Elizabeth Warren questioning self-enriching Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf.
Cross-selling is shorthand for deepening the relationship
Sep 20th, 2016 6:08 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is about accountability
Sep 20th, 2016 1:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonElizabeth Warren takes on Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf.
Facing off with the CEO whose massive bank appropriated customers’ information to create millions of bogus accounts Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had sharp questions for Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf. Warren also said Stumpf made millions of dollars in the “scam,” telling him, “You should resign … and you should be criminally investigated.”
As we’ve reported before, Wells Fargo is paying $185 million in penalties for acts that date to at least to 2011. The firm says it fired some 5,300 employees who were found to have created false accounts as it sought to increase “cross-selling” — building the number of accounts each customer holds.
Employees at the bottom … Read the rest
Test animals
Sep 20th, 2016 9:59 am | By Ophelia BensonSpeaking of pole dancing, and the laughable claims that it’s not sexual at all oh no no no it’s about fitness – a few months ago a UK morning chat show had three little girls on to demonstrate their pole dancing skills. That’s attractive. If there’s disagreement over whether X activity is sexual or not, the thing to do is get some little girls to do it on tv, so that we can all decide.
Here’s ITV’s not at all sexual photo of one tiny dancer:
Obviously not sexual at all in any way. People who think otherwise are perverts.
… Read the restThe question posed by the show was “Are pole dancing lessons too sexual for children?”.
On the show, eight-year-old
The men who leave detailed reviews on Punternet
Sep 20th, 2016 9:31 am | By Ophelia BensonSarah Ditum in the Independent says how Dennis Parsons got it wrong:
… Read the restLewis Pierre, who killed Daria Pionko in Leeds last year, did not do so as a result of extended immersion into radical feminism. In fact, he killed her next to a “managed zone” where all laws governing prostitution were suspended. If the allegedly protective message “sex work is work” could percolate anywhere, surely it would be there. Or think about the men who leave detailed reviews on Punternet addressing women’s teeth, breasts, ability to submit to unwanted penetration while feigning delight and skill in suppressing their gag reflex: these cruel appraisals derive from the same entitlement and dehumanisation that enables these men to buy out women’s consent
Dry goods
Sep 19th, 2016 5:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonA writer named Suki Kim also wrote about her reactions to Lionel Shriver’s talk. She at least had the decency to hear the talk first. The most striking thing about her piece, to me, is her definition of cultural appropriation.
… Read the restShriver—a thin middle-aged woman with spectacles and brown hair—began her speech by describing herself as a “renowned iconoclast.” She declared that she would not, in fact, be exploring the theme of “community and belonging,” but would instead discuss the issue of “fiction and identity politics.” In a diatribe that has since become notorious, she proceeded to enumerate the various ways in which cultural appropriation—the idea that white artists and communities have stolen elements of minority cultures in ways that
“She’s part of what’s destroying America.”
Sep 19th, 2016 4:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonPeter Walker shared an article in the Oregonian by Maxine Bernstein and introduced it with this:
I believe Linda Beck is one of many essential Malheur National Wildlife Refuge employees who are resigning or transferring due to the occupation– a huge loss, nearly impossible to replace. Ryan Bundy’s “nice to meet you” comment in court today is jarring. In January, when he hadn’t met Beck and knew nothing about the important work she does, Ryan Bundy said “She’s not here working for the people… She’s part of what’s destroying America.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Now Bernstein’s reporting on the trial:
… Read the restFish biologist Linda Beck, an eight-year employee at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, said she returned to her office
Episcopal pants in flames
Sep 19th, 2016 3:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonGoddy godbotherers lying for god again. Nicholas Senz at the Federalist kvetching about “religious liberty” again. Today the grievance is a report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights which includes the accurate observation that
“The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia or any form of intolerance,” said Chairman Julian Castro. He added, “today, as in past, religion is being used as both a weapon and a shield by those seeking to deny others equality. In our nation’s past religion has been used to justify slavery and later, Jim Crow laws.”
Yes, and?
And it’s time to obfuscate, deny and … Read the rest
Please do a slut drop
Sep 19th, 2016 1:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe comments on Meghan Murphy’s pole dancing piece are a sight to behold. So much denial, so much fury, so much how dare you.
