The title is from a sketch comedy set (YouTube link) in which a pair of SS officers begin to suspect that they are the bad guys. It’s funny because it’s true. For every person who consciously chooses to be an evil prick, there are countless others who follow without giving it much thought. For me, …
Civil Rights
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Vice-President Harris Is Our Gift
This post is in: Excellent Links, Foreign Affairs, Proud to Be A Democrat, Vice-President Harris, Women's Rights Are Human Rights
Since Roe was overturned, we have seen an erosion of reproductive freedom in states across the country. The decision by the Alabama Supreme Court is only the latest attack – and it’s why we won’t back down from this fight. pic.twitter.com/ofuqzLRCXG — Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) February 23, 2024 I don’t know how far …
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Vice-President Harris Is Our GiftPost + Comments (122)
Despite her near-flawless performance over the past year or so, do not expect the media to send out any “Kamala comeback” stories, let alone mea culpas for their excessively negative evaluation that she would handicap Biden. The media seems bent on artificially leveling the playing field rather than providing substantive coverage of Biden and Harris’s record and probing the egregious defects in their opponent. (Sure, Trump’s a crazy insurrectionist, an indicted criminal and a fascist, but Biden is old and has Harris!)
That said, her work as the tip of the campaign’s spear on critical issues such as abortion and her fiery prosecution of the case against Trump will be gauged by her reception internationally and at home with voters critical to the Biden-Harris victory. So far, she is hitting her marks.
.@KamalaHarris in Michigan, about the Alabama IVF decision:
“‘Who’s to blame?’ … When you look at the fact that the previous president of the United States was clear in his intention to hand pick 3 Supreme Court justices who would overturn the protections of Roe v Wade& he did”
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 22, 2024
And Eugene Robinson — “Why Vice President Harris is prepared to step in as commander in chief” [gift link]:
With the exception of Dick Cheney (who made wars), vice presidents don’t typically get to make foreign policy. But I can’t think of any vice president who has become steeped in international affairs more quickly and more thoroughly than Kamala Harris.
That was a blank spot in Harris’s résumé when Joe Biden chose her as his running mate nearly four years ago. Her career as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and U.S. senator did not include any meaningful experience in foreign policy. That has completely changed — and it’s making her a stronger asset to the Biden-Harris 2024 ticket.
Last week, Harris represented the nation for the third consecutive year at the annual Munich Security Conference. Attendees have told me that the first time she went, in February 2022, she was tentative. It was like learning to swim by being tossed into the deep end: Russian tanks and troops were massing at the borders of Ukraine. Harris met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time at that gathering, which concluded just four days before Russia’s invasion. Harris told me later that year that she had wondered whether she’d ever see Zelensky again.
This year in Munich, Harris held a joint news conference with Zelensky and crowed that “Kyiv stands free and strong.” In her address at the conference, she offered a strong, erudite defense of U.S. global engagement and emphasized the vital importance of the NATO alliance. Harris was no longer a newcomer; she was comfortable among the assembled world leaders, many of whom she now knows personally…
Given Biden’s decades of experience as a senator and as vice president under Barack Obama, there is no doubt about who has the final say in this administration when it comes to foreign policy. But there should also be no doubt that Harris, whenever called upon, is capable of stepping in…
… 83 percent of Republicans — the voters Haley is desperately trying to attract — view the vice president unfavorably, according to a YouGov poll last week.
The flip side, however, is that the rank-and-file voters of Harris’s party like her very much: In that same YouGov poll, 86 percent of Democrats viewed Harris favorably. That suggests the campaign’s strategy of having her fly around the country, trying to energize the Democratic faithful about issues such as abortion and voting rights, is good politics.
And Biden has practiced good government as well, by creating space for Harris to gain the exposure and experience she would need if — perish the thought — he were no longer able to serve and she suddenly became commander in chief…
.@VP Kamala Harris on the Alabama IVF ruling:
“On the one hand, the proponents are saying that an individual doesn't have a right to end an unwanted pregnancy, and on the other hand, the individual does not have a right to start a family.” pic.twitter.com/57tzf93jvM
— Reshad Hudson (@ReshadHudson) February 22, 2024
Remember: Sharing is caring!
