“The healthcare business is probably the most distressing example of what happens when we ‘let the market decide.’ Health care for profit means delivering the least amount of health care service for the maximum amount of money.”
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(Paul D'Amato)
This topic gets me so wound. Forgive the verbal spew in advance, reader.
It’s more insidious than what’s written above, though! When you’re having a heart attack, are you shopping around for the cheapest ambulance ride? Are you making sure the ER they’re rushing you to is in network? How about your attending doctor? Their consulting cardiologist? The anaesthetician? (Yes, all of these services are billed separately. Yes, they can be from different care networks. Messed up, yes?)
The healthcare system in america is designed to keep the healthy people healthy under the terms listed above, and then to utterly bankrupt and ruin those individuals or families unfortunate enough to face a genuine emergency or chronic illness. Most families in America are one car crash, one cancer diagnosis, or one heart attack away from poverty. And nobody really wants to talk about this, because it means confronting the inevitability of one’s own eventual decline and death.
Barring sudden demise, everyone reading this post will at one point or another require some form of terminal medical treatment. And when the hospital bills start mounting up, and the 80/20 cost split begins to pile on– assuming you’re fortunate enough to have insurance… single payer health insurance will start sounding pretty good.
But nobody will want to listen to you then, because they’re healthy. They don’t want to pay for your illness. Why should they have to cover the costs of your care?
The vast majority of people in my generation are going to die not only penniless, but in massive amounts of debt. The institutional poverty that the working and middle classes have escaped for the better part of the last century? That’s going to come creeping back one bankrupt estate at a time.
People are fooling themselves if they imagine this isn’t by design. This is why expansions to Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare are crucial in the near term, and a total revolution in our national health care system is required in the long term.
My kid’s college education shouldn’t disappear because my wife had to have spinal surgery. My retirement savings shouldn’t disappear because she had to take medical leave from work. They did. Were it not for my privileged birth and repeated intercession by my wealthy parents we wouldn’t have a house, a car, any money in the bank, functional credit… none of that.
My kid’s education is highly at risk and my retirement is just gone. Ten years of work on my 401k evaporated. And I am one of the lucky ones.
I just don’t understand how this happened. But here’s a picture of a lemon from my backyard
WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK
when life gives yoǘ̻̬͓͎̣̟̩̦͢ ͪ̂̀̆҉̳̘̝̺̀l͇̬̹̞̻̥͕̥̗̒̎ͩ̋ͥ͆e͙̭̭̠̣̠̊́ͩ̂̓̀ṃ̛̍̂͛̈̏o̠̪̪ͤ͗͘n̵͉̣ͭͧ̿ͧ͛̀s̷̠͑ͬͫͦ̅͡ ̸͐ͤ͘҉̦̺M̰̹͙͇ͮ̉ͫͅȦ̻̔̅̇̑ͭ͛͋͘K̠̻̫̤̇̀ͥE͂ͪ͏̱̤͚͕ ̞͔̜̬̑ͯ͑͢ͅŞ͔̦̩̳̣̖ͮ͊ͨA͈̓͂̈́̀̀̚͘C̡̠̟͉ͪ͆̔ͤ͂ͪR̬͙͕ͪ̀͠Ĩ̵̖͚̑̊̓́F͎͕̄Iͬͧ̀̂̑ͪ͟͏̴̪̤ͅC̢̰̝͓̗͛ͬ̔̍̓́́̚̚Ḙ̶̠̰̳̩̳̊ͭͮ̇̇̚̕S̻͖̣̰̒̈͟
it’s back
Satan lemon
every villain is lemons
And finally, dear listeners, a reminder; several concerned citizens have brought to the city’s attention an irregularity surrounding this summer’s citrus harvest. City council would like to remind all enterprising fruit pickers to exercise reasonable caution when acquiring these fruits. Grasp the fruit firmly around its circumference, pull slowly but steadily to avoid damaging the tree, and under no circumstances heed its demands of you. Do not acknowledge or obey the depraved whisperings of the demon fruit.
