Category Archives: Feminism

Why I Have No Sympathy for Angry White Men | Dame Magazine

It’s hard out there for a White man. Political correctness has gotten so bad that White men can no longer wear blackface on Halloween. They can no longer assault women with impunity.  The fundamental promises of White privilege are under attack. They believe that it is only right and good that they should have what they want at the expense of everybody else. That their lives matter most of all. Every time.This is the story we’re being fed about Trump supporters. Not surprisingly given the widespread allergies to facts, the truth is something different. But it turns out that the most ardent Trumpsters aren’t young men in the rural underclass. They are older retirees—former autoworkers, civil servants, small businesspeople and others—with pensions and other resources that put them in the “have” category in depressed small towns. Never mind that these communities have faced economic hard times because Trump and his band of oligarchs have spent decades avoiding taxes and shipping jobs overseas.Despite a narrative that focuses on blue-collar voters, the Trump coalition is far more “diverse” in class, age, and geography. What binds them together?  Whiteness and masculinity! As Bob Cesca argues in Salon, “Generally speaking, Trump supporters are non-college-educated white men, ranging from younger ‘bros’ to, more typically, white male baby-boomer retirees with plenty of spare time to be relentlessly irradiated by Fox News and AM talk radio. If you convince enough men that alleged outsiders (women, minorities, immigrants) are stripping them of their long-held power, as Fox News and others have done, there’s going to eventually be a fight, especially when one of those so-called outsiders is a black president with the middle name ‘Hussein.’ Older white men don’t intend to hand over power quietly, and they’ve been given the green light by irresponsibly influential leaders to bury their humility, their decency and their sense of reality.”

Source: Why I Have No Sympathy for Angry White Men | Dame Magazine

A Syrian Refugee in the US Wants Americans to Understand Their Country’s Vetting Process · Global Voices

 

This is what upsets me, because I love the country, I love America,” Albukaie said. “This country is my mother. When [Trump] said Syrians are coming without any paperwork, he should see my paperwork and other people’s paperwork, it’s huge. We went through a lot of interviews, a lot of background checks … More than 10 interviews, and a lot of them were scary and not comfortable, in small rooms, no windows, like an investigation.“Scary because they ask a lot of questions, and a lot of embarrassing questions too. Like, ‘Answer yes or no, do you want to bomb airplanes?’”I asked Albukaie: What about the people who are scared of Muslims coming from Syria? How do you assure them that you’re not a terrorist?“When people say ‘terrorist’ to me… when I smile and wave and say hello, their face changes from somebody that’s mad to somebody who’s welcoming, more calm,” said Albukaie. “I believe Muslim attitudes can change what American people think about Muslims.”

Source: A Syrian Refugee in the US Wants Americans to Understand Their Country’s Vetting Process · Global Voices

Noa: The Bitch, the Witch and the imminent Switch…..pre-election ruminations

So, I say, to all of you out there, children of the future: President Obama has said, we live in a world of imperfect choices. Hillary is far from perfect, and in that sense, she is every bit human. But I believe, and I am not alone, that she has all the qualifications, experience and talent to lead the US, and with it the world, to a place of hope and change. As a citizen of the United States residing outside her borders, I have already cast my ballot in Clinton’s favor. I wish her, and all of us, the best of luck.

30 facts about Hillary Clinton:

1. First ever student commencement speaker at Wellesley College.

2. Distinguished graduate of Yale Law School.

3. Editorial board of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action.

4. Co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

5. Former civil litigation attorney.

6. Staff attorney for Children’s Defense Fund.

7. Faculty member in the School of Law at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

8. Former Director of the Arkansas Legal Aid Clinic.

9. First female chair of the Legal Services Corporation.

10. First female partner at Rose Law Firm, the oldest and one of the largest law firms in Arkansas.

11. Twice named by The National Law Journal as one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.

12. Former First Lady of Arkansas.

13. Arkansas Woman of the Year in 1983.

14. Chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession.

15. Created Arkansas’s Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth.

16. Instrumental in passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

17. First Lady of the United States.

18. Promoted nationwide immunization against childhood illnesses.

19. Successfully sought to increase research funding for prostate cancer and childhood asthma at the National Institutes of Health.

20. Worked to investigate reports of an illness that affected veterans of the Gulf War (now recognized as Gulf War Syndrome).

21. Helped create the Office on Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice.

22. Initiated and shepherded the Adoption and Safe Families Act.

23. First FLOTUS ( First Lady of the United States ) in US History to hold a postgraduate degree.

24. Helped create Vital Voices, an international initiative to promote the participation of women in the political processes of their countries.

25. Two-term New York Senator and the first ex-FLOTUS in US History to be elected to the United States Senate.

26. Served on five Senate committees: Budget (2001–2002), Armed Services (2003–2009), Environment and Public Works (2001–2009), Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (2001–2009) and the Special Committee on Aging.

27. Member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

28. Leading role in investigating the health issues faced by 9/11 first responders.

29. Worked with Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York on securing $21.4 billion in funding for the World Trade Center redevelopment.

30. Former United States Secretary of State.

Brokered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in 2012.

