Friday, 31 August 2018
Aretha Franklin honored at Buckingham Palace by British Army during Changing of the Guard
Ian M. Smith, Homeland Security staffer tied to white supremacists, was in White House policy meetings with Stephen Miller
In-N-Out donates $25,000 to California Republican Party, under Trump. There's a boycott.
Good kit for starting out with Raspberry Pi
I've been doing a lot of work with the Raspberry Pi lately for a book my daughter and I are writing, and I'm really liking the inexpensive Raspberry Pi Zero W. It's a nifty little Linux computer that comes with built in WiFi & Bluetooth. This $24 kit comes with a couple of important adapters for the Pi W: a MiniHDMI-to-HDMI adapter and a MicroUSB-to-USB adapter. You will also need an SD card, and HDMI monitor, and a keyboard/mouse. Once you have these, you are minutes away from having a nice little computer setup.
DO NOT travel to North Korea, what's left of the U.S. State Dept. warns Americans
TSA + CBP test new facial recognition tech & computed tomography scanners at LAX
Fortnite Battle Royale and "The Mystery of the Weird Cube"
Speculating about what the hell is actually happening to the in-game universe, and odd backstory, is a Fortnite fan favorite activity.
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RIP The Village Voice
My 12 y-o niece really loves Maxine the corgi
Maxine seems to represent the breed standard well.
Thanks, Lana.
Racist robocalls from an Idaho Neo-nazi group plague Floridians
Idaho Nazis. I hate Idaho Nazis.
These assholes used a mocking dialect and jungle noises while impersonating the Florida democratic candidate for governor, Andrew Gillum, in robocalls made to voters in Tallahassee.
Entire thing claims to be funded by some Nazis in Idaho.
Robocalls against Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum that say they were paid for by a neo-Nazi group in Idaho are going out to voters in Tallahassee.
The automated calls are narrated by someone pretending to be Gillum and using an exaggerated minstrel dialect with jungle noises in the background. The calls end with a disclaimer that they were funded by The Road to Power, an anti-Semitic, white supremacist website and podcast linked to Scott Rhodes of Sandpoint, Idaho.
According to the Des Moines Register, a sister paper of the Tallahassee Democrat, the group has been linked to other robocall campaigns in Charlottesville, Virginia, Oregon and California.
Terry Kant-Rauch, a Tallahassee realtor, received one of the robocalls this morning in the voice mail of her cell phone. Kant-Rauch, a Democrat who happens to have a biracial daughter, became emotional after hearing it, she said.
“Campaign on the merits,” she said, “not on the color of his skin.”
Geoff Burgan, communications director for Gillum's campaign, responded by saying, "This is reprehensible — and could only have come from someone with intentions to fuel hatred and seek publicity. Please don’t give it undeserved attention."
The Democrat chose not to publish the audio because of its blatantly racist and offensive content. The call came from a phone number in Tallahassee with a 222 prefix.
Japanese Whisky: beautiful book about the best booze east of Glen Garioch
...but haven't wanted to commit to more expensive or unusual options. Now I feel I know where to go, and I didn't even have to look anything up on the internet. The history and elaboration is neither exoticized nor blandly literal, with fascinating stories and descriptions of Japan's unique methods and personalities (it all starts with a business partnership falling apart, naturally) fitting into the larger context Ashcraft seeks to throw light on, which is that Japanese whisky has a deep and broad heritage to match its now well-established quality. It is, in all this, too dense: 135 pages is not quite enough for all the sidebars, photos, biographies and reviews to breathe, and as a result the basic historical narrative is as dense and occasionally superficial as a coffee-table book about famous generals or artists. But I did want to know about Japanese peats, bartender fashions, handcrafted ice spheres and risque interwar-period advertisements as well as specific distilleries and beverages, so there's nothing to complain about—except the Torys Extra. Japanese Whisky [Amazon] Photo: Mikael Leppä (CC)
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte says "beautiful woman" are to blame for rape crisis
Philippine dictator Rodrigo Duterte, whom Trump envies and greatly admires for his ruthlessness and cruelty, told people at a public event that his country's rape crisis is the victims' fault. "They say there are many rape cases in Davao," Duterte said. "Well, for as long as there are many beautiful women, there will be many rape cases, too."
