Other than the fallout from failing to pass Trumpcare and the increasing—and damning—news about Dictator Donald Trump’s (DDT) connection to Russia, the biggest news was his rollback to President Obama’s orders regarding the climate.
Climate: DDT ordered the EPA to repeal the Clean Power Plan by removing new limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants. He claimed that it was for the economy, energy security, and jobs, but the entire coal industry employs fewer people than Arby’s. DDT is preening, but the provisions weren’t to take place until 2022. In addition, a 2007 Supreme Court ruling found that greenhouse gases count as a potential air pollutant, requiring the EPA to regulate them. DDT’s order won’t reverse the decline of the coal industry that has fewer employees than clean energy. Coal’s enemy is natural gas.
Conflicts of Interest: Remember DDT’s blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest? Middle son, Eric, has…
Toilet paper, soap, water, and hand towels or hand dryers are provided free of charge in public restrooms. So why are women supposed to pay for a tampon or a pad?
Just like peeing and pooping, menstruation is a predictable, routine bodily function that people take care of in public restrooms every single day.
Menstrual products are basic public health supplies that allow people to maintain sanitary health standards — just like toilet paper, soap, water, and hand towels or hand dryers.
Access to menstrual products is critical for the full dignity, equality, and participation of women and girls worldwide — in South Africa, for example, poor girls have stayed home from school because they didn’t have access to pads.
A free sanitary napkin dispenser in the Orlando International Airport (photo mine).
Some might object that people would become freeloaders and stop buying menstrual products altogether, and grab large quantities to take home. (Which begs the…
Today is International Women’s Day. It is also #ADayWithoutAWoman – a day to strike and show the economic impact of women’s work – both paid and unpaid.
Check out Nel’s New Day (written on March 7) for more actions you can take to improve women’s lives. See below.
Also, check out my blog from last week that provides several memes for today that you can use to spread the word about #ADayWithoutAWomen.
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. Yesterday, the Senate voted to remove President Obama’s executive order Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces. Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. With a party line of 49 to 48, three senators didn’t vote: Flake (AZ), Isakson, (GA), and Sullivan (AK). Five women—Capito (WV), Collins (ME), Ernst (IA), Fischer (NE), and Murkowski (AK)—voted against women’s rights. Recently, Kellyanne Conway, Dictator Donald Trump’s (DDT) counselor, said that feminists hate powerful women. She’s wrong: feminists hate the actions of powerful women in keeping all women from having rights.
Companies bidding on federal contracts worth $500,000 or more will not need to disclose their history of federal labor or civil rights laws violations of workplace safety, minimum wages, and overtime laws. Companies with contracts of $1 million of over can force employees into arbitration for claims of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and other discrimination. Wrongdoings can’t be publicized by keeping the claims out…
If we take the “logic” used in DDT’s international immigrant ban to its logical conclusion, DDT could ultimately ban all white men in the United States of America. Here’s the reasoning for this assertion from Slate Magazine using language similar to that which appears in DDT’s revised Executive Order,
1. Whereas research has established that no fatal terrorist attacks in the United States since 2001 have been perpetrated by immigrants or refugees from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen; 2. [WHEREAS], at least 22 fatal terror attacks have been carried out in the United States since 2001 by white male United States citizens motivated by white supremacist or otherwise extremist belief; 3. [WHEARAS,] a survey of law enforcement personnel conducted in 2014 found that “sovereign citizens”—adherents of a philosophy with close historic connections to the white supremacist movement—were believed to constitute the single greatest current terrorist threat to the U.S.; and 4. [WHEREAS, by using the logic in the new executive order], until the assessment of current screening and vetting procedures required by Section 2 of this order is completed, the risk of erroneously permitting a white male national of the United States to commit a terrorist act or otherwise harm the national security of the United States is unacceptably high.
THEREFORE, DDT and his minions should ban all white men for the same length of time and same manner as described in the revised executive order.
How will he do that? Round up and intern all white men in the US? Isn’t this like the slippery slope of “logic” that created the Holocaust in Nazi Germany? