Jeff Sessions Gives Speech in PA Defending “Zero-Tolerance”

~ mcequality

During his speech, Sessions recited from a well-rehearsed script, repeating talking points central to the administration’s worldview and subsequent policies. Sessions warned of the “tens of thousands” of undocumented workers crossing American borders, conflating immigrants with criminals. He spoke of the “shootings, stabbings, and beatings,” as well as the rapes and murders committed by MS-13, the Trump administration’s preferred monster. Sessions warned in his speech that the gang was “recruiting illegal aliens as young as 15.” Danger, it seems, lurked in every corner. He warned, too, that the “porous” Southwest border was impacting the rest of the United States, telling law enforcement in the audience that the lack of security at the border “makes your job that much harder.”

via Jeff Sessions Gives Speech in PA Defending “Zero-Tolerance”

Rose-Colored Glasses: A Confession. – Chloe Dykstra – Medium

~ mcequality

In my early twenties, I was a vibrant, goofy kid who loved video games, Doctor Who, dressing up in cosplay with my friends, and karaoke nights. One day, I met someone at a convention and ended up falling for a man almost 20 years my senior. It wasn’t the first time I’d found myself in a relationship with an older man; I’ve always joked about my daddy issues, and thought that with age came stability and wisdom. Welp.
Our relationship started out poorly. Within 2 weeks, rules were quickly established. Some of these included:

via Rose-Colored Glasses: A Confession. – Chloe Dykstra – Medium

Chloe Dykstra, Ex of Chris Hardwick, Describes Disturbing Abuse by ‘Successful Podcaster’ Ex Boyfriend

~ mcequality

n a gut-wrenching essay on Medium, actor Chloe Dykstra describes a years-long emotionally abusive relationship with a man 20 years her senior, who she supported as he went from “a mildly successful podcaster to a powerhouse CEO of his own company.” Though she never mentions him by name in her piece, many are speculating that the man in question is Nerdist founder and host of @midnight and Talking Dead, Chris Hardwick.

In the essay, titled “Rose-Colored Glasses: A Confession,” Dykstra says that her relationship, which began after meeting her ex at a convention, became immediately controlling, with her partner forbidding that she go out at night without him, drink alcohol (he is sober), or have male friends.

via Chloe Dykstra, Ex of Chris Hardwick, Describes Disturbing Abuse by ‘Successful Podcaster’ Ex Boyfriend

May ‘disappointed’ at upskirting law block – BBC News

~ mcequality

Theresa May says she is “disappointed” an attempt to make upskirting a criminal offence in England and Wales did not progress through Parliament after one of her own MPs blocked it.
Conservatives have criticised Sir Christopher Chope for objecting to the private member’s bill.
If passed, it could see someone who has secretly taken a photo under a victim’s skirt face up to two years in prison.
The PM said she wanted to see it pass soon “with government support”.
Minister for Women, Victoria Atkins, said the government will allocate time for the bill in Parliament to ensure it does not get pushed down the list of private members’ bills, which would mean it could some time to return to the Commons.

via May ‘disappointed’ at upskirting law block – BBC News

Can Moana and Rapunzel make women’s sport pay? – BBC News

~ mcequality

At the same time they would pose questions about what it means to be a girl in the modern world, and, using Disney characters and the power of football, examine the concept of “what makes a princess?”
It’s an example of the imaginative steps women’s sport has had to take in a world where it is overshadowed in terms of money and audience by men’s sport.
“We wanted to target more girls to play, and Disney also wanted to reach more girls via their characters,” Marzena Bogdanowicz, head of marketing and commercial for women’s football at the FA, tells me.

via Can Moana and Rapunzel make women’s sport pay? – BBC News

The countries where women have more bank accounts than men – BBC News

~ mcequality

There are just six countries in the world where more women than men have bank accounts – Argentina, Georgia, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, and the Philippines.
This according to the World Bank’s latest Global Findex report on how adults in more than 140 countries access accounts, make payments, save, borrow and manage risk. More than 500 million adults – or 69% of the adults, up from 51% in 2011 – have a “bank account” at a brick-and-mortar bank or a mobile money provider today.
But women, according to the report, continue to lag behind men: 65% of them have an account compared to 72% of men, a gap of seven percentage points that has remained unchanged since 2011.

via The countries where women have more bank accounts than men – BBC News

Jeff Sessions’s Racist Whims and the Danger Ahead for Victims of Domestic Violence 

~ mcequality

After arriving in the U.S., A.B. was permitted to seek asylum, but her case has been tied up in the courts for more than four years. In 2016, the Immigration Board of Appeals ruled in her favor, allowing A.B. the right to asylum in the United States as a victim of domestic violence. On Monday, Sessions overturned the decision, writing that most claims “pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not qualify for asylum.”

“The mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes—such as domestic violence or gang violence—or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim,” he wrote.

via Jeff Sessions’s Racist Whims and the Danger Ahead for Victims of Domestic Violence 

Poldark’s Aidan Turner: ‘I’ve never felt objectified’ – BBC News

~ mcequality

Aidan Turner has said he has “never felt objectified”, despite the amount of attention he receives on Poldark.
The actor, who is about to take on his first stage role in 10 years, found himself the subject of a national debate earlier this month.
Or rather, his chest did.
Writing in the Radio Times, Mariella Frostrup highlighted the apparent “double standards” when it came to female journalists and viewers openly lusting over Ross Poldark.

via Poldark’s Aidan Turner: ‘I’ve never felt objectified’ – BBC News

Emily Mortimer interview: I get scared by the sanctimony of #MeToo. Life’s not as simple as that | Times2 | The Times

~ mcequality

In her new film, The Bookshop, Emily Mortimer plays the owner of a bookshop in 1959 who scandalises her small Suffolk town by selling copies of a controversial new novel called Lolita. How quaint, you think. How far we’ve come since then. Or have we? Mortimer is not so sure. “Lolita would have a hard time being published today,” she says, sipping a cappuccino in the drawing room of a hotel in central London. “And there’s something wrong about that.”

She’s talking about the climate surrounding the #MeToo movement, whose achievements she relishes, but which she fears has made us lose some of our boldness when it comes to risky material.

“It’s a weird moment that’s both really exciting and wonderful, and also quite confusing. I get scared by the sanctimony sometimes. When everybody thinks they’re right. Life’s not as simple as that. That’s why we need art, movies and books, because they’re exploring the grey areas of life.”

via Emily Mortimer interview: I get scared by the sanctimony of #MeToo. Life’s not as simple as that | Times2 | The Times

Jeff Sessions: Bible Supports Separating Children From Parents

~ mcequality

Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to be pleased with the outcome of his “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which has resulted in the forcible separation of children—some only a few months old—from their parents, who often do not know where they’ve been taken. The psychological repercussions of these forced separations, particularly for extremely young children, are massive. One Honduran woman told CNN that her infant daughter was taken from her in a detention center while she was breastfeeding; a father from Honduras died by suicide in his cell after being separated from his wife and 3-year-old. Due to overcrowding, some minors will evidently be detained in “tent cities,” forced to sleep outdoors, somehow, in a 100-degree desert.

via Jeff Sessions: Bible Supports Separating Children From Parents