R. Kelly Guilty, Skip The 'Allegedly' From Now On
He will likely be in prison for the rest of his life.
Yesterday, after nine hours of deliberation, singer R. Kelly was found guilty on nine counts — one count of racketeering and eight counts of sex trafficking. While he won't be sentenced until May, it is entirely likely that he will go to prison for decades. Possibly even longer than he has been raping and sexually abusing underage women.
Via New York Times:
The prosecution called 45 witnesses during the trial, but the criminal charges against the singer hinged on accusations related to six women, five of whom testified (the sixth, the singer Aaliyah, died in a plane crash in 2001).
Four additional women and two men also took the stand as accusers. And though none of their claims were included in the indictment, they helped bolster the government's arguments, often telling jurors that their encounters with the singer were marred by sexual, physical or emotional abuse from him.
Throughout the proceedings, the result of Mr. Kelly's only other criminal trial, in 2008, stood in mind for many observers. Prosecutors in Chicago had argued that a videotape showed him having sex with and urinating on an underage girl. But he was acquitted of all 14 counts against him after the girl at the center of the case declined to testify.
It's hard to call this a victory when it was just allowed to go on for so long, with it just being common knowledge the way it was. I didn't grow up in Chicago, I didn't move there until the aughts but even then it was such common knowledge that this was just what he did. I know so, so many Black women my age and younger who have stories of him hitting on them when they were in middle school and high school, on their friends, hanging around where young girls were, that it just seems like it should have been impossible for this to go on as long as it did, impossible for it to just get increasingly worse.
People knew this was happening and they either protected him or ignored it. Never mind that he wasn't arrested or convicted decades ago — he was still allowed to have the power, protection and prestige he needed in order to keep doing what he was doing, in order to feel like he could go on doing it forever. Because people cared more about him, for a very long time, than they cared about those girls. This was not a situation where it was really a mystery, where there was a question, where reasonable people could disagree. The man literally married a 15-year-old.
As satisfying as it may be for many people that R. Kelly is now going to prison, probably for the rest of his life, the fact that he was able to do this for almost three decades is proof that incarceration and the threat of incarceration is not the end all, be all solid defense against sexual assault that people would like to believe it is. Especially considering all of the sexual assault that goes on in prisons. It's that it isn't easy enough to send people to prison, because it actually should be very difficult to send people to prison. We send a lot of innocent people to prison in this country, so that's not really our problem. There needs to be more support for victims and more going into preventing people from becoming victims in the first place.
Things are changing and that's good — there were far fewer people in R. Kelly's corner at the end of this trial than there were at the first. And the reason for that, a big reason, is that people finally started listening. Hopefully we can keep listening, and keep trying to do better.
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One Million Moms Saw 'Schitt's Creek' Lady Talk About Vaginas On TV And WELL I NEVER!
Won't somebody think of the One Million Moms?
Have y'all seen this commercial? We had not.
It is a cute commercial! It is for a birth control product called Phexxi, which is non-hormonal and is meant to be used on an as-needed basis, if you know what we mean, and if you don't, we mean "upon the occasion of boning." And the celebrity telling us about it is Annie Murphy AKA Alexis from "Schitt's Creek"!
The commercial is, well, Annie Murphy says it's set in her vagina, which apparently has a lot of retro furniture in it. And the One Million Moms AKA that one busybody dumb asshole Monica Cole from Tupelo, Mississippi, they are MAD.
We'll just copy paste their MAD screed, since Cole gives us a really good overview of the birth control product called Phexxi. If you or somebody you know might like this birth control method, take this VERY MAD DESCRIPTION from Monica Cole of the One Million Moms to your doctor and see if it's right for you!
Phexxi, an on-demand, hormone-free method of birth control,
Very nice, One Million Moms, get the medical details up front, that's helpful for people.
should be ashamed of its latest commercial, which features Schitt's Creek actress Annie Murphy discussing her vagina and the "house rules" for her vagina.
