylist Stacy London, about things not going according to plan and the personal and financial costs of such slings and arrows, hit me right in the feels this week. All of these topics have been on my mind lately, and I’m grateful when noted and notable women write about their own experiences so personally. h/t to my bestie X.

Uma Thurman is ready to talk. Buckle up.

This profile of White House Communications Director and longtime Trump loyalist Hope Hicks is a fascinating read. And I mean that sincerely, in a non-catty kind of way.

There’s a new Drunk History episode for your delectation, darlings, and it’s a grand one! Takin’ notes, takin’ notes…

And a timely follow up news piece.

THIS IS BAD IN ANY COUNTRY.

I want nothing more than to stumble across something like this an an antiques shop.

As soon as humans figure out how to do this…

Bad news for the racists.

A guy with an alleged history of domestic violence which should have precluded him from work requiring a security clearance (it didn’t) was fired from the White House this week.  He follows the guy who had the arrest warrant out for him in Hungary, and the foreign agent who advised on national security, plus a few reality TV stars. Starting to think we aren’t good at hiring the “best people,” as the president once called them… (ETA: a late Friday evening addition.) (ETA: an early Saturday morning addition.)

This piece at Bloomberg is a long but interesting read. “He doesn’t understand the power of the anger he’s tapped, almost by accident. And he likely never will. There’s a throwaway line in Michael Wolff’s book: Trump never learned how to read a corporate balance sheet. His approach to his own ignorance is not to correct it but to compensate for it.”

…Oh my god…

THAT Quincy Jones interview, in case you missed it somehow.

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

Weekend Links

I have never in my life found myself in a situation where I’ve stopped work and said, ‘Thank God it’s Friday.’ But weekends are special even if your schedule is all over the place. Something tells you the weekend has arrived and you can indulge yourself a bit.
– Helen Mirren

This has been a roller coaster of a week for me, kittens, both newswise and personally and I am very glad the weekend is here. Apart from laundry and cleaning the house, I intend to do as little as I can get away with. I need to pick up and mail off some presents to people, send out some cards, and write some blog posts, but other than that all bets are off. I’ll be avoiding the news this weekend because as fake Lester Holt put it…

POTUS gave a SOTU address (remember that? It seems a weirdly long time ago…) and there have been endless think pieces so I won’t bore you with those. But I will say that there was a lot of rhetoric with little policy and no plans, with a nice undercurrent of the kind of talk that historically precursor-ed foreign conflicts. In case you were wondering how I felt about it.

There was an awful train accident with a number of congresspeople as passengers. Thankfully there was only one fatality, but tragically it was the driver of a vehicle that the train struck, which is awful. Horribly, the conspiracy theories about this accident started almost right away, and I’m not going to link to a single one. We live in a scary time. Meanwhile, here’s the GoFundMe campaign to support the family of the victim.

The incredible reinvention of the Religious Right, even just in my own lifetime, is constantly remarkable to me. In a bad way.

Trigger warning, this is a story about revenge porn. And it’s important to read because, given changes in media and technology, this possibility even more insidious than usual.

Meanwhile, most of the kids remain solidly alright.

Hmmmmmm….

Racked did a great piece on the history of black-owned beauty brands that is well worth a read. The market is making great strides in correcting the absolutely ridiculous limitations of shade ranges and products for women of color (and its propensity to treat “ethnic” products separately from “normal” products), but there is still work to be done. Insert reminder here that the best way to support the brands making change happen is with your money.

Stop accusing women in Mr. Trump’s orbit of sleeping their way to power. There is no evidence of this and even if there were, it’s a gross tactic to delegitimize their power. There is plenty to consider or critique without a single comment on their sexual choices.

We might need bodice ripper sex ed.

This is why.

It’s all about the statement outerwear this year, Paris says so!

“I wanted to tell my story because I’m afraid people are forgetting. We can never forget what happened. We can never let it happen again.”

This guy was afraid of being shunned so murder was his out?!

This deep dive report by the New York Times into the world of fake or “bot” social media accounts, including how they can be bought and sold as “followers, is required reading to understand the bizarre media landscape we find ourselves in. From Fake News, to social media influencers, to online popularity wars, how much of this landscape is false or fraudulent? Turns out, a lot of it. What does this mean, and how should this knowledge affect us? I’m clearly not the only one who has questions about the worth of social media on the brain.