Source: Noa: The Bitch, the Witch and the imminent Switch…..pre-election ruminations

Modi sees election danger in India’s ‘Dalit Queen’ | Reuters

Mayawati is calling on minority groups to reject the BJP, whose roots are in Hindu nationalism that many Dalits and Muslims see as a threat to their way of life.”Communal forces are becoming stronger,” she told 300,000 cheering supporters, as she kicked off her election campaign at a sprawling park she built to honor lower caste Indians, previously known as “untouchables”, in Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow.”I want to ask the prime minister … where are the jobs for Dalit boys and girls?” she said. “He will never understand the problems faced by us.”

Source: Modi sees election danger in India’s ‘Dalit Queen’ | Reuters

Adult Performer: Trump Offered Me $10K, Use Of Private Jet If I Joined Him In His Room: LAist

“I realize that in this situation I may be but a tiny grain of sand, but clearly, this is an enormous beach.”

Source: Adult Performer: Trump Offered Me $10K, Use Of Private Jet If I Joined Him In His Room: LAist

At the end of the press conference, Drake, and her attorney Gloria Allred, held up a photo of Drake standing with Trump, taken at the golf tournament.

View image on TwitterView image on Twitter

Gloria Allred shows a photo of Trump standing with the 11th victim, Jessica Drake.

Trump: “I never met her, believe me.”

Today’s press conference came a few hours after Trump vowed at a campaign event in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that he would sue all of the women that have come forward with accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct.

Allred, one of the leaders in the charge against Trump’s sexual misconduct, basically said, “Bring it on.”

Women will not be intimidated into silence by Donald Trump….If he files a lawsuit for defamation, he will have to prove that the allegations are not true. Any accuser will have a right to file a cross-complaint against Trump for defamation, because he called them liars. Be careful what you wish for Mr. Trump. The lawyers will have the opportunity to depose you. You will be required to testify under oath and we will welcome the opportunity to question you under oath.

Allred also said that “many women who have not yet come forward yet publicly may decide to do so.” A couple of weeks ago, Allred said that she had been contacted by multiple women who alleged inappropriate contact from Trump.

And then she hit him with this zinger:

Mr. Trump, this morning you spoke at Gettysburg where many brave patriots fought and died. You have dishonored their sacrifice by threatening wives, mothers and daughters. They may not have your wealth or your power or your fame, but they have demonstrated enormous courage and i believe the public will support them. The threat is an admission of the hopelessness of your cause. It is nothing more than a transparent promise of revenge. It’s a new low even for you. Your threat is below the dignity of the office you are seeking. I say to the women of this country, we shall overcome.

UK student leaders reject “partisan” anti-Semitism report | The Electronic Intifada

In an open letter, the student leaders condemn an influential parliamentary committee’s “selective and partisan” report on anti-Semitism in the UK, which was published on Sunday.The NUS itself has also criticized the report’s politicized approach to anti-Semitism.The student leaders say that the Home Affairs Select Committee’s report is an attempt “to delegitimize NUS and discredit Malia Bouattia as its president.”The parliamentary committee is dominated by the governing Conservative Party.Despite admitting there is no evidence that Labour under left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn is any more prone to anti-Semitism than any other party, the report overwhelmingly focuses on the Labour Party.Corbyn on Sunday hit back that the select committee was guilty of “politicizing anti-Semitism” and neglecting to combat it in the Conservative Party.VilificationThe report has also come in for flak over its call to outlaw criticism of Zionism, Israel’s official ideology.First published Sunday night, the open letter has now garnered the signatures of almost 400 student leaders.The select committee’s report claims that Bouattia’s characterization of the University of Birmingham as an outpost of Zionism “smacks of outright racism.”In a 2011 blog post, Bouattia wrote that the leadership of the university’s Jewish society was “dominated by Zionist activists.”The open letter demands a “revised report that is impartial” and the retraction of what it says are false statements about NUS policy on campus anti-Semitism, “along with an apology to those who have been vilified by the inaccuracies and partisan biases it contains.”The report includes a large section on anti-Semitism in UK universities, which mostly focuses on Bouattia.It criticizes her record as a campaigner for Palestinian rights, saying her “choice of language” suggests “a worrying disregard for her duty to represent all sections of the student population and promote balanced and respectful debate.”Bouattia, an advocate of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, has faced attack from right-wing media and Israel lobby groups since she was elected NUS president in April.Singled outIn their open letter, the student leaders say they are “alarmed” at how Bouattia “is being singled out for her views on Israel by the [Home Affairs Select Committee] in its report, and depicted as the source of anti-Semitism in higher education.”On Sunday, an NUS spokesperson said the report “fails to address the reality for students” and that it was “partial and inaccurate in relation to NUS work in tackling anti-Semitism.”Bouattia welcomed parts of the report, saying that its “data on increasing anti-Semitism and targeting of the Jewish community is deeply concerning.”She affirmed that “there is no place for anti-Semitism in the student movement.”The student leaders’ letter said that the report’s focus on the Labour Party and the NUS “casts doubt upon its authors’ intentions.”They reject the parliamentary committee’s recommendation suggesting that “legitimate criticism of Zionism … be considered as hate-crimes by the government, effectively equating them with anti-Semitism.”“Zionism is a political ideology that continues to express itself through the actions of the state of Israel. It is one that is held or rejected by both Jewish people and non-Jewish people,” the student leaders state. “As with all political ideologies, it should be open to discussion, scrutiny and debate.”

