Michelle Wolf speaks truth the DC media doesn’t want to hear

Michelle Wolf

Last night was the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, or as I prefer to think of it, the “saturnalia of incestuous ingratiation that does little to instill confidence in the public that the press isn’t ensorcelled by the powerful”. (Thank you, The Newsroom.) The only thing that ever came to mind when I heard the name was Stephen Colbert’s legendary shellacking of George W. Bush’s presidency and the mainstream media’s complicity, and how pricked that same media felt afterwards – comedians speaking truth to power is all fine and dandy, but how dare he do it to them?

Yesterday saw history repeat itself: Michelle Wolf, whom I know as an occasional correspondent on The Daily Show, took the stage and gave the Trump administration and its apologists, as well as the media that chose to elevate him rather than push back when it mattered in 2015–16, the talking-to they deserved. So naturally, the DC media is rounding on her, because the only comedy they apparently approve of is the kind that favors polite servility.

Adam Conover of Adam Ruins Everything is neither polite nor servile, and he takes to The New York Times to lay out some truth.

[I]n her performance at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night in Washington, Michelle Wolf did exactly what a great comic is supposed to do. She made the crowd of assembled journalists, politicians and guests laugh; she made them squirm; and she made them gasp in astonishment (and yes, a little delight) when a sharp sliver of the truth cut a little closer to the bone than they were expecting.

In other words, she killed.

Yet in return for her excellence, Ms. Wolf was criticized not just by partisan defenders of the president, but by members of the press, too. Journalists called Ms. Wolf’s set “offensive,” “deplorable” and “a debacle.” Margaret Talev, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, who booked the comedian to perform, released a statement on Sunday night that said “unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit” of the group’s mission.

There is no president of the Comedians’ Association, and though Ms. Wolf and I know each other professionally, I’m not her spokesman. But at risk of speaking out of turn, I’d like to offer this official response from America’s comics: If you don’t want comedy, don’t hire us.

[…]

Contrary to what several prominent journalists said, the transcript shows that Michelle Wolf did not make a single joke at the expense of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s physical appearance. Rather, she did something much worse in the eyes of those assembled: She ridiculed the White House press secretary’s mendacity, hypocrisy and complicity. And in a searing, brutally funny segment, she criticized the willingness of the press to play along:

“You guys are obsessed with Trump. Did you used to date him? Because you pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you. He couldn’t sell steaks or vodka or water or college or ties or Eric, but he has helped you. He’s helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster, and now you’re profiting off of him. And if you’re gonna profit off of Trump, you should at least give him some money because he doesn’t have any.”

No wonder the crowd seemed so uncomfortable.

It amuses me how another frequent criticism of Wolf and Colbert’s style of tell-it-to-their-faces humor is that it generates few laughs from those present. Wolf knew full well that the people worth impressing weren’t the stooges in the room, but the colossally larger audience watching at home. I didn’t even find her routine all that funny, but it was made all the more hilarious by the reactions she got from the stilted crowd, especially when she tore into Sarah Huckabee Sanders, noted professional liar for the (alleged) sexual-assaulter-in-chief.

Hi. Sarah Huckabee Sanders lies to the press on Donald Trump's behalf for a living. It's not theoretically possible to say something to or about her that is too mean. If Michelle Wolf never told a joke and just spent 20 minutes trying to make her cry, it would have been fine.

— Steve Shives (@steve_shives) April 30, 2018

When did it become okay to be more offended by what someone with no power says than by what someone with power does?

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 29, 2018

Watch Wolf’s full remarks below:

This Week in Puppycide #38

Here’s a roundup of recent headlines of police shootings involving pets and other animals.

Well, the recent headline. And it wasn’t a shooting, mercifully.

• Averted | Ambridge, PA (04/04/18): Police responding to a call about a loose dog that bit someone attempt to use a stun gun and a beanbag shotgun rounds to subdue the “pit bull”. The owner eventually captures the dog and agrees to have it euthanized, and now faces charges over the attack.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

If you know of any similar stories I haven’t mentioned, you can leave them in the comments or send them in.