Biden-Harris campaign statement on the Alabama Supreme Court ruling made possible by Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/HwSXEbILsd
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) February 22, 2024
Late Night Open Thread: The Haley 2028 Campaign
This post is in: 2024 Primaries, Republican Politics, Republicans in Disarray!, Women's Rights Are Human Rights
NEW: Nikki Haley tells me that frozen embryos created through in-vitro fertilization “are babies,” siding with a recent AL decision that raised concerns among doctors and patients worried about the future of the procedure. w/ @Rhoades31 @NBCNews https://t.co/8mgqqP4GtN — Ali Vitali (@alivitali) February 21, 2024 This is, IMO, an acceptably anodyne GOP response to the …
Late Night Open Thread: The Haley 2028 CampaignPost + Comments (81)
I bet she hated KH more than she hated anyone on Earth
But then she met Vivek Ramaswamy
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 22, 2024
1. Staying in means avoiding a no-win endorsement issue.
2. Staying in means there’s a non-zero chance she will have leverage if the convention is forced to nominate a non-Trump candidate.
3. Waffling now means she gets the worst of both worlds come 2028: disloyal and weak.— Panda Thredz (@oldmancoyote22) February 22, 2024
As Nikki Haley has sharpened her rhetoric against Donald Trump, she has emerged — partly purposefully, partly unintentionally — as a key voice in the anti-Trump resistance, articulating a forceful case against four more years of the former president. https://t.co/XozcVpS4A5
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 18, 2024
“He said he’s going to spend more time in a courtroom than he is going to be on the campaign trail,” Haley said.
“But let me tell you what we are going to be doing. We are going to be on the campaign trail.” https://t.co/Fq01ay8rnO
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) February 18, 2024
Nikki Haley is sharpening contrasts with Donald Trump in the South Carolina primary's closing days https://t.co/f8OfMA0Cia
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 19, 2024
Pardon her.https://t.co/e5oGp0bauk
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) February 20, 2024
… I realize that not voting for a convicted criminal should not get you a cookie in an advanced democratic republic, but these are the parameters Haley has chosen. It’s another attempt to middle the issue of the Republican frontrunner—demonstrate your performative independence, but throw the MAGA hordes a well-gnawed bone by setting their god-emperor free to roam the country stroking their g-spots and selling them overpriced, ugly-ass footwear. Reality, however, bellows at us that a) such a move will not gull the rubes into supporting a President Haley, let alone a candidate Haley, and b) that, once freed, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago is better than even money to tour the country beating the everlasting aspirations out of a Haley Administration. Gratitude is not in the man. It was bred out of him two generations ago…
Update, 3:45pm: Nevertheless, Haley vowed to campaign on in an unusual “State of the Race” speech in Greenville on Tuesday…
“If I was running for a bogus reason, I would have dropped out a long time ago. The rest of the fellas already did that. They have their own plans. I don’t judge them. But I’m still here, fighting for what I know is right. And I don’t care what the party leaders and political leaders want. I’ll keep fighting until the American people close the door. That day is not today. And it won’t be on Saturday. Not by a longshot.”
The “rest of the fellas” ran for “bogus reasons,” but she’s not going to judge them.
The road goes on forever, and the party never ends.
