Happy (?) International Women’s Day | Filosofa’s Word

Some of you may remember the old commercials for Virginia Slims cigarettes (back before cigarette ads were banned from the media) that had the theme, “You’ve come a long way, baby!”  True dat.  We finally got the right to vote, the right to divorce our husbands, to own property, to attend college, to earn equal pay for equal work, to make our own healthcare decisions, to … oh wait … better scratch that last one, for we lost that last year!

That’s right … last year we lost the right to decide, even in cases where our lives are endangered, whether we can have an abortion.  In some states, we can now be arrested and sent to prison if we have an abortion.  Next, I understand there will likely be a challenge to our right to have birth control, meaning that we will also in many cases lose our right to have a career, for we’ll be too busy taking care of the 14 children we were forced to have.  Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but probably not for some.

The point being that many, especially those who label themselves “conservatives”, seem to want to revert to the days of yore, the days when “a woman’s place is in the house,” preferably “barefoot and pregnant.”  The U.S., despite all the progress women have made over the past 150 years or so, is still very much male-dominated.  March is International Women’s Month … how many of you knew that?  It certainly wasn’t noted much in the media, not like Black History Month (February) or Pride Month (June)…

Source: Happy (?) International Women’s Day | Filosofa’s Word

Florida passes ‘cruel’ bill curbing local water and shade protections for workers | Florida | The Guardian

The Florida legislature passed a bill on Friday that prevents any city, county, or municipality in the state from adopting legislation aimed to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat, prompting many to call out lawmakers for being “cruel” to the “most vulnerable workers”. Efforts to ensure potentially life-saving water breaks, rest and shade for construction and agriculture workers have failed largely due to industry pressure, a growing trend across south-western states, where heat related deaths are on the rise.

Source: Florida passes ‘cruel’ bill curbing local water and shade protections for workers | Florida | The Guardian

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – Cambodia – 100CountryTrek.com

2011 -I am haunted by this place. I wish I had never gone there. and I wake up sometimes in the night and think of some of the tragic things that I saw and learned here. The trauma of that knowing is still with me.

For some horrific reason the Khmer Rouge deemed it was necessary to photograph each victim before they were killed. Their faces line the walls in the museum and we visualize the shameful, and sad time of the past.

Source: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – Cambodia – 100CountryTrek.com

Yulia Navalnaya against Vladimir Putin · Global Voices

Alexey Navalny and Yulia Navalnaya hugging after his release from the custody, after an appeal from the prosecutor’s office. Date 19 July 2013. Image by Evgenii Feldman, Novaya Gazeta. CC BY-SA 3.0.

However, on February 19, only three days after the death of her husband, Yulia Navalnaya stepped in. In her first ever video posted on both her husbands and her own new X account and YouTube account, she said:

Hello, this is Yulia Navalnaya. Today, for the first time on this channel, I want to address you. I should not have been in this place; I should not have been recording this video. In my place, there should have been another person, but Vladimir Putin killed that person three days ago. Vladimir Putin killed my husband Alexei Navalny. Putin killed the father of my children, the most precious thing I had, the closest and most beloved person. But Putin also took Navalny away from you, somewhere in a colony in the Far North, beyond the Arctic Circle, in eternal winter. Putin killed not just a person, Alexei Navalny; he also wanted to kill our hopes, our freedom, our future. All these years, I was beside Alexei. I was happy to be with him and support him, but today I want to be with you because I know that you have lost no less than me. Alexei loved Russia more than anything else, loved our country. He believed in you, in us, in our strength, in our future, in the fact that we deserve better. He believed not just in words but in deed, so deeply and sincerely that he was ready to give his life for it. His immense love for us is enough to continue his work as long as it takes. By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart, and half of my soul. But I have the other half left, and it tells me that I do not have the right to give up. I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work, continue fighting for our country, and I call on you to stand with me. To share not only the sorrow and the endless pain that has enveloped us and does not let go, I ask you to share my rage, anger, hatred towards those who dared to kill our future. I address you with the words of Alexei, in which I strongly believe: it’s not shameful to do little, it’s shameful to do nothing. A free, peaceful, happy, beautiful Russia of the future that my husband dreamed of is what we need. I want to live in such a Russia. I want our children with Alexei to live in it. I want to build it with you, exactly as Alexei Navalny envisioned it, full of dignity, justice, and love.Source: Yulia Navalnaya against Vladimir Putin · Global Voices

Kraft Heinz Venture Launches Plant-Based Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs | Food Manufacturing

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Business Wire

PITTSBURGH and CHICAGO — The Kraft Heinz Not Company LLC on Wednesday debuted NotHotDogs and NotSausages, the first ever plant-based Oscar Mayer offerings and the first plant-based meat innovation from the joint venture between The Kraft Heinz Company and TheNotCompany Inc.

With its mission to create mouthwatering plant-based foods for all, The Kraft Heinz Not Company’s Oscar Mayer NotHotDogs and NotSausages offer the savory and smoky experience that brand fans have known and loved for more than 140 years.

Source: Kraft Heinz Venture Launches Plant-Based Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs | Food Manufacturing