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470 lines
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<title>11 May, 2022</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Midwest Abortion Providers Scramble to Prepare for a Post-Roe World</strong> - With federal protections imperilled, advocates expect a dramatic influx of interstate “refugees” seeking care. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/midwest-abortion-providers-scramble-to-prepare-for-a-post-roe-%20world">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>At Last, a Piece of Encouraging News on Inflation</strong> - The employment report for April indicates that an important driver of rising prices is moderating. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/at-last-a-piece-of-encouraging-news-on-inflation">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Alito’s Draft Opinion on Abortion Rights Would Change America</strong> - One way to illustrate the reach of the leaked draft by the Supreme Court Justice is to look at what the options for defending reproductive rights would be in its wake. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/05/16/how-alitos-draft-opinion-on-abortion-rights-would-change-%20america">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Biggest Potential Water Disaster in the United States</strong> - In California, millions of residents and thousands of farmers depend on the Bay-Delta for fresh water—but they can’t agree on how to protect it. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-biggest-potential-water-disaster-in-the-united-states">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” Is a Formulaic Corporate Slog</strong> - The Marvel characters gathered here might as well wear nametags and do team-building exercises. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-is-a-formulaic-%20corporate-slog">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>The good and bad news about housing for LGBTQ Americans</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="New York City’s Stonewall Inn decorated with rainbow flags." src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/qyu2J81Y6tBhcpmhKSj_ZvJxAjI=/0x75:3000x2325/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70855926/GettyImages-141510668.0.0.1522090971.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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New York City’s Stonewall Inn will be a national monument. | Ben Hider/Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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LGBTQ Americans finally won Fair Housing Act protections. Here’s how they’re working.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5RZHNP">
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It’s been a particularly difficult time for Dianne Karon, a 65-year-old transgender woman, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/23021971/florida-gay-trans-lgbtq-laws">the political vitriol aimed at queer and trans people has escalated</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="63sxEf">
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Despite this, Karon says she still feels lucky because she has safe and secure housing after landing a spot in <a href="https://www.stonewallhousebk.com/">Stonewall House</a>, a Brooklyn LGBTQ- friendly senior housing development that opened in 2019. Like many queer and trans people, she has struggled to find permanent housing, and having served time in prison certainly didn’t make things easier.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZWwJuG">
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“I would be living on the streets if it wasn’t for [Stonewall House],” Karon said. “It is the best, and I don’t have to hide myself.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0w5VGO">
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LGBTQ individuals have long faced difficulties finding and maintaining stable housing. Studies have found housing providers <a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/Publications/pdf/Hsg_Disc_against_SameSexCpls_exec_summ_v2.pdf">favor heterosexual couples</a> over same-sex partners and <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/paired-testing-pilot-study-
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housing-discrimination-against-same-sex-couples-and-transgender-individuals">provide transgender applicants fewer options</a> than cis applicants when they disclose their gender status. Housing searches can be <a href="https://equalrightscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/senior_housing_report.pdf">particularly challenging</a> for the roughly 3 million LGBTQ adults over the age of 50, who grew up in a time when being open about one’s identity was <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/258065/gallup-first-polled-gay-issues-changed.aspx">far less accepted</a>. And LGBTQ people have had little redress; while housing discrimination based on traits like race and disability status is banned under the Fair Housing Act, a landmark civil rights statute passed 54 years ago, sexual orientation and gender identity weren’t protected <a href="https://www.vox.com/22277074/biden-lgbtq-housing-urban-development-fair-housing-act">until 2021</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nvvZMp">
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It’s a huge shift for the LGBTQ community, though experts say there’s a long way to go before these new rights reach those they’re meant to protect. To get there will require building trust among LGBTQ individuals that their concerns will be taken seriously, and standing up sustained and proactive training and enforcement for all the many gatekeepers involved in the housing market. The government’s track record in these areas is far less than perfect.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y1kDxO">
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Implementation matters because policy changes alone aren’t enough to change behavior. And places like Karon’s Stonewall House, named for <a href="https://www.history.com/news/stonewall-riots-
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timeline">the 1969 Stonewall uprising</a> often cited as a turning point for the modern LGBTQ movement,<strong> </strong>aren’t sufficient. Though it’s<strong> </strong>one of a handful of queer-friendly federally subsidized housing complexes across the country, experts recognize there will never be enough of those sorts of units to address the need, plus not all LGBTQ people want to live in those communities.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KBI2iU">
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Long term, addressing America’s housing crisis would give landlords and owners less power to discriminate. But here and now, the federal government can<strong> </strong>vigorously enforce anti-discrimination laws to ensure everyone, including LGBTQ Americans, can have safe, affordable homes.