From The New York Times:
The president appeared in his comments to be referring to a recent report by the Philippine National Police, which found that Davao recorded the highest number of rapes among major cities in the Philippines in the second quarter of the year.
The police said 42 people had reported being raped in Davao between April and June period. Critics contend that the latest data alone shatter the myth being sold by the president that Davao was free of crime and the safest city in the country.
Harry Roque, Mr. Duterte’s spokesman, tried to limit the fallout from the president’s comments, suggesting he was not a misogynist because he had appointed several women to key positions in his government.
“I don’t think we should give too much weight on what the president says by way of a joke,” Mr. Roque said, adding that residents of the southern Philippines tended to be less easily offended than their compatriots in the capital.
Image: Kremlin
American Conservative magazine says stop calling Trump a racist because there are bigger racists in the world
The replies to The American Conservative's exceedingly stupid tweet make for good reading.
There are sandwiches with far more ham and cheese than this one. What do you call those other sandwiches?
— Michael Scroggie (@TheScrogster) August 31, 2018
There are containers with far, far more apple juice than six ounce Minute Maid apple juice boxes. If these are "apple juice," then what do you call those other containers?
— Gus Krieger (@MrGusK) August 31, 2018
“Bigger racists”? Could just go with “racists” as well. Up to you guys
— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) August 30, 2018
Image: Shutterstock/xiaorui
Thousands of fish dropped from the sky
Since the 1950s, wildlife departments have airdropped fish from planes to repopulate remote lakes. Above is video shot by Kamas State Fish Hatchery.
"They kind of flutter down, so they don't impact very hard," said Kamas State Fish Hatchery supervisor Ted Hallows. "They flutter with the water and they do really well."
From an article Hallows wrote in Wildlife Review (PDF):
Many of the lakes in Utah are excellent places to fish, but you can’t get to them with a truck or a car. The Uinta Mountains alone have more than 650 fishable lakes. The best way to stock many of these valuable fisheries—and sometimes the only way to stock them—is from the air… What used to take the old-time biologists and their pack trains months to stock can now be stocked in a few hours with an airplane. And using an airplane stresses the fish less. That means more of them will survive their fall to the water.
More at The Kid Should See This: "Aerial stocking: Utah wildlife departments drop fish into lakes from airplanes"
— Pattern (@Pattern) August 29, 2018https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGADyfjjuNk
Bank of America is freezing accounts of US citizens for not proving residency status
It's legal to have a bank account in the US without being a citizen. But Bank of America has been freezing accounts of people who don't jump through hoops to prove their residency status. It froze the funds of an Iranian Ph.D physics candidate at the University of Miami, because it decided the documentation he'd been providing every six month suddenly wasn't good enough. He couldn't pay rent or credit card bills, even though he had plenty of money in his account. Bank of America is also freezing the funds of US citizens who didn't fill out forms sent to them in the mail.
The Sacramento Bee recounts an incident that shows BofA has xenophobic policies dating back at least a couple of years:
Dan Hernandez, a Broward County native of Cuban heritage now working as a TV writer in Los Angeles, said he had his business account suspended by Bank of America in December 2016. When he asked why, he was told he was under suspicion of doing business with Cuba. His corporation was called Cuban Missile Inc.—”Cuban Missile” has been his nickname since childhood.
“I started screaming that this was racist,” he said. “Like, did you go through every company that had ’Jewish bagels’ in its name, or how about calling someone with ‘Korean BBQ’ to see if they’re doing business with Kim Jong Un?”
He eventually Tweeted at the bank’s social media account—and had his situation resolved within 45 minutes. He says he feels lucky that he was able to leverage that platform and his status to get a relatively quick fix, because he is certain others do not have the ability to do so.
“It was extremely scary,” Hernandez, 34, said. “I knew I didn’t do anything wrong, but it puts doubt in your mind. A bank can crush your life for arbitrary reasons and never tell you why.”
This is the kind of story that makes me hope cryptocurrencies take off in a big way and replace banks.