Not sure what those colored labels mean? See my puppycide ruling explainer.

Daily Links #123: Bill Cosby found guilty

Bill Cosby

• Bill Cosby ^[pictured]: Guilty on all counts of sexual assault. At his age, it’s effectively a life sentence. Good riddance.

• In totally unsurprising news, the Toronto van murderer is affiliated with women-hating incels.

• Here’s an TV show idea: Disgraced accused sexual predator Charlie Rose interviews other disgraced sexual predators like Matt Lauer and Louis CK about #MeToo. I’m sorry to say that’s not a joke.

• Not a repeat: Right-wingers triggered by NRA boycott destroy their own expensive property to own the libs, clearly need more safe spaces.

• Finally, NRA dude is sad that the unarmed hero who stopped the Waffle House shooter didn’t have a gun to shoot the gunman dead with instead.
  (via @fark)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Louisiana GOP sacrifices bestiality law on altar of homophobia

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: The modern Republican Party.

In Louisiana, a proposal to strengthen the law against bestiality is facing unexpected opposition from conservative lawmakers who see it as an underhanded move to strike the state’s unconstitutional ban on sodomy.

[…]

“This bill was written because the far left wants to undermine our other laws that protect family and traditional values that the people of Louisiana hold dear,” said Sen. Ryan Gatti, a Republican who was one of 10 senators to vote against the bill.

Where to even begin …?

The thing is, they could have made the plausible argument that the state already has a bestiality ban on the books and that the party of Small Government and Fiscal Responsibility and whatnot is opposed to expanding a legal definition that’s already sufficient. They could even have argued – and I’d agree – that it’s a waste of the legislature’s time and taxpayer money to pass laws to cover problems that are so rare as to be practically nonexistent. It would still have been evident what their end goal is, but at least it might have let them save face.

But they just had to stick to their anti-gay guns, even at the cost of being publicly labeled as the party that prefers letting humans have sex with animals over allowing consenting adults of the same gender – and species – to get it on. Particularly given that the anti-sodomy law is blatantly unconstitutional and is one court challenge away from being stuck down anyway.

(via Joe.My.God.)

New EPA rule would limit science in policymaking

Scott Pruitt

Scott Pruitt is becoming one of the most dangerous and destructive members of Trump’s cabinet, and his latest move is right on par:

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new regulation Tuesday that would restrict the kinds of scientific studies the agency can use when it develops policies, a move critics say will permanently weaken the agency’s ability to protect public health.

Under the measure, the E.P.A. will require that the underlying data for all scientific studies used by the agency to formulate air and water regulations be publicly available. That would sharply limit the number of studies available for consideration because much research relies on confidential health data from study subjects.

Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, announced the proposed regulation this afternoon at agency headquarters, flanked by Republican lawmakers who sponsored legislation designed to achieve the same ends as the new regulation.

[…]

The new regulation means that some of the most important research of the past decades — for example, studies linking air pollution to premature deaths and measuring human exposure to pesticides — would not be available to policymakers if scientists were unwilling to break the confidentiality agreements they struck with study subjects in order to collect sensitive personal information.

Because if there’s one thing the US – or anyone – needs right now, it’s less science in policy-making. The government’s just been making too much sense these days; better curb that.

Is there a need to point out how there’s zero valid justification for this? Requiring that the agency only use studies built on publicly available data only makes sense if you believe confidential data is somehow unreliable – if all ’em researchers are part of a cabal funded by Big Science to falsify the numbers in order to sway legislators to vote for cleaner air and oceans under false pretenses. (Don’t expect climate conspiracists to make sense.)

Alternatively, it also makes sense if your goal is to discredit science and kneecap a federal agency that tries, with increasing futility, to control how much poison corporations can pump into our environment, all in an effort to make your rich CEO friends more money. But I’m sure that’s just crazy-talk.