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</p>
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<h3 id="NgGbq9">
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The Supreme Court has finally taken steps to protect LGBTQ Americans against some forms of discrimination
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n2Hwxz">
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Despite the wave of political and rhetorical attacks against LGBTQ individuals in the last decade, civil rights experts say there have never been more legal tools available in the US to fight LGBTQ housing discrimination. This fact can be traced largely back to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, just two years ago.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LhGsmu">
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In June 2020, Gorsuch, one of the court’s more conservative judges, wrote the majority opinion for <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/15/21291515/supreme-court-bostock-clayton-county-lgbtq-neil-
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gorsuch"><em>Bostock v.</em> <em>Clayton County</em></a><em>, </em>holding that a fair reading of “sex” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which prohibits job discrimination rooted in “an employee’s race, color, sex, religion or national origin”— covers those workers who are gay or transgender, too.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ulsRkh">
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The implications of this<em> </em>decision were enormous. On his first day in office, President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-preventing-and-combating-
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discrimination-on-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation/">issued an executive order</a> directing all federal agencies to review and ensure that their rules, regulations, and guidances were consistent with the <em>Bostock </em>decision.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tNKbuI">
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The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was the first agency to respond; on February 11, 2021, HUD <a href="https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/PA/documents/HUD_Memo_EO13988.pdf">issued a memo</a> authored by Jeanine Worden, the acting assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity, affirming that the Fair Housing Act’s sex discrimination provision was comparable to that of Title VII. Given that, HUD concluded, LGBTQ individuals would now be entitled to the same federal housing protections as everyone else under the law. HUD is “open and ready to assist persons who believe they have experienced discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity,” Worden wrote.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dj9vWp">
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Prior to <em>Bostock</em>, housing protections for LGBTQ individuals were spotty, and, in the majority of US states, altogether absent. As of 2016, <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/LGBT-Housing-Discrimination-US-Feb-2016.pdf">22 states</a> had laws prohibiting housing discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 19 of those had bans on housing discrimination based on gender identity. While HUD promulgated a rule in 2012 to ensure all individuals have access to the agency’s programs, shelters, services, and facilities, LGBTQ individuals could find little relief in the courts for housing discrimination in the regular rental and home-buying markets.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zUYQEO">
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These legal barriers were exemplified clearly in 2016 when Mary Walsh and Bev Nance, a married lesbian couple in Missouri, were denied housing at a senior living home explicitly because they were gay. The couple had been together for nearly four decades and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/michael-brown-st-louis-discrimination-lawsuits-
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couples-4110adb50ee3467f8628faeb93308884">applied to live in Friendship Village</a>, a retirement community. The women had long conversations with the facility’s staff, made multiple visits to see the units, and even paid their $2,000 deposit. But just days before signing their final agreement, they got a call from management requesting more details about their relationship. Following this conversation, Walsh and Nance were told Friendship Village would only accept couples that followed the “Biblical definition” of marriage, asserting that marriage was defined as between a man and a woman.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OTJNBm">
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Walsh and Nance <a href="https://www.relmanlaw.com/media/cases/79_Walsh%20-%20Amended%20Complaint.pdf">filed a lawsuit</a> alleging housing discrimination, but in 2019, a district court dismissed their complaint, stating that same-sex couples were not entitled to protection under the Fair Housing Act.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QPU9A1">
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Then came <em>Bostock. </em>Michael Allen, <a href="https://www.relmanlaw.com/">a civil rights attorney</a> who helped litigate Walsh and Nance’s<em> </em>case, said that following the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling, lawyers for Friendship Village called and asked if they would consider a settlement. Walsh and Nance agreed, and while the terms are confidential, Friendship Village now makes clear in its handbook that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is forbidden.
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</p>
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<h3 id="yv0LJ4">
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Progress has been made since <em>Bostock</em>, but not enough
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qzKIgG">
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Over the last year, Allen told me, there has been “no confusion at all” in the courts about applying <em>Bostock </em>to fair housing, and he says civil rights lawyers are “in very good shape” to build out more cases going forward, which will help solidify <em>Bostock’</em>s<em> </em>reasoning to future housing disputes.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZTdyvy">
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But while the courts understand the law, the burden of enforcement generally falls to the individual.<strong> </strong>You have to know your housing rights to seek redress, and you need the wherewithal to take action.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8RDv1R">
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HUD does have a tool to mitigate that burden: Individuals can <a href="https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/online-complaint">file administrative complaints</a> with HUD at no cost, and federal housing officials will then investigate them. In other words, people can start the process without paying expensive lawyer fees up front.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h2Udq5">
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If an administrative law judge later hears a case, the plaintiff can get a lawyer, but they are not required to. Attorneys are also incentivized to represent individuals with strong evidence of housing discrimination because if the plaintiffs win, then the defense must cover their attorney’s legal fees.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mEmAA2">
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HUD, in turn, has started to take steps to more proactively solicit concerns from LGBTQ tenants and homeowners<em>. </em>In announcing the Worden memo last year, HUD officials said they had <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/11/966514447/hud-to-probe-housing-bias-cases-
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involving-sexual-orientation-or-gender-identity">received 197 claims</a> of housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in 2020. A HUD spokesperson told Vox the agency had received 232 cases in 2021, still a far cry from the number of race-based (2,514) and disability-related (4,855) complaints filed that year. It will take time, experts say, before more LGBTQ Americans really learn about the agency’s changes and trust HUD to take their problems seriously.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gzdL0x">
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And more needs to be done. In 2021, Amy Hillier, a University of Pennsylvania social policy professor, and devin michelle bunten, an urban economics and housing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.9783/9780812297447-008/html?lang=en">published an analysis</a> on how to bring more queer and intersectional approaches to fair housing. Specifically concerning the Fair Housing Act itself, they say<strong> </strong>there’s still room to reinterpret the language to more broadly protect LGBTQ individuals. While the law protects people from discrimination on the basis of “family status,” this currently does not include the chosen families<em> </em>of many queer and trans individuals. “The legality of private discrimination against most household structures mirrors the skepticism of nonnormative housing long espoused by public policy,” they write.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vWiirN">
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To be clear, passing new federal protections won’t solve the broader shortage of affordable housing. Implementing those new laws with fidelity won’t even mean the end to LGBTQ discrimination. Race-based discrimination in housing has been illegal since 1968 under the Fair Housing Act. Anti-Asian violence has for years been illegal under civil and criminal statutes. Both still, unfortunately, exist throughout society.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y25g5E">
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“The Fair Housing Act is just a tool, but without it, at least in the housing realm, people could discriminate against LGBTQ individuals with impunity,” said Allen. “This will correct for that.”
