Weekend Links! Catch Them All!

* Americans first learn about slavery as children, before adults are willing to explain finance capital or rape. By high school, young adults are ready to hear about sexual violence as an element of slavery and about how owners valued their property, but there’s no level of developmental maturity that prepares someone to grasp systemized monstrosity on this scale. Forced labor we can understand—maybe it’s even a historical constant so far. Mass murder too. But an entire economy built on imprisoning and raping children? One that enslaved near 40 percent of the population? Even for the secular, only religious words seem to carry enough weight: unholy, abomination, evil.

* Plan C: The top secret Cold War plan for martial law in the USA.

* The Huntington honors Octavia Butler. And from the archives! My writeup on the Butler papers at the Huntington.

* The first issue of the MOSF Journal of Science Fiction.

* Feeding English Majors in the 21st Century.

* Chicago State University in danger of closing: Alumni speak out.

* CFP: Fantasies of Contemporary Culture. Paradoxa 29: “Small Screen Fictions.” MUHuCon 2016. Feminist Review: Dystopias and Utopias.

* One of the major figures in science fiction studies, Rob Latham, has issued a statement regarding his shocking firing from UC Riverside.

* Melissa Click has now been suspended, after being charged with third degree assault.

* A University Softens a Plan to Cut Tenured Faculty, but Professors Remain Wary.

* Prominent Medieval Scholar’s Blog on ‘Feminist Fog’ Sparks an Uproar.

* How startling, unique cuts have transformed Louisiana’s universities.

* A How-To.

* Is It Discriminatory to Require Peer Review?

* 2.5 million men ‘have no close friends.’

* After capitalism.

* Sanders and the Theory of Change: Radical Politics for Grown-Ups.

* Bernie Sanders and the Liberal Imagination.

* How to pair wine with your favorite Girl Scout cookies.

* How Intellectuals Create a Public.

* Long Before Helping Flint, Michigan Officials Were Shipping Clean Water to Their Own Workers. Flint’s Bottom Line. What went wrong in Flint. Flint Residents Told That Their Children Could Be Taken Away If They Don’t Pay For City’s Poison Water. Report: ‘Every Major US City East of the Mississippi’ Is Underreporting Heavy Metals In Its Water. It’s everywhere. “Milwaukee taking steps to prevent lead from getting in water.”

* And elsewhere on the Milwaukee beat: FBI arrests suspect who allegedly wanted to cause mass terrorism in Milwaukee. MPS as “national disgrace.” ‘Back in time 60 years’: America’s most segregated city. Milwaukee leaders speak out against deadly rise in car thefts. Have I mentioned we’re hiring?

* Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams To Block Audio, Records Show.

* What Happened to Jane Mayer When She Wrote About the Koch Brothers.

* The Difference a Mutant Makes.

* See? It’s good that I’m like this.

* Suggested Amazon warning labels.

* Star Wars Social Networks.

* On the SNAFU Principle.

* Richard Feynman, “Personal observations on the reliability of the Shuttle.”

* Rhode Island: Children Under 10 Shall Not Be Left Home Alone, Even Briefly.

* Sea level rise from ocean warming underestimated, scientists say.

* History is melting.

* In praise of blizzards.

* Climate dystopia is here: Zika virus prompts calls for women to stop having babies.

* Why science-fiction writers find it so hard to discuss climate tech.

* Racial harmony in a Marxist utopia: how the Soviet Union capitalised on US discrimination.

* Linguists Analyze Every Disney Princess Movie, to Somewhat Depressing Results.

* List of animals with fraudulent diplomas.

* Everything’s fine: Hillary’s team copied intel off top-secret server to email.

* Constitutional Convention 2016.

* Today in Doctor Who fandom: The Season of River Song. And then there was Chibnall.

* Fictional Games From Epic Fantasy Books. A People’s History of Board Games.

* Instructor explained clearly that he’d hand out the rating sheets and then sit in his car while we completed them.

* Here’s why we’re attracted to people of a similar height, scientists say.

* Former NFL Player Tyler Sash Had CTE When He Died At Age 27.

* A dark, gritty Hanna-Barbera reboot.

* Airbnb makes half its SF money with illegal listings.

* Trailer with $70,000 worth of cheese stolen in Wisconsin. And that’s only the second-largest cheese heist in the state this week.

* Nearly $50,000 In Bull Semen Stolen From Turlock Truck.

* The final days of Al Jazeera America.

* Twilight of the sleazy professor.

* The end of Go.

* Dailyshowgnarok.

* The FBI Claims Not to Have a File on David Bowie.

* According to the trades and his pitch to investors, Ryan Kavanaugh had found film business formula that couldn’t lose. It could. Unraveling a Tinseltown Ponzi scheme.

* 69% of the alcohol sold in the UK is sold to “harmful,” “hazardous” or “increasing risk” drinkers, accounting for more than 60% of the industry’s revenues.

* A map of every city.

* The lost age of pinball.

* It’s finally happening.

* Meet the Americans Who Moved to Europe and Went AWOL on Their Student Loans.

* And there is no politics — only LEGO.