The Rock Test: A Hack for Men Who Don’t Want To Be Accused of Sexual Harassment
Hilarious! And solid advice….
Right of feds to make drug arrests at I-93 immigration roadblocks challenged
District Court Judge Thomas Rappa is considering whether to dismiss state drug charges against 16 people stopped at federal Border Patrol immigration checkpoints on Interstate 93 in Woodstock in August and September.
Three Border Patrol canine handlers testified they had legal grounds to conduct a search of the vehicles involved. Because the amount of contraband was below Border Patrol guidelines for prosecution, the handlers said the materials were handed over to Woodstock police.
Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the NH American Civil Liberties Union, said the Border Patrol could have brought charges in federal court, but chose not to. In choosing to delegate to the Woodstock Police Department, Border Patrol should have followed state law — which would have required search warrants, he said.
Bissonnette told Rappa that what the state was trying to say that the entire state of New Hampshire — because all of it is within the 100-mile zone in which Border Patrol has authority — is subject to warrantless searches.
Right of feds to make drug arrests at I-93 immigration roadblocks challenged | New Hampshire
hmmm
‘The difficulty is the point’: teaching spoon-fed students how to really read
If you are reading this essay, you’re a reader. You probably know this sentence, and if you don’t, you are comfortable with interpreting it. You can hear a character beginning to form: its romantic, optimistic, nostalgic voice; a voice yearning for simplicity; probably, in its deliberate imitation of a child’s singsong, the voice of a woman, a mother. You know it might take a few pages to learn just who this woman is. You’re skilled in this sort of patience.
But if you have never read anything more difficult than a Harry Potter book, how are you meant to proceed?
Well, there is only one way to go on, as I tell students – and that is to go on. This is the first and greatest difficulty they face. There’s no reason for them to continue reading. There is so much else to read that is shorter, and not just aimed at them, but, in the case of their Facebook feed, tuned to their experience. Marketed to them. Why would they bother reading something that was neither for them nor about them?
… “Some students want Nietzsche in the same way that they want a hamburger; they fail to grasp – and the logic of the consumer system encourages this misapprehension – that the indigestibility, the difficulty is Nietzsche.”
…many of his students are in a state that he calls “depressive hedonia … an inability to do anything else except pursue pleasure”. I’m not trying to give my students pleasure, or make them enjoy themselves. I’m trying to show them how critical engagement with literature enables critical engagement with living. I’m trying to interrupt what Fisher calls “the constant flow of sugary gratification on demand”. And finally, I’m trying to help them pass that literacy test.
‘The difficulty is the point’: teaching spoon-fed students how to really read | Books | The Guardian
hmmm
A woman’s choice – sexual favours or lose her home
…By the time the inquiry concluded, 71 additional women came forward with complaints deemed credible by the justice department. In December 2014, the DOJ filed a federal lawsuit against Four-County.
……Every year, hundreds of state and federal civil lawsuits are filed against landlords, property owners, building superintendents and maintenance workers alleging persistent, pervasive sexual harassment and misconduct, covering everything from sexual remarks to rape. This includes so-called “quid pro quo” sexual harassment, wherein the perpetrator demands sex in exchange for rent or repairs.
…The Laurinburg case illustrates a larger point of concern – housing authorities and agencies who disburse federal housing benefits are not obligated to record or report the number of harassment complaints they receive each year.
… There has never been a comprehensive national survey of tenants to track the frequency of sexual harassment in housing, or to determine where or to whom it occurs most often. Most advocates and experts believe poor women and women of colour are disproportionately affected, though that is based mainly on experiential evidence and a single, 30-year-old study. Advocates say victims who are undocumented or who do not speak English are also easy targets, as are women fleeing domestic violence.
…The BBC filed a Freedom of Information Act request in May of 2016 for HUD complaints of sexual harassment going back to 2010, in the hope of parsing out any trends. A year and a half later, the request has yet to be met.
…The BBC requested data from state civil and human rights agencies and found many cannot easily report how many of their housing cases involve allegations of sexual harassment each year. Of the state agencies that did provide that information, the number of cases per year were in single or low-two-digit numbers. California was the exception, recording dozens of complaints each year, including 159 complaints in 2015.