Meanwhile, here in Britain…

So, the FBI is saying that the infamous memo is dangerously inaccurate. Great.

This beauty article is getting some hype this week, but I find its premise flawed. Beauty rituals have medical and psychological value. By all means, tell people to be smart about the chemicals they put on their skin. But don’t tell them that there is no value in taking care of your skin or that they are stupid for doing so or pretend that humans haven’t been slathering themselves in treatments for thousands of years to right a variety of wrongs and health situations.

Here’s a much better piece on why content on or about skincare is so prevalent right now.

San Francisco is trying something different.

While the president’s language around immigration seems vested in violence, here’s a casual reminder that the greatest amount of exteremist crimes in the US last year was by white supremacists.

A touching archaeological find from our extinct cousins/ancestors.

Hmmm, is Glossier making some mistakes with its latest product offering? The reigning UK Queen of Skincare weighs in.

And finally, the #Releasethememo frenzy hit its peak with the release of the memo in question, over the objections of the FBI. NPR has annotated and fact checked the document. My opinion is that the memo actually undermines the White House’s narrative that the investigation into whether or not the administration has had improper dealings with Russia started with the infamous Steele dossier. But if the aim is simply to throw the intelligence community into chaos and undermine public trust…mission bloody accomplished, and all of us are endangered for it.

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

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

Another riotous week of political news, but never fear! I shan’t let the confirmation that the President probably tried to fire the man investigating him derail our good humor this weekend. There is much to celebrate and cheer on, kittens, in spite of the fact that the Doomsday Clock hasn’t been this close to midnight since before I was born.

We are defiant, unbowed, and full of confidence. Let this gif of Judge Aquilina’s handling of Larry Nassar’s letter, stating how distressing it was for him to hear the stories of his victims, be your moodboard for this weekend and all of 2018:

Greatist put together a list of resources and content for survivors of sexual assault and the people who want to care for them.

This piece on Buzzfeed of life after a polygamous FLDS cult is hard to read but powerful.

No shit.

Whoa, bad news for the Y chromosome, scientifically speaking…

So, we’re doing this every year now, yes? Regardless of the party in power, yes? Good.

Irony is dead.

I am so excited for this return, as much as I’m apprehensive of the emotional roller coaster it’s going to send me on.

Waiting for them to get to Gemini!

UGH. (Update, the reaction to this piece has been so extraordinary that the Financial Times has removed the paywall. Good. The only treatment for systemic bullshit hidden in shadows is sunlight. Follow up is still rolling out.)

So you want to write a nonfiction book? Let Friend of the Blog Caitlin Kelly walk you through the process.

It’s weirdly charming to me to think of a leader who doesn’t default to Twitter. I mean, no excuse for the collective heart attack, though!

The FBI Director threatened to resign this week in our perfectly normal and functioning democracy, thank you very much.

Inclusivity in beauty pays. Literally.

There was another awful school shooting incident, made more awful by confirmation that it’s the 11th such event so far this year. We’re not out of January yet.

You can take the girl out of Utah, but you’ll pry the RadioWest podcast from Salt Lake City’s public radio station from my cold, dead fingers. This past week they covered the Sundance Film Festival with a series of filmmakers and subjects in interviews worth listening to. My favorites were Believer, about a major poprock artist who seeks to find a way to advocate for LGBT communities without alienating his own Mormon people, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor, a film about the life of Fred Rogers.

Suck a shedload of lemons, dude.

Humor, Links, News, Politics, Pop Culture

Weekend Links

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” 
― Robert J. Hanlon

Another wild week of news, with Russian-linked Twitter bots pressuring politicians, the presidential porn star affair continues apace while no one seems to care about it, and as I put the finishing touches on this post the fight is raging on about whether the government will shut down or not since our Master Negotiator has managed to destabilize even good faith efforts at compromise by revealing the animus that underpins his policy. Or at least his advisers’ animus, that bit is unclear. Steve Bannon has been subpoenaed, Hawaii was scared to death by a fake missile launch warning and kind of revealed how poorly prepared we are in the event of a real strike,

Oh and the government shut down, it turns out. So things are going great.

