ASK Musings

California Fires

““It’s going to continue to get worse before it gets better,” Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Already among the most destructive in the state’s history, the fires have claimed 23 lives, obliterated 3,500 homes and businesses and caused more than 20,000 to evacuate. They have also scorched some of the finest wineries in the country.” How to Help California’s Wildfire Victims (by Jessica Kwong for Newsweek)

“The 57-year-old, as well as another maintenance worker, and several residents and their family members describe a frantic, disorganized, and late-deployed effort to evacuate the sprawling Varenna complex, which houses 400 senior citizens across several buildings, just before the fast-approaching flames swept through the premises.” Workers Say A California Retirement Community Left Its Elderly Residents Behind During The Fire (by Brianna Sacks for Buzzfeed)

Horrific Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Action

“Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Monday in Kentucky that he plans to sign a proposed rule tomorrow repealing the plan, which aimed to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, according to the Associated Press.” EPA head announces plan to eliminate Obama’s signature climate policy (by Yvette Cabrera for Think Progress)

Disablism

“Meanwhile, psychologist John Gartner started a petition on Change.org for “mental health professionals” (with no method to determine if their status as mental health professionals extended beyond self-appointment on the internet) to declare Trump mentally unfit to be president. So far, it’s received more than 60,000 signatures. As much as I wish Trump weren’t president, slapping him with lazy e-diagnoses is not the way to get there. This obsession with his mental state is not only irrelevant to the current political situation, but endangers the acceptance and treatment of people with mental illness.” Let’s Stop Calling Donald Trump “Crazy” (by Alexandra Mendez-Diez for Buzzfeed)

Sexual Assault

“The story, however, is complex, and there is more to know and to understand. In the course of a ten-month investigation, I was told by thirteen women that, between the nineteen-nineties and 2015, Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them. Their allegations corroborate and overlap with the Times’s revelations, and also include far more serious claims.” From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories (by Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker)

“Everyone is having their say about Harvey Weinstein. But nobody has put in their 2 cents (2 pence?) quite like Emma Thompson. She’s just telling it like it is — bluntly, eloquently, and honestly. BBC Newsnight has been releasing quotes and clips from tonight’s interview with her, and they are FIRE.” All Hail Emma Thompson (via Pajiba)

Racism / Colorism

“Cosmetics companies in other countries aren’t under the same legal obligation as they are in the US to reveal their full ingredient lists, but most over-the-counter products — which are rarely labeled as skin bleachers — include some ingredient that could lighten your skin, even in the US. Those active ingredients vary from things you’d find in the kitchen to something like hydroquinone, which is only allowed in very low levels for nonprescription skin care. (Prescription skin lighteners can include more of that active ingredient.)” Some Of Your Fave Skin Care Companies Sell Skin Lightening Products (by Scaachi Koul for Buzzfeed)