In conservative Christian culture women are neither supposed to discuss vaginas nor make "house rules" for their vaginas! That is Mike Pence's job, and also the job of the architect of the Texas bounty hunter abortion ban.
It is primarily the setting of the ad that has parents and conservative viewers outraged.
The setting is inside a vagina. Allegedly.
Murphy is supposedly inside an imaginary vagina.
See? Of course FACTCHECK, because Annie Murphy does not say it is an imaginary vagina.
The ad begins with the camera entering a pink, oval-shaped, dimly-lit tunnel
Hahahahahahahaha.
that leads to a pink, plush room with fabric-covered walls that is supposed to be a woman's vagina. Murphy walks around her pink room and bed explaining why she chooses Phexxi.
Just walks around the vagina like she owns the place!
"Welcome to my vagina," she says while sitting on a pink velvet sofa wearing a robe. She then follows with, "In here, I make the rules. Rule Number 1: Keep it real hon[ey], and that means no hormones. And since my Number 2 rule is no parties without protection,
Parties! Well One Million Moms never!
I use Phexxi, a revolutionary, hormone-free birth control gel. It's localized. … Phexxi is also used in the moment, so I only have to use it when I'm planning on having company."
Company! Well One Million Moms never!
The ad concludes with Murphy changing, behind a screen, into a metallic party jumpsuit. The doorbell buzzes, and, with a flirtatious wink, she replies, "Coming!"
You know what that joke means One Million Moms knows what that joke means that joke is an orgasm joke WELL ONE MILLION MOMS NEVER!
She then rides a scooter back through the oval-shaped tunnel toward a bright light.
This particular type of sexual perversion during a commercial is entirely too graphic for television. The details are over the top.
Especially the scooter.
This ad would be inappropriate for television no matter what network it aired on. There is an even greater concern that the commercial is airing when some children could possibly still be awake watching TV. To make matters worse, this advertisement has aired at 9:00 pm and a little later on Nickelodeon.
Ugh, conservative Christians always feeling like it's everybody else's job to raise their damned children. If you don't want your kids to see it, turn off the TV and tell them to go to bed, you lazyass ne-er-do-wells.
Phexxi has crossed a line that it should have never crossed. TAKE ACTION: Please sign our petition urging Phexxi to cancel this inappropriate commercial immediately!
Yeah OK no.
Good commercial! The end.
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Pope Francis Not Too Worked Up Over Whether Joe Biden Eats Jesus Cookies
Yes, Catholic Church still awful about 'bortion, that's not changing.
Pope Francis today seemed to tell American Catholic leaders who want to ban Joe Biden from taking communion that they might want to cool their jets,or at least stop blowing so hard on their incense burners. Francis didn't directly take a position on whether Biden should be denied the sacrament because of his filthy pro-choice views, but he did suggest it's not bishops' job to be mixing up politics with their pastoral duties.
While flying back to Rome from a visit to Bratislava, Slovakia, the Vatican correspondent from the US Jesuit magazine America asked Francis about the controversy over whether pro-choice political leaders should be allowed to eat Christ incarnate in the holy host and wine. Since Biden's election, conservative Catholics have called, sometimes very publicly, for that to be a transubstantial issue in the Church.
Francis said that well of course abortion is "homicide," because no, he's never going to change on that, but also said bishops shouldn't be doing churchy stuff with politics in mind:
"If we look at the history of the church, we can see that every time the bishops did not act like shepherds when dealing with a problem, they aligned themselves with political life, on political problems," he said.
The pope told journalists that when defending a principle, some bishops act in a way "that is not pastoral" and "enter the political sphere."
"And what should a shepherd do? Be a shepherd. Not going around condemning," the pope added. "They must be a shepherd, in God's style, which is closeness, compassion and tenderness."
"A shepherd that doesn't know how to act in God's style slips and enters into many things that are not of a shepherd."