Repub Venality Open Thread: Fani Willis Edition
This post is in: Kiss My Black Ass, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel
Fanni Willis 2028 https://t.co/UgKzrHgEs3 — John Cole (@Johngcole) February 15, 2024 I really want to thank The GOP for giving black women voters 9 whole months to plot revenge all over The United States. Thank you for your service. — Sons of Killmonger & Disciple of Dark Brandon (@2Strong2Silence) February 16, 2024 USA Today headlined …
Repub Venality Open Thread: Fani Willis EditionPost + Comments (106)
Willis’s testimony followed that of Wade, with whom she’s had a romantic relationship — a relationship that sparked these court proceedings. One of the issues at the heart of whether she should be removed from the case is whether she benefited financially from having appointed Wade to it. And so much of the day’s questioning focused on whether Wade footed the bill for plane tickets and cruises to places such as Belize, Aruba and Napa Valley. Wade explained that the two split costs, with Willis paying him back in cash — thousands of dollars in cash. At a time when many businesses only accept electronic payments and many people never carry cash, Wade made a mess of explaining why Willis was handing over wads of untraceable dollars. He began many sentences with, “Here’s the thing …” And by the time he reached the end of the sentence, well, there was no “thing” there…
Willis lectured the gathered attorneys on the philosophy behind keeping cash on hand. Her father taught her that cash was king and a woman should always be financially self-reliant. And so, yes, she had a stash of cash accumulated over time and she used it to reimburse Wade. She dipped into it before a trip so she could pay taxi drivers or barter with vendors. Her description of her father’s advice was a compressed version of a complicated history and modern-day habit. She didn’t go into the discomfort that some Black people have with financial institutions or the ways in which banks have made it more difficult for Black people to do business with them. She didn’t mention that more older people believe in keeping ready cash and that a significant percentage of Black and Hispanic Americans use cash as their predominant payment method. She didn’t have to. She simply talked about what her father had told her to do as a matter of independence and power. “I don’t need any man to foot my bills,” Willis said…
So after two whole days of testimony there is ZERO evidence that Fani Willis has a conflict of interest. Mr. Bradley on the other hand seems to have perjured himself and ruined his legal career.
— Candidly Tiff (@tify330) February 16, 2024
Fani Willis’ testimony evokes long-standing frustrations for Black women leaders https://t.co/7NmNg5t4af
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 17, 2024
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is used to prosecuting high-profile, challenging cases. But as she parried questions about her own personal conduct from the witness stand against the legal teams for defendants her office has accused of election interference, many Black women recognized a dispiriting scene.
“It absolutely feels familiar. There is no secret that the common sentiment among Black women in positions of power (is that they) must over-perform to be seen as equals to their counterparts,” said Jessica T. Ornsby, a family litigation attorney in the Washington, D.C., area.
“Here, Ms. Willis is being scrutinized for things that are not directly related to her job performance, in ways we see other Black women regularly picked apart,” Ornsby said…
DA Fani Willis’ dad Mr. Floyd having to explain that keeping cash is a “Black thing” is peak Black History Month. This was a really effective moment bolstering Fani’s explanation. pic.twitter.com/fCZop0ff3K
— Reecie @BlackWomenViews (@ReecieColbert) February 16, 2024
Once again, the Washington Post — “The life and testimony of Fani Willis’s father, John Floyd III” [gift link]:
A month after Fani Willis was sworn in as the first Black female district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., in 2021, her father said protesters arrived outside her house at 5 a.m. John Floyd III recalled that he “hadn’t seen anything exactly like it, before and after that happened.”
“There were people outside her house cursing and yelling and calling her the b-word and the n-word. And just — it was bizarre,” Floyd testified in an Atlanta-area courthouse Friday morning.
Five days after that incident, Willis announced a criminal investigation into whether former president Donald Trump conspired to try to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, setting off a chain of events that somehow had landed Floyd on the witness stand on Feb. 16, as part of an evidentiary hearing over misconduct claims against his only child…
Many watching the hearing online commented on details Floyd shared of his personal history. His youth was defined by the civil rights movement, which he said took him from Alabama back to his home in South Central Los Angeles, where he joined the Black Power movement. (As a young organizer, one of the projects Floyd had hoped to complete was setting up a credit union for his community, Floyd recently told California State University’s Tom and Ethel Bradley Center.)
After two fellow Black Panthers were fatally shot at a Black Student Union meeting, Floyd turned to law, enrolling at UCLA, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, though he remained active in human rights campaigns — on the stand, he mentioned he had worked for Nelson Mandela and the campaign to free him from prison.
Floyd also spoke about how, as a criminal defense attorney, he had litigated “probably … a thousand cases” all over the country, though he spent most of his legal career in Washington. He was part of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, he added, and had hoped to live the rest of his life in South Africa, but had to return to the United States “for political reasons.” A film buff, Floyd now lives in L.A., where he is working on a documentary, he told the court.
