Rush Limbaugh weighed in today on the controversy over “bathroom bills” in a number of states that have been decried as anti-trans. . . .
On the Revocation of White Privilege in North Korea
I thought about my mother’s words a few days ago while watching video of 21-year-old Otto Warmbier, another man from Ohio who last week was convicted of subversion for stealing a propaganda banner in North Korea, and sentenced to 15 years hard labor. Just as in Fay’s case, I was shocked by the severity of the punishment. I’ve tried to imagine spending a decade and a half performing what the North Korean state deems hard labor and I can’t. But I’m not 11 anymore, and now, my mother’s callous reaction to Micahel Fay’s sentence is my reaction to another young white man who went to an Asian country and violated their laws, and learned that the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad.
The candidate demonizes Muslims while pandering to vets.
Whether Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination, no one can tell—but what’s already clear is that he’s brought fascism back into the mainstream. At his rallies, Trump promises to make America great again by pouring scorn on women, Mexicans, African Americans, Asians, immigrants, LGBT people, the disabled, his opponents, and reporters who dare to criticize him. Every time he comes up with a new insult, his supporters whoop and cheer, seemingly confident in the belief that they are not now, nor would they ever become, one of his targets. Lately, he has taken to picking out individual protesters—a Black Lives Matter activist, a Muslim woman, a Sikh man—and offering them up to the jeering crowd, before having security escort them out.
The message is unmistakable: There is no room at these gatherings for anyone who isn’t white and Christian. A Trump rally is nothing more than a hate-in.
While the folks who illegally occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge claimed to want to overthrow the tyranny of the federal government, they seemed quite willing to leave the tyranny of patriarchy unquestioned. Their actions and organization can teach us a lot about how patriarchy works.
From the beginning, the men who occupied the refuge engaged in macho posturing with their display of guns and their blatant disregard for the law, the environment and the communities around the refuge. These are not successful men as traditional masculinity requires them to be. Many of them don’t hold down regular jobs. Several have declared bankruptcy. Many have criminal records, from felony driving with a suspended license to second degree murder. Most left their families elsewhere in order to parade around with guns and wreak havoc on a remote wildlife refuge. They have felt powerless in their struggles with the federal government.
March on Washington
Always Question Authority 