Image: Shutterstock/Tero Vesalainen
San Francisco rejects permit application for Bird and Lime scooters
E-scooter sharing companies Scoot and Skip scooted and skipped their way to the head of the permit approval processing line in San Francisco, but the city flipped the bird at Bird and left Lime feeling sour. Word on the street is that San Francisco is peeved that Bird and Lime deployed their scooters without securing permits, and retaliated by denying their applications and while accepting Scoot and Skip's, which have headquarters based there.
Meanwhile, Santa Monica gave the green light to Bird, Lime, Lyft, and Uber's electric bike pilot programs.
Axios has more.
Image: Grendelkhan/Wikimedia.This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Trump's approval rating hits rock bottom in latest ABC-Washington Post poll
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll that was conducted between August 26-29 shows Trump's approval and disapproval ratings to be at their worst for Trump since he took office.
His disapproval rating is at its highest, with 60% who disapprove of his job performance, and a mere 35% who approve of it.
According to ABC:Disapproval of Pres. Trump is at a new high, support for the Mueller probe is broad, and half of Americans favor Congress initiating impeachment proceedings against the president, new @ABC News/WaPo poll finds. https://t.co/Q7G4jb1LUo pic.twitter.com/4KkN1eHGg8
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 31, 2018
Sixty percent in the national survey disapprove of Trump’s performance in office, numerically the highest of his presidency, albeit by a single point; that includes 53 percent who disapprove strongly, more than half for the first time. Thirty-six percent approve, matching his low...
Trump’s average approval rating since taking office is the lowest for any president in modern polling since the 1940s. One factor: Contrary to his “drain the swamp” rhetoric, 45 percent say corruption in Washington has increased under Trump, while just 13 percent say it’s declined.
Of course poll numbers change from poll to poll and from day to day, but hey, let us enjoy this snapshot moment while it lasts.
Mad Musk: Tesla CEO angrily headbutted car after safety sensor paused assembly line
During a tour this spring at Tesla Inc.’s electric-car factory in Fremont, Calif., Elon Musk asked why the assembly line had stopped. Managers said automatic safety sensors halted the line whenever people got in the way. Mr. Musk became angry, according to people familiar with what happened. His high-profile gamble on mass-producing electric cars had lagged behind since production began, and here was one more frustration. The billionaire entrepreneur began head-butting the front end of a car on the assembly line. “I don’t see how this could hurt me,” he said of vehicles on the slow-speed line. “I want the cars to just keep moving.” When a senior engineering manager involved with the system explained that it was a safety measure, Mr. Musk told him, “Get out!” Tesla said the manager was fired for other reasons.
61 year-old swimmer punches shark and escapes, just like on TV
I guess Shark Week is educational.
Via CBS News:
"I'd been gone 20 minutes and that's when my leg was seized," said Lytton, who is 61. The pain was "beyond excruciating.
"I felt like I was in a wrestling match because this animal was trying to flip me… I turned my head around I see a big head on my leg that belongs to the shark. And this was my advantage, as it turns out," he said.
His advantage because of something he had seen on TV.
"Nature documentary 101 — I knew dolphins always hit the gill, that's the place you go to attack the shark," Lytton said. "I punched it on the gill... and it released and swam away," he said.
Luckily, Lytton said, there were people close enough to hear his yells. He called for help and they dragged him on to shore.Two nursing grads were among the beachgoers.
Image via Giphy
Ghostbuster arrested for firing gun at an apparition
Devaux was "charged with illegal discharge of a firearm, making a false statement to police, second-degree reckless endangerment, misusing an emergency call, and disorderly conduct." Apparently he had made a similar call in 2011 and police turned up no sign of an intruder then either.Troopers also found problems with Devaux’s sworn statement, where he described firing the two bullets as warning shots that he intentionally aimed over the intruder’s head. Investigators found that scenario unlikely, however, after a ballistic analysis showed that the two bullets had punctured a wall in Devaux’s home less than three feet off the floor.
After state police uncovered even more inconsistencies — including shell casings discovered in front of Devaux’s supposed firing location — Devaux told troopers that “there are some things he just can’t explain, like seeing ghosts.”
Devaux then told state police that he has been a paranormal investigator for five or six years and most recently encountered an apparition at the former Mansfield Training School and Hospital, investigators said. Devaux said that while he did not want to be considered “insane,” he had to allow for the possibility that the intruder was of supernatural origin.
