Mar 31
Designers who say they are able to make a living selling outfits and skins for Dota 2 say they may need to get new gigs now that they’ve noticed an unannounced change to the game’s economy affecting their bank accounts.
Mar 31
The Conspiracy Theories of Trumpland: A Compleat and Comprehensive Bestiary
Posted in: Today's Chili
Donald Trump is not the kind of man who is willing to go along with accepted facts. From his subjective valuation of his business portfolio, through his bird-dogging of Barack Obama’s birth certificate to his tantrums about the deceptive sparseness of his inaugural crowds, Trump has pursued his own rages and fixations…
Mar 31
The dick measuring contest space race between tech titans Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk has been brewing for years, but recently, things have intensified to comic book levels of absurdity. Almost immediately after SpaceX announced it’d be sending two private citizens around the moon next year, Jeff Bezos fired back by…
Mar 31
My Trans Identity Is Not A Fetish
Posted in: Today's ChiliThis piece by Charley Reid originally appeared on The Establishment, an independent multimedia site founded and run by women.
Identity — gender, sexual orientation, or the connection to one’s own race or ethnicity — plays a pivotal role in all our lives. But it is especially crucial to those who have to earn the right to express it.
The right to one’s own identity is something still being fought for in many marginalized communities, and when something so precious is reduced to a thing, a thing desired solely for sexual pleasure, it hurts in a very deep way. This is what can happen when a transgender person encounters a “chaser” — someone who has a “fetish” for transgender bodies.
Those who fetishize transgender bodies are participating in a culture of transphobia that deems our bodies as important solely when they’re sexualized. The act of “chasing” is, indeed, rooted in a cultural assumption that the only reason someone could want to be with a trans person is because of a sexual fetish. When cisgender male celebrities like rapper Tyga and NFL player Hank Baskett have been “caught” with trans people, it’s been treated as a “scandal,” with the media and public assuming it must be because they have a “thing” for trans bodies.
In the aftermath of the Tyga “scandal,” Mia Isabella, the trans woman who he was allegedly with for three years, said:
“It’s very sad that the idea of a man loving a trans person has to be considered a scandal when all people are equal… Am I not an American with the right to love and live as I choose with whoever I choose? If a celebrated man loves a transgender woman or possibly did — that’s news? It shouldn’t be news, it should be normal for anyone and everyone to be allowed to love who they choose.”
Transgender activist Janet Mock also weighed in on the way the affair was treated, saying she was “invested in what this public shaming does to the women who are kept in the dark, made to feel they are unworthy of love and acknowledgement, who are made to feel as if they are only deserving of ridicule and violence.”
Because fetishes in general have a long history of being demonized, it may be tempting to view conversations surrounding this fetishicizing as just another crusade against non-traditional sexual preferences. But this accusation couldn’t be further from the truth.
Sexual fetishes cover a broad spectrum — from foot worshipping to spanking to sploshing — but when someone says they prefer men, they say they are straight, not that they have a “fetish” for men. This is because we typically understand general sexual orientation as an attraction that can encompass a desire to know and love that person beyond the realm of the physical. Chasing, by reducing an individual’s gender identity to sexual fixation, doesn’t move beyond the purely physical realm. And it is, as such, dehumanizing.
As trans women, how are we supposed to be with someone who has stated that their reason for being attracted to us has nothing to do with our personality or our tastes or our perspective on life, but with our particular configuration of body parts? Moreover, how are were supposed to feel when our culture assumes this kind of sexualization is the only way for us to be wanted?
Yet, sadly — because of how much transphobia permeates our culture — trans women are often made to feel as if they should be grateful for any kind of attention they receive, even if it’s as reductive as this.
A similarly problematic fetish that bears some significant, if incomplete, parallels is the preference for Asian women. A close friend of mine mentioned to me once how she wishes she could wear pleated skirts in public, but she refrains from doing so because the attention she gets makes her feel like a “walking fetish.”
Of course, all women undergo a greater amount of harassment related to their appearance, but a sexual fixation related to a person’s gender identity or racial heritage is more than just an unfortunate aspect of male gaze; deriving sexual pleasure from the fact that someone’s gender identity or racial heritage is an “other” suggests that they’re not an equal.
This sexualization can also manifest as a damaging assumption that trans women aren’t “real” women. Shortly after coming out as gay, boxer Yusaf Mack “admitted” to wanting to be in a relationship with a transgender woman. By professing his attraction to trans women as an extension of his attraction to cisgender men, Mack showed that he does not regard trans women to be women, but simply a different “type” of man.
