Guns

– “The next one struck just five weeks later, in Oregon. The 26-year-old man who murdered nine and wounded nine others at Umpqua Community College last Thursday had posted comments expressing admiration for the Virginia killer, apparently impressed with his social-media achievement: “His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems like the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.”” How the Media Inspires Mass Shooters (via @MotherJones)

– “Probably the worst thing Ben has said is that “I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.” Jesus. Can you imagine having this guy as your doctor? “Sorry, you have brain cancer. Yeah, I know it’s sad. But it’s not as sad as a waiting period to make a purchase at a gun show!” The thing that I find craziest about Ben is that he actually means what he says, unlike Donald Trump who clearly just says whatever he knows will get attention. When someone challenges Ben, he just shrugs and agrees with himself.” Ben Carson Prefers Dead Bodies to Gun Control (via @strangerslog)

– “I don’t want guns anywhere near me, and that includes gun-toting shitlords who think it’s their right and obligation to “save” me, but might end up killing me instead.” More Guns! (Said No Sensible Person Ever) (via @shakestweetz)

Police Violence

– “To authoritatively examine the issue in Washington, The Times used public-records requests, death certificates, interviews and other research to collect, measure and analyze a decade of killings by police in the state’s 39 counties. The numbers of people killed by police from 2005 to 2009 averaged 16 deaths per year. From 2010 to 2014, it averaged 27 per year. Shielded by the Law (via @SeattleTimes)

Prison Violence

– “After HRC published its report, the organization mailed Jacobs a copy to his cell at SCI Dallas. Correctional officers intercepted the document and read through its allegations. Then they used the names of contributing prisoners as a checklist. Within days, the threats began. “This time, we’ll break your teeth,” a guard allegedly warned Kelly. On April 25, according to the inmates, guards began denying Kelly food.” What Happens When Inmates in Solitary Confinement Blow the Whistle on Their Abuse? (via @mollycrabapple)

Racism

– “Depending on which counties you count as being in Alabama’s Black Belt, either twelve or fifteen Black Belt counties soon won’t have a place to get a driver’s license. Counties where some of the state’s poorest live. Counties that are majority African-American. Combine that with the federally mandated Star ID taking effect next year, and we’re looking at a nightmare. Or a trial lawyer’s dream. When the state passed Voter ID, Republican lawmakers argued that it was supposed to prevent voter fraud. Democrats said the law was written to disenfranchise black voters and suppress the voice of the poor. Maybe, maybe not. Voter ID and driver’s license office closures black-out Alabama’s Black Belt (h/t @RadleyBalko)

– “The British feminist experience with race was somewhat different—but it was still fraught. As Vron Ware, author of Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History, said in a Playboy interview, “The British movement for women’s rights that emerged in the second half of the 19th century was closely aligned with the imperialist project of bringing ‘civilization’ to colonized territories.” People in the colonies were characterized as inferior, or in need of civilizing, because of what was seen as their poor treatment of women. At the same time, white women in Britain were figured as a civilizing force, and as a result could sometimes obtain jobs or opportunities in the colonies that were unavailable at home.” We Need to Talk about Those Suffragette ‘Slave” Shirts (via @hoodedu)

Reproductive Health

– “Indeed, even Fiorina’s super-PAC’s effort to manipulate the grossly manipulated and misleading Center for Medical Progress videos—videos that have been conclusively debunked—with its own YouTube version of the Fiorina claims surprised me. The video uses spliced footage from the Grantham Collection, an unsourced image of a stillborn, and a CMP image of a Pennsylvania woman’s stillborn baby, used without her permission.” Carly Fiorina’s Big Lie (h/t @JamilSmith)

– “I’ve also noticed that because I’ve decided not to have children, my time is considered less valuable. I work in accounting and my hours recently changed so that I’m now working later into the evenings. In conversations, I’ve had several people ask me, “Well, what did you do with that free time anyway? You don’t have kids.” Let’s be clear on something: Just because I don’t fill my time with picking up children from day care, taking them to swimming lessons and birthday parties, and packing lunches until 11 p.m., does not mean that my time is misspent.” Why a couple chose to be childless (h/t @nothavingababy)

– “After five days it showed no sign of improvement, so I started looking for alternatives and came up with Planned Parenthood. I had never considered Planned Parenthood before, and I didn’t want to then. The last thing I needed en route to yet another doctor was a horde of protesters brandishing photographs of aborted fetuses and screaming at me. But I gathered my wits and called. I was seen the same day.” Planned Parenthood saved my vagina (via @millicentsomer)

