Lindy West op-ed in NYT

Formerly of Jezebel and before that, The Stranger (yeah, all my Seattle side friends have been reading her since forever), West got an op-ed about Trump's supporters in the NYT. It is hilarious.

Here is a link for you:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/11/opinion/campaign-stops/what-are-trump-fans-really-afraid-to-say.html

Burn one of your free articles and read it.

"Trump fans are flattering themselves if they think that, say, declining to shout slurs at black people or sexually harass female co-workers is some form of noble restraint. Not only is that a pathetically low bar, many do not seem to be clearing it."

Enjoy!

A Woman Marine's Name Keeps Showing Up in the News

Lt. Col. Kate Germano is not a name one forgets easily. And it has been crossing my eyeballs a lot, just reading the news. Since I don't really read military news with any avidity, that's sort of surprising.

Here is the NYT, talking about her losing her job running women's boot camp for the Marines:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/us/marine-commanders-firing-stirs-debate-on-integration-of-women-in-corps.html

Here is Time, with an op-ed by Germano, explaining her position:

http://time.com/4032419/colonel-germano-low-expectations-limit-female-marines/

Well, I'm thinking I may have stumbled across another reason why Germano was perhaps relieved of some of her duties.

And now, here is Germano's name popping up in a very long piece in WaPo about a Marine convicted of inappropriate relationships (and accused of worse), with her defending him and saying he was wrongly convicted in the court martial -- and a WaPo reporter saying the investigation _was_ flawed, finding solid evidence in support of the inappropriate relationships AND lying on the part of the Marine AND getting admissions of same.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/local/marine/

(I'll get a better link for that if I can find one.)

It is never easy changing the culture of a military (or, really, any) organization. It can be difficult to tell with any given change agent whether they are netting out helpful or unhelpful. And the same person can be helpful for a while -- and then very, very unhelpful (viz Eliot Spitzer -- helpful for a while, then very, very unhelpful).

The WaPo piece is very long, but really interesting. I'm really happy -- sad, of course about the underlying reality, but happy about the public discussion -- that we are finally talking about women who are falsely accused of falsely accusing.