Until we decide to have a real conversation about the fetishization of trans bodies, stories like Mia’s will continue to make headlines as a “scandal,” and trans women like me will keep encountering people who try to tell us that we should be grateful for the leftover libido of chasers — as though that paradigm could ever be equal to a loving relationship built on mutual respect.
You can support The Establishment’s independent media work by purchasing a ‘Member of the Resistance’ tee or making a donation here.
Other recent stories include:
Deadnaming A Trans Person Is Violence — So Why Does The Media Do It Anyway?
It’s Time To Ignore Caitlyn Jenner
The Media’s Unfair Focus On Trans Kids’ Moms Is Pure Misogyny
When Transitioning Changes How We Have Sex
As A Trans Woman, I’ve Seen Nerd Culture’s Misogyny From Both Sides
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Mar 31
A set of twins from Philadelphia have watched the Disney hit film “Frozen” so many times, they know every move from one of its scenes.
On Monday, Colleen Jordan posted a video on Facebook that shows her twins, Maddie and Scarlett, reenacting a scene from “Frozen” that features Anna and Elsa when they’re kids. From their dramatic positions on the floor to their giggling while they run around, the twins are spot-on.
Jordan told Philadelphia local news station Fox 29 that Maddie and Scarlett, who are almost 2, enjoy reenacting the scene when it comes on and that they never change characters; one twin always plays Elsa, and the other plays Anna. She said they also like reenacting a scene from a movie with Mickey Mouse.
As of Friday afternoon, the video has been viewed more than 11 million times and has attracted commenters saying how impressive the girls’ performance is.
Get these kids into acting already.
The HuffPost Parents newsletter, So You Want To Raise A Feminist, offers the latest stories and news in progressive parenting.
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Mar 31
Sometimes a picture really does say it all ― at least when it comes to explaining anxiety to those who don’t understand it.
A stunning photo series by photographer Jasmine Kate Blanchard, a 19-year-old student from the U.K., showcases what having an anxiety disorder feels like to those who experience it. The visuals are a totally accurate depiction of the debilitating symptoms that can accompany the mental health condition.
“As someone who has dealt with anxiety myself, and also knowing many people who have also dealt with it, I wanted to bring this subject into the light and show people that even though you can’t necessarily see it, it’s there,” Blanchard told The Huffington Post.
Blanchard was 15 when she first started feeling the effects of the condition, and has channeled her diagnosis into her art. She decided to make anxiety the focus of a photo assignment for a class at Gloucestershire University in England, where she’s studying photography. The series features her friend, Emily Terrett, as the model.
“Everyone experiences anxiety differently, but I wanted to show the variety of symptoms and feelings through my photographs,” Blanchard said.
Those symptoms can include excessive worry, rumination, feeling panicked or like you’re losing grip on reality. They can also include poor sleep, which Blanchard highlights in her photos. An estimated 40 million Americans have an anxiety disorder.
Blanchard hopes her project will eliminate some of the negative misconceptions surrounding anxiety and get people to talk about mental health more frequently. Research shows stigma often silences people with mental health issues and prevents them from seeking treatment.
“My advice for people who are dealing with anxiety is to talk to someone about it,” she said. “There is nothing worse than to keep those feelings bottled up.”
Take a look at Blanchard’s photo series, titled “Disquiet,” below:
H/T Women’s Health
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Mar 31
Subscribe to The Tea to read exclusive celebrity interviews with stars like Noah Cyrus, Jacob Sartorius, and Maddie Ziegler! Click here!
Actress, singer and dancer Zendaya came out in support of Verizon’s #WeNeedMore campaign in Los Angeles. The campaign’s main focus is to introduce students to the exciting possibilities of careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
She accompanied students from the program into a recording and editing workshop at Capitol Studios, in the iconic Capitol Records building. The students got a chance to experience all the behind-the-scenes technology and engineering that goes into making the music they know and love.
“I wanted them to see that it’s not just me, I’m not the only one that makes this happen.”
The experience allowed students to be exposed to all the career possibilities they could pursue, beyond being the on-camera talent, like engineering or sound mixing.
As for Zendaya’s main message to these young kids? “We need more young people to be exactly who they want to be.” Sounds pretty inspiring, if you ask us.