Two things are clear in the latest CNN/ORC International poll of Democrats and Democratic leaners: 1) Hillary still leads; and 2) Bernie has significantly cut into that lead over the last several months. From Clinton's high water mark of 69 percent to Bernie's five percent in April (a 64-point deficit) to Bernie now trailing Clinton by 21 points, this race gets tighter every month.
Overall, more Democrats say Clinton is the best person to handle the economy (Clinton 46 percent/Sanders 24 percent), race relations (Clinton 49/Sanders 25), foreign policy (Clinton 61/Biden 20/Sanders 10), and the income gap between rich and poor (Clinton 42/Sanders 33).
Photo taken by undocumented immigrant Ricardo Aca—a response to Trump's racist accusations about immigrants.
Ricardo Aca came from Mexico to the U.S. with his family when he was 14 and now works in a restaurant at Trump Hotel in Manhattan.
"I know I could lose my job just for talking about Trump," Aca says in a profile filmed by Chase Whiteside, "but it doesn't make me proud to go to work every day under his name."
Aca and his family—his mother, stepfather, and sister—are exactly who Donald Trump promises to deport if he's elected president.
"We're going to keep the families together, but they have to go," Trump said Sunday of undocumented immigrants on NBC's "Meet the Press."
So Aca, who has earned his Associate Degree in commercial photography, has been fighting back by shooting photos of immigrants holding signs with messages like "Not a Criminal" and "Not a Drug Dealer."
"Trump keeps pointing out all these immigrants that have done all these terrible things," Aca says, "but those aren't the immigrants that I know. That's not what we're like and photography is a way for me to show that."
Aca also relays a sentiment that could be very predictive of the 2016 elections:
"Other Republicans have criticized Trump's comments, but to me they all seem to have the same position on immigration. I mean, I may have an accent, but I’m not stupid."
Donald Trump has once again upstaged the entire the Republican Party with his mass deportation "position paper." Now most of the GOP candidates are racing to catch up with his extreme immigration policy.
For anyone who thought maybe Trump wouldn't drag the entire field down with him, think again. No one's speaking up loudly enough for undocumented immigrants like Aca to believe there's a lick of difference between them.
North american researchers at UC Berkeley and California Academy of Sciences have found that the larger Pacific-striped octopus has a unique hunting strategy: Rather than pounce on its prey, it stalks and gently taps it to startle it. Often this drives it into the octopus’s waiting arms….
The larger Pacific striped octopus ,
is, despite its name, no bigger than a tangerine. Also uses a “slow bounce” to hunt. With its body flattened, and dorsal arms reaching forward, the octopus glides with sporadic bursts of hopping movements before it snatches up its prey of choice.
The octopus is rare, in fact, science has yet no even give it a formal scientific name (belong to Octopus genus). Is poorly understood, however, a recent study shown, they are somewhat social, they mate face-to-face, and the females produce multiple batches of offspring.
People use wheelchairs for a lot of different reasons.
Some people use wheelchairs because they are paralyzed and completely unable to walk. That is not the only reason people use wheelchairs, and many wheelchair users have some ability to walk.
Here are some reasons some people who can walk use wheelchairs:
They can walk, but it’s very difficult and not an efficient way of getting around
Walking causes them severe pain
Walking is medically inadvisable because of the strain it would put on their heart
They have cognitive problems that make walking more difficult than wheeling
Falling causes them to break bones, and they are unsteady on their feet and fall easily
They can’t stand in place because they need to be moving to stay upright
They can walk some days but not others
If you see someone use a wheelchair sometimes and walk other times, don’t assume they don’t need their chair. If you see a wheelchair user stand up to reach something, don’t assume that they don’t need their chair.
People use wheelchairs for a lot of different reasons, and many people who can walk some absolutely depend on wheelchairs for mobility.
