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Spooky morning, Portland! It’s Halloween, which means tomorrow we can finally start playing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey.
Here are the headlines!
Impeachable: As I type this, the House is preparing to vote on the terms of an impeachment process—the first time a vote is being held on anything Trump-impeachment-related. You can follow along here.
Stick It To Sports: A large chunk of Deadspin’s editorial staff quit yesterday, in protest of their shitty hedge fund overlords. Gawker’s been dead for years now, and still the Gawker Era is giving us new things to marvel at.
Trick or Treat or Vote: The funny thing about elections is that, depending on the year, they are either THE MOST IMPORTANT THING in the news cycle, or they’re… well, did you know there was an election on November 5 before your ballot arrived in the mail? Worry not: the Mercury’s put together this handy guide to make doing your civic duty a breeze.
Rent-a-Cop: Here’s a concerning deep-dive into a private security firm that contracts with both Portland City Hall and TriMet, among other local institutions:
Hard to overstate the size and reach of this private security company. Our first story is about the low-cost, high-pressure business practices in the U.S. and widespread violence among the guard force https://t.co/isSe5T98EJ
— Brett Murphy (@BrettMmurphy) October 31, 2019
Congrats, Nats! In addition to being an ideal forum for booing the president, the World Series is also, apparently, a baseball competition. Congrats to the Washington Nationals for winning their first series in franchise history last night!
Woke or Broke? Former President Barack Obama weighed in on “wokeness” yesterday, saying he worries progressives are too concerned with “purity.” I understand the impulse to not want to sacrifice incremental progress because you’re hoping for perfection—but this line of thinking does beg the question: If you’re willing to lower your standards, then where does the line get drawn between what’s acceptable and what’s not? And which vulnerable people suffer as a result of that arbitrary line?
The Scariest Halloween Story of Them All: Missouri could soon be the first state without a single abortion clinic, and it sounds like that court case is going great! Here’s a truly bone-chilling dispatch, courtesy of Vox:
At a hearing over an investigation of Missouri’s lone abortion clinic, a state official testified to something that has disturbed reproductive health advocates in the state and beyond: With the help of state medical records, his office had created a spreadsheet tracking patients’ menstrual periods.
The goal, according to the Kansas City Star, was to investigate “failed” abortions, instances in which the patient needed to return a second time to complete the procedure. The idea was apparently that, by gathering data on patients’ periods, state officials would know who was still pregnant after a scheduled abortion.
A Monopoly on Normalization: Dahlia Lithwick, a veteran Supreme Court reporter, hasn’t stepped foot in the courtroom since Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed last year. “The problem with power is that Brett Kavanaugh now has a monopoly on normalization, letting bygones be bygones, and turning the page. American women also have to decide whether to get over it or to invite more recriminations. That is, for those keeping track, the very definition of an abusive relationship,” Lithwick writes in an essay explaining her choice, which is worth reading in full.
Best Costume Award:
It’s about that time I start annoying the cat with #Halloween costumes 🙈👻 pic.twitter.com/X6b3iZzRVG
— F00dventures 🦄🌈 (@f00dventuresRD) October 29, 2019
“If you’re willing to lower your standards, then where does the line get drawn between what’s acceptable and what’s not?”
When not lowering your standards will result in a worse situation.
Obvious example: many, many lefties wouldn’t vote for Clinton in 2016 “as a matter of principle,” spending their efforts instead on slagging her and the Democratic party for months. And so here we are. I expect the same will happen to Biden.