(via @adamconover)

A rocket test with a sense of humor

Step 1: Click play. Step 2: Turn your volume down, at least a little. Step 3: Turn on subtitles.

I know it’s designed and built by some incredibly smart people, but it still amazes me that a machine can spit out that much hellfire for that long without disintegrating. Human engineering is a beautiful thing.

(via @BadAstronomer)

Daily Links #122: Utah police kill unarmed Black man

Elijah James Smith

• Whatever else Elijah James Smith ^[pictured] may have done, the fact remains that Utah police shot an unarmed Black man dead for obeying their order to remove his hands from his pockets.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Free speech advocates warned FOSTA/SESTA would stifle free speech online. Now that the bills are law, they’re … stifling free speech online.

• Meanwhile, the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality rules comes into effect today. Any changes will be gradual, and that’s if the multifaceted efforts to restore the old rules on state and federal levels don’t succeed first.

• Actual religious persecution: Russian government continues its crackdown on Jehovah’s Witnesses, forcing thousands to flee abroad or go into hiding.

• A Minnesota court just ruled that basically everyone on Twitter is now a stalker.
  (via @ScottGreenfield)

• Finally, James Comey’s new book is exactly what you expect from the memoir of the former director of the FBI. That’s not a compliment.
  (via @cjciaramella; retweet by @Popehat)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

This Week in Puppycide #37

Here’s a roundup of recent headlines of police shootings involving pets and other animals.

• Averted | Indianapolis, IN (04/16/18): Police use a taser to subdue a stray dog that attacked a young girl and an officer without further bloodshed. Textbook police response, more like it please.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

• Unjustified | Prichard, AL (04/19/18): State trooper pursuing a suspect is attacked and bitten by the suspect’s “pit bull”, which he promptly shoots dead. Funny; if the suspect had bitten him, the trooper would likely have used his club, mace, or martial training to subdue him rather than kill him immediately.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

If you know of any similar stories I haven’t mentioned, you can leave them in the comments or send them in.

Not sure what those colored labels mean? See my puppycide ruling explainer.

Daily Links #121: Trump’s trans military ban blocked yet again

Will you look at that: 500 posts. Do I win something?

• Trump’s trans military ban just keeps getting, er, banned by federal courts.
  (via @fark)

• The Supreme Court just made it a little harder for the Trump administration to deport immigrants.
  (via @Popehat)

• What white people can learn from the Starbucks arrests; or, the importance of recognizing, and fighting against, implicit bias.

• You’d think a professional defender of the Catholic Church’s handling of child-diddling priests would know better than to weigh in on the David Silverman affair. (Yes, of course it’s Bill Donohue.)

• Finally, Ed Brayton presents: Eight Rules for Understanding Our Teenage President.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

US legislatures haven’t passed one anti-LGBTQ bill this year

Every few weeks or so comes the news that some state Republican legislator has introduced a bill that would chip away at some aspect of LGBTQ rights – ban same-sex adoptions, strip away workplace anti-discrimination protections, block trans people from using the proper restroom, and so on. Their number seems to have increased visibly since Trump took office, as various anti-gay factions – okay, it’s mostly evangelical Christians – feel emboldened. This can seem rather disheartening.

But for those who’ve been following the course of these bills through state legislatures, the reality is stark, and in a good way: Not a single one of these discriminatory bills has been enacted this year.

In the thick of this year's legislative sessions, LGBT activists were tracking about 120 proposed bills that they viewed as threats to their civil rights. Not one of them has been enacted as many sessions now wind down; only two remain under serious consideration.

A key factor in the shift: In the Republican-led states where these types of bills surface, moderate GOP lawmakers and business leaders are increasingly wary of losing conventions, sporting events and corporate headquarters.

North Carolina, Indiana and Arizona were among the states that faced similar backlash in recent years over such legislation.

"Being anti-equality is not considered good politics anymore," said legislative specialist Cathryn Oakley of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT rights organization.