Floyd also described his increasing fears for his daughter’s safety as threats mounted against her in the wake of becoming the most powerful prosecutor in the most populous county in Georgia…
This is still not true: Willis said she took money out of her retirement to help fund her first judicial campaign (her campaign finance report shows loans, too)
(Willis and Wade also independently of each other testified the start/end times of their relationship in 2022/2023) pic.twitter.com/WniwyMx4AL— stephen fowler (@stphnfwlr) February 16, 2024
So Fani Willis TRIED to hire other lawyers to be the special prosecutor and they turned the job down. Doesn’t sound like someone who was trying to use the case to enrich themselves. https://t.co/6w4Fs6xTGR
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) February 16, 2024
Can we get Clarence Thomas in court & ask him if he’s ever had sex with Harlan Crow? https://t.co/WucJYn2IM1
— Michelle (@Eaglefly124) February 16, 2024
The Disgraceful 2023 Hugo Awards
by Major Major Major Major| 111 Comments
This post is in: Authors In Our Midst, Books, China, Civil Rights, Foreign Affairs, Jump! You Fuckers!
Before I get into this–Chinese science fiction is so much more than the chauvinist, authoritarian “Three-Body Problem” series. A great place to start is the short story collection Invisible Planets, and its eponymous story which you can read for free here. I’m also enjoying the Sinopticon collection right now. If you’d like to support the …
The Disgraceful 2023 Hugo AwardsPost + Comments (111)
In an emailed dated June 7, 2023 at 6:18 PM and sent to the Western Hugo administrators, Dave McCarty said “Tomorrow I have a 4 hour meeting with my chinese counterpart to look at ballot detail and determine if any ballots are to be voided (which happens with frequency so that it’s not *really* that controversial if we determine we need to do it) as well as what things we need to move categories.” The identity of this Chinese counterpart remains unknown at this time.
McCarty then added “The chairs and the administrators will review the items we’ve highlighted in research Friday evening if we have enough time after the ballot review…otherwise we’ll be looking at it on Saturday (China time, of course, so we’re about 13 hours ahead of you).”
This statement, along with McCarty’s earlier email saying the administrators will “determine if it is safe” to put finalists on the ballot or “if the law will require us to make an administrative decision about it,” shows that the research the Western administrators did on Hugo Award finalists was used by the Chengdu convention chairs and administrators to determine who would be on the final ballot.
Lacey confirmed in an interview that this is what happened. “We were supposed to identify any issues and pass them on,” she said. “The decisions were above our heads.”
As Lacey explained in more detail in her apology letter, “We were told to vet nominees for work focusing on China, Taiwan, Tibet, or other topics that may be an issue in China and, to my shame, I did so. Understand that I signed up fully aware that there were going to be issues. I am not that naïve regarding the Chinese political system, but I wanted the Hugos to happen, and not have them completely crash and burn.”
Were the unnamed interlocutors representatives of the Chinese government, or just citizens concerned about getting in trouble with the Chinese government? Does it matter? This is how state censorship works. The CCP can’t control everybody’s thoughts, but they can take enough high-profile enforcement actions that people end up controlling their own thoughts. Such control doesn’t only weigh on citizens; whether the Hugo administrators were worried for the safety of their Chinese counterparts, or willing to do whatever it took to hold the event in China, or any other hypothesis, the fact remains that they chose to do this. It’s a complete disgrace. I feel so sorry for the winners.
I also feel very sorry for the Chinese organizers, who were almost certainly stuck between a rock and a hard place, and are hopefully not in any danger. The government is clearly embarrassed; Chinese commentary on this farce has been disappearing from the Internet, and the organizers are unwilling to speak up:
An explanation for what might be happening came from Pablo Vazquez, a traveling genre fan and former chair of the 12th North American Science Fiction Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Vazquez is also well known for his connections with genre fans around the world.
When Vazquez was asked if he could help connect the authors with any fans in China who might comment for this report, he said “I’m sorry. They do not want to speak to the media even anonymously.”
