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February 2017

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What I’m Reading – February 19, 2017

Written by , Posted in Feminism, Politics, What I'm Reading

Fight Back

Horrific Executive and Legislative Actions

  • “Upset about damaging leaks of his calls with world leaders and other national security information, Trump has ordered an internal investigation to find the leakers. Staffers, meanwhile, are so fearful of being accused of talking to the media that some have resorted to a secret chat app — Confide — that erases messages as soon as they’re read.” Upheaval is now standard operating procedure inside the White House (by Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker for the Washington Post)
  • ““The unique thing about President Trump is that he knows what it costs to run a plane. Going down [to Mar-a-Lago] ain’t free.” The three Mar-a-Lago trips in Palm Beach cost the federal treasury around $10m, based on figures used in an October government report analysing White House travel. This includes cash for coast guards to patrol the exposed shoreline. Trump family trips cost taxpayers $11.3m in one month – almost as much as Obama’s cost in a year (by Peter Walker at The Independent)

Homelessness

  • “If Pippin had lived in a house, the officer’s actions likely would have amounted to an illegal search. Unless an officer has a warrant or extenuating circumstances, the US Constitution protects you from a cop walking in your front door, seeing drugs, and arresting you. The Fourth Amendment guarantees people’s right to be “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures,” and the Washington State Constitution adds that “no person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law.”” Is a Tarp a Home? (by Heidi Groover for The Stranger)

Criminal Justice

  • “Understanding how the penal system operates helps to illuminate that, counter to Bauer’s claims, the CCA are not the ones calling the shots. Rather, they are following the laws and policies put in place by the state legislature and other state officials. For instance, Bauer implies that Winn’s guards and officials revoke incarcerated men’s “good time” for slight prison violations so that CCA officials may collect more cash for their extended incarceration. This assertion simultaneously ignores the routine taking back of good time at publicly run state prisons and erases the decades-long assaults on good time by tough on crime politicians that have created the mechanisms for guards to reduce and revoke good time in the first place.” Getting the Facts Right: How the Mother Jones Fixation with Private Prisons Misleads Us (A Late Rejoinder) (by Lydia Pelot-Hobbs)

Ableism

  • “If your goal is to get people to see our humanity, why is it wrong for us to act human?
    Because I am human, I’ll get angry and frustrated if you say things that are hurtful to me. Because I am human, I’ll get tired and struggle in the face of persistent barriers. Because I am human, I’ll have needs and take up space. I trust that the people in my life will see these truths as well and adjust their attitudes to make room for me. I am lucky enough that for the most part, they do. As for those who do not, who hold me to a standard they would never hold themselves to — we are not operating from the same basic premise in the first place. No number of words from me can change that.” I’m Not Going To Be Nice About Ableism (by Alex Lu for The Establishment)

Trans Rights

  • ““What people should know about these bathroom bills that criminalize trans people… is that these bills are not about bathrooms,” Cox told “CBS This Morning.” “They’re about whether trans people have the right to exist in public space. If we can’t access public bathrooms, we can’t go to school, we can’t work, we can’t go to healthcare facilities ― this is about public accommodations and public accommodations are always key to civil rights. I can’t help but think about that moment from ‘Hidden Figures’ when Taraji P. Henson’s character has to walk 45 minutes to the bathroom ― Gavin had to go to a special ‘gender neutral’ bathroom, a nurses bathroom that was way out of the way.”” Laverne Cox References ‘Hidden Figures’ To Make Powerful Point About Trans Rights (by James Michael Nichols for Huffington Post)

Minimum Wage

  • “So picture a hypothetical situation for a moment: Based on a regulation from the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a restaurant with a steep staircase leading to its front door is required to add a ramp to its entrance. Now imagine that business added an “ADA surcharge” to the bottom of its checks, along with a passive-aggressive note explaining that the fee is to pay for the installation of the ramp. Customers would understandably lose their minds. There would be a very real, very loud—and very deserved—furor over the owner’s business decision.” What to Do When A Restaurant Puts a Minimum-Wage Service Charge on Your Bill (by Paul Constant)

Sex Work

  • “Edel McGinley of the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI) said the new laws will not protect the most vulnerable – migrants, asylum seekers, refugees doing survival sex work. She said: “It promotes harmful stigmatisation and obstructs access to justice. We know from our decade of work on human trafficking and forced labour that this approach will not help victims of trafficking.”” ‘This approach will not help victims of trafficking’: Groups at odds as sex bill passes final stage (by Garreth MacNamee for The Journal)

Awesomeness

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