"Man charged with firing gun at ‘ghost’" (Journal Inquirer)
Mysterious doorbell ringer is now safe, boyfriend is dead
Earlier this week, police in Montgomery County, Texas were searching for this mysterious woman who was apparently ringing multiple doorbells in the middle of the night at a subdivision over the weekend. It appeared as if she were wearing shackles of some kind. The Sherrif's Office reports that she is now safe and considered a "family violence victim." Her boyfriend was found dead in their home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
"Boyfriend of distressed woman seen in doorbell video found dead in Lake Conroe home" (Click2Houston, thanks Pink Frankenstein!)
Sigh... I bought a 'Gene Frenkle and his cowbell' Funko Pop
Evidently, I have developed a fever. It seems the only solution is a Gene Frenkle Funko Pop. (more…)
Weird time-jumbling quantum device defies "before" and "after"
The device, known as a quantum switch, works by putting particles of light through a series of two operations — labeled A and B — that alter the shape of the light. These photons can travel along two separate paths to A and B. Along one path, A happens before B, and on the other, B happens before A.
Which path the photon takes is determined by its polarization, the direction in which its electromagnetic waves wiggle — up and down or side to side. Photons that have horizontal polarization experience operation A first, and those with vertical polarization experience B first.
But, thanks to the counterintuitive quantum property of superposition, the photon can be both horizontally and vertically polarized at once. In that case, the light experiences both A before B, and B before A, Romero and colleagues report.
While this is deeply weird and amazing, it unfortunately doesn't occur at the human scale but rather in the quantum realm where measurements are in the nanometers. Still, quantum switches do have clear applications in future communications and computation systems.
"Indefinite Causal Order in a Quantum Switch" (Physical Review Letters)
image: detail from Salvador Dali's "Persistence of Memory"
Michael Jackson's "Thriller" suit reissued by Hugo Boss
In 1982, Michael Jackson wore a snazzy white suit by Hugo Boss on the cover of Thriller. Now, Hugo Boss has reissued the iconic suit in a limited edition of 100 pieces.
The contemporary design references the original suit’s silhouette, fabric and details throughout and is entirely designed and made in Germany. Crafted from lightweight twill, the jacket is detailed with an 80s-style three-button cuff, slim notch lapels and iconic internal workmanship. The trousers feature double pleats at the front, also in homage to the original design. Elegant mother-of-pearl buttons complete the suit.
It's $1200 and unfortunately does not include that sharp leopard pocket square.
The Thriller: Boss x Michael Jackson (via Uncrate)
Vinod Khosla, Beach Villain
“I’ve never claimed people can’t come in from the ocean,” he says, seeming to suggest they swim around a rocky promontory. (“No, not death,” he says, when I call later to clarify. “Boats.”) ... “I mean, look, to be honest, I do wish I’d never bought the property,” Mr. Khosla says. “In the end, I’m going to end up selling it.” “If this hadn’t ever started, I’d be so happy,” he adds. “But once you’re there in principle, you can’t give up principle.” He frames the struggle in the Silicon Valley patois of contrarianism. “I’d rather do the right hard things now that I’m in,” he says, “than the wrong easy things.”Khosla's complaining at Bowles after the article went up is a good example of the Musk Coefficient: the gap between the carefully-cultivated Silicon Valley entrepreneur monopersona and its bathetic "Trump with another 10 IQ points" failure state on Twitter.
How to boost your job prospects with this Excel and Office training
Telco lobbyists accidentally send TechDirt all their bullshit talking points
The talking points are not all that surprising, if you're at all familiar with the telco industry, so there aren't really any huge smoking guns here, but they do cover a huge range of issues, from net neutrality, competition, privacy, cybersecurity, and more. Amusingly, on the net neutrality front, there's a section on "Verizon Throttling Fire Responders." Tragically, that appears to be one of the few sections in the document that they hadn't yet filled in yet -- perhaps because the industry still doesn't have a good response to Verizon throttling fire fighters in California as they were battling wildfires.USTelecom's tactical plan is to demonize Facebook and Google: social media as a distraction from the telcos' more fundamental power to influence users and invade our privacy. As Masnick puts it: "You can avoid Google and Facebook if you want. Not so much your ISP."
