Author: Allison Hantschel

Allison Hantschel is a 10-year veteran of the newspaper business. She publishes First Draft, a journalism and politics blog, with her partners Adrastos and Jude. She is the author of It Doesn’t End With Us: The Story of the Daily Cardinal (2008, Heritage Books) and the forthcoming Chicago’s Historic Irish Pubs (with Mike Danahey) (2011, Arcadia Books). She also edited the anthology Special Plans: The Blogs on Douglas Feith and the Faulty Intelligence That Led to War (2005, William, James & Co.). Her work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Daily Southtown, Sirens Magazine, and Alternet. She lives in Chicago with her husband, daughter, two pet ferrets, and approximately 60 tons of books.
Athenae, Television

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

Doom Patrol still exists:  Not only do I need to know what happens to my favorite crew of screw-ups, I need more of them working through their trauma and growing. The thing I adore about Doom Patrol is that no one on the show is static. Miranda mentioned in the episode that she wanted to keep Kay and all her personalities moving forward, and even though she was maybe evil when she said that, she’s right. It’s a weird show about broken people healing each other, which is always my jam, and found family, which is also always my jam, and YES … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Athenae, Do Something1 Comment

Another Mutual Aid Thread

Allison Hantschel

All right. It’s pretty definitively up to us, right?   America’s prodigious infection rates are also a testament to our own national failure — and therefore a source of existential ghastliness, of sheer perversity: Why on earth were so many of us sacrificing so much in these past four and a half months — our livelihoods, our social connections, our safety, our children’s schooling, our attendance at birthdays and anniversaries and funerals — if it all came to naught? At this point, weren’t we expecting some form of relief, a resumption of something like life?   We did this back at … Continue reading Another Mutual Aid Thread

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media

We’re Gonna Get a Really Bitchin’ Book Out of This

Allison Hantschel

Just STOP: https://twitter.com/RachelFeltman/status/1290627181547323393 God, political journalism is so stupid right now. Between grownass people yelling SCOOOOOOOOOP at the beginning of all their tweets like goddamn children, like anyone cares, like if it’s really that big a revelation it’ll speak for itself, and now this nonsense courtesy of HBO and its wee Hannibal Lecters who think their role is to describe the foam in which they deliberately flip, it’s no wonder people are mad and scared and susceptible to ridiculousness on the internet. Ten minutes of morning news and you understand in a visceral way why people vote Republican, much less … Continue reading We’re Gonna Get a Really Bitchin’ Book Out of This

Athenae, Campaign Notes2 Comments

Just Shut the Fuck UP Until November

Allison Hantschel

Sweet summer child has a point: If you’re a supporter of Joe Biden, one option you have is to NOT talk to reporters about his VP selection. In fact, I’d argue it’s the best way to show him your support! — Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) August 1, 2020 I’ve been saying for a while that Joey would have walked to the nomination if he’d kept his trap shut, like talking isn’t helping here, and I think the same thing applies to everyone who works for him and WANTS him to win, and him as well, and I don’t know why he’s … Continue reading Just Shut the Fuck UP Until November

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media, Sports

Enough Money

Allison Hantschel

AMAZING:  He said he was optimistic because readers have become accustomed to paying for online content, noting the sports fans who subscribe to The Athletic. He added that vendors like Pico, Stripe and MailChimp have made it easier for media companies to outsource business functions. In addition, he said, the thinning of newspaper sports sections, the dissolution of ESPN the Magazine and layoffs at Sports Illustrated may have created a vacuum. Defector staff members said they did not expect the kind of growth coveted by the venture capitalists who have increasingly dominated online journalism. Rather, they said, they hoped to … Continue reading Enough Money

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media2 Comments

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

God, I love it when fascist amateurs fall on their keys like this:  Unions for city police officers, firefighters and corrections officers have sued New York City to stop the disclosure of most of these and other disciplinary records. The unions objected to the release of any cases other than “proven and final disciplinary matters.” That would exclude the vast majority of complaints against officers. “We are defending privacy, integrity and the unsullied reputations of thousands of hard-working public safety employees,” a union spokesman said on the filing of the lawsuit. On Wednesday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the city, … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Athenae, Congress5 Comments