Disability is complicated, and personal. There are a lot of reasons that people use various types of adaptive equipment. (None of which are the business of strangers). Knowing one reason people use something doesn’t mean you know all the reasons, or that you are in a position to assume you know what’s going on with everyone you see using adaptive equipment.
tl;dr: Many wheelchair users can walk some. They still need their wheelchairs. Don’t assume that someone isn’t really disabled just because you see them walk or stand sometimes.
THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT.
Sometimes-users get ACTUAL VERBAL ABUSE on a regular basis for not doing one or the other all the time. Sometimes physical assault. So, like, SPREAD THIS SHIT and make sure people know that it is NOT OKAY to appoint yourself the arbiter of whether someone is disabled “enough” to need a wheelchair or other assistive device, or is “really” disabled at all.
Amen, hallelujah. Forever reblog.
And if you think your walking wheelchair user is “just lazy,” I dare you to navigate that same space in an assistance device. I have driven a motorized scooter at SDCC, and through Orlando’s Downtown Disney on a Saturday night. I have killed no one. I have developed migraines and wept uncontrollably.
Okay, but hold on for a second, because this is a serious fucking question.
Bernie is, of course, right – no one SHOULD be subject to criticism like that. But not being subject to intense scrutiny over our appearance is simply not an option for women in professional environments. It just isn’t.
And the thing is, this isn’t a small issue for women. This is an economic issue, it’s an investment-of-time issue, it’s a quality of life issue.
I’ll give you an example, and for this example, I’ll use myself and a mythical dude named Steve. This mythical dude named Steve would be almost exactly like my husband, who also worked at a bank, except not in the big-and-tall section where suits cost so much money you think they were hand-sewn by magical elves.
Mythical dude named Steve and I are both bankers for a bank. Let’s it call it Wagontrain. Just for funsies. We both make a nice round sum of money, say, 50K a year. (We’ll come back to that in a moment, but for the moment let’s assume we both make the same amount of money.)
Let’s even say that Steve and I spend the same amount of money on suits that I did every year, which, again, in my experience, isn’t going to be the case. But let’s just say we’re spending the same exact amount of money on suits.
Now, let’s say that in order to be considered a promotable employee, we both have to maintain a certain level of grooming. For Steve, that’s going to be getting a decent haircut, shaving, wearing deodorant – pretty basic stuff. And if he is decently groomed, even somewhat slightly slovenly, he’s likely to be judged on the quality of work he does.
But me? I’m going to have to – in a professional environment like that, and again in my direct and personal experience – in order to be taken seriously, I’m going to have to maintain a manicure ($15/weekly), get my hair professionally cut, styled, and dyed (when I worked in banking, the prevailing style all of the women got cost about $60 more than a man’s haircut, every six weeks), wear makeup (let’s be generous and call that $25 a month, but that’s pretty generous). I’ll also need to wear jewelry, so let’s give me a jewelry budget of $25 a month also, just for round numbers.
Oh. And let’s not forget shoes. Where Steve the banker will get two pairs of shoes, maybe three if he really likes them, I’ll need to continually buy new pairs of shoes. I don’t really want to, but I am going to be judged if I keep trying to wear the same pair of shoes all the time. Let’s say I only buy 5 pairs in a year, and he buys 3 every two years. Again for the sake of argument, let’s call every pair of shoes $50. So in one year he’s bought 1.5 pairs of shoes, so that’s $75, and I’ve bought $250 pairs of shoes, so I’ve spent $175 more than he has.
None of this is mythical, by the way. This is all based, again, on my personal experience. I’d get coached at Wagontrain for my appearance not being ‘promotable.’ I got sat down by an upper-level female manager and given a walkthrough on professional dress and appearance at the management levels, what they expected to be able to promote me to management
So at the end of that year, I’ll have gotten my hair done 8 times at $60 more than Steve’s haircuts, I’ll have gotten, let’s say 50 manicures (maybe I made a couple of those manicures last more than one week), I’ll have spent my jewelry and makeup budgets as we noted above, and I’ll have bought those shoes.
