SHMOOZE NEWS: When the Nuclear Option Ain’t Bad

Unbeknownst to us, US Senators of the progressive persuasion were at a breaking point.  And here I thought that was just me.  Snap!  Um, anyway, turns out they — or rather Harry Reid, the dude in charge — surprised everyone this week when he went ahead and changed a major procedural rule that’s affected all our lives (indirectly, but still).  Doing so is called the Nuclear Option because it’s kinda a big deal.  Or because everything in Congress has to sound REALLY DRAMATIC.

Basically: no longer can the Republican minority obstruct what should be a simple majority Demo win (51-49), with all their blabbering.  Or threats to blabber.  Yes, for years now (oddly about the same amount of time Obama has been president — sooo weiiird) the conservative side o’ the 100 member Senate has used The Filibuster (running out the clock by talking, or warning they might) to block all kinds of legislation, ‘cuz the thing about filibusters is that they required — until yesterday — a 60 member majority to break ’em and get back to the vote at hand.  Those 9 extra Senators were often hard to come by.

Mostly the Republicans are like “how dare you?” and the Dems are like “eh, you woulda done it too.”  Congress is really the same as the sandbox at daycare.  “You stole my toy and broke it!  I WANTED TO BREAK IT FIRST.”

Talking about hatin’ on the Republicans, the Cheney clan is back in the news, putting the quotes around “family values.”  Liz Cheney, daughter of one, Dick, is running for a senate seat in Wyoming (a state she’s not, how-you-say, entirely from — so there’s that) and apparently calculated that to win she has to disavow her gay sister, Mary.

If it was some sort of agreed-upon thing between the two sisters in private, fine.  Still spineless and feeding the Tea Party’s bigotry beast.  But at least a heartless political move they made together.  Instead, Mary was blindsided and took to social media this week to air her and her wife’s grievances.  Keeping it classy, Cheneys.

Also this week: a full-on walkout at the international climate talks in Poland.

Plus, an insane mansplainer inside the walls of Variety bestowed some career advice on Sarah Silverman (that, as one critic put it, makes it seem he’s “almost angry that she hasn’t prioritized fame and fortune over exploring and perfecting her own comedic voice.”  She’s just so pretty, is the thing.  It’s just such a shame).

And finally, Vulture gave us the 100 Pop Culture Things that Make You Millennial!  Ok, it isn’t actually from this week, but I mean, nostalgia’s nostalgia.  It doesn’t age, people.  By definition.

That’s right: happy Turkey Day and Hanukkah, my dears!

Oh!  Also… if you wanna see some Samara stuffs elsewhere on the web, here’s an article I wrote about Impostor Syndrome, and a music video in which I may or may not be the drummer.  K, thanks.

 

A Cocktail of Avoidance

This week my excuse is one part Social Media Week (continues through tonight’s shmoozefest!), and one part avoiding the insanity out of Washington & horror out of Nairobi.  A cocktail for not writing my blog, y’all.  Here’s the scoop in 250 words or less:

This Senator guy named Ted Cruz pretended to filibuster like Wendy Davis and it got a lot of news coverage. His fauxlibuster lasted 21 hours on the Senate floor ‘cuz it takes a long time to attempt to use Dr. Seuss to undo Obamacare.  Here’s his tangents, ranked by relevancy.  Apparently people in college (at my alma mater — very proud) couldn’t stand him either.

If you’re feeling hopeless about all this government shutdown drama (countdown till Tuesday!), check out this ingenious petition that suggests that the constituents of the obstructionist Congressmen/woman in question should perhaps be held accountable for their decision to elect these dudes. (Full disclosure: great petition, mom!)

Meanwhile, the U.N. announced this week that climate change is man-made!  (REALLY?  This is still a thing??)…

And all kinds of genuine optimism oozed out of the Social Good Summit in NYC.  Some awesome quotes include:

and:

And as I head back into social media land, or should I say #socialmedialand, I can’t help but share everyone’s favorite commentary on digital society this week outta JT & JFallon.  Hate on hashtags all you want — I still think they introduced a whole generation to the concept of being meta, and that ain’t bad.

