Thursday 30 June 2016

Links 30/6/16

Politics:

After Brexit: 

The different options for the UK to get out of Brexit. The stark regional and generational divide on Brexit. Millennials (perhaps to much of a generalisation, but "Most of us recognize that we have more in common with young people in Spain or the Netherlands than we do with the older folks who share our British nationality.") feel betrayed by their parents who voted for Brexit. Some of the regions most profiting from EU regional funding voted for Brexit, and some were lied to about these funds still being available to them after an exit from the EU. Some questions should be settled by the elected legislature rather than a popular referendum (another example would be whether LGBTQI individuals are actually people). And what will be Europe's next start-up capital if existing firms fear that they won't be able to scale up without free movement of people?
With Europe’s leaders divided over how to negotiate Brexit and Britain apparently reluctant to initiate formal talks on leaving, an EU source said lawyers had concluded that a member state could not be forced to launch the process.
But a senior EU official stressed that, by the same token, Brussels could refuse overtures for even informal talks before the exit process is officially initiated – a course that prominent Brexit leaders including Boris Johnson want to pursue.
“As long there is no notification, there will not be any negotiations,” the official said. Brussels has given up hope that Britain could be bounced into triggering article 50 – the untested procedure that governs how a member state leaves the bloc – at the summit starting on Tuesday.
The official said the UK was in “a significant crisis” and it would be unrealistic to expect such a move. But he insisted: “We are ready to enter into this process quickly. We are ready to enter into this process as soon as possible.” 
The Guardian: EU may refuse informal Brexit talks until UK triggers article 50, June 27, 2016
A conversation about race during the Obama presidency:
Donald Trump, in some way, is almost spontaneously generated out of all this anxiety and fear and sense of dislocation among some number of white voters. He kind of captures their feelings; he captures their sense of loss that they’re no longer at the top of a status hierarchy that they just assumed had always existed. And I’m not sure if people are understanding this in conscious ways—I think it’s a very visceral and very emotional thing. And it’s almost funny that Trump himself is so visceral and so emotional in his person—he embodies this fear and anxiety. I think that’s what’s underlying his campaign, and, in that sense, it’s almost inevitable, right? 
Slate: Race and the Obama Presidency, May 25, 2016
What it takes to convict a rapist when collected rape kits are never analysed and forgotten. 


Wow: 
In fact, worse than dereliction, because the Republican Party, with its history of dog-whistle racism, sexism, homophobia, nativism, and gun addiction, salted now by incipient fascism, has been legitimized by the mainstream media for years. One could say that the GOP and MSM have operated in collusion to the great detriment of this country. One could say that and not even be a liberal, just a commonsensical American.
The MSM continue to treat the Republican Party as if it were just another constellation of ideology and policy — another way of governing the country, even though this campaign season, if not the last 30 years, should have disabused journalists of that notion. Today’s GOP is closer to a religious cult than a political institution. It operates on dogma, sees compromise as a moral failing, views enemies as pagans who must be vanquished, and considers every policy skirmish another Götterdämmerung.   
Moyers and Company: America Has a Republican Problem — and the Media Is Partly to Blame, June 22, 2016
Pop Culture: 

Wynonna Earp is finished but still hasn't been renewed for a second season, which is a debacle - here's an interview with Katherine Barrell, and one with her and Dominique Provost-Chalkley at the Mary Sue, and one with Emily Andras: 
I’m actually really proud of this. We were done with production well before 2016. I am very aware of the trope from years past, and just my experience on other shows with heavy LGBT representation, but I didn’t know the trope would come to pass in such a horrible way in 2016. I didn’t think it’d be so front and center and an issue that we’d need to discuss given what was happening to other characters on other shows. So I’m just really proud because without being cynical about it, we had this planned since September. We knew we were going to shoot Nicole. We knew she was going to be wearing a bulletproof vest. We knew she was going to survive. It was a little bit of a play on the “Bury Your Gays” trope, but I feel like it’s taken on so much meaning given the year we’ve all had with television. 
The TV Junkies: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks 'I Walk the Line'. June 24, 2016
Related: The Bury Your Tropes panel. 

Exploring feminity in Olivier Assayas' The Clouds of Sils Maria: An interview with Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart. 

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