As Vasquez stated in a follow-up comment, “I have a lot of love for Chinese fandom and my friendships and connections there run deep. That’s a real and vibrant fandom there that is, like us, wanting very little to do with their government being involved in their fandom. They definitely don’t think it’s their government and instead think it’s corporate interests or, even worse, a fan/pro organization. Honestly, they seem more scared by that than anything else which saddens me to see and despite multiple attempts to get them to share their story they seem really hesitant.”
He elaborated further: “They don’t seem to fear official reprisal (the CPC seems to want to find who’s responsible for embarrassing them on the world stage actually) but rather ostracization from their community or its outright destruction. If I were to hazard a guess, the way we blew up this affair in the international media has now put this fandom in very serious trouble. Previously, it was one of the few major avenues of free speech left in China. Now, after all this, the continuation of that freedom seems highly unlikely.“
And there you have it. The game was rigged from the start–heads the CCP wins a PR coup, tails free speech in China loses.
I don’t really know what we’re supposed to do about all this. Holding Worldcon only in ‘free’ countries will restrict the ability of people in repressive regimes to participate. But holding it in repressive countries will endanger the citizens, and the attendees, too. Inclusiveness is very important, but so is the message you’re sending to the world.
Repro Rights Are Human Rights: Brittany Watts Shouldn’t Have to Be This Brave
This post is in: Excellent Links, The War On Women, Women's Rights Are Human Rights, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)
Brittany Watts, the Ohio woman charged with a felony crime after suffering a miscarriage at 21 weeks, speaks out for the first time to tell her story and educate the public so her tragedy doesn’t repeat itself with anyone else. pic.twitter.com/VsVnGCIuMB — Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) January 26, 2024 how women become, not radicalized, but simply …
Repro Rights Are Human Rights: Brittany Watts Shouldn’t Have to Be This BravePost + Comments (86)
Watts’ attorney, Traci Timko, told CNN on Thursday the charge was not supported by Ohio law and that Watts was “demonized for something that takes place in the privacy of (women’s) homes regularly.”
“While the last three months have been agonizing, we are incredibly grateful and relieved that Justice was handed down by the grand jury today,” Timko said. “To the countless women who reached out to share their own devastating stories of pregnancy loss- Brittany read every one of them and felt a sisterhood to each of you. The emails, letters, calls, donations and prayers- they all played a part in empowering and getting her through each day.” …
When asked whether the charge against Watts may have been influenced by the repeal of Roe v. Wade, her attorney previously told CNN ignorance is the main factor.
“I believe that this charge stems from the lack of knowledge and/or insight that men have regarding the realities of miscarriage and women’s health in general,” Timko told CNN previously…
We know from @IfWhenHow research abt 40% of ppl investigated by police for SMA from 2000-2020 were reported by healthcare workers. Brittney Watts faced criminal charges (since dropped) over miscarriage. Last month @PregnancyJust gave important context about how that can happen: https://t.co/Pj1pcP7hb4 pic.twitter.com/5ZROKuVnSx
— Kylie Cheung (@kylietcheung) January 29, 2024
Not only did Ohio prosecutors criminalize a miscarriage — they humiliated Brittany Watts after so much trauma.
We should be asking why, and demanding answers‼️
Charged her with “felony abuse of a corpse” after —
• Going to the hospital 3 times
• Her water broke and had… pic.twitter.com/S3FupN6SiK
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) January 13, 2024
Informative read on the topic of criminalizing miscarriage.https://t.co/MVvrYDkoQV
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) January 13, 2024
Open Thread: Women’s Soccer Legal Update
This post is in: Sports, Women's Rights Are Human Rights
Spain soccer outcast Rubiales facing trial for unwanted kiss at Women’s World Cup https://t.co/W9kVT1Bnrr — The Associated Press (@AP) January 25, 2024 I noticed this in my trawl through online news sites — “Spain soccer outcast Rubiales facing trial for unwanted kiss at Women’s World Cup”: After sullying his nation’s Women’s World Cup victory, former …
Open Thread: Women’s Soccer Legal UpdatePost + Comments (17)
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