One:
It’s sad that there are people out there that think like this. You’re following a very strange line of reasoning in this article. To me (and probably many others) the line of reasoning is this: “Because men find this sexy, you shouldn’t do it.” The problem with that is that men will fetishize just about anything. As a woman, you shouldn’t have to alter your life, thoughts, or actions because of what men are thinking, (which is how I view feminism).
Except the line of reasoning is not “you shouldn’t do it.” It’s that … Read the rest
What did you think you were getting into?
Sep 19th, 2016 12:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis dissent from the “true” mother piece is much harsher than mine. Also funnier.
In these moments I am reminded how easily our worth as individuals, along with the bonds we form with our loved ones, can wither before the relentless gaze of society. That is the prison not only for transgender women and mothers but, I increasingly realize, for all women and mothers.
What did you think you were getting into before you transitioned? What did you think women’s lives were like? If you were always a woman, and were socialised as a girl, how could you not know it?
My version was just: It’s interesting that she’s only now realizing that women are subject to social scrutiny … Read the rest
A classic bait-and-switch
Sep 18th, 2016 5:06 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd then there’s the Trump “University” fraud.
The New Yorker was on it in June:
Following the release, earlier this week, of testimony filed in a federal lawsuit against Trump University, the United States is facing a high-stakes social-science experiment. Will one of the world’s leading democracies elect as its President a businessman who founded and operated a for-profit learning annex that some of its own employees regarded as a giant ripoff, and that the highest legal officer in New York State has described as a classic bait-and-switch scheme?
It’s certainly coming way too close. Why isn’t fraud and theft a disqualifier? Can we do something about that? Before 2020?
… Read the restIf anyone still has any doubt about the troubling
The pole community
Sep 18th, 2016 3:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonMeghan Murphy points out that pole dancing is what it is and not something else.
Until last week she hadn’t realized that pole dancers dislike feminism but also want to be in its clubhouse.
… Read the restI was aware that pole dancing classes were now being offered to women and girls as young as eight, normalized by those who ran “pole fitness” businesses as a neutral form exercise, despite the fact that this activity is marketed almost solely to females and exercise gear includes what are commonly known as “stripper heels” (even when the “polers” are young girls). But I was not aware of the awkward lingo, the fact that there was a “pole community,” or the fact that “polers”
It was about jobs
Sep 18th, 2016 2:41 pm | By Ophelia BensonJeff Sharlet recommends a new book:
… Read the restThere is no book published in the last ten years, including any of my own, that brings me more pleasure and pride: THE FIXERS, by Julia Rabig, available now on Amazon. Julie is my wife, but also my favorite historian. I might be biased, so here are some comments from top scholars in her field:
“Narrative history at its finest”; “One of those myth-shattering books — one that compels a rethinking of black political economy, urban crises, and recent America itself.” — Devin Fergus, Ohio State
“Beautifully written”; “a must-read for historians of poverty, urban politics, race, and the history of capitalism.” — Annelise Orleck, Dartmouth College
MYTH-SHATTERING! “A must-read.” That’s big
How to dissect a speech you have neither heard nor read
Sep 18th, 2016 12:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonMaxine Beneba Clarke tells the story of how she and Melissa Lucashenko confronted Lionel Shriver the day after Shriver’s talk on cultural appropriation. She seems to think it reflects well on her; I think it doesn’t.
She starts with an overwrought account of Shriver’s talk, or rather, of reading tweets about Shriver’s talk in her hotel room…which is not quite the same thing. She didn’t attend Shriver’s talk.
She provides a long string of furious tweets, which is not a very dispassionate way of informing us about the talk.
… Read the rest“Many people have walked out of Lionel Shriver’s keynote.”
“I just walked out of Lionel Shriver’s opening keynote. Never done that before.”
“Finished her opening speech in a sombrero.”
“Lionel Shriver’s
Splaining
Sep 18th, 2016 9:54 am | By Ophelia BensonMischa Haider tells us how difficult it is being a trans woman with children. People look at her funny in the playground.