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>What is a trend anymore?</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A vintage-like cartoon drawing of a woman in a strapless dress, next to various articles of
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clothing. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HQOk77YAmptGPquGHzsAs1JGi-o=/322x0:3679x2518/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70855838/GettyImages_532285399.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Trend brain encourages us to simplify everything online into something either buyable, understandable, or moral — and therefore worthy of consumption. | Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Everything and anything can be a trend on the internet. Why are we so determined to name them?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SiviNc">
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One of the recent trends on TikTok is an aesthetic called “night luxe.” It embodies the kind of performative opulence one usually encounters at New Year’s Eve parties: champagne, disco balls, bedazzled accessories, and golden sparkles.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JiI8Id">
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“Night luxe” doesn’t actually mean anything. It isn’t a <a href="https://www.glossy.co/beauty/the-night-luxe-aesthetic-instagram-and-tiktoks-post-wellness-vibe-
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shift/">reaction to wellness culture</a>, nor is it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-night-luxe-vibe-
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shift-fashion-partying-over-wellness-2022-4">proof that partying is “in”</a> again (has partying ever been “out”?). It’s just one of many aesthetic designations for which the internet has contrived a buzzy, meaningless portmanteau. Rest assured that night luxe will likely have faded into irrelevance by the time this article is published, only for another meme-ified aesthetic (i.e., <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a39943685/jennifer-lopez-coastal-
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grandmother-aesthetic-mothers-day/">coastal grandmother</a>) to be crowned the next viral “trend.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pYcSxS">
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The tendency to register and categorize things, whether it be one’s identity, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22950721/david-kibbe-body-typing-explainer">body type</a>, or <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/02/aesthetics-wiki-cottagecore-tumblr-
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tiktok/617923/">aesthetic preferences</a>, is a natural part of online life. People have a penchant for naming elusive digital phenomena, but TikTok has only accelerated the use of cutesy aesthetic nomenclature. Anything that’s vaguely popular online must be defined or decoded — and ultimately, reduced to a bundle of marketable vibes with a kitschy label.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x9wKn7">
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Last month, Harper’s Bazaar fashion news director Rachel Tashjian <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/fashion-week/a39631139/fear-of-god-eternal-jerry-lorenzo-
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interview/">declared</a> that “we’re living through a mass psychosis expressing itself through trend reporting.” There is, I would argue, as much reporting as there is trend manufacturing. No one is sure exactly what a trend is anymore or if it’s just an unfounded observation gone viral. The distinction doesn’t seem to matter, since TikTok — and the consumer market — demands novelty. It creates ripe conditions for a <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-
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goods/22841564/internet-trends-tiktok-sea-shanties-bama-rush">garbage-filled hellscape</a> where everything and anything has the potential to be a trend.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eC82cE">
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TikTok plucks niche digital aesthetics out of obscurity and serves them up to an audience that might not have known or cared in the first place. While aesthetic components were once integral to the formation of traditional subcultures, they’ve lost all meaning in this algorithmically driven visual landscape. Instead, subcultural images and attitudes become grouped under a ubiquitous, indefinable label of a “viral trend” — something that can be demystified, mimicked, sold, and bought.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fDBeIW">
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Trend brain, as I call it, encourages us to simplify everything online into something either buyable, understandable, or moral (<a href="https://twitter.com/p_e_0_n_y/status/1521517304919564289">and therefore worthy of consumption</a>). We may tire of trend talk, but there is a devout certainty to the speed at which they’re cycled through. There are more choices than ever today, but seemingly less authority as to what constitutes a trend’s lasting legitimacy. Consumers are left to grasp at these <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22570006/cool-consumer-identity-gen-z-cheugy">dwindling markers of cool</a>: fleeting fads to help us understand capital-C culture and ultimately, what’s on the horizon. How did we get here? And perhaps more importantly, will the trend churn ever stop?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N43s0Z">
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My theory begins with cottagecore. Cottagecore, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/8/3/21349640/cottagecore-taylor-swift-folklore-
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lesbian-clothes-animal-crossing">for the unfamiliar</a>, is an online aesthetic that glamorizes aspects of rural living: bucolic pastures, pastel-colored sundresses, and the virtues of idle homemaking. It emerged on Tumblr in 2018, and, like night luxe, exists largely as an online state of mind — a moodboard intended for digital cosplay. Anyone on the internet could personify this charming sylvan lifestyle, simply by sharing images or videos of mossy fields, farm animals, and prairie dresses.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IsJJfG">
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When cottagecore went viral on TikTok in 2020, however, it morphed into something concretely buyable. It became a lifestyle to emulate via mass consumption through <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/the-allure-of-the-nap-dress-the-look-of-gussied-up-
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||