Trump volunteer tries to block reporter from photographing rally protestor
Five dead after air conditioners break down in Japanese hospital
Review: Blendy Black Lemon Coffee from Japan
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Duplicitous Catholic Bishop buys $2.3 million home with church funds after pleading for parishioners to help the homeless
Too many veterans have vouchers for affordable housing but no place willing to accept them. Too many children and families are living in cars or tripled up with other families in small homes because they can’t afford the rent on their own. Too many of our own teachers and workers commute long distances to serve our community of faith because they cannot afford ever increasing rents and housing prices.He was right: everyone deserves the dignity of decent housing. That a community leader, like Bishop McGrath, would lend his voice to end this kind of bullshit, is both just and welcomed. It's how things should be. So of course, the Bishop and the diocese fucked all of the good will built by this statement by buying a five bedroom house worth $2.3 million for McGrath to live in once he retires. You should know that not all priests, which sometimes become bishops after decades of service and political finagling, take vows of poverty. Only certain religious orders within the Catholic Church are down with that. The short version of where McGrath is at is that diocesan priests promise to live in chastity and respect their superiors. In that light, opting to live in a 3,300 square foot multi-bedroom home on what's described by The Guardian as having a grand-sized chef’s kitchen, soaring ceilings and luxurious master ensuite with a spa-like marble bathroom, and a gorgeous outdoor spread, reminiscent of Tuscany.
That the house is located near Silicon Valley makes all of this a steal, I suppose. It's definitely more than those families living in cars or forced to take long commutes that Bishop McGrath wrote about could ever afford. Maybe he's planning on letting some of those folks live in his extra four bedrooms. Hell, if the house's bathroom is as big as it's said to be, you could camp another family in there, too. Yeah. Likely not. Even McGrath knows that living in the house is shitty. He told The Mercury News of San Jose that he could see how living in all that luxury, in spite of the diocese's mission to aid the poor and disenfranchised, might piss some of his Priest's parishioners off. The Diocese's administrative types? They know that it's shitty, too. From The Guardian: It was purchased with funds set aside for paying the costs of a bishop’s housing and upkeep after retirement, said the diocese’s communications director, Liz Sullivan. She said the diocese was “following the policy set forth by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops” in purchasing the home. Further to this, they bought the Bishop's new digs by selling an old condo that the last retired Bishop had lived in. Reading between the lines, the Diocese had the opportunity to take a large lump of money and use some of it to help the poor, like they were all hoping that Measure A would. But nope, they spent it on a big house for one old man. According to The Guardian, McGrath swears that the money was part of a fund that couldn't possibly be used for anything else. And besides, it's cool: when he dies, the Diocese can sell the house: "It’s a good investment in that sense. It probably makes more money this way than if it were in the bank.” Right. Look, I'm not attacking anyone's faith (except for McGrath's, maybe), upbringing or any personal beliefs that help to get them through the day. The world is a terrible place that devours dreams and leaves too many of us bleeding in the gutter from a kick in the head. You need to believe in something. If it hurts no one else and brings you and those you love comfort, no one has the right to take that away or crap on it. I do however, have a problem with this sort of duplicitous bullshit, no matter if it comes from a purportedly holy man, a trusted mentor or our elected officials. Those who support such people in their self-serving climb to the top? Screw them too: the administrators, lawyers, guards – anyone too focused on following orders to bother looking up to see what's being done to people that had hoped for so much and were given so little. This is the very stuff that is ripping our society apart. It's what will do us in. Image: by Frederick Manligas Nacino (Opusdeiphotography) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
New Mexico Greyhound Bus Crash: Multiple deaths and serious injuries reported
Mastercard sold Google data on cardholders' in-store credit card use
For the past year, select Google advertisers have had access to a potent new tool to track whether the ads they ran online led to a sale at a physical store in the U.S. That insight came thanks in part to a stockpile of Mastercard transactions that Google paid for. But most of the two billion Mastercard holders aren’t aware of this behind-the-scenes tracking. ... Google paid Mastercard millions of dollars for the data, according to two people who worked on the deal, and the companies discussed sharing a portion of the ad revenue, according to one of the people.The battles we thought we were fighting were lost years ago. They just never bothered to tell us.
