The Entire American Horror Story Timeline Explained! Tabs, Thurs., Nov. 2, 2023
Didn't I just say Halloween was over? Morning news roundup!
Amanda Marcotte with House Speaker (?) Mike Johnson (who?) is like a dog with a bone, Satanic Panic edition. (Salon)
Sure yes, let Texas cops deport whomever they suspect of being in the state illegally, should be jes’ fine. (Houston Chronicle)
This Berkeley professor seems to be decompensating. The guy she’s stalking and accusing of hacking her devices once called for people to shoot all cops in the back. The students promising to hunger strike on her behalf think it doesn’t matter if she did it because she’s Latina and he’s white. Josh Barro lays out some of the facts and then broad-brushes them to argue against trans women in sports — and somewhat correctly about some systems of oppression theory (THIS IS WHY I HATE THEORY). Everyone Sucks Here. (Josh Barro / KQED)
Like for instance, a big thing in Mississippi right now is the threat of trans women competing in Sport. How many trans athletes are competing in Mississippi? That is a honking none. — WAPT 16
Brett Favre must be so pissed he’s not one of the Mississippi governor’s top donors getting $1.4 billion in state contracts. SO PISSED. — Mississippi Today
Oh my goodness the judge’s “factual background” recitation of how Brett Favre is a thief who steals from poor people, in the order to dismiss Favre’s suit against Sports Opiner Shannon Sharpe for calling him a thief who steals from poor people, because he is a thief who steals from poor people. (Ruling)
It’s a good thing my mama didn’t raise panickers.
[FBI Director Chris Wray] added that although Jews make up only about 2.4% of the US public, they account for about 60% of all religious-based hate crimes.
— Antisemitic hate crimes rising to “historic” levels, BBC
My best friend in Detroit is way more radical than I am, like, WAY, and I know how she feels about Israel and Gaza without her having to say a word, obviously, which she is polite and doesn’t, and also I’m pretty sure she was dying on the inside when her very brilliant five-year-old who doesn’t mispronounce things started talking about “Is-RAID-is” at our house the other night. Anyway! How to Tell If You Are a Left Anti-Semite by Benjamin Wittes is quite good. (Dogshirt Daily)
If you want Israel to stop oppressing Palestinians and bombing refugee camps AND don’t want to be a Left anti-semite, may I suggest reading up on whatever J Street says? (Disclosure, my uncle is on the board.)
Jalopnik took Elon Musk’s Vegas “Loop.” It was stupid and ableist. (Jalopnik)
Oh yeah, that personal loan to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to buy his multi-hundred-thousand-dollar RV? Guess who never paid it back, no really, guess. — Chris Geidner at Law Dork / Ron Wyden Senate memorandum
Man bites dog! “In some ways, [the implications of Walmart and the Walton family’s actions] have been positive, raising the bar on renewable energy and making substantial gains in recycling, the accessibility of organic food and reduced dependence on pesticides.” I bet if I keep reading this Civil Eats investigation into their empire, I will learn about the distinctly non-positive implications too.
“We are studying all the aspects of cheeseability,” said this French person, about the goats, the cheese, and the hot hot sun. — Gift link New York Times
In this house we read Big Sky Chat House interviewing Ryan Busse, the former gun exec (now reformed) running against Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte.
I know I said we weren’t doing Halloween stuff anymore, and I don’t even watch American Horror Story since the hotel one in Downtown LA was just so GROSS. And yet. Isn’t that intertwined timeline a hoot? (Looper)
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Today in our Tabs header we appreciate the naïve art of post-impressionist Henri Rousseau. I wrote a bit about him here: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/henri-rousseaus-lush-landscapes
>> "a big thing in Mississippi right now is the threat of trans women competing in Sport. How many trans athletes are competing in Mississippi? That is a honking none." <<
And to think, I used to go easy on people who were pro-discrimination in sport.
"As trans issues go, it's not as important as many," I would think.
"And given it's all relatively minor, it will get sorted out without too much effort. The fuckfaces aren't sitting on sports' governing bodies, mostly," I would think.
"After all, don't you have to have some basic feminism to be pro women's sports anyway? Or if it's not required, it's at least super common. Let them come for all the bulldoggers in softball and announce a surprise gender-confirmation finger-up-the-cooter test and see how that goes over," I would think.
"And besides, the science is there, and it's on our side," I would think. "Surely the sports governing bodies will make a decision based on the science and then the hateful fuckfaces will just have to find another issue, like when all the anti-marriage stuff calmed down by 90% after SCOTUS just got off their asses and made the decision."
Well, that's not really how it's working out, is it? I admit I was wrong: cissexist scum are pretty determined. And by now I'm getting pretty pissed on behalf of the kids.
Fuck cissexist fuckfaces. Let's all teach kids that sports are for fun, and fun is not for tuition reduction. That's what state legislatures are for. So let's vote out the fuckfaces and vote in people willing to stop hurting the kids and start funding the schools.
In a year this could all be behind us.