Visit weneedmore.com to learn more. Note: Verizon is a parent company of The Huffington Post.
type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related… + articlesList=58cc3faae4b0ec9d29dc134c,58dbff46e4b054637064765a,58daa115e4b0d41721b9b2b3
Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Tracy Morgan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Moore, Padma Lakshmi and a whole host of other stars are teaming up for Stand for Rights: A Benefit for the ACLU. Donate now and join us at 7 p.m. Eastern on Friday, March 31 on Facebook Live. #standforrights2017
You can support the ACLU right away. Text POWER to 20222 to give $10 to the ACLU. The ACLU will call you to explain other actions you can take to help. Visit www.hmgf.org/t for terms. #StandForRights2017
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Mar 31
Mayor De Blasio announced a 10 year plan to close the notoriously violent New York prison facility Rikers Island on Friday afternoon. The decision comes after a year of aggressive crusading to shut down the prison from the #CLOSErikers campaign, which was founded by activist and former Rikers prisoner Glenn E. Martin.
In a statement sent to The Huffington Post, Martin said that he’s “grateful” the mayor has realized that the only solution to the prison’s problematic nature is to close it.
“For too long, New Yorkers – especially poor people of color – have languished in this grist mill, where human rights abuses are routine,” Martin said. “Countless failed attempts at incremental reform have proven that the only viable solution is to close Rikers.”
The campaign, which Martin founded in 2016, has done everything from follow the mayor to Florida to ensure he hears their concerns surrounding the prison to create a commercial calling the mayor out on his inaction around the prison.
Martin, who was imprisoned at Rikers twice and currently has a brother in the prison, said the mayor’s announcement was “especially meaningful” to him.
“Mayor de Blasio has finally heard the demands of the #CLOSErikers campaign, and we thank him for recognizing that the problem with Rikers is Rikers,” he continued.
Martin is also a member of the Lippman Commission which, in a 97 page report provided to the mayor, outlined ways to successfully go about closure of the prison.
Aside from his intent to close the island and open other jails in its place, the mayor’s full plan has not yet been released. But is expected to include some of the suggestions from the commission’s report.
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Mar 31
Intelligence officials said 1,000 Russian trolls spread fake news about Hillary Clinton, though the estimate fails to account for the fact each troll contains a succession of smaller trolls. Paul Ryan’s approval rating dropped in the wake of last week’s health care fiasco, possibly because some voters occasionally use health care. And State Department staffers reportedly have been told not to make eye contact with Rex Tillerson, and also not to make any sudden moves around him since his vision is based on movement. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, March 31st, 2017:
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DOCTOR MIGHT NEED LAWYER – Tom Price loves making money even more than he loves saying “patient-centered health care.” Robert Faturechi: “On the same day the stockbroker for then-Georgia Congressman Tom Price bought him up to $90,000 of stock in six pharmaceutical companies last year, Price arranged to call a top U.S. health official, seeking to scuttle a controversial rule that could have hurt the firms’ profits and driven down their share prices, records obtained by ProPublica show. Stock trades made by Price while he served in Congress came under scrutiny at his confirmation hearings to become President Trump’s secretary of health and human services…. On March 17, 2016, Price’s broker purchased shares worth between $1,000 and $15,000 each in Eli Lilly, Amgen, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, McKesson, Pfizer and Biogen…. Price was among lawmakers from both parties who signed onto a bill that would have blocked a rule proposed by the Obama administration, which was intended to remove the incentive for doctors to prescribe expensive drugs that don’t necessarily improve patient outcomes. What hasn’t been previously known is Price’s personal appeal to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services about the rule.” [ProPublica]
Trump is doing some executive orders related to trade deals.