Ted Yoho’s Daughters

Allison Hantschel

Ted Yoho is a dick, okay, and everything that could be said about AOC pretty much has been, except that I kept thinking about this story:  Christine’s own parents and siblings — the Blaseys — have not released any similar statement of support. As their daughter and sister has become the country’s most talked-about woman for accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault while both were in high school, the Blaseys have strategically avoided the press. Voice mails, texts, emails and letters from reporters have gone unanswered. Friends have politely declined to comment on what the family … Continue reading Ted Yoho’s Daughters

Uncategorized

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

Ferret edition:  This little critter may only be 8 months old, but that hasn’t stopped him from raising thousands of dollars for charity. Over the course of just two and a half weeks, Bandit the pet ferret managed to complete a full marathon by taking the challenge in his tiny stride and completing several miles per day alongside his owners. I love my cats, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I really miss my ferrets. Pictures at the link are priceless. Via NancyDrewed. A. Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Athenae7 Comments

Who’s going to stop him?

Allison Hantschel

This is one of those things everyone gasps about, like HOW DARE HE and THIS IS FASCISM PEOPLE WAKE UP and A NEW LOW FOR TRUMP and it just makes me tired.  President Trump and top White House officials are privately considering a controversial strategy to act without legal authority to enact new federal policies — starting with immigration, administration officials tell Axios. Between the lines: The White House thinking is being heavily influenced by John Yoo, the lawyer who wrote the Bush administration’s justification for waterboarding after 9/11. Yoo detailed the theory in a National Review article, spotted atop Trump’s desk in … Continue reading Who’s going to stop him?

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media1 Comment

Young People Need MONEY

Allison Hantschel

I know, I know it’s Douthat, but for fuck’s sake:  The scholar Peter Turchin of the University of Connecticut, whose work on the cycles of American history may have predicted this year’s unrest, has a phrase that describes part of this dynamic: the “overproduction of elites.” In the context of college admissions that means exactly what it sounds like: We’ve had a surplus of smart young Americans pursuing admission to a narrow list of elite colleges whose enrollment doesn’t expand with population, even as foreign students increasingly compete for the same stagnant share of slots. Then, having run this gantlet, … Continue reading Young People Need MONEY

Athenae, Television

Not Everything Sucks, Succession Edition

Allison Hantschel

Gerri and Roman, our Success May-December romance, exist:  “To be honest, it’s very tough. Because you want it to ring true, and, I don’t know. I think she’s too savvy to do anything too messy like that. I think she’s way too careful a person,” she said of her mixed-up relationship with Roman. “But on the other hand, he makes a good protege. Right? Maybe. I don’t know. I’m just thinking of it in the back of my mind, she’s like, ‘This is a diamond in the rough. Maybe this is the start of a beautiful friendship if I could … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks, Succession Edition

Athenae, Elections1 Comment

We Gotta Get Rid of the Whole Lot

Allison Hantschel

This is all very true:  McConnell and the Senate Republicans will put the brakes on every meaningful policy initiative that Biden advances. Hundreds of measures that have been approved by the House since the Democrats took over in January 2019—including the Heroes Act package of Covid-19 relief measures that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues passed in May—have been laid to rest in what Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer describes as “Leader McConnell’s legislative graveyard.” The Republican lawmaker and his cadre of obedient partisans have made it perfectly clear time and again that they will not be moved by … Continue reading We Gotta Get Rid of the Whole Lot

Athenae, COVID-191 Comment

No Good Choices

Allison Hantschel

If we wanted the schools to be open, we should have left everything else closed:  I want schools to open. I’ve got a five year old and a fifteen year old in a 900-square-foot house with only two bedrooms, and I’d love to have them literally anywhere else. And we’re among the lucky ones. Public schools don’t just teach. They provide subsidized breakfast and lunch for many of their students, plus access to counselors, community, and nurses. Figuring out how to deliver food and healthcare to these children is more important than how to stagger classes. But it’s time to … Continue reading No Good Choices

Athenae, Current Affairs

Things We Learned in the Fire

Allison Hantschel

HEY C’MON COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE WE NEED TO HAVE THIS MEETING AT THIS TREE AIN’ EVEN BEEN PLANTED YET — June Jordan, Calling On All Silent Minorities I’ve written before about how Mr. A has been nesting. He’s mostly done now. The yard is enclosed by a 6-foot fence with a double-lock gate; Kick can leave her toys absolutely everywhere and I don’t have to yell at her to bring her scooter or her ponies or anything else inside every night. I forget to lock doors, still, so we bought a family “calendar” to assign chores and one … Continue reading Things We Learned in the Fire

