It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s another edition of your Weekly Reader! As always, if you have something you’d like to share, drop a link in the comments! The more, the merrier, so share away! Every link is welcome here. 🙂
New NRA President Carolyn Meadows helped block construction of bell tower honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in 2015 (from Media Matters): “Newly elected National Rifle Association President Carolyn Meadows led an organization that blocked a proposal to construct a bell tower honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Stone Mountain, GA. The organization viewed the proposed tower as antithetical to a monument honoring the Confederacy located at the same site.”
On best friends, Keanu Reeves, and why I was triggered by Captain Marvel (but still loved it) (from The Progressive Pub via The Orbit): “A few hours later, the movie finished and I rushed to my car. I had to get there before the waterworks came. I held them back during the movie with ease bc I was distracted by the film. With it over, the emotional turmoil that I’d kept a lid on was boiling over and I didn’t want to be a crying mess as I walked out of the theater. The walk to the car seemed to take forever. When I finally got there, the dam burst. In a million years, I never would have thought a Marvel movie would trigger me, but Captain Marvel certainly did.”
What Would Black America Be Like Under President Pete? Ask South Bend (from The Root): “How can black residents seem to like Mayor Pete yet collectively shoulder shrug about many of his policies? You have to understand the status of black people in most Rust Belt cities. These are cities built with ethnic whites and working-class African Americans; Slavic grocers selling pierogis on one block and large black churches built during the Great Migration on the other. Systematic discrimination keeps many African Americans out of stable city jobs and elected office. Ferguson-level police harassment keeps many residents living in fear. Consequently small, even symbolic gestures mean a lot to a black community often left powerless and voiceless.”
Anatomy of a smear: How far-right websites spread a fake story about Pete Buttigieg (from CNN): “This is a story about how political operatives tried to take down a presidential candidate, and ended up just humiliating themselves.
It’s also a story about how a smear was spread by right-wing websites — and was cleaned up by newsrooms that took some time to check the facts.”
It’s Time to Talk About Marvel’s Gamora Problem (from Tor): “Follow my train of thought for a moment:
We’re supposed to believe that a man can tear apart, physically and emotionally abuse, psychologically torture, and utterly break someone’s spirit over the course of their entire childhood, and accept that the name for what he feels for is victim is “love”? When Thanos is called upon to make this sacrifice, and is somehow able to do so without ever taking stock of his own cruelty or facing the horror that he has put Gamora through, I submit that what he feels for her should never be described as anything approximating love.
That’s obsession. That’s manipulation, and oppression. That’s egomania.
That’s abuse.”
Nature’s emergency: Where we are in five graphics (from The BBC): “Almost 100,000 species have been assessed so far for this inventory of endangered species. Of these, more than a quarter are threatened with extinction, ranging from Madagascar’s lemurs to amphibians like frogs and salamanders, and plants such as conifers and orchids.”
Stop Building Plots on Women’s Bodies (from Foxy Folklorist via Patheos-Warning! Avengers: Endgame spoilers at the link! Click at your own risk!): “I think it sends a pretty shitty message. I think it sends the message that women remain plot points rather than full people, and that the “real” heroes who get to have extended battle scenes and meaningful, humanizing, self-sacrificing deaths, are men. And always have been.”
If White Conservatives Loved All People The Way They Do Embryos (from John Pavlovitz): “Recently at a Trump rally in Panama City Beach, Florida, as the President was speaking about the supposed crisis of immigrants overrunning our borders, someone in the crowd yelled, “Shoot them!”
Trump erupted in curled Cheshire cat grin, while sarcastically saying, “Only in the panhandle you can get away with that statement, folks.”
The crowded roared in their approval.
Later they reposted clips on social media.
They were proud of this moment.
These are supposedly pro-life Christians.
These are declared defenders of human life.
They’re not.
They’re white Republican embryo lovers—and sadly that’s it.
Beyond that, you get jokes and threats and taunts and bans and walls and middle fingers—and “look how irreverent our guy is” giddiness.
A moment like this is revelatory because it exposes Conservative Christian’s willful delusion. By putting all their eggs (so to speak) into fervent defense of embryos, they can feel the intoxicating easy high of self-righteousness and moral virtue—without having to actually love people.”
Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Have No Idea How Women’s Bodies Work (from Medium): “Women’s bodies, lives, and futures are quite literally in the hands of men who seemingly couldn’t pass a high school health class. That’s part of what’s so hard about watching these debates: It’s not just that women’s rights and autonomy are being legislated away, but that it’s being done by complete morons.”
Someone Tell This Ohio Legislator You Can’t Move Ectopic Pregnancies Into the Uterus (from ReWire News): “But for John Becker, the existing Ohio law isn’t quite restrictive enough. His bill would remove the exception for rape and incest and would also eliminate the ability for consumers to buy supplemental coverage. That means that pregnant people in Ohio would be forced to pay out-of-pocket for the costs of a “nontherapeutic abortion”—thus making it virtually impossible for many more people to afford the procedure.”
Wisconsin Criminalized Abortion Before the Civil War. The Law Still Stands Today. (from ReWire News): “State Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) said Wednesday that most voters she speaks to are unaware of Wisconsin’s 170-year-old law criminalizing abortion. “We’re trying to get people to understand this still exists…and it puts women in Wisconsin at risk,” said Taylor, adding that state Democrats would try to repeal the law this year.”
And that’s all for now. Drop by again next week for more information you didn’t know you needed. Until then, happy reading!
Iacon East 