Oh yeah, the venture capitalist vultures are circling and it’s been obvious from right after the hurricane that Trumpists are moving to take advantage of the tragedy to push for a massive wave of privatization for profit. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/getting-ready-for-trumps-puerto-rico-shakedown

Some of the responses posted about this sorry episode in this blog post: http://www.theroot.com/houston-texans-owner-bob-mcnair-said-what-he-said-and-1819931052 were especially on point:

I hope the major US news outlets pick up this appalling — but not surprising — news and that there will be followups.

I think you have pointed to the core of the problem: the bubble that is only visible from the outside. It is everywhere, as you say, and even people who are partially aware of racism and want to be “good” can’t easily see, let alone escape it. (Of course, many just want to keep their automatic privileged status just…

That sounds interesting! The history of specialized female aggressive techniques often featured weapons like small or disguised objects used with stealth and guile (hairpins, stilettos, garottes, poison-containing jewelry and such). I would like to know more about the ones like you mention that were used to fight.

What puzzles me about this story is how this woman and her husband could have expected anything different from the people in their all-white church. Hey, there’s a reason why it’s all-white! Their surprise shows their own blindness to the real pervasiveness of racism in our country.

Love it! Even the most eloquent barbarians were no match. Explains a lot.

Thank you, I agree. Sexism isn’t only a product of men. Whatever the artist’s gender, professional designers have to have what they believe to be the majority audience’s tastes in mind. (Sex sells.) My criticisms were meant to apply to the whole of game and comic art, which probably is not fair to the artist whose…

That’s interesting history, thanks. I don’t think men realize how awful high heels are for women who have to walk far or do any kind of physical effort or just do not want to wear them. They make your feet hurt as the toes are jammed down into the bottom of the shoe by gravity and the arch is stretched constantly in…

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked up this character, and some of her costumes look practical, some not.

Nice art, but I wish someone would design workable battle costumes for women. These are designed for ogling only and would get their wearers killed promptly in a fight. It’s a silly form of sexism. Practical designs need not be ugly, they could be sleek and deadly-looking, with no blooming or trailing fabric to…

Sometimes very elderly people progressively lose their social self-restraint, so they show much more of their true opinions and character in public. I would not be at all surprised if George HW Bush groped and abused women earlier in his life too, but he was a careful man and would have taken steps to make sure it…

I think they are counting on a legal challenge to the constitutionality of this law after it is passed, which would be appealed to the US Supreme Court, where they hope to see the GOP judges, including their latest addition, overturn Roe v Wade. That has surely been one of their unholy grails for many years. With…

Meanwhile, Tesla has already installed a solar collector/battery setup that has restored power to Puerto Rico’s Children’s hospital:

Re: PICKLES

Yes, exactly. It’s a highly personal tool to help get past mental blocks and gain fresh insights.

This excerpt is from the second of the three linked stories at the bottom of the opening post, a must-read. It shows that the horrible, bullying treatment of this child, trying to force her to have a baby, is now the official policy of our federal government.

That’s something like the way I think of Tarot reading. I find the flexible symbolic language conveyed by the cards’ images and symbolism fascinating; some of it is old and full of expressive archetypal baggage and some decks are especially evocative. Our brains are hard-wired to sort random things into coherent,…

Kevin Smith has been far from silent. Here’s my post comparing his horrified and pro-active response to the Weinstein situation with Tatantino’s skeevy, self-serving one: https://jezebel.com/1819754780

I hope the real story on why Cyrus Vance voided the press for an indictment on this case comes out. What was his price, I wonder?