Big love all — and next week I promise a proper debrief on this Social Media Week maelstrom!  All I’ll say right now is… this happened:

Oh, and enjoy the final ep of Breaking Bad.  Finally a show says what we’ve all been thinking:

SHMOOZE NEWS: Culture War & Peace

Yay for official summer, and yay for neo-pagan gatherings at Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice!

Now… this week… Imma call its theme: culture wars.  These don’t all necessarily fit under that lofty title, but they’re all supercool flashpoints of progress that got an extra jolt this week.

A culture war. Get it? Culture?

At least we sorta felt the jolt, in the brief respites between zaps of poor Miss Utah’s viral shaming, the eye-brow raising deaths of Mr. Soprano & Mr. Hastings, and news of North West (I’m thinkin’ of giving SF a shout-out & changing my name to North Bay).  Best of Twitter:

And this one:

But back to my point…

1. Unpaid Internship Culture is getting a shake-up!  Us members of the millennial generation living in Western Civilization (at least those with a penchant for jobs in the arts, entertainment, or non-profit sectors, God bless us) have probably all had our run-ins with unpaid internships that don’t even presume to teach us anything or offer employment down the line.  And we’ve either accepted them as a given in the dues-paying hierarchy and so much for eating, or rejected them because we literally couldn’t afford to NOT GET PAID TO WORK HARD, DAMMIT.  I’m not even gonna call my internships out in this blog because “what if those companies think about employing me sometime in the abstract future??!”  Well, for these two guys who worked on “Black Swan,” this grovelling for a chance to work hard for no pay or prospects, in retrospect, seemed a little… how you say, illegal.  And they won their case! (<– that’s a link in case you’d like to win yours)

And now for something completely different…

2. For those of us following along at home, it’s always nice to get some kinda sorta good news on the taking-climate-change-seriously-before-it’s-too-late front.  And we’re getting some out of both New York City & Washington, DC this week.  As my climate hero, David Roberts over at Grist, writes: there are three general responses to the epic drama of global warming that’s unfolding:

Mitigation, adaptation, and suffering. We’ll prevent what we can, adjust to what we can’t prevent, and suffer through what we can’t adjust to. All that remains is to determine the proportions.

Bloomberg’s plan in NYC is in the land of adaptation (much easier to convince people on both sides of the aisle to throw money at erecting floodwalls & making buildings more resistant to future Hurricanes Sandy ‘cuz storms be comin’ than it is to get agreement on whether or not climate change is real, sure sure).  Obama’s plan, on the other hand, is hopefully in the land of mitigation.  Prevention is good.  John Kerry, his new Secretary of State, wrote this fabulous piece, and while Obama was in Berlin this week he teased that he’s droppin’ a true blue package of climate initiatives in July.  So far he’s been a lot of talk… but seriously, talk is better than no talk.  Just ask the poor snowfamilies.

I never re-use a meme but come on. I… just… can’t… resist…

3. A truly remarkable apology came out of the Gays-Are-Bad camp this week, in what Andrew Sullivan calls “an unconditional surrender in the culture wars.”  Boom.  One of those Christian right groups that was all about straightening gays out with “reparative therapy,” has folded.  And not just ‘cuz that kind of torture has gone out of fashion; Exodus International seems to have actually had a come-to-Jesus: as the organizations’s president said — ACTUALLY SAID! — “please know that I am deeply sorry. […] For quite some time we’ve been imprisoned in a worldview that’s neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical.”

Have a brilliant weekend, you guys, and “like” The Smarty at the Party on Facebook — where we can all post pix of BBQs & summer shindigs where we shmoozed our tushies off!

*****

Quote of the week:

Related articles

• College And Internship … And How College Grads Are Doing (tarpon.wordpress.com)
• The unpaid internship racket (tv.msnbc.com)
• SHOCKING: Orlando Based Exodus International, Nation’s Largest Ex-Gay Ministry, Issues Apology and Shuts Down (thedailycity.com)