Amazon not releasing new Woody Allen movie as planned
Trump on Mueller probe: 'I view it as an illegal investigation'
I finally added weights to my DIY Peloton set-up
I have posted a couple times about my DIY Peloton indoor exercise bike. I recently added weights for the arm and chest exercises, I like them.
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What's this ex-ICE official doing at an anti-Muslim hatefest in Virginia?
Florida sheriff makes reasonable stand-your-ground shooting sound like casual murder
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Mr Boek was a "goofball". "Here's a message for the hotheads of the community: don't do that stuff," the sheriff said. "Good people carry guns and they will shoot you. A lot. Graveyard dead."
Trump says Sessions to remain Attorney General until after midterms
That time Daryl Hannah and Neil Young got married
The couple reportedly wed on Saturday in Atascadero, after a ceremony on Young’s yacht near the San Juan islands. The guitarist Mark Miller appeared to confirm the news on Facebook when he congratulated the couple. He later clarified that he had not attended the ceremony. “I only knew about it because one of my friends attended the ceremony in Atascadero and announced it on his page,” Miller said. The administrator of Young’s blog also congratulated the pair, and referred to comments from attendees, who described the event as “a shindig”. Hannah posted a cryptic image to her Instagram account the following day. She captioned the picture of an owl: “Someone’s watching over us … love and only love.”No one, according to The Guardian, was watching over Young's wife of over three decades, Pegi Young, when he divorced her shortly before his relationship with Hannah became a thing. Pegi's alw That said, no one knows the truth behind Pegi and Neil breaking up, save them, their lawyers and very likely, Daryl Hannah. It's been four years since the divorce--four years that Hannah and Young have been together as a couple. Hopefully, in a world as shitty as this one has been of late, the newlyweds and Pegi, as she pursues a better world through her music, philanthropy and environmentalist efforts, have all found some small measure of happiness. Image via Flickr, courtesy of slgckgc
Canada's Prime Minister mandates examination of a full ban on handguns and assault weapons
Justin Trudeau, Canada's Prime Minister, has released a wide-ranging mandate letter asking Canada's Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, Bill Blair, to "[L]ead an examination of a full ban on handguns and assault weapons in Canada, while not impeding the lawful use of firearms by Canadians."
This work would be in support of Canada's upcoming Firearms bill, Bill C-71, and is supported by the city councils of two of Canada's largest cities: Toronto and Montreal, who have recently both passed resolutions asking for an outright ban on handguns.
As Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, your goals are to ensure that our borders remain secure and to lead cross-government efforts to reduce organized crime. You will work to ensure Canada’s borders are managed to promote legitimate travel and trade while keeping Canadians safe and treating everyone fairly, in accordance with our laws. You will also play a leading role in our efforts to reduce gun violence. You will lead the legalization and strict regulation of cannabis, and are the Minister responsible for our strategy to manage the challenge of irregular migration.
Image: Kencf0618 [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons
Someone pulled their dick out: Louis C.K. and the #MeToo movement
People make mistakes. They commit crimes. Sometimes they pull their erect dick out and start masturbating in front of female colleagues. Louis C.K. recently performed for the first time since confirming he did exactly that to a number of women over a period of years. Was his return to the stage, as they say in comedy, “too soon?” Outside of legal recourse, how do we deal with perpetrators of sexual misdeeds, abuse, harassment, and assault in the long haul?
As the news of his return broke, I could almost hear women across the country face-palming themselves over the fact that he appeared unannounced and unexpectedly in front of an unsuspecting audience who had not given their consent. Social media became a biopsy of the strange cultural crossroads the #MeToo stories have brought us to. But this time there was more of a split across gender lines. The backlash about Louis’ comeback were mostly female voices. The support for him, feeling he’d already paid a fair price, were mostly male voices.
Comedian Michael Ian Black tweeted a message addressing the friction to his almost two million followers:
"The #MeToo movement is incredibly powerful and important and vital. One next step, among many steps, has to be figuring out a way for the men who are caught up in it to find redemption.”
The #metoo movement is incredibly powerful and important and vital. One next step, among many steps, has to be figuring out a way for the men who are caught up in it to find redemption.