In these moments I am reminded how easily our worth as individuals, along with the bonds we form with our loved ones, can wither before the relentless gaze of society. That is the prison not only for transgender women and mothers but, I increasingly realize, for all women and mothers.
It’s interesting that she’s only now realizing that women are subject to social scrutiny and devaluation.
… Read the restWe inhabit a world in which we are seen as passive receptacles, defined by an oppressive normative gaze sharpened through millennia of misogynistic formulations long accepted as inarguable facts of nature.
Get a job in the exciting field of prostitution
Sep 17th, 2016 4:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonSchool careers officers could suggest prostitution as a line of work for pupils, the Lib Dem conference has heard.
Dennis Parsons, the chairman of Cheltenham Liberal Democrats, floated the idea at a special session on sex work.
The Lib Dem said careers officers are not allowed to suggest prostitution, but added: “Why shouldn’t they?”
Good question. Why also shouldn’t they be allowed to suggest pupils could sell themselves into slavery? Careers officers could be urging pupils to sample the joys of working in garment factories in Bangladesh, or the leather industry in India, or cleaning sewers in Mogadishu, or sweeping the streets in North Korea. There are horrible dangerous jobs everywhere, so why shouldn’t school … Read the rest
Peel’s Principles of Law Enforcement
Sep 17th, 2016 3:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonSomething all Americans should be aware of, and aren’t. I wasn’t. Helen Dale pointed it out on Facebook, and we Americans had to confess ignorance. “Christ on a skateboard,” said Helen.
Sir Robert Peel ‘s Principles of Law Enforcement 1829
… Read the rest
- The basic mission for which police exist is to prevent crime and disorder as an alternative to the repression of crime and disorder by military force and severity of legal punishment.2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police existence, actions, behaviour and the ability of the police to secure and maintain public respect.3. The police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be
Elizabeth Colson
Sep 17th, 2016 11:51 am | By Ophelia BensonVia Neil Shubin, an obituary of anthropologist Elizabeth Colson from UC Berkeley:
Elizabeth Colson, a trailblazing professor emerita in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, died Aug. 3 at the age of 99 at her home in Zambia, Africa. Since the 1940s, she studied social change related to forced displacement, migration, development, kinship and political anthropology that carried implications far beyond the African continent.
She was watching birds from her verandah when she had a fatal stroke. That’s a good last thing to be doing, if you ask me.
… Read the rest“Truckloads of Zambians attended, tribal chiefs, university people, government people, Zambian(s) singing,” colleague Laura Nader, also a senior professor in anthropology at UC Berkeley, wrote in a remembrance of
Every time he speaks
Sep 17th, 2016 11:10 am | By Ophelia BensonA Trump classic from two years ago:
Every time I speak of the haters and losers I do so with great love and affection. They cannot help the fact that they were born fucked up!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 29, 2014
The lying cheating thieving bullying fraud calls other people losers and born fucked up.… Read the rest
The occupiers
Sep 17th, 2016 10:22 am | By Ophelia BensonMaxine Bernstein reports on scenes from the Bundy trial:
FBI agents on Friday took the witness stand to reveal some of the hundreds of thousands of Facebook posts and private messages that defendants in the Oregon standoff trial made in late December and throughout the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Testimony focused on many of Ammon Bundy’s Facebook posts in late December and January, including his “Call for Action” in Burns on behalf of a pair of local ranchers poised to return to federal prison, and how his comments were interpreted.
Some people innocently thought that Bundy didn’t mean violent action, and urged him to make that clearer.
… Read the restSome followers said they were confused about the
Trump again hints Clinton should be shot
Sep 16th, 2016 5:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonFrom the Guardian’s live coverage of the campaign:
… Read the restMere hours after he appeared to put one of the oldest criticisms of his presidential campaign to rest with the acknowledgment that President Barack Obama was born in the United States, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told supporters that his opponent’s Secret Service detail should disarm itself due to what he characterized as her opposition to the Second Amendment.
“Take their guns away,” Trump said of Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent. “Let’s see what happens to her.”
Speaking at a campaign rally in Miami, Florida, Trump criticized Clinton’s stance on gun-control issues, characterizing her stance as wanting to “abolish” the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the