oblivion">nap dresses</a>, woven bags, rustic home trinkets, and a room’s worth of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22611799/houseplants-environmental-impact-youtube">potted plants</a>. Cottagecore’s mainstream popularity coincided with the pandemic’s early months, a time when people were desperately searching for a sense of escapism, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/3/21206230/coronavirus-shopping-beans-seeds-weights">often by buying lots of stuff</a>. The aesthetic reflected a kind of quaint domesticity, which was fitting for the spring quarantine. On Tumblr, a visual blogging platform, online aesthetics could transcend physicality. On TikTok, which has become an informal but powerful product recommendation engine, a prerequisite for most aesthetic trends is tangible accessibility. In other words, what could a person wear or buy to embody cottagecore?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="oGueVn">
|
||
<blockquote cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@0utfits4.you/video/7026740800985844998" class="tiktok-embed">
|
||
<section>
|
||
<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@0utfits4.you" target="_blank" title="@0utfits4.you"><span class="citation" data-cites="0utfits4.you">@0utfits4.you</span></a>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
cottagecore outfits!! <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/outfits" target="_blank" title="outfits">#outfits</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/shein" target="_blank" title="shein">#shein</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp" target="_blank" title="fyp">#fyp</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/trending" target="_blank" title="trending">#trending</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/cottage" target="_blank" title="cottage">#cottage</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/cottagecore" target="_blank" title="cottagecore">#cottagecore</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/foryou" target="_blank" title="foryou">#foryou</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/Hey-Lover-by-The-Daughters-Of-
|
||
Eve-6782576027332823814" target="_blank" title="♬ Hey Lover by The Daughters Of Eve - maisy merkel">♬ Hey Lover by The Daughters Of Eve - maisy merkel</a>
|
||
</section>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CrEpZN">
|
||
For media outlets, fashion blogs, and TikTok trend forecasters, the frenzy to identify, categorize, and decode every emerging aesthetic is not just driven by algorithms. The hype can be profitable too. This content-dependent relationship occurs most visibly in fashion, coalescing into what Vox’s Rebecca Jennings has dubbed <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22911116/tiktok-couture-
|
||
fashion-trends">“TikTok couture.”</a> Trends, or the illusion of a trend, benefit the fast-fashion companies and direct- to-consumer brands making products that aesthetically align with such fleeting fancies. They can also often act as major sponsors and advertisers for content creators and publications.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2MUgB9">
|
||
The problem, so to speak, isn’t cottagecore, night luxe, or the concept of micro-aesthetics. It’s the fact that modern consumers are bombarded with a neverending stream of inconsequential trends to take note of — marketing vessels for products that fit into a paradigm devoid of meaning. This doesn’t just concern the fashion world: The effects of trend-induced brain rot have trickled into online discourse. The topics and figures deemed most important on the internet are based on where they fall along this spectrum of trendiness, depending on the scale of attention they command.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gzcCPP">
|
||
In his 1967 book <em>Society of the Spectacle</em>, the French philosopher Guy Debord introduced the concept of recuperation: the process by which subcultural ideas and images become commodified and reincorporated into mainstream society. Throughout the 20th century, recuperation was achieved through mass media. It was done with the intent or effect of depoliticizing radical social movements and subcultures, rendering them comprehensible — and therefore less threatening — to mainstream society.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e60A1n">
|
||
A version of recuperation is playing out on the internet today with micro-aesthetics, memes, and the online communities they stem from. Unlike the radical subcultures of yore, which had their own visual schema, language, and aesthetics, these digital scenes aren’t exactly subcultures, at least not in the traditional sense. (Subcultures like hippies, punks, and mods existed in stark opposition to the mainstream, often with a clear political ethos and a distinct style of dress.) Some draw inspiration or pay homage to distinct countercultures of a bygone era, but it might be more accurate to consider them <a href="https://thenewinquiry.com/our-brand-could-be-your-
|
||
crisis/">“aesthetic submarkets,”</a> to use a phrase coined by writer and creative strategist Ayesha Siddiqi.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ctIWUs">
|
||
These submarkets are not entirely void of politics. Instead, they often promote a sort of political anesthetization. The digital embodiment of a certain aesthetic or attitude (i.e., <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/25/opinion/reactionary-new-right.html">“reactionary chic”</a>) takes precedence over genuine political resistance. Recuperation, at least on TikTok, isn’t always a process of depoliticization. It’s an attempt at repackaging ideas, attitudes, and aesthetics into identifiable trends — something that can be capitalized on for attention or profit, comprehended, and widely consumed by a mass audience.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KTgozN">
|
||
Social media writ large has eradicated basically any sense of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/17/21024439/monoculture-
|
||
algorithm-netflix-spotify">a digital monoculture</a>. “You have so many taste communities, but they don’t exist in opposition to anything,” said Ana Andjelic, a brand executive who writes about <a href="https://andjelicaaa.substack.com/p/targeting-taste-communities?s=r">the sociology of business</a>. “Culture has decentralized. The center, the mainstream, has disappeared.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s7uMab">
|
||
The trajectory of TikTok’s many micro- trends is practically a parody of the early 2010s internet, a period that marked the beginning of the end of a mutually agreed-upon monoculture. There was still the “lamestream” to rebel against, a clear spectrum between normie and alt to position yourself on. The 2010s was, broadly speaking, <a href="https://nymag.com/news/features/69129/">the twilight of the hipster</a>, when alternative music and fashion blogs were gospel and indie tastemakers the ultimate arbiters of cool. That is, until <a href="https://scarycoolsadgoodbye.substack.com/p/scary-cool-sad-goodbye-22?s=r">hipster-dom</a> morphed into an aestheticized parody of itself on social media, transmuting into a rebloggable, buyable identity <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/5/7/21247938/tumblr-aesthetic-2014-nostalgia-tiktok-indie-pop">courtesy of Tumblr</a> and Urban Outfitters.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="sdaRAK">