It’s easy to look at the crop of regressives currently in charge of the federal and many state governments, as well as the hordes of howling yahoos who put them there, and feel that the country has taken a massive step back. But the illusion is dispelled when you look at the actual numbers: Being anti-gay, or even perceived as anti-gay, is becoming prohibitively costly for politicians, in both money and votes. And as those are the only things most politicians pay any attention to, most are smart enough not to jeopardize their capital by going against the public tide. Mind you, 2018 is still young, and there may well be some asshat somewhere who manages to get a bigoted piece of legislation signed into law. But as things stand, they’ll always be in the minority, and it’s not usually long before a court strikes such laws down, anyway.

It’s always good to be reminded that the regressives are losing. Of course, that’s all the more reason to keep at it.

(via Joe.My.God.)

This Week in Puppycide #36

Here’s a roundup of recent headlines of police shootings involving pets and other animals.

• Possibly Justified | Saskatoon, SK, CA (04/05/18): Police respond to a call about an aggressive dog, find a brown mastiff allegedly attacking several people inside a home, and unsuccessfully try to stop the dog with a taser before shooting it dead. No further information is available.
  (via Dogs Shot by Canadian Police | Facebook)

• Unjustified | Heavener, OK (04/07/18): Police responding to a report about loose aggressive dogs find two pit bulls and shoot both, injuring one and killing the other. The latter dog is left to bleed for half an hour before an officer finally execute it. Witness reports are conflicting; one says the dogs killed her cat and were dangerous, whilst others, along with the owners, say the dogs weren’t aggressive. The cops didn’t attempt to use nonlethal means.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

• Possibly Justified | Carbondale, PA (04/09/18): Police respond to call about a loose pit bull that mauled another dog, use bean bag rounds and a stun gun until it flees. Same dog is later found allegedly charging a group of children, at which point the cops shoot it dead.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

• Possibly Justified | Boston, MA (04/11/18): Police at a crime scene shoot a loose “pit bull ‘type’” dog that bit someone and allegedly attacked them. The owner later has the dog euthanized when she cannot afford vet care.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

• Unjustified | Plattsburgh, NY (04/12/18): Officer responds to call about a “dangerous stray dog” in someone’s yard, spends two hours trying to contact animal control groups (who aren’t available) and locate the owner (who can’t be found), then shoots the dog dead. Neighbors said the dog “seemed somewhat aggressive towards men”, but it was being petted by a woman the whole time. One witness says the dog was just “confused” and possibly thought the neighbor’s house was his home.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

• Attempted | Gulfport, MS (04/13/18): Man calls an ambulance for his unconscious mother. Police consider the call “suspicious” and rush into the home, ignoring “beware of dog” sign, and immediately shoot his pet several times in the head even as he was running after it to restrain it. Dog survives but may lose an eye. Police say it’s the owner’s fault and that he’ll pay the vet bill.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

If you know of any similar stories I haven’t mentioned, you can leave them in the comments or send them in.

Not sure what those colored labels mean? See my puppycide ruling explainer.

American Atheists fires David Silverman over sex assault claims

David Silverman

When news broke just a few days ago that American Atheists, the largest godless advocacy group in the US, had suspended their president and spokesman David Silverman over as-of-then unrevealed allegations, we knew something big was going down. And now, the bombshell has detonated, as yet another luminary of the organized atheist movement stands accused of sexual misconduct.

David Silverman, a firebrand atheist with a knack for generating publicity for his cause, has been abruptly fired as president of American Atheists, one of the leading secular organizations in the US.

The group’s board held an emergency meeting on Thursday evening and unanimously voted to fire 51-year-old Silverman, based on explosive written allegations of sexual assault and undisclosed conflicts of interest, BuzzFeed News has learned.

“Last night, the American Atheists Board of Directors voted to terminate David Silverman as President of American Atheists,” the group said in a statement released on Friday. The board made its decision after reviewing “allegations raised regarding Mr. Silverman’s conduct,” the statement said. The board also said it intends to cooperate with any future investigations.