The #MeToo backlash has well and truly started, but Sam Bee has some thoughts:

This Buzzfeed deep dive into the world of Trump’s property deals in individual detail is also an interesting glimpse into how wealth moves around the world.

I loved this interview with Dapper Dan which dives into a lot of issues through the lens of fashion. “Everybody thinks about buying a house or a car, but an outfit transforms you the next day.”

Spring is coming…right? Whatever, here’s a warm weather bag of the absurd variety that I’m loving.

Here’s a #MeToo story that ends with an apology and forgiveness done, in my opinion, the right way. Let’s learn.

Go Oxfam! Shop second hand, people, the world opens up to you.

I have been receiving the best texts from my pals thanks to this app!

This link between Russia and American lobbying groups is incredible and needs to continue to be reported on.

The Awl is going away, and that matters.

David Frum’s excerpted new book in The Atlantic was a somber read for me. He gives his perspective on what current “conservatism” looks like and has become in recent years, and lays out his hope for what it should be instead. He also asks readers to consider what happens after Mr. Trump and the kind of ardent and mobilized anger he rode to power on dissipates? All very important questions, but the following quote is what stood out to me and landed like a lead weight in my stomach. A few years ago this would have read has hysterical hyperbole to me. These days, I wonder if it’s possible, if not probable.

That animus I mentioned, it runs deep. And it is ugly to think how much more widespread it is than I ever realized. I know I keep saying that, but the emotion continues to batter me.

So, who’s are they?!

A question for all the guys out there who are good dudes and more importantly, want to be.

Humor, News, Politics

Weekend Update

“No, it wasn’t an accident, I didn’t say that. It was carefully planned, down to the tiniest mechanical and emotional detail. But it was a mistake.” 
― John Paxton, On the Beach (1959)

It’s hard to convey how much I stress about when to publish the weekend links post these days because I know the moment I do, something newsworthy will happen.

Like Hawaii sending a false alarm nuclear attack warning to the population. By mistake. It took three quarters of an hour to clear the misinformation up, about the same time it would apparently take for an actual missile from the Korean Peninsula to hit.

If we don’t actually get tweeted or accidentally stumble into a war at some point this year, the stress may yet end us all.

Britain, Expat, Humor, Links, London, News, Politics

Weekend Links: We Aren’t Even Halfway Through January Edition

“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” 
― James Baldwin

Kittens, what a week. This could be written about any week for the past calendar year and a half but once again, it was a doozy and I’m not even going to attempt a recap. Who would have thought we’d get Oprah trending and yet more vulgarities from our vulgarian in chief? As I put the finishing touches on this post I glimpsed something from the Washington Post about an adult film star and Trump hush money? Whatever, I’m not clicking.

God, this man is humiliating. NPR had to send out a briefing memo to its news team today instructing them on the proper usage of the word “shithole” throughout the day. What a world.

MUST READ: If you wanted to avoid our rage, perhaps you shouldn’t have left us with so little to lose.

Many women wore black gowns for the Golden Globes as a statement of solidarity, protest, and attention direction this year. And to anyone who naysays fashion as frivolous, I say it has always been used as social and political statement, especially by women. As Tom and Lorenzo point out, far more articulately than I could, fashion and style choices are some of the most potent weapons some of these women can use in an industry that traffics in their images. I loved that several women also brought activists as guests. More of this in 2018, please.

Oprah Winfrey’s speech knocked it out of the bloody park at the Golden Globe Awards.

WGSN’s trend forecast for beauty this year is nicely optimistic to me.

I am poised and ready for the future discoveries of these documents in someone’s attic or in some abandoned vault. You all know I LIVE for those stories.

For your reading consideration this year.

Bad feminist confession, I adore the film The Women and love but have always questioned the technicolor fashion montage that appears halfway through it. Well, color me educated (see what I did there?).

David Frum cautions that the real threat to our democracy is not in, “…corrosion, not crisis. In a crisis, of course we’ll all be heroes—or so we assure ourselves. But in the muddy complexity of the slow misappropriation of the state for self-interested purposes, occasions for heroism do not present themselves.”

So help me god, 2018, if you take Trebek from us…

In Mormon news, the president of the LDS church passed away last week, and this write up from Harvard Divinity School is an excellent explanation as to why his ministry was important to the faith, what happens next in the organization, and what happened during his stewardship of the church.