|
||
<q>“Culture has decentralized. The center, the mainstream, has disappeared.”</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w4vCzV">
|
||
“The visibility and virality of social platforms made it really hard for subcultures to stay subcultures. It became a way for people to connect online that didn’t need a specific physical space,” said Sean Monahan, a Los Angeles-based trend consultant who writes the weekly newsletter 8Ball. (Monahan was a member of K-HOLE, the disbanded art collective that coined the term <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2014/02/normcore-fashion-trend.html">“normcore”</a> and is somewhat responsible for the prevalence of “-core” as an aesthetic suffix.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f0i6bF">
|
||
“When something became popular in the 2010s, it would blow up online and onlookers would start showing up,” he added. “Instead of forming a subculture, brand partnerships started to happen.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="Y8plK2">
|
||
<q>“Instead of forming a subculture, brand partnerships started to happen”</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rHmQf0">
|
||
Virality isn’t always a bad thing, but it chips away at this once-valued notion of authenticity, of discovering a music or fashion scene first. Today, this sentiment doesn’t matter nearly as much. Trend mania is considered passé among young social media users. Teenagers, for instance, are accustomed to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/02/aesthetics-wiki-cottagecore-tumblr-
|
||
tiktok/617923/">trying on digital aesthetics</a> like clothes (and also <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-
|
||
goods/2021/7/19/22535050/gen-z-relationship-fast-fashion">buying fast fashion</a> to represent these tastes), swapping out ones that no longer fit their aspirational personality, style, or vibe. Taste communities, as Andjelic mentioned, aren’t competing for social relevance. Cottagecore and night luxe can coexist in harmony — and might even overlap in the demographics that they attract.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xGQiIr">
|
||
“Gen Z is better able to treat culture as a playground with less self-conscious dissonance because it’s not as central to their identity formation as it was for [millennials],” argued Siddiqi <a href="https://ayeshaasiddiqi.substack.com/p/memento-millenial?s=r">in a newsletter post</a>. “For them, the digital is the mainstream. And it’s disposable. Being ‘alternative’ doesn’t have the same currency since it’s an identity accessible to anyone.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kHwbGG">
|
||
It’s fitting that the so-called revival of indie sleaze, or 2010s hipster-ism, induced a bout of mild hysteria among Twitter millennials, who fretted over whether they would survive the “vibe shift.” The phrase “vibe shift” has nebulous origins on the internet, but Monahan deployed the term in his newsletter — which was later picked up by <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2022/02/a-vibe-shift-is-coming.html">New York magazine</a> — to describe “the subjective experience that culture has changed when we left quarantine and Covid.” The vibe shift is just an empty signifier, he told me, like a lot of TikTok trend taxonomy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="4INupz">
|
||
</div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<blockquote cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@oldloserinbrooklyn/video/7021634496009161989" class="tiktok-embed">
|
||
<section>
|
||
<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@oldloserinbrooklyn" target="_blank" title="@oldloserinbrooklyn"><span class="citation" data-cites="oldloserinbrooklyn">@oldloserinbrooklyn</span></a>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Trend forecast: indie sleaze revival <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/trendcycle" target="_blank" title="trendcycle">#trendcycle</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/nostalgia" target="_blank" title="nostalgia">#nostalgia</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/tumblrfashion" target="_blank" title="tumblrfashion">#tumblrfashion</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/indiekid" target="_blank" title="indiekid">#indiekid</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/Sex-and-the-City-Main-
|
||
Theme-6709415906423867393" target="_blank" title="♬ Sex and the City (Main Theme) - TV Sounds Unlimited">♬ Sex and the City (Main Theme) - TV Sounds Unlimited</a>
|
||
</section>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xOAZXA">
|
||
“We live in an age where everyone is rushing to name and schematize cultural phenomena,” Monahan said. “It just makes it easier for people to be organized for mass consumption.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="83h8LB">
|
||
The ceaseless tornado of TikTok trends reflects a chaotic consumer landscape, one where people are looking to their peers, not institutional tastemakers, for guidance. It’s why so many creators on TikTok are <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/23021836/tiktok-analysis-commentary-creators">trying to launch careers</a> off of summarizing, predicting, and investigating the zeitgeist.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vA0MQG">
|
||
It’s a jarring shift, particularly for Gen X-ers and older millennials, who grew up accustomed to the duality of the consumer experience. Regardless of what a consumer personally chose to espouse, what once was declared a trend was considered “in,” while its opposing counterpart was “out.” These declarations have grown murky and irrelevant, although media outlets are still primed to drum up trend discourse for clicks. (The <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-
|
||
goods/2021/2/16/22280755/tiktok-gen-z-millennials-skinny-jeans-side-part">generational scuffle</a> over whether skinny jeans were “in” or “out,” if you ask me, was a psy-op concocted by Levi’s marketing department to sell more jeans.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w54hEO">
|
||
Trend brain operates on dichotomies: relevant vs. irrelevant, good vs. bad, buyable vs. unbuyable, cool vs. uncool. This mentality extends to how people perceive and react to the internet, where even a whimsical aesthetic can become a commodified status signal — a way to demonstrate that you’re a distinct individual who is in the know. With the mass decentralization of culture, even while platforms are becoming increasingly centralized, there’s no way for a sane person to keep up. The problem is, we’re told that we can. We’re told we must evolve to keep up or our digital personas will wither into irrelevance as our style grows stale.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GmUvCS">
|
||