– “Why the intense focus on the activities of an organization that hasn’t broken the law, and on the compensation of someone who makes a fraction of what the executives of Lockheed Martin and JP Morgan take home? Mr. Cummings’s answer: “This whole defunding fight is just a pretext for the real Republican agenda” — to “take away the constitutional right of women and their doctors to decide what is best for them.”” Republican Hypocrisy on Planned Parenthood (via @nytimes)

– “This is a dangerous problem, because while women of color are being ignored by many in the mainstream abortion rights movement, they are also being exploited by the anti-abortion movement. Prominent politicians like Ben Carson talk about “black genocide” with Planned Parenthood setting up shops in black neighborhoods to “control the population.” This talk is not new. For decades, anti-abortion activists have tried to manipulate black populations — and take advantage of white liberals’ desire to not seem racist — by implying that abortion rights are part of a vast racist conspiracy.” Women of Color deserve a voice in the debate over Planned Parenthood (via @IjeomaOluo)

– ““Look … she can have her own position about abortion, and people have deeply personal feelings about that. But you don’t get to lie about an organization. That has stunned me,” [Richards] said, inviting Fiorina to visit a Planned Parenthood health center to get more information. Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards blasts GOP ‘total lack of civility’ (via @politico)

Sexism

– “The media refuses to connect these dots. And the women who do are called man-hating hysterics, despite the fact that many of these men, like Christopher Harper-Mercer, participate in a public culture of violent misogyny in which entitled men blame women’s failure to fuck them for their woes and for their dysfunction and for their abusive behavior.” The Media Is Failing Women (via @shakestweetz)

War Crimes

– “Without directly mentioning the claims, MSF made clear it saw the contention was nonsense. “Not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the hospital compound prior to the US air strike on Saturday morning,” MSF said. The charity also pointed out the claims that the grounds around the hospital were used by Taliban fighters don’t stand up to scrutiny. On Twitter, MSF noted that the hospital itself was “repeatedly and precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched.”” Doctors Without Borders Says U.S. May Have Committed War Crime (via @slate)

Misogyny

– ““Today in a more troubled world, I think females should take more important roles, and then I told that reporter, if a female Dalai Lama comes, their face should be very attractive.” “So you can only have a female Dalai Lama if they’re attractive? Is that what you’re saying?” asked Myrie, trying valiantly to let him take it back.” Dalai Lama: A Female Dalai Lama Must Be Attractive, ‘Otherwise Not Much Use’ (via @jezebel)

Native Americans

– “In one of his many letters addressed to the Pope, Valentin Lopez, Chairman on the Amah Mutsun, writes: “Serra was the architect of the mission system; he developed the brutal, inhumane policies that had no regard for our ancestors … This terror included the violent capture, enslavement, torture and rape of natives, as well as an unhealthy diet and squalid living quarters that resulted in the death of an estimated 150,000 California Indians in the missions. This number includes thousands of women and children who died from syphilis and gonorrhea as a result of their sexual abuse. How the Catholic Church and you, Holy Father, can consider Serra’s actions to be holy, sacred or saintly is incomprehensible to our tribe.”” Man Who Helped Kill Thousands of Native Americans to Be Made a Saint by Pope Francis Today (via @micnews)

Reproductive Rights

– “The Republican obsession with the group seems to come to this: denying women, especially poor women, the health care they need; pandering for primary votes among Tea Party regulars; and obstructing the budget process and the smooth functioning of government. Quite a record.” The G.O.P.’s Obsession With Planned Parenthood (h/t @JessicaValenti)

– “It’s not “unclear” whether Planned Parenthood is profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. Nearly a dozen states called for investigations into Planned Parenthood after the heavily edited “undercover” videos were released, and not a single one of them has turned up any evidence of wrongdoing. It’s abundantly clear that Planned Parenthood is doing nothing wrong and has been complying with the law.” This Is Unconscionable (via @shakestweetz)

Transmisogyny

– “Told by the agent that she needed to be run as a man or a woman, Petosky said she replied, “I’m transgender. I am a woman, but I have an atrophied penis, trying to make it kind of not a big deal.”” Transgender Woman Says She Was Delayed by TSA for Anatomical ‘Anomaly’ (h/t @DrJaneChi)