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) August 28, 2018
It’s significant that the “men who are caught up in it” are the perpetrators of abuse, assault, and harassment. Women do not need to roll up their sleeves and get to work creating a framework for offenders to return to society. It is not up to us to give them a way back in. There is no one stopping the creative powerhouse that is Louis C.K. from trailblazing a pathway to redemption. He is not owed a situation to be created for him.
#MeToo is called a movement for a reason. Like all social change, it is messy and hard. Movements are historically led by those the injustice or oppression impacts most. Like many women in America, I can raise my hand to qualify as a member of the #MeToo movement multiple times.
Maybe it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, someone displaying their junk. Maybe it even seems funny – certainly not hurtful like real sexual abuse. No one’s touching you, after all. But when a man you know, trust, and respect pulls their erect dick out of their pants and starts masturbating in front of you out of nowhere, especially if that man is in a position of power, it can be life-changing. I didn’t realize someone pulling their dick out could be so impactful until it happened to me. 
I’d just moved to New York and was staying with a loved and trusted relative in his Upper West Side apartment until I landed a job and a place of my own. One night he came in and stood over the air mattress I was staying on, and started masturbating. And talking about masturbating. I froze. It continued. I wondered what might happen next. Was it going to escalate? I got the impression that my discomfort was part of what he enjoyed. That’s not about sex. That’s about power.
I had nowhere to go and he knew it. Powerless. Vulnerable. Confused. I didn’t know what to say or do. I was shocked. The next day he acted like nothing happened. So I packed up and began couch surfing until I found a job and apartment of my own. But there weren’t always couches to crash on. It wasn’t easy to explain my predicament to friends and colleagues, and no one in my family believed me when I asked for help. I was homeless because someone pulled their dick out.
When I read the New York Times story that forced Louis C.K.’s confession, I recognized the name of one of the women who came forward: Abby Schachner. I had seen her one-woman show a few years back and met her afterwards. She was brilliant, wicked smart and hilarious. I immediately wrote a glowing review of her show and told everyone I could to see it. I friended her on Facebook. I remember thinking she should have her own TV show. She was that good.
As the Louis C.K. story unraveled in the news and through Abby’s Facebook posts, I learned that she chose to abandon her pursuit of a comedy career after her encounter with him, determining she wouldn’t be taken seriously as a female comedian. I was enraged. While others were bemoaning the loss of Louis C.K. in their living rooms, I thought what a complete and utter loss it was for all of us that Abby Schachner’s career path was altered. Because someone pulled their dick out. 
Louis C.K. wielded great power in the comedy business, and that is why it matters if, how, and when he comes back, but most importantly it matters if he demonstrates that he comprehends his impact on these women, the damage that he caused, and has taken steps to change – not just slinked away for a few months. It’s #TimesUp not #TimeOut. Louis C.K. exposing himself is not just a live version of a dick pic (another thing nobody wants). It’s about control, and how it impacts the people he chooses to target. In his case, female colleagues.
Louis C.K.’s unannounced performance echoed his misdeeds; forcing something on an unprepared public. What’s glaringly lacking in both situations is consent. He controls what’s going on. His terms. No consideration of potential damage. Deal with it.
You can forgive someone for doing something without giving them to the opportunity to do it again. That’s what setting boundaries is. And in my opinion, Louis C.K. did not respect the boundary that existed in those moments with various women, and he blew right through the boundary society had imposed on him by barging into a comedy club and giving the audience no choice. But Michael Ian Black’s tweets were asking us to consider what that boundary really was.
“My empathy isn't for Louis. It's for the recognition that we're in a cultural moment in which some men who do terrible things have no pathway for redemption. That lack of a pathway creates a situation in which we are casting people out but not giving them a way back in.”
My empathy isn't for Louis. It's for the recognition that we're in a cultural moment in which some men who do terrible things have no pathway for redemption. That lack of a pathway creates a situation in which we are casting people out but not giving them a way back in. 1/2 https://t.co/9o4U8TfniW
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) August 28, 2018
Though finding a pathway for the redemption of “some men” is not our burden or responsibility, that doesn’t mean I don’t have some ideas. It’s complex and tangled.
The seemingly unforgivable are sometimes redeemed and rehabilitated. Sometimes. It depends. That’s why there are parole boards, for instance. Time itself does not guarantee change. As a former addict, I understand mistakes, misdeeds, hiding it, lying about it, getting caught, having consequences, and then seeking resolution through making amends.