Athenae, Television

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

Michaela Coel exists, and is astonishing:   When she first began pitching the concept for I May Destroy You in spring 2017, Netflix offered her $1 million upfront — $1 million! But when she learned they wouldn’t allow her to retain any percentage of the copyright, she said no. No amount was worth that. She fired CAA, her agency in the U.S., too, when it tried to push her to take the deal after she learned it would be making an undisclosed amount on the back end. Throughout the fallout with Netflix and CAA, Coel asked questions relentlessly. She is eager, almost giddy, to … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Athenae, COVID-19

Solidarity and What It Gets Us

Allison Hantschel

I’ve been thinking about this since reading this tweet: The Iraq and Afghanistan war dead, too. Once it became clear the wars were going badly and also were never going to end it became convenient to act like "we" were no longer at war. https://t.co/YyuOV3Qj9C — Allison Hantschel (@Athenae) May 24, 2020 That every movement turns on itself eventually, that every fire burns out, that nothing can be sustained forever, are I think things we all know. That you can’t stay in the middle of the war forever, or it wins. But Jesus, this, we barely tried. A month ago … Continue reading Solidarity and What It Gets Us

Athenae, Bigotry, Guns, Race1 Comment

Racism is for the Rich

Allison Hantschel

https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/1277565303216537600 The reddest parts of any purple state are its suburbs. Fight me.  Suburbs, and exurbs, really. Not that there aren’t racist assholes in cities, she says, two blocks from the city that perfected redlining. But the white-flighters are something else, not just racial hatred but the very specific fear of a black invasion of “their” neighborhood. They’ve had stories handed down to them through two generations now about the beautiful places their grandparents and great-grandparents grew up in, that were “ruined” by “those people.” That those neighborhoods were ruined by deliberate and malicious government policies to devalue the property, … Continue reading Racism is for the Rich

Athenae, COVID-19

‘As Leadership on Virus Fails’

Allison Hantschel

Jesus Christ, we STILL can’t name the problem:  Coronavirus Live Updates: U.S. Cases Soar Past 2.5 Million as Leadership on Virus Fails With new cases of the coronavirus suddenly surging across multiple states that had low and manageable caseloads just months ago, confusion and anger is swirling among those who obeyed lockdowns and drastic social measures out of a sense of civic duty to help bring the U.S. outbreak under control. Nationwide, cases have risen 65 percent over the past two weeks. On Friday, the country reported more than 45,000 new infections, its third consecutive day of record new cases, … Continue reading ‘As Leadership on Virus Fails’

Athenae, Big Damn Heroes

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

Labor is fighting like labor has always fought:  On June 19, a group of workers plans to picket outside an unlikely location: Union Jacks strip club. It’s the only club out of nearly 30 Portland establishments that won’t agree to demands to ensure fair treatment of black dancers. “Who’s gonna cross a strike line of angry-ass strippers?” says Cat Hollis, a dancer who organized the Portland Stripper Strike. The picket line is a signal that the national movement for racial justice has extended to the quintessentially Portland institution of strip clubs. More than 100 dancers have issued the following demands … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Athenae, Race, So Called Liberal Media, Stupid Republican Tricks2 Comments

‘Aggravated Battery’

Allison Hantschel

Of course he’s white, you knew that from the convention of referring to him as something other than a THUG or a TERRORIST:  A judge has released the man accused of opening fire and shooting a protester. Police say Steven Baca is the man seen on video opening fire at last Monday’s protest regarding a statue of conquistador Juan De Oñate, sending one man to the hospital. Much of the District Attorney’s case was centered around 10 primary witness videos, one of which shows the moments leading up to Baca firing his gun. While Baca is most known for firing shots, he is … Continue reading ‘Aggravated Battery’

Uncategorized

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

Did we know this was still a thing? I DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS STILL A THING! Parents: If this thread is taking you back to a simpler time, a time when you knew finishing a book meant free Pizza Hut pizza, BOOK IT! is still around! AND we just launched a new summer program this month. Head on over to https://t.co/rdFvRO2FN3 to sign up! — The BOOK IT! Program (@bookitprogram) June 21, 2020 I am a huge OLD who assumes everything good from my childhood, like making homemade IEDs in the woods out of coke bottles and firecrackers, is … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Uncategorized