Truly, which of us couldn’t use some more executive time?

This story on literal muckraking is great.

Senator Feinstein released transcripts of the interview of the man whose research firm was behind the infamous Steele Dossier, it’s a long read but political junkies should read it. Here’s ongoing NPR analysis for the pressed-for-time.

This take on the whole Fire and Fury situation and what the book reveals (he argues, whatever errors or faults in contains) by Ezra Klein of Vox *feels* fundamentally correct to me. It’s also weirdly sad, or it would be were not the stakes so damn high.

Wow, Steve. 2018 came at you fast, huh?

Hey! Some good news about the planet!

I like this list of things to declutter from your life in 2018.

A while back, as the sexual assault conversation was ramping up, a list made headlines. Created by an anonymous founder it was called the “Shitty Media Men” list and documented anonymous woman-to-woman heads up about potential bosses or work situations they might want to avoid. It broke into wider consciousness when it was discovered and shared on reddit. The thinkpieces, attacks, and defenses flowed. This past week on Twitter reports surfaced that the magazine Harper’s intended to publish a piece that revealed or “doxxed” the identity of the original creator. Feminist Twitter flew into a frenzy with writers pulling their pieces from the magazine and calls to protect the identity of this woman since backlashes against women have been so historically vicious and awful (see: Gamergate). But then…the creator of the list unveiled herself instead in The Cut. I have no idea what the backlash is going to be but I choose to read something into this decision and attribute it to the moment where women are collectively deciding that past terror cannot dictate future action.

And finally the president managed yet another revealing statement when he apparently referred to immigrant hopefuls from the global south, and Haiti and African nations in particular, as undesirable candidates for citizenship. I’m of course cleaning up his own language which was news-breakingly vulgar. 

All I can say is that I’m thrilled Mr. Trump cancelled his visit to London, as I was fully intending to protest and now I don’t need to request time off for that. I’m also endlessly bemused at how he lacks even the most basic grasp of history and facts (in this case regarding the plans and timeline of the new US embassy). I didn’t expect much from him, but does no one on his staff brief him on anything? At least one ambassador has resigned and several more have been summoned to their various host governments to explain the inexplicable.

And finally, Roxanne Gay has a word of warning.

Humor, Links, News, Politics

Weekend Links

“The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.” 
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

Season Two of the Trump Show kicked off this week! Will he pick a fight with Pakistan? Will he get in a metaphorical **** measuring competition with a global leader via nuclear warfare and the various buttons associated thereto? Will he deride climate change just before a weather pattern classified as a “bomb cyclone” (because even the weather is being extra now) hits the East Coast? Will a scandalous exposé drop, written by a questionable author, about a questionably honest man, featuring questionably honest sources? Will his former arch rival’s house catch fire?

Plot twist! The answer to all of these questions is yes!

Buckle up, we’ve got 51 weeks still to go!

I really liked this piece from Medium on how one millenial guy took steps to combat the oft-cited malaise many my age report experiencing. His ending on euthymia really touched something for me.

This list of little pleasures to seek in 2018 was nice to read.

This technology news seems…super not great?

The Trump-breaks-with-Bannon-or-maybe-vice-versa news moved quick, as did Mr. Trump’s lawyers. They went after the publisher as well. The publisher subsequently (ie, a few hours later) decided to release the book early due to skyrocketing demands.

Welp…

WELP…

“I am the picture of Dorian Kardashian,” writes R. Eric Thomas satirically, channeling us all in this strange pop-culture-political moment. I laugh cried reading this.

I am VERY here for the throwback vibe of the latest Bruno Mars and Cardi B!

More reasons to get excited about Black Panther, team.

Why women don’t speak up, part seven million. Here’s her verified GoFundMe campaign, if you are so inclined.

Color me enraged but not shocked to read that a female politician may be too flagrantly ambitious or openly want the job…to have the job…? God damn it, people, we just did this!

I’m on Team Remnick here. It was an open secret that Harvey Weinstein was trash, it’s an equally open secret that Mr. Trump is unfit for the office. We may bicker about the technicalities of that unfitness…but that to me only reinforces just HOW unfit he is that there are OPTIONS to choose from.