– “For transgender people, those particle body scanners that passengers must now pass through are problematic, because TSA personnel push a button indicating whether — based on their visual perception — the passenger is male or female. Another agent views the scan to look for any “anomalies,” appearances that shouldn’t be on the scan. For a transgender woman (scanned as a woman), her penis might appear as such. For a transgender man (scanned as a man), it could be chest-binding that he’s wearing to reduce the appearance of his breasts.” Trans Woman Live-Tweets Her Frightening Experience With Airport Security (via @ThinkProgress)

Banking

– “That makes any foreclosures in the city based on these documents illegal and unenforceable, and makes the King County recording offices where the documents are located a massive crime scene.” Leaked Seattle Audit Concludes Many Mortgage Documents Are Void

Bigotry

– “But the English teacher kept the clock, and during sixth period, Mohamed was pulled out of class by the principal and a police officer. They took him to a room where four other officers were waiting. When he entered, one officer leaned back in his chair and said, “That’s who I thought it was,” Mohamed told MSNBC.” ‘They thought it was a bomb’: 9th-grader arrested after bringing a home-built clock to school (via @washingtonpost)

– “First, what did the cop mean when he said “That’s who I thought it was”? Is this part of some racial profiling scheme going on at the school? How would the cop know who Mohamed was? I’m picturing a panicked principal calling the local cops about a possible homemade bomb by a Muslim kid while the cops flip through dossiers on all the Black and brown students at the school. I’m not saying that’s what happened. I’m saying I have questions.” Ninth-Grader Ahmed Mohamed Made a Digital Clock and the Internet Exploded (via @angryblacklady)

– “If calling things “gay” was hurtful to people, why do it? As a comedian, isn’t her job to bring joy to others? She knew for sure it wasn’t her job to reinforce negative stereotypes about the existence of an entire group of people.” Sarah Silverman’s answer to this question about ‘political correctness’ was totally unexpected. (via @Upworthy)

Capitalism

– “And the collateral damage of that war — of Apple going after Google’s revenue platform — is going to include the web, and in particular any small publisher on the web that can’t invest in proprietary platform distribution, native advertising, and the type of media wining-and-dining it takes to secure favorable distribution deals on proprietary platforms. It is going to be a bloodbath of independent media.” Welcome to hell: Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook and the slow death of the web (h/t @lauraolin)

Diversity

– “Effie counters by saying that his summation is “not necessarily true,” and Matt Damon interrupts her again, this time by laying out what exactly diversity is. “When we’re talking about diversity you do it in the casting of the film not in the casting of the show.” Meaning that they don’t have to hire any diverse filmmakers on Project Greenlight as long as they throw a few women and black people onscreen.” Matt Damon Interrupts Successful Black Woman Filmmaker to Explain Diversity to Her (h/t @zellieimani)

– “But if you receive casting notices regularly — and especially if you’re a woman, person of color, trans person, person with disabilities, a combination thereof, or a member of any marginalized group — you probably don’t find them all that surprising. These are relatively tame examples of the sort of casual prejudice embedded in casting notices that go out to thousands of people every single day.” The Terrible World of Casting Notices (via @jennyjaffe)

– ““Stop forcing diversity down our throats! Do it naturally! SJWs ruined comics!” Apparently, most of these guys completely missed the irony in this situation. To my fellow straight white guys, let me say this: You have been pandered to for your entire life. Nearly every piece of media you have ever consumed, from comics books to TV to cartoons, has been tailored made with you in mind as its primary audience. In fact, pandering to us is one of the greatest driving forces in entertainment today. I’d go as far to say that it’s responsible for many of the creative shortcomings of today’s media.” Nerd Guys, Pandering, and “Forced” Diversity

– “UCB does not care about black people or minorities. It does, has done and will continue to do the bare minimum when it comes to maintaining diversity not unlike the entertainment industry at-large. As nine openings on house teams quietly came and went, not one POC was added, despite the fact that in the past year, two POC have stepped down. We are technically less diverse from a racial standpoint.” Why I’m Quitting UCB, And Its Problem With Diversity (h/t @allisonkilkenny)

Higher Education

– “The data reveals how much money students are borrowing in exchange for earnings after graduation. While U.C.L.A. and Penn State are both prestigious public research universities, recent U.C.L.A. grads leave with about 30 percent less debt, even as their predecessors are earning about 30 percent more money than counterparts at Penn State. Harvard students borrow barely a quarter of what Brandeis students take on, and earn nearly twice as much.” Gaps in Earnings Stand Out in Release of College Data (h/t @tanehisicoates)