Go read the accusations. They’re damning. For his part, Silverman, though his lawyer, denies any wrongdoing and says the encounters were consensual. Bizarrely, his lawyer also mentions that Silverman was in an open marriage at the time the incidents allegedly took place, as if that were some sort of defense. He does realize that having your partner’s consent to fool around with other people doesn’t give you permission to force sex upon those people against their will, right?

Good on the accusers for bravely coming forward, even though it’ll inevitably trigger an absurd shitstorm of hateful idiocy from large swathes of the movement. Good also on the board of American Atheists for taking all the right measures – suspending Silverman pending an internal investigation into his possible alleged conflicts, and then canning him without delay once they heard the far worse sexual misconduct accusations. That’s exactly how you want an organization to respond to such a situation. (Of course, I’m assuming here that they weren’t aware of the alleged incidents until recently.)

Incidentally, this report was published by the same outlet, BuzzFeed News, that broke the Lawrence Krauss scandal. Defenders and apologists were quick to come out of the woodwork to attack the Krauss story for being published by an “unreliable” outlet – which makes no sense, given that BuzzFeed’s news division has one of the finest investigative teams in the business and has broken numerous heavy-hitting stories in the last few years. Expect the same ridiculous and empty attacks this time around as well.

As a sidenote, the irony – or is it poetic justice? – that Silverman’s most famous photo (above) comes from his appearance on a TV show hosted by a man who was also fired for sexual misconduct is not lost on me.

(via @steve_shives)

Daily Links #120: Trump signs FOSTA/SESTA into law

• Trump signs terrible, counterproductive, sex-worker-endangering, free-speech-chilling pseudo-anti-sex-trafficking bill FOSTA/SESTA into law.

• Speaking of, this comes after the US government seized Backpage.com, undermining their own arguments that they needed FOSTA/SESTA do so. Bonus: After years crusading against the site for supposedly harboring sex traffickers, none of the litany of charges against Backpage executives contain anything about sex trafficking.

• Hawaii becomes seventh state to legalize doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.
  (via Secular Student Alliance | Facebook)

• “Values voters” indeed: White evangelical support for Trump has increased though the Stormy Daniels scandal.

• On the other end of the spectrum, credit where it’s due: Texas-based evangelical church takes a leaf out of John Oliver’s book and wipes out over $10.5 million in medical debt.

• Finally, Iceland government refuses to legalize speech that insults foreign leaders.
  (via @sarahemclaugh; retweet by @Popehat)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Time (in a nutshell)

I’m really loving these “In a Nutshell” videos by Kurzgesagt. Here’s their latest, a brief history of, well, everything:

Puts our teeny selves in perspective, doesn’t it?

(via Friendly Atheist)

Survey: US Catholic church attendance at all-time low

We can’t call Catholicism good and done quite yet, at least in the US, but if these Gallup numbers are anything to judge by, the end will one day be nigh:

It’s kind of amazing how quick the decline has been amongst younger generations. It’s almost as though the Church had nothing to offer anyone who wasn’t already indoctrinated.

(via Joe.My.God.)

Feds raid Trump personal attorney’s office: What we know

Michael Cohen

Big news, in case you somehow haven’t heard: Acting on a tip from Special Counsel Mueller, the FBI has raided the law office and hotel room of Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Before you get too worked up one way or another, head right over to actual lawyer Ken “Popehat” White’s breakdown of what this does (and doesn’t) mean, as far as we can tell this early on. In short: Whilst we don’t know what exactly they were looking for, we can glean that the authorities felt the evidence of criminality was solid enough to warrant batting aside Trump and Cohen’s attorney-client confidentiality. That’s big. As White puts it:

Recently I've been listening to the Podcast "Slow Burn," about Watergate. There's a fascinating theme throughout it: when you're living a historical event, how do you know? How can you tell when a development is a Big Deal?

This is a big deal.

Keep in mind that White isn’t the kind to overstate things.

Trump, for his part, is freaking out. That can only be good.