In AA there is something called a “living amends.” The idea is that, though you can’t repair the specific damage you caused, you can demonstrate your understanding of the impact you had and do something related that makes a positive difference – volunteering at a domestic violence shelter for example, donating money to women’s advocacy groups, or changing the choices you made that got you into trouble in the first place. It doesn’t fix the original problem, but it is experiential and gives them empathetic perspective. It also demonstrates the person is actively seeking to change, and that’s something people need to witness before they give you the car keys back. 
So what’s the litmus test? If this was about racist behavior instead of sexist behavior, would it be enough if they promised to stop being racist and not do it again? I think the pathway for redemption, or at least the template for it, already exists: former KKK members who put that life behind them and are committed to transforming others. Former gang members do it. Former drug addicts. The onus of demonstrating true reflection, empathy, change, and humility is on the perpetrator.
I know someone who killed someone in a drunk driving accident. She cannot resuscitate the victim or directly take away the pain she caused. But to this day, she is dedicated to helping other alcoholics get sober, not only through telling her story, but in time spent working with alcoholics one on one. My life is an example of one she changed.
There’s a reason that someone telling a roomful of people they killed someone drunk driving is more impactful than a PSA, your mom, or law enforcement telling you not to drink and drive. We could really use Louis C.K.’s voice right now. Given the destructive and dangerous impact of toxic masculinity and entitled sexual predation on our society, it would be really great, for example, to see Louis C.K. begin an awareness project where he shared openly about the problem from the perspective of someone who helped create the problem.
Like my friend who killed someone drunk driving, the people that might listen to him are the ones who might not otherwise be reached. Instead of preaching to the converted, he might actually be able to disarm men with that mindset enough that they would take a look at their own biases, behavior, history, and beliefs, and, like I did after hearing my friend’s story, they might be able to make lasting change. Real change. Change that could eventually reach enough men that it could turn the tide – like the flutter of a butterfly wing becomes a tornado. 
Instead of appearing at an unannounced show telling jokes, meekly trying to garner support by “starting small,” what if he leveraged the same power, talent, and connections that he used to silence and discredit his accusers and applied it to the problem of toxic masculinity in America? I think you would be surprised how quickly allies, male and female, would be supportive of him.
Nobody wants to see the sexual predator version of a racist caught on video later decrying their behavior and begging for their job back. But I think people would be more willing to open the gate for Louis C.K. and other men who got called out if they demonstrated any kind of enlightenment about their behavior. It’s a generalization, but in the same way men tend look to their partners to fix relationships when they are the ones who screwed up, they shouldn’t depend on some lady on Twitter to learn the right way to return to society after pulling their dick out and masturbating in front of someone. They need to man up and come to the realization and solution themselves. They need to act on it.
Instead of just measuring redemption by time spent on the stool of shame, common ground can be found if men recognize their damaging behavior, admit it plainly and clearly without caveat, and take sincere steps to make amends – and not just so they can resume their careers. We will be here, I will be here if anyone wants to ask what they can do. But what would be even better, what would be really, really great, is if men figured out how to solve this for themselves. That is the only kind of surprise we’d really like to see.
Top image: CC0 Public Domain/pxhere
Other images: Maureen Herman
Médecins Sans Frontières is on the front lines of the Mexican drug war
Before patients are seen, the clinical team – three doctors, two psychologists and a nurse – explain that MSF is neutral, independent, free of charge and available to anyone as long as weapons are left outside. This is the standard pep talk in the state of Guerrero, where MSF has taken over 11 primary health clinics that have closed or are limited by the security crisis in communities long neglected by the state. In addition to regular clinics, MSF provides rapid response interventions in the aftermath of grave incidents like mass kidnappings, gun battles and massacres, which leave displaced or trapped communities in psychological turmoil. “Emergency situations are part of our DNA as an organisation,” says programme chief Dr Helmer Charris. “The quicker we respond, the more impact we have.”Saving migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean, fighting Ebola on in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bringing comfort to folks that need it in Mexico. MSF does it all. If you're looking for a charity to contribute to, you'll be hard-pressed to find one more worthwhile. Image via Wikipedia Commons
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