And here we all remain: trapped in the throes of increasingly meaningless trends.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>The Senate’s doomed vote on abortion rights, explained</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="Protesters carry a banner that reads “Repro freedom for all.”" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/E3HnAxMrVtaGigW-O4rzsTWivAk=/0x0:5333x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70855759/1240579881.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Abortion-rights advocates march in the street to stage a protest outside the house of Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito in the Fort Hunt neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, on Monday, May 9, 2022. | Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Why the Senate is voting on an abortion bill that’s sure to fail.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QKQ77c">
|
||
In <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/28/22946299/womens-health-protection-act-senate-vote-abortion-
|
||
rights">March, a Senate vote</a> on an abortion rights bill failed 46-48. This week, lawmakers are about to take the same vote, and ultimately get a similar outcome.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t5yG3h">
|
||
The new vote, however, comes nine days after a bombshell <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473">report from Politico</a> revealed that the Supreme Court could be on the verge of overturning <em>Roe v. Wade. </em>Because of this report, Democrats see a vital need to vote on the issue again, underscoring where they — and vulnerable Republicans — stand ahead of the midterms.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ETAM9f">
|
||
“People in our country need to know where we all stand on the issue of protecting a woman’s right to control her own body. That’s it,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) told Vox.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BNuEeh">
|
||
This week’s vote will be the second on <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/28/22946299/womens-health-
|
||
protection-act-senate-vote-abortion-rights">the Women’s Health Protection Act</a> (WHPA), which would guarantee providers’ ability to perform an abortion and individuals’ right to access one. It’s widely expected to fail, given the filibuster and internal divides among Democrats about abortion rights. While <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/10/sen-bob-casey-abortion-roe-whpa/">Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA)</a>, a longtime holdout on abortion rights legislation, has announced that he’ll back the bill, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) still hasn’t indicated where he stands.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v6IZim">
|
||
Because it probably won’t pass, the vote is meant to rally the Democratic base while giving Democrats ammunition to use against Republican challengers in the 2022 midterms.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vIWXEy">
|
||
“Republicans have made their position clear: They want to end abortion,” says Sara Spain, a national press secretary for advocacy group Emily’s List. “The WHPA vote is yet another reminder that Democrats stand with the voters and our rights while Republicans are on the other side.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YtIewg">
|
||
Already, candidates in battleground states like Wisconsin and New Hampshire have cited Republicans’ stances on abortion in campaign ads. Democrats have seized, too, on comments Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently made <a href="https://thehill.com/news/senate/3480725-mcconnell-says-national-abortion-ban-possible/">signaling openness to a national abortion ban,</a> and used them as an example of why it’s important for Democratic voters to show up this November. Democrats also hope this vote will show voters that they are trying to pass protections on the issue.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WAxz5u">
|
||
“Republicans will have two choices. They can own the destruction of women’s rights, or they can reverse course and work to prevent the damage,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech last week.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="J6h37q">
|
||
What the bill would do
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j7T3yR">
|
||
The Women’s Health Protection Act would enshrine into federal law the right to access and perform an abortion, and it would supersede state laws on the issue. It would effectively neutralize laws <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2021-10-05/states-enact-record-number-of-
|
||
abortion-restrictions-in-2021">in 19 states</a> that have sought to severely curb access to abortion or ban it altogether.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PAeHgT">
|
||
Specifically, the act would bar six-week and 20-week bans on abortions. It would also prohibit policies, like ultrasound requirements and waiting periods, that attempt to make it more burdensome to obtain an abortion. The legislation’s text makes it clear that it’s a direct response to what the bill’s sponsors say are more than 500 state and local laws limiting abortion access implemented in some way since 2011.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UIIBUW">
|
||
Such restrictions have disproportionately harmed low-income people — particularly <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/minority-women-affected-abortion-banned-limited-82599673">Black and Hispanic people</a> — who are already less likely to have health care coverage for abortions, and who face more obstacles accessing alternative options if their states erect barriers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EoEIhL">
|
||
While the WHPA would provide sweeping abortion protections, it wouldn’t supersede laws addressing insurance coverage for abortions. There have been strict limits on Medicaid coverage of abortions because of the Hyde Amendment’s restrictions on the use of federal funding for such health care. Democrats had hoped to get rid of the rule, which typically hitches a ride on appropriations legislation, but couldn’t get the Republican votes they needed to do so.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="CfkHEy">
|
||
Why Democrats haven’t been able to pass the bill
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3nw2MM">
|
||
Democrats face two challenges when it comes to passing an abortion rights bill in Congress: the Senate filibuster and their own disagreements on the issue.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IsImgR">
|
||
Due to the legislative filibuster, most bills need 60 votes to pass, meaning Democrats would have to get their entire caucus on board and 10 Republicans to join them. Even with Casey’s support — and even if Manchin votes yes — 10 GOP senators voting to protect abortion rights is not going to happen.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="efxgr1">
|
||
Another option would be to overturn the filibuster. They’d need all 50 members on board to eliminate the filibuster on any bill, backing they don’t currently have for any issue since Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have opposed it. It’s an even longer shot with abortion rights, seeing as Democrats aren’t unified on legislation codifying <em>Roe</em>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1G9LPW">