SENATORS SAY NO, MIKE FLYNN, GO TO JAIL – Ken Dilanian and Kasie Hunt: “The Senate Intelligence Committee turned down the request by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s lawyer for a grant of immunity in exchange for his testimony, two congressional sources told NBC News. A senior congressional official with direct knowledge said Flynn’s lawyer was told it was ‘wildly preliminary’ and that immunity was ‘not on the table’ at the moment. A second source said the committee communicated that it is ‘not receptive’ to Flynn’s request ‘at this time.’” [NBC News
REX TILLERSON: DEBT COLLECTOR – Nice alliance that’s preserved peace in Western Europe for 68 years you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it. Gardiner Harris: “Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson joined on Friday a growing list of Trump administration officials to visit the hub of North Atlantic solidarity and scold the United States’ European allies for failing to spend enough on their collective defense. ‘Allies must increase defense spending to meet their commitments,’ Mr. Tillerson said, again and again, in a speech to NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. Like Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis before him, Mr. Tillerson insisted that all 28 members of the alliance spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their military, a level only a handful of members meet.” [NYT]
REX TILLERSON: WEIRD – Anne Gearan and Carol Morello: “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson takes a private elevator to his palatial office on the seventh floor of the State Department building, where sightings of him are rare on the floors below. On many days, he blocks out several hours on his schedule as ‘reading time,’ when he is cloistered in his office poring over the memos he prefers ahead of in-person meetings…. Many career diplomats say they still have not met him, and some have been instructed not to speak to him directly — or even make eye contact.” [WashPost]
Like HuffPost Hill? Then order Eliot’s book, The Beltway Bible: A Totally Serious A-Z Guide To Our No-Good, Corrupt, Incompetent, Terrible, Depressing, and Sometimes Hilarious Government
PEOPLE DIDN’T LIKE PAUL RYAN’S ATTEMPT TO CRUSH THEM – Kathy Frankovic: “The latest Economist/YouGov Poll suggests that opinions of Ryan and the House Republicans, but not President Trump, have diminished after the GOP-majority House of Representatives failed to vote on the proposed health care legislation. And that loss of support comes almost entirely from Republicans and Trump voters — not Democrats.” [YouGov]
PEOPLE AREN’T SO CRAZY ABOUT TRUMP EITHER – A Wharton poll, by contrast, gives POTUS a “gentleman’s C.” Chris D’Angelo: “One-third of Americans say the president has earned himself an F grade as he approaches his 100th day in office, according to a McClatchy-Marist poll published Friday. Fifty-one percent of registered voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing, while 38 percent approve, according to the poll. Respondents graded Trump as follows: A (15 percent); B (22 percent); C (15 percent); D (15 percent); F (32 percent).” [HuffPost]
Of course, people don’t like pollsters, either. “A new McClatchy/Marist poll finds that only 37 percent of registered voters have a great deal or a good amount of trust in public opinion polling. Only seven percent say they have a great deal of trust in comparison to 22 percent of voters who don’t trust polling at all and 38 percent who don’t trust it very much.” [HuffPost’s Natalie Jackson and Grace Sparks]
Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It’s free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to eliot@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter – @HuffPostHill
DAILY SPICER – Akbar Shahid Ahmed: “Evelyn Farkas, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia until 2015, blasted White House press secretary Sean Spicer Friday after he peddled a conspiracy theory about her role in gathering information on connections between President Donald Trump and Russia. Spicer spent much of his Friday press conference repeating a claim that has become popular in conservative circles in recent days: that Farkas ‘revealed’ that the administration of former President Barack Obama was spying on Trump, as the new president has repeatedly claimed without evidence.” [HuffPost]
PROGRESSIVES DEMAND REPRISALS AGAINST PRO-GORSUCH DEMS – Alexander Bolton: “A coalition of liberal groups is putting pressure on the Democratic Party not to help centrist Democrats running for reelection next year if they vote for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch. Liberal activist leaders plan to deliver a petition Monday to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) urging party leaders not to give campaign funds to any senator who votes for Gorsuch or strikes a deal to advance his nomination. Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) on Thursday became the first Democrats to say they will back ending debate on Gorsuch and advancing his nomination.” [The Hill]
EXTREME LACK OF VETTING – No reason this White House needs help making sure its nominees are qualified! Zoe Tillman: “The White House does not intend to seek the opinion of the American Bar Association about lower court judicial nominees before announcing the president’s pick, according to a statement from ABA President Linda Klein to BuzzFeed News. The practice is in line with how President George W. Bush handled lower court nominations, but represents a break with every other president since President Dwight Eisenhower, according to Klein. The decision is a marked contrast from the White House’s promotion of the ABA’s ‘well-qualified’ rating for Gorsuch. As recently as Friday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer pointed to the ABA’s report about Gorsuch in urging his confirmation.” [BuzzFeed]
CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST AHEAD OF SCHEDULE – Reminder that they endorsed this guy knowing what he was. John Wagner, Mike DeBonis and Robert Costa: “President Trump threatened Thursday to try to knock off members of the House Freedom Caucus in next year’s elections if they don’t fall in line — an extraordinary move that laid bare an escalating civil war within a Republican Party struggling to enact an ambitious agenda. In a series of tweets that began in the morning, the president warned that the powerful group of hard-line conservatives who helped block the party’s health-care bill last week would ‘hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast.’ The president vowed to ‘fight them’ as well as Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections…. Trump’s pledge was met with defiance by many in the bloc, including some members who accused him of succumbing to the establishment in Washington that he had campaigned against.” [WaPo]
DELANEY DOWNER – While the broader U.S. economy has been humming along, the farm economy is entering its fourth straight year of declining incomes and rising debt, thanks to low prices for crops like corn and wheat. “’We are on the cusp of another 1980s-style farm depression, where thousands of family farmers would lose their historical lands,’ said Joe Logan, 68, who farms 450 acres in northeast Ohio. President Donald Trump has said hardly anything about agriculture policy, though he’s made a lot of noise about trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement. That worries some farmers. While Trump complains that the U.S. as a whole imports much more than it exports, the farming sector has boasted a trade surplus for decades because people in other countries buy a lot of American crops.” [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR – Baseball players cower from bees.