Wow! I’ve just spent FOUR PERCENT of my GROSS (not net) income on grooming, and more than that, four percent MORE than Steve, just to meet the basic grooming standards that we’re both expected to meet. The standards just happen to be way different and far more strenuous for me.
Now let’s walk that back a little bit more. Let’s assume that instead of us making the same amount, that I make 40K while Steve makes 50K. That’s about 80 percent of 50K - so pretty close to the national wage gap (for white women - remember that Black and Latina women will make significantly less, on average). My grooming standards haven’t changed for this job – we’re just adjusting for my gender. Suddenly that $2000 is 4.4 percent of my income, and again, 4.4 percent MORE than Steve has to spend.
But wait – there’s more. Women in professional environments spend an average of 55 minutes per day on their appearance. Assuming Steve spends 20 minutes getting showered, shaved, and putting on his suit, that’s 35 minutes more per work day.
At 22 working days per month, 12 months a year, 35 more minutes is… ((22 * 12) * 35)/60 = 154 hours of our lives, or, put another way, 6.41 days.
That doesn’t count the hours spent in the salon, the hours spent getting our nails done – and my time in a salon was nothing compared to the investment of time, pain, chemicals and care some of my Black coworkers have to put in, in order to maintain “professional” appearances. That’s something I don’t feel really qualified to speak further on, but I am completely aware that grooming regimens are far more strenuous and costly for women of color than they are for white women.
So, when that reporter is asking Bernie if he thinks it’s “fair” that news focuses more on Hillary’s hair than his, they’re not asking about an unimportant issue where women are concerned. They’re literally asking about an issue that eats 4 percent - at minimum - of our income, and literally almost two percent of the time out of every year we live. Women are judged on their appearance far more than men as compared to the job performance they actually put forth.
That’s an economic and quality-of-life issue, and it affects women at every socioeconomic level differently, but it definitely affects us all.
NEW YORK—Highlighting the man’s trustworthiness, even temperament, and overall decency, Wall Street broker Simon Hansen revealed to reporters Monday that his cocaine dealer, Tim Arndt, is easily the most upstanding person he knows. “Tim’s a real professional, no question—he’s the only person I know who’s always there for me when I need him—but what really sets him apart is what a good guy he is,” said the Goldman Sachs financial specialist, admitting that of all the colleagues, clients, and acquaintances he interacts with in Lower Manhattan, the man who regularly supplies him with narcotics is, by and large, the most genuine and unselfish person in his life. “I have some coworkers and a few buddies from other firms that I like hanging out with, but if I had to point to one person as the most honest and dependable in my life, I ...
I want an inverse spy flick. The spy is a woman. Her whole team is made up of diverse women. All the villains are women. There is only one man in the entire movie and he is a Strong Male Character who is like 25 and decently ripped and has a scene where he slowly steps out of a pool wearing speedos because he is Confident and In Control of His Sexuality. We see his ass when he has to tug down his pants to get at the knife strapped to his thigh. His nipples are always erect for no fucking reason.
They are undercover in a nightclub. In order to keep their cover from being blown, he has to kiss another man.
He knits to relieve stress and to keep his mind sharp. It is never discussed by any of the characters.
Someone asks him how he knows how to do Traditionally Feminine Thing. “I have four sisters,” he answers.
This is also how he knows how to fight while armed with nothing but a purse, a high heel shoe, and a can of hair spray. During this fight, he is, for no apparent reason, shirtless.
I do not know what makes people creepy. If I did, I would offer classes. However, I do spend a lot of time behind convention tables and I get great fans and normal fans and socially awkward fans…and occasional creeps.