CORRECTION (04/10/18 @ 4:47 PM ET): The first line originally read “As part of the Mueller probe”, which is inaccurate. Fixed.

Housekeeping: A slight and probably unnoticeable change of pace

So one day into my writing hiatus and I realized the issues with my novel were more fundamental than could be fixed with simple rewrites. Long story short, I’m scrapping the whole thing – all 160,000 words, nearly a combined decade’s work – and starting from scratch. The ideas are already coming together faster than they’ve been in a long time, so I think it’s the right call.

Concerning the ol’ blag, as much as I’ve enjoyed the little break, I think I’m gonna get back into things, but at a slower pace than before. I was spending so many hours of my day reading, sorting, researching and writing for this blog it had become an outright chore. So from now on, I’ll forego blogging about things I feel should be covered here and focus instead on things I want to write about. That means less output overall, but also less feeling like I’m on a deadline to get stories out before the next news cycle.

So, mini-hiatus over, and new posts will come when they come. Though to be frank, considering I went for days without posting at times, there shouldn’t be too much of a difference.

John Oliver takes on “crisis pregnancy centers”

Few things stick in my craw as much as the predatory charlatanism of anti-choice zealots who set up fake abortion clinics to deceive and bully women into keeping a pregnancy they want to terminate. We’ve seen some good smackdowns of these “crisis pregnancy centers”, such as from Sam Bee and Patton Oswalt, and now John Oliver lays down the truth in his latest episode, with a characteristically theatrical finish:

Only in America can religious vultures set up fake medical clinics, staff them with actors pretending to be qualified physicians, and blatantly lie to desperate people who come to them in need of medical assistance or guidance, and not only be allowed to do so under the law but even receive taxpayer funding for it. It’s a crowning achievement of mendacious bullshit. It’s also a clear indicator of Christianity’s privileged position in the US that so few people know or care about these centers – imagine the reaction if some other group (say, Muslims) tried to pull the same stunt.

The Boston Globe saw it all coming

The Globe’s editorial board published this “parody” front page back in April 2016:

I’d propose the paper rebrand itself as the Daily Prophet, but that might incur stern legal letters from JK Rowling’s attorneys.

(via @fark)

This Week in Puppycide #35

Here’s a roundup of recent headlines of police shootings involving pets and other animals.

• Unjustified | Tallahassee, FL (03/31/18): Officer responds to “verbal disturbance” call and shoots a family’s elderly Rottweiler in its yard; the dog is later euthanized due to its injuries. The cop and police department claim the dog “charged towards” him, but the family says the old dog had hip dysplasia and couldn’t “charge” anyone.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

• Attempted | Mobile, AL (04/05/18): Police responding to a drug call are “forced to shoot” a dog that allegedly attacked them whilst arresting suspects. The dog’s ownership is unclear, but neighbors defended it, calling the shooting unjustified. The dog is receiving medical care.
  (via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

If you know of any similar stories I haven’t mentioned, you can leave them in the comments or send them in.

Not sure what those colored labels mean? See my puppycide ruling explainer.

Fox News’s Hume on media’s treatment of Trump vs. Obama

Brit Hume

Here I am, quite enjoying my little quasi-hiatus, when some dunce on TV says something that just needs to be shared and laughed at. Take it away, Fox News guest Brit Hume:

President Obama enjoyed a certain protected status because he was African-American and because he was a Democrat and a liberal. Those things do not normally apply to Republicans, particularly Republicans so universally loathed among most of our nation's news media as this president is, so he doesn't get the same kind of treatment.

Hey, Hume, you want to know why Republicans are “so universally loathed”? It’s because they just keep saying stupid shit like this. Obama was “protected” in the sense that he had charisma, intelligence, poise and at least basic knowledge of whatever matter was being discussed, all of which your boy Trump famously and flamboyantly lacks.

To be fair, Hume said this on Tucker Carlson’s show, where adhesion to reality (alongside basic sense and decency) isn’t a requirement.