Lawsuits brought in the private housing market can be settled in complete secrecy, since defendants often demand confidentiality agreements, not unlike the nondisclosure agreements Harvey Weinstein reportedly used to keep women from speaking publicly.
A woman’s choice – sexual favours or lose her home – BBC News
Sign…
House Extends Surveillance Law, Rejecting New Privacy Safeguards
House Extends Surveillance Law, Rejecting New Privacy Safeguards – The New York Times
Because the new-orwellian American leadership does not give a shit about your rights or individual liberties. They want personal profit and privilege and ideals like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are unwanted complications.
Buckle up kids, the Party of small government and personal liberty is buying and selling the right to control every aspect of your life. For personal profit.
Inmates Can’t Receive Donated Books Anymore, They Have to Buy Them
The selection is limited. And expensive.
…When there were five vendors, 77 books were available for purchase and 24 of the titles were coloring books.
Inmates Can’t Receive Donated Books Anymore, They Have to Buy Them – WNYC News – WNYC
Sigh….
Let’s just be honest here, as a society we have given up on reforming individuals and chosen to incarcerate as many people as possible for as long as possible in conditions that guarantee recidivism and exclusion from opportunities for change and reform so that a select few can make an ungodly amount of money from the system.
Army files challenge to Vegas Golden Knights’ name
Army files challenge to Vegas Golden Knights’ name
Oh fuck you, Army. You’re supported by tax dollars, exist serve the citizenry, and own nothing except the duty to serve.
So fuck you, fuck you very much.
SpaceX Customer Blames Northrop Grumman for Missing Satellite
A major SpaceX customer spoke up for Elon Musk’s rocket company, pinning the blame for a secret military satellite’s disappearance on defense company Northrop Grumman Corp.
Matt Desch, chief executive officer of satellite operator Iridium Communications Inc., said that as the launch contractor, Northrop Grumman deserves the blame for the loss last weekend of the satellite, which is presumed to have crashed into the ocean in the secretive mission code-named Zuma.
SpaceX Customer Blames Northrop Grumman for Missing Satellite – Bloomberg
hmmmm
Facebook to overhaul news feed to focus on friends and family, Zuckerberg says
“I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.
“By making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable,” he wrote. “And if we do the right thing, I believe that will be good for our community and our business over the long term too.”
Facebook to overhaul news feed to focus on friends and family, Zuckerberg says – CBS News
hmmmm
Efforts underway to provide N.H. crime victims with constitutional rights
New Hampshire is one of 15 states that does not extend enumerated rights to victims of crime. A national effort that has now reached New Hampshire is looking to change that, so all crime victims – including surviving family members of murder victims – have equal rights as criminal defendants under the state constitution.
Efforts underway to provide N.H. crime victims with constitutional rights
hmmm
Senators scrap Russia trip after Kremlin snubs Shaheen
Two Republican senators have called off a planned trip to Russia after the Kremlin denied a visa to a Democratic colleague, New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Shaheen, an outspoken backer of a Russia sanctions bill that Congress approved overwhelmingly earlier this year, had been scheduled to visit Russia along with GOP colleagues Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and John Barrasso of Wyoming. But a Shaheen spokesman said the senator believes the Kremlin has placed her under a travel sanction, prohibiting her visit.
Senators scrap Russia trip after Kremlin snubs Shaheen – POLITICO
hmmmm
Trump Administration Drops Florida From Offshore Drilling Plan
The Trump administration said Tuesday it had ruled out drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Florida after strong opposition from the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke moved last week to allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States coastal waters, opening more than a billion acres in the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to potential leases. The decision prompted an outcry from Republican and Democratic governors alike on both coasts.
Trump Administration Drops Florida From Offshore Drilling Plan – The New York Times
hmmm
Dems roil probe with release of Fusion GPS transcript
Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in August that law enforcement officials had already been investigating President Trump’s team for Russia connections before the “Steele dossier” was completed.
Simpson, whose opposition research firm compiled the controversial dossier, pushed back in his testimony on the idea that Fusion GPS produced a phony document, telling the panel behind closed doors that the document’s author, a former MI6 spy named Christopher Steele, told him that, by September, the FBI already had “other intelligence” backing up claims in the dossier.
Dems roil probe with release of Fusion GPS transcript | TheHill
hmmmm
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