The socially awkward fans are creeps much, much less often than you’d think. Creepy is not a function of being socially awkward, any more than it’s a function of being ugly. (I get ugly fans. I get hot fans. I get attractive fans, which is a category that really has very little to do with the first two. Again, if I knew what made that work, I would offer classes…) Socially awkward is just that–socially awkward, and I have been doing furry and comic cons long enough to know it a mile off, and, seriously…it’s fine. I have seen a lot of variations. There’s I-am-so-excited-I-am-talking-very-fast and that’s fine. There’s I-rehearsed-what-I-was-going-to-say-because-I-am-so-nervous and that’s fine, and when we go off script, which always happens immediately, they usually relax and deal. There’s I-am-just-really-bad-at-social-interactions, too. Yeah, sure, it gets a little painful when I have to deal with somebody with Asperger’s so bad that they can’t make eye-contact and apologize for everything immediately, but that’s only because I feel bad for the person who is so obviously distressed. (There was also the guy who would say something, and then run away. And then return a few minutes later. And say something. And run away. I felt terrible for him, I wanted to say “Stick around, it’s okay!” Otter suggested that he probably had a social anxiety issue and kept getting overloaded and having to go talk himself down, and she was very likely right.)
But these are minor concerns. I have had fans who have taken four years of commissioning me every year to be able to make eye contact with me when they do it, and y’know, it works out. We manage.
Creepy is something else.
If I could quantify it, I would. About all I can say is that there are levels of intimacy we achieve with each other as people over time, and when you try to jump the queue, that’s definitely creepy. (I think this is part of the problem with the big romantic gestures off the bat. You earn the right to those. Those are not a given.) If you have ever attempted to ingratiate yourself with someone by displaying knowledge of them gleaned from outside research–perhaps in some misguided belief that your friends know this, and I know this, ergo we must be friends!–oh sweet god creepy. (Remind me to tell you about the internet weirdo I inherited some time…)
It should probably go without saying that if you say you’re not trying to be creepy, you have just failed spectacularly.
There’s also something about eye contact and body language in there too, but bugger if I can nail it down for you, except that I know it when I see it. (Too much eye contact is as bad as too little, but probably all I’ve done now is make people who aren’t creepy in the first place worry about their eye contact patterns, so don’t sweat it.)
Please note that at no point in there did I say anything about being hot. Yes, pretty people do sometimes get away with more in this world, that’s the reality we live in and I will tell you no lies–but that’s not the case here. I have known many, many people that I did not find hot, and they were most of them good and decent people, and I have known people who were devastatingly attractive while also having been beaten with the ugly stick–I am dead serious in this, I swear by Ganesh and his rodent handmaidens–and I have known people who had reasonably symmetrical features and who probably took a good photo who were oh-my-god-do-not-want-run-away.
That’ s life. If people find you creepy rather than charming, do not assume it is because they are shallow and want someone who looks like a movie star. Trust me.
Creepy makes you unattractive. Not the other way around.
If you have never interacted with someone other than at their professional venues (artist alley, concert, book signing, whatever), that is not the same as being friends.
Don’t try to touch them beyond a handshake; don’t offer (or just try to give) back rubs or neck rubs. Don’t try to hug, or at least ask first– and in a way that is actually asking (”do you hug?”) rather than manipulative guilt-tripping (”awwww, don’t I get a hug? *pouty face*”). Don’t guilt trip if they aren’t willing or able to give you a level of attention you want (”don’t you like me?” “It’s because I’m [insert characteristic here], isn’t it?” No it’s because I DON’T KNOW YOU.)
Don’t refer to things you know or think you know about them if they haven’t either told you directly themselves or posted it publicly. Unless you’re discussing paid commission work, don’t ask musicians to sing about you or authors to write about you or artists to draw you. Don’t refer to their romantic life or their sex life, and for the love of all that’s holy don’t make references to insinuating yourself into it. (Note that I’m not saying “never ask anyone on a date,” although don’t ask people on a date if they’re at work, where they’re required to be nice. I’m just saying there’s a difference between “would you like to get coffee together sometime?” and “That’s a cute micron pen, it would look great on my bedroom floor.”)