Humor, Links, Politics, Pop Culture, Weekend

Weekend Links: Come at Us Edition

“Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, 
Whispering ‘it will be happier’…” 
― Alfred Tennyson

Well, kittens, here we are: the last links of the year. It’s been a wild ride.

I had a nice long chat with Katarina the other day (a weekly occurrence and quite necessary to my happiness) and we were reflecting on the year that was. She mentioned, and I agree that 2017 really feels like a companion piece or sequel to 2016 which was, we agreed, a totally shit year. From the ridiculousness of global politics to the slew of pop culture deaths to my own personal background challenges, 2016 felt like something to be endured. Everyone just hunkered down as the blows kept raining down, never quite certain when the next one was going to land.

2017 by comparison, for all it has been awash in its own unrelenting ridiculousness, has felt like a response. From the Women’s Marches to #MeToo, a lot of simmering rage and pain on the part of women has gone from “open secrets” and back room whispers to full on mobilization. Communities of color, minority groups and faiths found themselves under siege from some quarters and in turn also mobilized in their own defense from kneeling at football games to showing up for elections. Allies and support systems coalesced when it became clear that they needed to be built. Hard conversations and revelations have been had across the social landscape. A lot of people like me who like to consider themselves “woke” realized that it’s not enough to have opinions, they must be married to actions and effort and put volunteer work, money, and talk into public spaces and areas where they may not have felt comfortable to do so before.

2016 felt like a siege, but 2017 feels like a counter strike. I have no idea what 2018 will bring, but in spite of the roller coaster of emotions of this past year, I’m not worn out thinking of it: I’m energized. I like to think that the forces that may be counting on our/my apathy or exhaustion–whether personal issues I deal with in the background, the global state of affairs swirling around us, or any other challenges–will be sorely disappointed.

I hope the end of the year is treating you kindly, ducklings, and that you are looking ahead with if not wide eyed hope, then at least steely eyed determination. You are going to rock this year.

That’s right, we’re being positive!

A post written for me: book and lipstick pairings.

This is not only a correct summation of 2017, but could also be the title of my autobiography.

NPR’s list of the top 100 songs of 2018 makes a great playlist, if you are so inclined.

Hey, fellow political junkies, here are 100 women of color running for office next year to support.

My body is ready!

That is certainly one tax plan…

Headline of the week.

I find this to be a pretty fairminded assessment of the President’s learning curve one year into the job: namely that (unusual for a man who won the White House) he simply didn’t really understand a lot of aspects of the job and is having to learn by doing. Ditto for much of his staff. Whatever I think of his behavior or policies, I can empathize (briefly) with a whole administrative team being badly, badly out of their depth.

#MeToo rolls on.

As a former Mormon, polygamy fascinates, disturbs, and challenges me. This piece on its link to violence is not surprising to me, but is deeply interesting.

And suddenly, I want to bathe in Pitbull’s perfume. Who knew? As someone who knows herself to be a sucker for branding, I love the idea of this shop!

Gucci’s new ad campaign is even more gloriously extra than usual.

Well, thank goodness for late awakenings. Seriously, I applaud this, even if his last paragraph reveals he (and by extension a lot of us) still have a long way to go.

I’m among those who think automation may very well prove the next “industrial revolution,” probably to include the massive social upheaval that went along with the last one. I’m therefore very interested in programs or ideas built around minimizing the human cost of this potential change, and there is an interesting piece in the NYT about this worth reading if this is also something that keeps you up and night. …Just me?

Album of the week: Acoustic, by Betsy (and with this, I’ve met my goal of listening to one new album a week for a full year) 

Humor, Links, News, Politics

Weekend Links: What a Week

“Nothing burns like the cold.” 
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

This week the president offended first nation peoples (while generally being a dick with his usual nickname schtick), retweeted racist British nationalistic and Islamphobic propaganda (quite literally creating and perpetuating fake news), and vilified a news organisations (resulting in their international significant reporting on slavery being undermined). ALL BY WEDNESDAY.

Meanwhile a troll tried to plant a rape story, a war criminal literally drank poison and died at his trial, the Secretary of State might be getting fired, and yet another Dude On Television was fired for sexual assault allegations. ALL BY THURSDAY. The poison story was barely a blip.

