Brews, Books, Etc.

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Just 10 minutes of news anchors accidentally drawing dicks

Since Tuesday night, what keeps rising like a burn blister on the surface of my brain is all the times I’ve been told you’re being sensitive. All the times I’ve been told you’re taking things too seriously, too personally. All the times I’ve been told, you’ve had every privilege, what are you complaining about? All the times I’ve been told to shhhhhh. All the times I’ve been told to take it easy.

I cannot shake these voices and I cannot shake the feeling they provoke.

There’s a cauldron that exists inside me that starts to seethe when these sorts of things are said, when I am being dismissed, quieted, condescended to. And when the fire under this cauldron is lit, to a white hotness that is nearly blinding, what it takes with it is my ability to be the articulate and intelligent person I know myself to be. Something else takes over, a pre-lingual fury, a heat that erases logic and coherent argument and civility. In these moments, the experience is not just my own self being demeaned or silenced; it is the entire history of women being demeaned or silenced. And the weight of that, the condensed and hot feeling of outrage is, at times, more than I know how to deal with, and certainly, in these moments, more than I know how to rightly express. What goes is the impulse to kindly and gently explain something. What comes is a wanting to smash faces. If it were a sound, it would be a scream so loud it would make birds fall out of the sky.

This is rage. It is a feeling of blood in the cheeks, heart bumping in the throat, whatever pocket that holds tears getting filled up behind the eyes ready to spill, it is a stuttering, frenzied horrible, horrible feeling. It comes from the helplessness of knowing: I cannot make you understand. You will never, never know. Like approaching a smooth white wall that rises forever that you cannot penetrate, that you cannot climb over to reach the other side, a maddening, impenetrable stop.

This is rage, and I am finding myself wanting to admit that it is in me. It is not attractive. It ranks as one of the very worst things I know I can feel. It is scary. It frightens people. It makes them uncomfortable.

But I have been made to feel uncomfortable. Every woman I know has been made to feel uncomfortable. In ways subtle that grind like a dull file across a piece of wood, in ways explicit like an unasked for touch from a stranger. And right now I feel uncomfortable, and that cauldron is simmering and I do not want it to cool. As ugly and frightening as it is. Because there are things uglier and more frightening. The poet Mary Ruefle writes “Anger is an emotion that is produced by fear. There are no exceptions.”

There are no exceptions. This is rage. And this is fear. And I feel afraid. That suddenly there is increased license for the type of silencing, demeaning, assaulting that erases a person’s personhood.

For a long time I thought it went without saying that I support the safety and rights of people of color, of the LGBT community, of Muslims, of immigrants, of women, of every disenfranchised group trying to stay safe and have a voice. Doesn’t that just fucking go without saying? No. No. It doesn’t. Not right now. So I say it. I am behind you. I am so behind you. We have each other’s backs. And I hope I never see anyone being silenced, insulted, demeaned, assaulted. And if I do I will come to your aid as I hope you would come to mine.

In a much-read piece from the New York Review of Books, Masha Gessen writes rules for surviving an autocracy. The whole piece is worth your time, but this section in particular has been echoing in my head:

Rule #4 Be outraged … In the face of the impulse to normalize, it is              essential to maintain one’s capacity for shock. This will lead people to call you unreasonable and hysterical, and to accuse you of overreacting. It is no fun to be the only hysterical person in the room. Prepare yourself.

Prepare yourself. Prepare yourself. I cannot stop hearing it. Prepare yourself.

Take it easy. No. I can’t. And won’t.

“You’re not going to believe this–I bought those particular Air Jordans at Marshall’s. They were cheap, they were athletic and they were non-leather. I was not that big of a sports fan where I even knew who Michael Jordan was, really. I just thought they were cool sneakers… There was no plan on wearing those. The whole outfit I had on that day was from Marshall’s and the nylon running pants I got at Salvation Army. That was the look.”

So I got tired of not seeing any news on HRC’s actual positions because every single media outlet is busy fact-checking Trump’s latest Twitter tantrum, and decided to look some up.

Also, tired of stories about 26-year-olds complaining that they can’t get behind Clinton because they don’t know what she stands for, and also have no idea who Ralph Nader is, even though these frickin’ kids are only two years younger than me and also Wikipedia exists

But anyway. Hillary Clinton! Actual positions!

Guys, there’s so much to love.

We already knew she wants harder regulation on the megabanks, right?

Not as hardcore as Bernie wants, but in the same direction?

Turns out she bundles that with a bunch of provisions to support and protect credit unions!