All of this goes for online behavior, too. (Ironically I’ve met at least one person who was polite and pleasant in person but super creepy online. It takes all kinds.)
And this one is less obvious, but for some reason I see it happen a lot: some friendships have a genuinely established thing between friends where they fake-insult each other or tease each other. This is another kind of intimacy that grows naturally, over time, out of friends’ comfort level with each other (and often never happens; some friends just don’t do this.) If you aren’t close friends with someone with whom you’ve built up that kind of relationship over a long period of time, DO NOT DO THIS. Do not mock-insult authors/artists/musicians you follow on social media. Do not pretend-pout at them for having done something pretend-wrong that you are pretending so as to appear cute & funny. IT IS NOT CUTE AND IT IS NOT FUNNY. Now you have forced a professional to either grit their teeth and accept an insult from a stranger, or say “please do not say hurtful things to me” and appear to be a bad guy/oversensitive/whatever. This is SUPER CREEPY. Don’t do it.
“The talkativeness of women has been gauged in comparison not with men but with silence. Women have not been judged on the grounds of whether they talk more than men, but of whether they talk more than silent women.”
I agree with what she says - as it pertains to members of government. Government can't change hearts, but it can change it's policies, and how it enforces those policies. And how government acts will influence how people perceive the issues.
The Boston-based Black Lives Matter activists who intended to interrupt Hillary Clinton at a New Hampshire event last week have now released several videos of their post-event meeting with her. The conversation in two videos is mostly tame, with Clinton providing measured responses after BLM activists repeatedly confront her about her and her husband being "personally and politically responsible for policies" that dramatically increased incarceration rates of black Americans. The third is more revealing.
Bottom line: this is a win for both sides of the conversation. That BLM got 15 minutes of the candidate's time is a big coup in and of itself. They also got to make their case to Clinton in a far better situation so she could understand what they were driving at. Plus, they got to release the video—so they got to gain every bit as much visibility through the interaction as they would have been able to through a protest.
Hillary looks like a candidate in two of the videos. In a third, she looks a bit testy but more like a woman with the courage of her convictions. BLM activists successfully pushed her to the point of saying something that actually revealed some of her thinking on the racial dynamics at issue. Here's what Clinton said in part of that exchange:
"I don't believe you change hearts. You change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate. You're not gonna change every heart. You're not. But at the end of the day, we can do a whole lot to change some hearts and change some systems and create more opportunities for people who deserve to have them. ..."
BLM activists may not like all of what she said, but they certainly made their point. Guaranteed Clinton and her staff are now spending a solid chunk of time trying to figure out how to respond to and engage this vibrant movement in the same way that they have mulled how to engage Dream activists to try to win them over. She will need BLM activists every bit as much as she needs Dream activists to be excited about her candidacy should she win the nomination.
For partial transcripts of the interactions, head below the fold.
And that’s how public shootings and school shootings and shit like that happen. I’m not saying that this dude is not creepy as fuck, but this is not the way to handle this! He didn’t say anything mean (on purpose), and when you shut him down like that how the fuck do you think he’s going to react? He must know he’s somewhat creepy, but when a complete stranger that he adores tells him so vividly how creepy he is, that must wreck his world. I’m just saying I wouldn’t be surprised if he bought a gun (legally, but that’s a different issue) and went in to the store he knows you fucking work at. Just be nice to people fuck.
Alright, you know what? I don’t want to reblog this post. I want this post to die. And I have never once reblogged to reply to someone else’s comment on this post. But this one? This one I’m fucking gonna, because how. dare. you.