|
||
In the past, Manchin has voted against proceeding to a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, though he hasn’t yet revealed where he stands now.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k41A2D">
|
||
Theoretically, there’s a third option: get a couple of pro-abortion rights Republican senators to join with 48 or 49 Democratic senators to overturn the filibuster to then pass a law codifying <em>Roe</em>. Two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) – are in favor of abortion rights, but they aren’t on board with the Women’s Health Protection Act, arguing it’s too expansive and noting it supersedes certain laws they support.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zcwnAC">
|
||
They’ve proposed an alternative bill that seeks to codify the protections offered by <em>Roe</em> and <em>Planned Parenthood v. Casey.</em> Their bill would ensure that states can’t place an “undue burden” on people seeking an abortion, though it would give states more leeway to impose their own limitations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="knav1A">
|
||
Neither has signaled that they’d be willing to eliminate the filibuster to pass legislation codifying <em>Roe</em>, however.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QMjPRH">
|
||
Though the support of Collins and Murkowski wouldn’t get 60 votes, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/04/senate-abortion-vote-manchin-collins-
|
||
problems-00030148">there has been pressure on Schumer</a> to consider that bill to make the vote bipartisan. (Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) has also said he’s working with both Senators on another possible version of the bill.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="58hcke">
|
||
Schumer, however, has opted to <a href="https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/05-5-2022/">focus on Democrats’ version</a> and argued that lawmakers shouldn’t compromise on the issue. Strategically, voting on the WHPA will allow Democrats to say all Senate Republicans voted against abortion protections, helping them underscore the broad Republican opposition on the issue during the midterms.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IFepU3">
|
||
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the sponsor of Democrats’ bill, also says Collins and Murkowski’s bill falls short. “The other bill offers no protection,” he told Vox. “It permits states to impose bans using the loopholes and gaps in that law.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="9nLCHj">
|
||
This vote is about messaging for the midterms
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PuctJV">
|
||
Because of the obstacles they face in Congress, Democrats are looking to the midterms as their main recourse to protect their majority — and take action down the line.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sL4JJ4">
|
||
Candidates have already started focusing on abortion rights in major Senate races like New Hampshire, Nevada, and Wisconsin, hoping to rally voters since polling has repeatedly shown that most Americans <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/03/most-americans-say-supreme-court-should-uphold-roe-post-abc-
|
||
poll-finds/">support <em>Roe v. Wade</em></a><em>. </em>This doomed vote, ultimately, is intended to motivate Democratic voters, and to reach potential swing voters who think Republicans’ approach to the issue is too extreme.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6WdqtY">
|
||
This cycle, Senate Democrats are defending four incumbents in swing states: Sens. Mark Kelly (AZ), Raphael Warnock (GA), Maggie Hassan (NH), and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), while Republicans are defending the seats of incumbent Sens. Ron Johnson (WI) and Marco Rubio (FL), as well as open seats in Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GEQqcT">
|
||
Across these races, abortion is becoming a flashpoint. “The Republican men — and yes they are all men — running against me are all pushing an extreme, anti-choice agenda,” <a href="https://twitter.com/Maggie_Hassan/status/1521645835884404742">Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) tweeted last week</a>. Cortez Masto, too, has called out her opponent, former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, as “an automatic vote for legislation punishing women for seeking an abortion,” if he were elected. And <a href="https://sarahforwisconsin.com/%F0%9F%9A%A8new-tv-ad-alert-%F0%9F%9A%A8sarah-godlewski-launches-new-tv-ad-blasting-
|
||
ron-johnson-as-supreme-court-is-poised-to-overturn-roe-v-wade/">Wisconsin Democratic candidate Sarah Godlewski</a> has stressed Johnson’s past support for the state’s abortion ban, which would be reinstated if <em>Roe </em>falls.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wmlb9v">
|
||
“Voters won’t forget how anti-choice Republicans in the Senate like Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio helped bring about this crisis — or that they refuse to stand up for their constituents’ freedom to make their own decisions about their families and futures,” says NARAL Pro-Choice America acting communications director Ally Boguhn.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9hBsbX">
|
||
As <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/05/08/abortion-bans-gop-senate-candidates">Axios has reported,</a> Republican candidates in swing states including Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Florida, and Ohio have expressed strong support for abortion bans with limited exceptions.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jwGB18">
|
||
Democrats have been tying these candidates to the comments McConnell made about the possibility of passing a national abortion ban if Republicans have control of both chambers of Congress as well. They see this week’s vote as adding to the argument they’re making about the differences between the two parties on the issue — and the importance of electing even more Democrats to the Senate.