Seriously, I love my credit union. And they’re tiny and responsible and don’t secretly open millions of accounts in the names of unaware users.

Universal quality pre-K for every kid!

Paid medical leave and new-parent leave. Not just for new moms, either. Regardless of gender.

Funding childcare centers on college campuses for student parents!

omg you guys, her plans for addressing autism. Note the total absence of the word “curing.” It’s all about “providing support” and “early diagnosis” and “improving access” and “increasing opportunities.”

She’s full of specific plans for Alzheimer’s research and treatment

Including supporting stem-cell research

You know how otherwise work-ready people sometimes get stuck as unpaid caregivers when a family member becomes sick or disabled? Well, Hillary wants to give those people credit where credit is due.

By which I mean, tax credit

And Social Security benefits

and you know the horrific unnecessary price hikes we’ve seen on EpiPens and various livesaving drugs? Think that oughta be a crime? So does HRC.

Plus she supports emergency imports of similar treatments from other countries (the ones with quality safety standards, obv) if that’s what it takes to save lives

Hillary stands with Planned Parenthood

Supports more funding for VA mental health treatments

And better training for police on how to de-escalate when they’re called in on a crisis situation

Seriously, she’s coming at mental health from all sides, it’s fantastic

Her rhetoric about the police also hits better training to deal with implicit bias

Comprehensive background checks for gun buying!

Close the Charleston loophole

End the special legal protections that gun manufacturers get when the rest of the manufacturing industry doesn’t

eyyyy, btw, guess where Sanders fell on that issue?

that’s right: this time Clinton was the one dragging Bernie to the left

Solar panels!

I mean, clean energy in general, but “solar panels” is the shiniest part

Automatic voter registration

AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION

No more harried every-four-year drives pleading for everyone to register, even if it’s inconvenient, even if there are serious barriers in your way

No more “welcome to the polling center, whoops, looks like you were registered but it got thrown out on a technicality and nobody told you”

Automatic voter registration!!

Raise the minimum wage to $12/hr

Still not the $16/hr we’d have if it had kept up with inflation since the ‘70s, but a big improvement

I’m not even in a minimum-wage job and this would still give me a raise of at least $320/month

and obviously the tipped minimum wage is a national shame, well guess what, HRC wants to do away with that

Fewer loopholes and more taxes for the super-rich, including the Buffett Rule and a millionaire tax

Hella infrastructure investment plans: covering our roads, bridges, airports, dams, public transit, and Internet access

She’s planning to upgrade our 25 most costly freight bottlenecks

Did you know our country had a cost issue with freight bottlenecks?

Because I had no idea

and this happens over and over with her policies

things you didn’t even know were things

but Hermione Rodham Clinton has already looked up the statistics, talked to the experts, and written the ten-page memo

and listen, voting for HRC for no other reason than to keep Trump and his tax-evading business-bankrupting employee-stiffing racist sexist across-the-board-hateful loose-cannon general inanity out of office is completely legitimate –

It’s On Sale: LL Bean Boots

LL Bean occasionally holds sales, but they rarely include their duck boots. The shoes are just too popular. For the past few holiday seasons, they’ve even had backorders – sometimes as high as 100,000 pairs – which can take up to six months to fulfill. Those left out in the cold have to contend with eBay resellers who flip Bean boots for 2x retail. 

This week, however, they’re holding a 20% off promotion and it surprisingly applies to their boots. To get the discount, just use the checkout code SAVE20. Shipping is free. 

Some things to consider if you’re new to the style:

Height: Bean boots come in different heights, from slip-ons to towering 16″ hunting shoes. Most people opt for the 8″ model (which is what we’d recommend). It’s tall enough to protect you from slushy roads, but also easy to lace-up. For friendlier damp weather, you can consider their gumshoes. 

Lining: Your standard pair of Bean boots is unlined, but if you want something you can wear below 30 degrees or so, you may want a lined pair. LL Bean makes them with Thinsulate, Thinsulate + GoreTex, and shearling (listed in order of warmth protection). 

Color and Material: LL Bean has different designs nowadays, but their most iconic are in tan leather (again, what we’d recommend picking up). If you want to give them a more vintage look, store them out on the back porch for about a year. Direct sunlight will lighten the color of the leather, giving the boots a sunwashed effect. 

Sizing: The standard advice is to go a full size down in the unlined version (or 1.5 sizes down if you wear half sizes), but to take your regular size for lined models. I don’t have any experience with the latter, but can confirm that you’ll want to go a full size down in the unlined boots – even if you plan on wearing thick socks. 

www.suitupweird.com