Are you seriously one of those slimy, inhuman grease traps of a human being who blame VICTIMS OF SHOOTINGS FOR THE FUCKING SHOOTINGS
Don’t you EVER come at me and try to tell me that I need to be responsible, personally responsible, for the mental satisfaction of the kind of monsters who would do something like that. Don’t you ever tell me I have to let myself be uncomfortable around people who LITERALLY STALK ME and put on a big smile and let them down gently because in your twisted little brain it is MY JOB TO KEEP THEM FROM KILLING PEOPLE
H O W F U C K I N G D A R E Y O U
YOU are the problem. YOU are the kind of person who justifies that kind of senseless violence by saying WELL IF SHE HAD JUST GIVEN HIM A CHANCE
IF SHE HAD JUST FUCKED HIM
IF HE HAD JUST ‘GOTTEN SOME’
HE WOULDN’T HAVE RAPED HER/SHOT THEM/DONE IT
Are you fucking proud of that? Are you proud that that’s the tiny drop you choose to drop into society’s bucket?
I don’t care if it ‘wrecked his world’ when he was called out on his socially unacceptable, disgusting behavior. I don’t caaaaaaaare
His actions are HIS actions. His actions are HIS fault
the next time I see a tragedy like the elliot rodger shooting on the news, I’m gonna think of all the vile comments from people online that say it all could have been avoided if the people he threatened and menaced would just relinquish their bodies and their comfort and their personal space for him, and I’m gonna s e e y o u r f a c e and I hope you fucking know it.
Don’t you ever talk to me. I am sick to my stomach over your fucking bullshit.
Apparently telling a creep that he’s being a creep is a brutally mean overreaction, whereas buying a gun to kill someone who refused to go out with you is just the expected response.
You should know that this is one of the only times I have wanted to attack someone ad hominem and I am resisting and I deserve an award because of that username.
Define a lot of men? Because the overwhelming amount of men accused of rape do not face charges, let alone jail time.
On average, 86% of the reported sexual assaults never went any further than the police
You are more likely to be hit by a comet than falsely accused of rape. You are also, as a man, more likely to be raped than be falsely accused of it.
There are well known people who have an extraordinary amount of people making claims about them but nothing happens. There are known people who, when convicted of rape, have no problems resuming their illustrious superstar careers.
I would wager there isn’t a victim out there who doesn’t feel disgusted when someone falsely claims they were raped. And it is absolutely awful when it does happen, those who are falsely accused are victims.
However, there is an overwhelming emphasis placed on false rape allegations which are statistically very unlikely to happen. The reason there is so much emphasis placed on this is so that people can deflect the conversation away. To deny victims a right to speak, to deny opportunities to talk about rape culture.
It’s frustrating for victims to hear shit like this, that rapists are so stigmatised in society when theyaresooftenprotected.
Why does this statistical anomaly dominate conversation about rape? The answer is quite simple, despite what you have asserted we do not live in an antirapist society. We live in a rape culture and silencing those who would speak out about it is a high priority.
Two things are clear in the latest CNN/ORC International poll of Democrats and Democratic leaners: 1) Hillary still leads; and 2) Bernie has significantly cut into that lead over the last several months. From Clinton's high water mark of 69 percent to Bernie's five percent in April (a 64-point deficit) to Bernie now trailing Clinton by 21 points, this race gets tighter every month.
Overall, more Democrats say Clinton is the best person to handle the economy (Clinton 46 percent/Sanders 24 percent), race relations (Clinton 49/Sanders 25), foreign policy (Clinton 61/Biden 20/Sanders 10), and the income gap between rich and poor (Clinton 42/Sanders 33).
Ricardo Aca came from Mexico to the U.S. with his family when he was 14 and now works in a restaurant at Trump Hotel in Manhattan.
Super Opinionated.
The Boston-based Black Lives Matter activists who intended to interrupt Hillary Clinton at a New Hampshire event last week have now released several videos of their post-event meeting with her. The conversation in two videos is mostly tame, with Clinton providing measured responses after BLM activists repeatedly confront her about her and her husband being "personally and politically responsible for policies" that dramatically increased incarceration rates of black Americans. The third is more revealing.