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Shabelle, Disruptor and The Sovereign Orb shine</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EPL | Liverpool beats Villa 2-1, goes level on points with Manchester City</strong> - Sadio Mane scored the winner for Liverpool against Aston Villa as the Reds stay in the hunt for the EPL title</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Want to have the focus and concentration levels of Pujara: Pakistan wicketkeeper Rizwan</strong> - Both Pujara and Rizwan are playing for Sussex in the ongoing English County Championship</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Expanded Champions League first stage to have 8 rounds from 2024</strong> - A scaled-back first phase to the expanded Champions League has been approved by UEFA to quell a backlash around Europe</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Chhetri has recovered well, will be team's main force: Stimac ahead of Asian qualifiers</strong> - Sunil Chhetri will return to action after six months to play Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Cambodia in the Asian Cup qualifiers</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pro tem chairman to be appointed after Horatti’s resignation</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tie-up with YSRCP, TDP amounts to doing injustice to State: Somu Veerraju</strong> - Discord with JSP only a creation of the media, he says</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andhra Pradesh: Engine of Samata Express gets detached from bogies</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Explained | Marital rape in India: The history of the legal exception</strong> - The court took seven years to hear petitions seeking to criminalise marital rape before coming up with a split verdict.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>K.V Thomas is irrelevant now: Sudhakaran</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Putin preparing for long haul, US intelligence says</strong> - The US National Intelligence director warns the Russian president could turn to “more drastic means”.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Brexit: UK rejects EU proposal to limit impact of NI Protocol</strong> - The foreign secretary Lizz Truss says she will not shy away from taking “decisive action”.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UK PM to hold Ukraine talks with Sweden and Finland</strong> - Boris Johnson will meet the leaders of both nations, as they debate whether to join Nato.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Are Sweden and Finland going from neutral to Nato?</strong> - It would be a historic shift if they do and Russia is vehemently opposed to the change.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eurovision 2022: Ukraine presumed favourites after qualifying for final</strong> - Kalush Orchestra, who are tipped to win the song contest, secured an easy victory in the first semi-final.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The most important EV of the decade? We drive the F-150 Lightning</strong> - America’s bestseller now comes as a battery electric, starting at under $40,000. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1853173">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>US and its allies say Russia waged cyberattack that took out satellite network</strong> - February outage came an hour before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1853379">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EA Sports officially ends FIFA partnership after 30 years of games</strong> - FIFA promises to partner with other developers for “the only authentic, real game.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1853363">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Elon Musk says Twitter banning Trump was “morally wrong and flat-out stupid”</strong> - Musk confirms he would reverse Trump’s Twitter ban if he completes acquisition. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1853356">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why our continued use of fossil fuels is creating a financial time bomb</strong> - We’re investing in things that will have little value if we move off fossil fuels. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1852602">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>What do a 14-year-old pregnant girl and the child inside her have in common?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Both are thinking “Oh no! My mom’s gonna kill me!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Devfterr"> /u/Devfterr </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/un5mpz/what_do_a_14yearold_pregnant_girl_and_the_child/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/un5mpz/what_do_a_14yearold_pregnant_girl_and_the_child/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>What’s the difference between a police officer and a bullet?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
When a bullet kills someone else, you know it’s been fired
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mkassem582"> /u/mkassem582 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/un2tuw/whats_the_difference_between_a_police_officer_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/un2tuw/whats_the_difference_between_a_police_officer_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>So she told me that I was the worst she has ever had on bed.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
How could she make that judgement on 30 seconds ?
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/r0stay"> /u/r0stay </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/un1vor/so_she_told_me_that_i_was_the_worst_she_has_ever/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/un1vor/so_she_told_me_that_i_was_the_worst_she_has_ever/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>8 year old son’s greatest joke</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
My son told me this joke years ago and it still is my favourite joke. He came home from school one day and says ‘Dad, I have a joke for you.’ I said, oh yes, let’s hear it. Very low expectations at this point. He said ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’, I replied with the usual, ‘I don’t know son, why did the chicken cross the road?’. He said, ‘to get to the idiots house.’ I gave him a yuck, yuck to not crush him, thinking he still is developing a sense of humour.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Anyway, he comes back again 10 minutes later and says, ‘Dad, I have another joke for you.’ I said, sure thing son. He said ‘knock, knock’, I said, ‘who’s there?’, he said ‘the chicken’.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
It took me a moment to connect the two jokes, but I laughed genuinely.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/NoWhatIMeantWas"> /u/NoWhatIMeantWas </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/un5fgi/8_year_old_sons_greatest_joke/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/un5fgi/8_year_old_sons_greatest_joke/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A girl once asked me if I was a breast or legs guy</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
I told her I was more into anal and feet
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Now I’m banned from KFC
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!--
|
||
SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/fhqwhgadsz"> /u/fhqwhgadsz </a> <br/> <span><a</span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">href=“https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/umkn0c/a_girl_once_asked_me_if_i_was_a_breast_or_legs_guy/”>[link] <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/umkn0c/a_girl_once_asked_me_if_i_was_a_breast_or_legs_guy/">[comments]</a></span></p>
|
||
|
||
|
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