{"id":26955,"date":"2023-02-15T15:51:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T23:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=26955"},"modified":"2023-02-16T11:48:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T19:48:05","slug":"link-farm-and-open-thread-staircase-cat-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=26955","title":{"rendered":"Link Farm and Open Thread, Staircase Cat Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Grover Cleveland’s Sex Scandal: The Most Despicable in American Political History<\/a>
    Cleveland almost certainly raped a woman, then had her involuntarily consigned to an asylum. What a scumbag. I really regret the nice things I’ve been saying about Cleveland for decades.<\/li>\n
  2. A Twitter thread with highlights from Judge Walker’s injunction against the higher ed provisions of Florida’s HB 7 (aka the Stop WOKE Act).<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Opinion: Dr. Nasser ‘Nas’ Mohamed sought asylum in the US after coming out as gay. Here’s what he wants people to know about Qatar | CNN<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Against Transphobic “Moral Flounce” Behavior -Kate Manne<\/a>
    “And while cis girls are refused abortion care, even in the case of a ten year-old girl currently carrying her rapist\u2019s fetus in Ohio, trans girls (among others) face potential removal from their families by the state if they receive trans-affirming care in Texas. In all of these cases, there is a common plight: a basic refusal to recognize that somebody\u2019s body is for them and nobody else, and they should have moral jurisdiction over what it does, how it functions, and what it looks like, wherever possible.”<\/li>\n
  5. The Exceptionally American Problem of Rising Roadway Deaths – The New York Times<\/a> (and an alternate link<\/a>)
    There are proven solutions that could keep us from needlessly killing pedestrians and cyclists. But (although the article doesn’t discuss this) it’s important that this be a below-the-radar issue. Because the more this becomes a culture war issue, the more Republicans will resist simple, lifesaving policies that we know work.<\/li>\n
  6. The Stripper\u2019s Dilemma \u2014 Queer Majority<\/a>“
    Most authorities on the matter tend to agree that strippers in the United States should be considered employees, but clubs, for a variety of reasons, often mislead dancers into thinking the decision is up to them. On the one hand, it seems that strippers would significantly benefit from proper classification; however, a closer examination reveals that the question of whether or not they should fight for their labor rights is more complex than it seems.”<\/li>\n
  7. The Upside Down Debate on Broad Sanctions<\/a>
    “Sanctions advocates are given the benefit of the doubt that their preferred coercive measures are beneficial until it can be proven that they are not, but the burden of proof should always be on those supporting economic warfare against an entire population.”<\/li>\n
  8. This Couple Died by Suicide After the DEA Shut Down Their Pain Doctor<\/a>
    “What the DEA is essentially doing is telling a diabetic who’s been on insulin for 20 years that they no longer need insulin and they should be cured.”<\/li>\n
  9. Anti-Trans \u201cGrooming\u201d and \u201cSocial Contagion\u201d Claims Explained | by Julia Serano | Nov, 2022 | Medium<\/a>
    “What this essay is about is why, despite an infinite number of potential negativity-bias-driven explanations for our existence, today\u2019s anti-trans movements seem to have coalesced around two main imagined causes of transness: \u201csocial contagion\u201d and \u201cgrooming.\u201d While these may seem on the surface to be very different claims, anti-trans (and increasingly anti-LGBTQ+) campaigners tend to invoke them interchangeably. Here, I will show that they are essentially the same charge.”<\/li>\n
  10. It\u2019s Not Filter Bubbles That Are Driving Us Apart – The Atlantic<\/a>
    “…It is not isolation from opposing views that drives polarization but precisely the fact that digital media bring us to interact outside our local bubble.” … “Our main problem, as T\u00f6rnberg conceives it, is not that we spend too long listening to the comforting voices on our own side, but rather that we\u2019re too attentive to the loudest, most enraged, and most unhinged voices on the other side.” Of course, this raises the question of what to make of it when one of those “loudest… most unhinged voices” is ex-President Trump’s.<\/li>\n
  11. Against Deference Politics: Or, The Importance Of Building Shit<\/a>
    “Deference politics” meaning ” It\u2019s the call to ‘listen to the most affected’ and ‘center the most marginalized’ and ‘stay in your lane.'” I have some criticisms (and left a comment about some of them), but still found this interesting.<\/li>\n
  12. When will the US learn that sanctions don’t solve its problems? – Responsible Statecraft<\/a>
    “…The link between sanctions and regime change is tenuous and sanctions often seem to prolong the worst dictatorships, not overturn them.”<\/li>\n
  13. Gay and Tonic suggests a lovely, sad and joyful whiskey commercial\/short film<\/a> from abroad that we should watch, and I heartily agree. It’s about 3 minutes long.<\/li>\n
  14. I wrote a long twitter thread about “The Embrace<\/a>,” a new, and enormous, public sculpture in Boston.<\/li>\n
  15. How Rod Dreher Caused an International Scandal in Eastern Europe – The Bulwark<\/a>
    An extremely prominent American Conservative is comfortable shilling for an anti-Democratic regime, even though it makes him look ridiculous.<\/li>\n
  16. Hiltzik: The stupid and dishonest idea of raising the Social Security retirement age is back – Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/li>\n
  17. The Curious History of Anthony Johnson: From Captive African to Right-wing Talking Point<\/a>
    The existence of a freeman (sort of) and slaveowner from Africa in the 1600s has captivated racism-denying conservatives.<\/li>\n
  18. James O\u2019Keefe \u2018Outright Cruel\u2019 to Project Veritas Employees: Internal Memo<\/a>
    I think being cruel is bad, but if you think being cruel is bad, why work for Project Veritas? Seems hypocritical. Also, apparently he’s been spending lots of Veritas’ money on his musical theater projects, which is honestly the only likable thing I’ve ever heard about James O’Keefe.<\/li>\n
  19. THE WORST THING WE READ THIS WEEK: Why Is the New York Times So Obsessed With Trans Kids? \u2013 Popula<\/a>
    Very good article. It also provides some context for that     open letter from 180+ New York Times contributors<\/a> objecting to their constant (and often front page) anti-trans coverage.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n

    Photos by Gabriella Clare Marino – check out her Unsplash page <\/a>and her Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Grover Cleveland’s Sex Scandal: The Most Despicable in American Political HistoryCleveland almost certainly raped a woman, then had her involuntarily consigned to an asylum. What a scumbag. I really regret the nice things I’ve been saying about Cleveland for decades. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-link-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26955"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27031,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26955\/revisions\/27031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}