What I’m Reading – April 16, 2017
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in What I'm Reading
Fight Back
This is Ashley talking – remember the absurd and vague executive order demanding a review of all EPA regulations? Public Comment is open! Might I suggest making your opinion heard? Evaluation of Existing Regulations
“We’ve heard a lot of complaints (and received a lot of reports) about businesses which have recently added small 1% – 5% “minimum wage” surcharges to their bills in what seems to be an attempt to send a political message about their opposition to raising the wage. We’re listing those businesses here.” Paying Your Employees is a Basic Cost of Doing Business
Horrific Executive Orders and Legislation
“The bill, which the usually camera-friendly President signed without any media present, reverses an Obama-era regulation that prohibited states from withholding money from facilities that perform abortions, arguing that many of these facilities also provide other family planning and medical services.
The bulk of federal money Planned Parenthood receives, though, goes toward preventive health care, birth control, pregnancy tests and other women’s health services. Federal law prohibits taxpayer dollars from funding abortions and Planned Parenthood says 3% of the services it provides are abortions.” Trump privately signs anti-Planned Parenthood law (by Dan Merica for CNN)
Environment
“News of the oil seeping to the surface could be inconvenient for TransCanada, which is now trying to convince communities across Canada to accept its proposal for a gigantic new pipeline infrastructure project — the 4,600-kilometre Energy East pipeline.” TransCanada shuts down Keystone after oil seeps to surface (by Mike De Souza for National Observer)
Gender
“There’s a reason women and girls leave STEM. It is because STEM is so hostile to women that leaving the field is an act of survival. It was for me. Microsoft, do not dump this shit on the shoulders of young girls. It’s not their responsibility; it’s the responsibility of those in power. That means you.” Dear Microsoft: absolutely not. (by Monica Byrne)
Health Care
“If Roe is overturned, the most likely immediate consequence would be that individual state legislatures would decide whether or not to allow abortions. According to legal analysts at the Center for Reproductive Rights, some 34 states are at risk of banning abortions, largely in the Midwest and South. About 40 million women live in those states.” If ‘Roe v. Wade’ Falls, Women Will Go to Jail (by Carole Joffe for Rewire)
Homophobia
“One of those who escaped told Novoya Gazeta that prisoners were beaten to force them to reveal other members of the gay community. Another prisoner who fled said that before being incarcerated in one of the camps, he had been forced to pay bribes to Chechen police of thousands of rubles every month in order to survive. Now the regime had taken another step against gays by creating these camps, the survivor said.” Chechnya opens world’s first concentration camp for homosexuals since Hitler’s in the 1930s where campaigners say gay men are being tortured with electric shocks and beaten to death (by Thomas Burrows for Daily Mail)
Sexual Abuse
“Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) filed the complaint on Tuesday on behalf of 27 people who are in immigration detention or have been released from detention and who say they have experienced sexual abuse.” Complaint: Sexual Abuse, Harassment in Immigrant Detention Largely Goes Uninvestigated (by Tina Vasquez for Rewire)
“Like his history of sexual harassment, O’Reilly’s history of domestic abuse has been an open secret since at least 2015, when court transcripts from his custody trial with his ex-wife revealed that the couple’s teenage daughter saw O’Reilly “choking her mom” as he “dragged her down some stairs” by the neck. O’Reilly also told his daughter that he struggles to control his rage around his family.” Trump, Roger, and Other Ailments at Fox News – Enough of This Billshit (by Dahlia Grossman-Heinze for Bitch)