‘Justice’ System

– “In North Carolina you are considered an adult at 16 years old as far as being charged,” said Sgt. Sean Swain of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department. “But to disseminate and receive sexually explicit texts, photos or videos, you must be over 18.” NC Teen Charged As Adult For Taking & Having Naked Pics of a Minor – Himself

Misogyny

– “The deck is stacked against plaintiffs in other ways, as well. From the first day of trial, I saw how hard it was going to be to win when every potential juror who expressed a belief that sexism exists in tech — a belief that is widely recognized and documented — was not allowed to serve on the jury.” Ellen Pao Speaks: ‘I Am Now Moving On’ (h/t @vnaylon)

– “Rachel Money opened her mailbox and saw an ad depicting the chaotic life of a mom of three next to two well-dressed men in sharp suits. And the ad asks a simple question: Part-time agent vs. full-time professionals — who would you want to represent you?” Local real estate company apologizes after its ad infuriates women (via @q13fox)

Policing

– “Beyond the reality that President Obama and his administration work closely with police officers and police departments every single day for his own security, the fact is that fewer police officers have been killed during the six-plus years of his presidency than during the first six years of any modern presidency.” Fewer police killed during Obama’s administration than any two-term president in our lifetime (via @shaunking)

– “Calling Black Lives Matter a hate group ignores the reality of how terrorism operates in the United States. It has historically — and continues to be — a primary way to uphold white supremacy. Of the 784 documented hate groups in America, the vast majority of them are actively fighting to uphold white supremacy, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.” NC Police Chief Resigns After Calling Black Lives Matter Activists “Terrorists” (h/t @jamilahking)

Reproductive Choices

– “We rarely have honest public discussions about this reality. And I understand why: Because I cannot say things like “I would not have the time and energy to dedicate to [this other part of my life] if I were a parent” without immediate and aggressive pushback, as though implicit in my factual statement is a condemnation of parenthood. Or inherent criticism of the quality of paid work done by mothers. Childfree 101: The “Women Are Designed to Love” Narrative (via @Shakestweetz)

State-Sanctioned Killing

– “But there was no corroborating evidence to back up Sneed’s story — no physical evidence linked Glossip to the crime — and transcripts show how Oklahoma City police detectives steered Sneed toward implicating Glossip during his interrogation. Sneed’s story has evolved considerably over the years — today there is mounting evidence to show that Sneed, afraid of being sentenced to die, was compelled to point the finger at Glossip in order to save himself.” Richard Glossip Set to Die Wednesday (h/t @radleybalko)

Trigger Warnings

– “There is literally no “opinion” on my humanity, my autonomy, my agency, my body that I haven’t heard a million times, and I don’t feel obliged to listen to every jackass who wants to tell me that I am less than in order to demonstrate my own tolerance.” Um (via @Shakestweetz)

– “To me, there seems to be very little reason not to give these warnings. As a professor, it merely requires my including one extra line in a routine email to the class, such as: “A quick heads-up. The reading for this week contains a graphic depiction of sexual assault.” These warnings are not unlike the advisory notices given before films and TV shows; those who want to ignore them can do so without a second thought. The cost to students who don’t need trigger warnings is, I think, equally minimal. It may even help sensitize them to the fact that some of their classmates will find the material hard going. The idea, suggested by Professor Haidt and others, that this considerate and reasonable practice feeds into a “culture of victimhood” seems alarmist, if not completely implausible.” Why I Use Trigger Warnings (h/t @DrJaneChi)

Black Lives Matter

– “How is it that the random acts of two mentally unstable Black men who had no formal or informal relationship with the Black Lives Matter movement constitute a trend, but the two dozen police killings of unarmed Black citizens again remain a collection of unfortunate but isolated incidents? Black America’s “gaslight” nightmare: The psychological warfare being waged against Black Lives Matter (h/t @EdgeofSports)

– “The “Black Lives Matter” movement focuses on the fact that black citizens have long been far more likely than whites to die at the hands of the police, and is of a piece with this history. Demonstrators who chant the phrase are making the same declaration that voting rights and civil rights activists made a half-century ago. They are not asserting that black lives are more precious than white lives. They are underlining an indisputable fact — that the lives of black citizens in this country historically have not mattered, and have been discounted and devalued.” The Truth of ‘Black Lives Matter’ (h/t @ShaunKing)

Healthcare Rights

– ““I was confident that the full Assembly, reflective of and responsive to the people it represents, would do the right thing and move us closer to making it possible for terminally ill Californians to decide for themselves how to manage their last days,” she said.” California Assembly approves right-to-die legislation (via @LANow)