TROLOLOLOL – Mary Papenfuss notes this nugget from a hearing this week: “Senate intelligence committee leaders have received reports that Russia hired at least 1,000 trolls to spread fake news stories to hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton during the presidential election.” [HuffPost]
WHITE HOUSE TO MARK WORLD AUTISM DAY – The president has repeatedly espoused the discredited conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism. AP: “The White House will briefly become the ‘blue house’ on Sunday to mark World Autism Awareness Day. Spokesman Sean Spicer says President Donald Trump is keeping a promise to the late wife of his friend Bob Wright that he would illuminate the White House in blue if he won the election. [AP]
COMFORT FOOD
– Everything you ever wanted to know about horny T rexes but were afraid to ask.
– “Trump as cat who doesn’t like things near him” will captivate you.
– Huge deer takes out motorcyclist.
TWITTERAMA
@lindsaygoldwert: When I have too many ideas and become expansive and unfocused, they adjust my meds but Elon Musk, he gets a magazine cover
@behindyourback: I don’t appreciate the judgmental snark of my fitness app that keeps offering “beans” after I type in “string” when it knows I mean “cheese”
Me: I had a very successful tweet today
Wife: I wish I was married to a normal person
Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com)
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Mar 31
Another one bites the dust.
Bed Bath & Beyond reportedly dumped its Trump products, according to Shannon Coulter, leader of the #GrabYourWallet movement.
On Friday, Coulter tweeted out a screenshot of an email from the retailer saying that it stopped selling Trump products. Coulter forwarded the email, which was sent on March 29 by a #GrabYourWallet participant, to The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post has reached out to the retailer as well.
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“I’m not surprised to see major retailers continuing to drop the highly politicized Trump brand,” Coulter told The Huffington Post.“One of the companies on the #GrabYourWallet list recently reached out to me and said that it’s received over 500,000 complaints from boycott participants. We applaud Bed Bath & Beyond on this decision and look forward to returning as customers.”
Coulter told HuffPost that Bed Bath & Beyond’s decision marks the 24th company to drop Trump products since she started the movement. She also updated the Grab Your Wallet spreadsheet with the news:
“On March 12th Ivanka’s diaper bags disappeared from the Bed Bath & Beyond site at the same time they disappeared from the site of its web-only subsidiary, Buy Buy Baby. Buy Buy Baby was subsequently removed from the #GrabYourWallet list on 3/29 but Bed Bath & Beyond remained because two Trump Home lighting products by ELK Lighting were still coming up in web site searches. ELK customer service reps had confirmed to me and other #GrabYourWallet participants that it is still in a licensing relationship w/ the Trump family. On 3/31, a #GrabYourWallet participant forwarded a customer service email exchange in which Bed Bath & Beyond confirmed to her that it’s no longer carrying Trump products. As of 3/31/17 only one of those two ELK lighting items is still coming up in a search of the Bed Bath & Beyond site and it’s listed as ‘out of stock.’”
Below is a screenshot of the remaining ELK lighting item:
A search for Ivanka Trump diaper bags, which Coulter said disappeared on March 12, also produced no results:
People on Twitter praised Bed Bath & Beyond’s apparent decision:
Others said they were going to purchase products there now:
Since President Trump took office, retailers like Nordstrom, Belk, Neiman Marcus, Sears and KMart have dropped Ivanka Trump lines and other Trump products. Other retailers, like TJ Maxx and Marshalls, simply stopped featuring Ivanka Trump items.
No word yet from President Trump about the Bed Bath & Beyond situation.
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