And on FRIDAY, this news broke, all while the conservative faction is trying to rush through a tax vote because after all, that’s why they’ve tolerated this administration and its garbage. I’m publishing this post now because one more news cycle will officially make this links post about a mile long. Good god, I even forgot the launch of another missile by North Korea…

I loved this article on when “vintage shopping” really kicked off in the 20th century and why it was so radical. Though I wept to see the photography. Jeans for $2.5o… (Sidenote, I’ve read The Cut for years, but it really is knocking it out of the park recently with its redesign and reporting.)

A short documentary on the history and development of Japanese horror cinema. The YouTube channel it comes from is also nicely interesting (and not all quite as, er, horrific).

Here, have a read of a MUCH better profile on a Nazi. Their satire is pretty good too.

Oops. Idiot. The latest stunt by O’Keefe, who has a history of shooting himself in his wannabe-sting-operator food, would be a hilarious self-own…if not for the hideousness of his plan. To wit: pay someone to pretend she was raped, in order to undermine and discredit actual sex crimes victims for the explicit purpose of getting an accused sex offender elected to the highest representative body in the nation.

Hm. Are we excited, guys? I think I’m excited, but this is an enormous cast and I wonder how they are going to keep the story together.

He is a national embarrassment, and embarrasses me as a citizen abroad every day...

Cotton? COTTON?!

Let us please remember that as so many of these men are brought to the account they deserve, there is collateral damage for other people.

The whole debutante tradition is strange to me, is there a place for it in 2017?

“That the legacy of the first black president could be erased by a birther, that the woman who could have been the first female president was foiled by a man who confessed to sexual assault on tape—these were not drawbacks to Trump’s candidacy, but central to understanding how he would wield power, and on whose behalf.” Read the whole thing. Every last, awful word.

Fire him. And yes, Coyner too.

“What I’d like is a redo, a retroactive version of the past two years and all the coverage leading up to Trump’s election — the past 20 years, really — where the seemingly nonpartisan, bias-free men who shaped our national news culture weren’t also men who sexually harassed and assaulted women.”

Mariah has a lesson for all of us.

THANK GOD FOR SOME HAPPY NEWS THIS WEEK.

Here. Have one more heartwarming thing. God knows we need it.

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

Weekend Links

“Why men great ’til they gotta be great?”
– Lizzo

This week the sexual assault conversation leaped from the realm of entertainment to the political, and liberal men are getting dragged along side conservative ones. Because OF COURSE THEY ARE.

Sexual assault and rape culture is not a partisan issue. If you insist on punishing abusers in other tribes, you must insist on punishing them in your own, otherwise, you’re just another trader in women’s bodies.  And I remain convinced the solution for abuses of men in power is to reduce their monopoly on power. In Hollywood that means more female (and other gendered!) professionals from crew members up to producers. In politics, that means we need to elect more women to office.

Of course, as thrilled as I am that these conversations and confrontations are happening, I fear a backlash. I fear that tribalism will prove more powerful and that in the current state of culture and the body politic, people will grit their teeth and embrace what should be smacked down because a guy happens to be their monster rather than the other side’s. Every single one of us loses in that instance.

And with that happy thought, I’m off to enjoy the rest of this gray and rainy Saturday. I have friends coming into town this weekend for Thanksgiving and there is much to do to prepare!

This thread ranking foxes is hilarious.

Sorry men, you’re going to have to be uncomfortable for a bit.

RadioWest was my favorite local radio program when we lived in Utah, and I still listen to the podcast in the UK. They have always dabbled in video but have been doing more and more of it lately. This short film about an unusual love story is a sucker punch to the gut.

Has anyone else watched Alias Grace yet? Anyone?! I need a pal to discuss this show with!

Another awful shooting this week, multiple in fact.

As with many of the good things in my life, X alerted me to this hilarious new YouTuber. You need her in your life, and you need to listen to her contouring tips and advice for getting a man. “If the men find out we can shape shift, they are going to tell the church!”

Yay, Australia!

The myth of the male bumbler.

It’s holiday party season, kittens, go get you some glitter!

Hey, it wasn’t all bad.

Do you need a deep dive into cinematic capes? You do, kittens! You were born to comment on this!

Why Trumpism will probably outlast Trump (it certainly predated him before he tacked his name on it the way he does so many skyscrapers), and why the next person elected under its banner may be even worse.

Album of the week: Rest, by Charlotte Gainsbourg