Justice System

– “In other words, Cormega Copening is being charged as an adult for having pictures of Cormega Copening, because Cormega Copening is a minor. Horrified yet? According to authorities, the boy is both adult and child—perpetrator of a crime against himself, and simultaneously the victim of a crime committed by himself.” Boy charged as adult for having explicit pictures of himself—because he’s a minor (h/t @_JoHelen)

Migration

– ““Is it me,” said my friend, “Or is it just…okay to say things that are violently racist now? Has that always been okay, and I just didn’t notice till now?” No, it hasn’t always been okay, and in fact it’s still not okay – but it is a normal part of the public conversation, in a way it wasn’t, even a year ago.” Europe shouldn’t worry about migrants. It should worry about creeping fascism (via @pennyred)

– “A number of charities and non-governmental organisations have opened appeals specifically aimed at helping the plight of refugees. Various organisations spell out exactly what a specific donation could provide. Here’s a sample.” Refugee crisis: what can you do to help? (h/t @EdgeofSports)

Police Violence

– “In its 1998 report on police accountability, Human Rights Watch noted, citing an official commission’s report on corruption within LAPD, that “perhaps the greatest single barrier to the effective investigation and adjudication of complaints is the officers’ unwritten ‘code of silence’….[the principle that] an officer does not provide adverse information against a fellow officer.”” Has a Blue Wall of Silence Within the Seattle Police Department Been Protecting Officer Cynthia Whitlatch? (via @StrangerSlog)

– “So when police advocates say that 2014 saw an 80+ percent increase in homicides of cops over 2013, remember a few things: First, 2013 wasn’t just an all-time low, it was an all-time low by a significant margin. Second, the 2013 figure was so low that even a small increase will look large when expressed as a percentage. Third, the figure for the following year, 2014, (51 officers killed) was essentially consistent with the average for the previous five years (50 killed), and still lower than any five-year average going back to 1960. (See this graph, also from Wang.) Fourth, again, 2015 is on pace (35 killings) to be lower than any year but 2013.” Once again: There is no ‘war on cops.’ And those who claim otherwise are playing a dangerous game. (h/t @tanehisicoates)

Racism

– “The team is becoming the sports equivalent of the Donald Trump presidential run, a dead-ender operation with nothing to offer but a howl of anger at a slowly evolving world. To change the team name would mean conceding not only that this beloved brand is racist but that racism and white supremacy actually exist and deserve to be fought.” http://www.thenation.com/article/washingtons-football-team-is-the-donald-trump-of-the-nfl/

– “This is the world Trump wants when he says he’s going to “make America great again.” It’s the America of 1950s TV shows, where people of color don’t exist in the lives of white Americans unless they’re being served or entertained by them. This appears to be a world longed for by many, as a recent poll found that 47% of white Americans look upon Trump “favorably.”” I’ve experienced a new level of racism since Donald Trump went after Latinos (h/t @TheTrudz)

Reproductive Rights

– “The United States is the only developed nation without some kind of national paid maternity leave, and proposals for national paid family leave aren’t going far in a Republican-dominated Congress. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) only guarantees workers the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave without losing their job.” Bleeding Wounds and Breastfeeding Hell: The Costs of No Paid Maternity Leave in America (h/t @denisehterry)

Sex Work

– “Media presented Amnesty’s decision as just the latest in a long fight about sex work, framing sex workers’ position as going against “women’s groups,” as if sex workers were not themselves present in women’s groups, or were maybe even not included in the category “women.” As incomplete as this coverage was, for a moment the issue of criminalizing sex work was back in the news.” How Sex Workers’ Rights Made the Mainstream (via @melissagira)

Sexism

– ““It goes a long way to showing it’s not the students or the home, but the classroom teacher’s behavior that explains part of the differences over time between boys and girls,” said Victor Lavy, an economist at University of Warwick in England and a co-author of the paper. Previous studies have found that college professors and employers discriminate against female scientists. But it is not surprising that it begins even earlier.” How Elementary School Teachers’ Biases Can Discourage Girls From Math and Science (h/t @sailorhg)

Wildfires

– “The Environmental Protection Agency predicts that Pacific Northwest wildfires will burn double the acres we’ve historically seen every year by mid-century if climate change continues unmitigated. In the Okanogan Highlands specifically, climate scientists predict the area burned could increase by a factor of four.” The “New Normal” in Washington State (h/t @fakedansavage)