Source: UK student leaders reject “partisan” anti-Semitism report | The Electronic Intifada

Abbi Jacobson Didn’t Expect Hillary Clinton to Come on Her Show – The New York Times

Clinton appeared on your show in March. Were you surprised to get her? Yeah! We wrote the episode a year before it came out. Hillary was the only person running at the time — not that we would have ever had another candidate on — but we wrote it not thinking we would ever actually get her on. Afterward, I said in some interview that it wasn’t a political statement, which was a stupid statement to make. Of course it’s a political statement! For us, it felt like we were justifying our show in a different way — it felt historic. Plus, before we shot Hillary, Amy Poehler was her stand-in. She didn’t do the impression.WRITE A COMMENTWere you thinking that you had to be on your best behavior? Like, everybody, put down your joints and detox for 48 hours before she shows up? Yeah. Everyone had to be background-checked. There was Secret Service. It was really intense.Do you think she did it because she watches the show herself or because someone advised her that it would help her reach a certain audience? Listen, I don’t think she and Bill are watching our show. Maybe Chelsea would?

Source: Abbi Jacobson Didn’t Expect Hillary Clinton to Come on Her Show – The New York Times

Argentinian Women Take to the Streets in the Thousands to Protest the Murder of a 16-year-old Girl – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

Women wore black and left workplaces for an hour at midday on Wednesday, “in mourning for all of the dead women, all of the women killed simply for being women, ” as one Ni Una Menos activist described it. They had previously organized on social media under hashtags like #NiUnaMenos (“Not one less” indicating that every day one more woman’s life is lost to violence) and #MiercolesNegro (BlackWednesday).The Argentinian women marching in black are also reminiscent of the victorious Polish women’s protests earlier this month that overturned the government’s ridiculous proposal to ban abortion.The nation-wide protest follows a series of women’s protests, since the march on 3rd June 2015 for the death of fourteen-year-old Chiara Paez and recently, in Rosario, demanding abortion rights. Argentinian President Mauricio Macri has proposed a national plan to combat violence against women in July this year — including measures like a hotline for abuse victims, monitoring of abusers, and shelters for women. Activists have said that this may be a beginning but have astutely placed the focus of the problem as that of machismo (an aggravated masculinity), ingrained into the cultural fabric of Latin America. A woman is murdered every 31 hours in Argentina as many reports note. According to the Secretariat of Human Rights, nineteen women and girls have been murdered in the first eighteen days of October. As in India, Argentinian activists are asking, is violent crime against women on the rise or is it being reported and protested more?

Source: Argentinian Women Take to the Streets in the Thousands to Protest the Murder of a 16-year-old Girl – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

Fox News Host Turns Against Network & GOP LIVE On Air: ‘I’m Done!’ (VIDEO)

 

Indicating Ben Carson as one of the worst offenders, Perino said that she was furious with them defending Donald Trump’s long history of sexually assaulting and harassing women. Recently, a number of women have complained that the Republican nominee has displayed sexually aggressive behavior toward them, while tapes of Donald Trump bragging about molesting female acquaintances have been released, making unseemly remarks about underage girls, and admitting that he was a sexual predator have come to light in recent weeks. The Republican nominee settled a sexual harassment suit filed by Jill Harth back in 1997, but other women have come forward recently, including one that claimed that Donald Trump raped her when she was 13 years old.After two of the other panel members joked that her mic was going to be cut off because of these statements, Perino said:‘Yeah, because women should be seen and not heard, apparently.‘After 20 years of defending these guys, done.’

Source: Fox News Host Turns Against Network & GOP LIVE On Air: ‘I’m Done!’ (VIDEO)

Trump Finds Self-Professed Child Pimp To Refute Airplane Groping Claim: Gothamist

Trump campaign has found a man who has refuted Jessica Leeds’s account of Trump groping her on an airplane: Anthony Gilberthorpe. Gilberthorpe is perhaps best known for claiming to have pimped underage boys to members of the British government in the 1980s. There are 23 days until Election Day. According to Gilberthorpe, who told the Post he was in first class with Trump and Leeds during the flight, Trump didn’t touch Leeds. Gilberthorpe claims Leeds confided to him that she wanted to marry Donald Trump, which she allegedly told him when Trump got up to go to the bathroom after she had spent the flight being shrilly flirtatious. What? That’s a thing, I guess. As far as any kind of corroborating evidence that he saw all of this, Gilberthorpe offered up his “excellent memory,” which allowed him to recall the events he claims to have witnessed but not the year they took place—he said the flight happened either in 1980 or in 1981. Gilberthorpe’s claims also could contradict a Trump claim that he hadn’t met his accusers.

Source: Trump Finds Self-Professed Child Pimp To Refute Airplane Groping Claim: Gothamist