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

Born in 1920, she’s still dancing:  Rogers was twisting for her loved ones and neighbors who came out to celebrate her birthday Thursday. Born June 18, 1920 in Biloxi, Mississippi, Rogers has called her ranch house on the 6800 block of South Champlain Avenue home since the 1970s. A surprise parade and block party at the house was organized by members of Rogers’ Washington Park church, the Greater Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church, and the Andrew Holmes Foundation, whose “Club 100” throws grand celebrations for Chicagoans’ 99th and 100th birthdays. Dozens of attendees made the celebration “out of this world,” said Preston Allen, … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Athenae, Race1 Comment

To Rally

Allison Hantschel

We were planning on being in the parade until my husband dropped a whole ass IKEA shelf that weighed about 20 pounds and had a sharp metal edge directly onto his own head somehow. Two hours and seven staples and diagnosis of a mild concussion later, we decided he should not inflict his really gnarly head wound on a COVID-paranoid public. So, to still participate somehow in the local Juneteenth parade my neighborhood decided at the spur of the moment to throw, Kick and I got busy making signs and recruiting friends to come watch from the sidelines, masked and … Continue reading To Rally

Uncategorized1 Comment

Fights That Shouldn’t Have to Be Fights

Allison Hantschel

Aimee Stephens, heroine: Stephens’ lawyers argued her firing was a clear example of discrimination because of her sex, and the 6th Circuit agreed. “The unrefuted facts show that the Funeral Home fired Stephens because she refused to abide by her employer’s stereotypical conception of her sex,” the court wrote in a 49-page decision. “Discrimination against employees, either because of their failure to conform to sex stereotypes or their transgender and transitioning status, is illegal under Title VII,” the court said. “It is analytically impossible to fire an employee based on that employee’s status as a transgender person without being motivated, … Continue reading Fights That Shouldn’t Have to Be Fights

Athenae, Music, Uncategorized

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

Nina Simone existed, and her music still does:  Looking at Nina Simone’s statue in downtown Tryon, I recite the end of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem, “Archaic Torso of Apollo,” which reads, “for here there is no place / that does not see you. You must change your life.” Rilke wrote the poem while staring, entranced, at a headless statue from Auguste Rodin that dazzled him to the point of imperative transformation. Now, almost exactly one hundred years later, I am standing in front of the eight-foot bronze statue of Nina Simone. I find most of the music I really love … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media

Fox Gonna Fox

Allison Hantschel

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA: ⁦“Fox News has “a responsibility to their public. It’s one thing for their opinion hosts to state whatever opinion they have, but for their online news platform, they have to follow the ethical norms of any news organization,” said ⁦@NPPAExec⁩ https://t.co/lBaTyhk9dY — NPPA (@NPPA) June 13, 2020 They really, really don’t have to “follow the ethical norms.” This is the goddamn problem. We’ve been over here having a journalism seminar, a well-catered affair with skirts on the tables and nice labeled name tags, and they’ve been having a dogfight. I am not DEFENDING the dogfight, mind, but let us … Continue reading Fox Gonna Fox

Athenae3 Comments

Just Stop It

Allison Hantschel

I’ve had it. I’ve had it with arguments over “defund the police” “no, that’s a bad slogan” “no it’s not.” THE GOP IS FIGHTING OVER HOW MANY MORE WATER CANNONS AND “RUBBER” BULLETS TO SHOOT AT PROTESTERS. I’ve had it with white liberals clowning on Nancy Pelosi for wearing kente cloth. The Congressional Black Caucus gave it to everyone, it’s not like Nance went to JoAnn Fabrics and decided to make herself a costume. Should she have refused to wear it on the basis of Red Rose Twitter being primed for dunks? Where does THAT end? there anything we’re NOT … Continue reading Just Stop It

Athenae, Stupid Everything Tricks, Stupid Republican Tricks1 Comment

The Courage of Republicans

Allison Hantschel

Wow, Bush and Romney won’t support Trump for re-election:  WASHINGTON — It was one thing in 2016 for top Republicans to take a stand against Donald J. Trump for president: He wasn’t likely to win anyway, the thinking went, and there was no ongoing conservative governing agenda that would be endangered. Yeah! Why bother calling out fascism if it was just gonna go away by itself? That’s usually how that kind of thing works, and better to hide in a conference room and pretend your party isn’t burning around you. The New York Times cannot get over the courage of … Continue reading The Courage of Republicans