Say what you will about the Church's condemnation of women having control over their own bodies (and there's plenty to be said!), that admonition to separate church and state sounds fairly enlightened coming from the Bishop of Rome.
Francis also said he'd rather not be more specific on the question of denying communion to US Catholics who support the right to choose, "because I do not know the details; I am speaking of the principle" of pastoral duties.
When asked if he'd ever refused to give communion to a backslider like Biden or Nancy Pelosi, Francis seemed a bit taken aback at the very freakin' idea:
"No, I have never denied the Eucharist to anyone; to anyone! I don't know if someone came to me under these conditions, but I have never refused them the Eucharist, since the time I was a priest."
But, he added, "I was never aware of anyone in front of me under those conditions that you mentioned."
Francis reiterated a point he's made in his writings, that
"Communion is not a prize for the perfect," but rather "a gift, the presence of Jesus in his church and in the community. That is the theology."
Most of the rest of what Francis said was a lot more abortion-is-murder stuff that just makes me think less of him, so like any former cafeteria Catholic, I'll just say I liked part of what he said and ignore the rest because it's anti-woman garbage, so there.
But even with the condemnation of abortion as sinful, he also noted that even outright heretics who are "temporarily outside" the Church's teachings "are children of God and need our pastoral action."
So that's nice too, and we bet those words of grace and charity will pretty much quiet down the hotheads calling for Biden to be excommunicated for political reasons, because surely no bishop would allow mere politics to lead them away from their commitment to treating people with Christlike decency and forgiveness, right?
And I am Marie of Roumania.
As of blogtime, we are not aware of any calls for the excommunication of Pope Francis over his remarks, the end.
[America / Photo by 'Zebra48bo,' Creative Commons License 4.0]
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The One Million Moms Are Mad At Gillette, Because Pubes Or Something
Monica Cole is really on a roll this month.
Usually the One Million Moms Living Inside The Head Of One Monica Cole space out their outrage a little more, but they're really on a roll this month. Last week they were mad about some ladies in a hamburger commercial saying the word "bra" and now they are mad about a Gillette commercial for a razor designed for pubic hair removal.
Now, these moms are not mad about "down there" hair removal for the same reason my mom is mad about it ("We tried to make it so you didn't even have to shave your legs and then you all come up with this shit? What is wrong with you? Do you all just go along with whatever anyone tells you to do? You're all suckers. If they tried to pull that shit in the '70s, we would have laughed right in their faces. Or burned something down."), they're just mad about it because apparently this commercial will scar "the children" for life. Somehow.
The current "How to Shave 'Down There'" commercial by Gillette Venus shows a woman explaining and demonstrating how to shave her bikini line. While the woman is posing in her shaving position the camera zooms in for close-up shots of her bikini line as she discusses shaving between her legs. The advertisement features several shaving products by Gillette and a new razor designed for this purpose. The ad concludes with the woman stating, "Fancy skin care for my pubic hair? Yes, please!"
This inappropriate commercial is airing during prime time when children are likely watching television so family viewing time is ruined. It is so suggestive it's disgraceful. Can you imagine what goes through the mind of a child when he sees this ad?
My guess would be "Why are we watching a commercial?" but I would love to know what it is that Monica Cole thinks would be going through their head, seeing this ad. I keep reaching for something and honestly I can come up with nothing, even as a joke. Like the kid would watch the commercial where the lady says "pubic hair" and be horrified to find out that pubic hair exists and then become incredibly traumatized from that and turn to a life of drugs and crime? Or like, their "innocence" is immediately destroyed and then they are tarnished forever in some capacity? Are they going to try to shave their non-existent pubic hair and cut themselves? I mean, I can see why that would be dangerous but it also seems like a bit of a longshot.
This is the only video on Gillette's YouTube channel that is anything at all like what Cole described. They also have one for the menfolk, for what that is worth.
How to Shave “Down There” | #ShavingTips from Gillette Venus www.youtube.com
This is now your open thread! Enjoy!
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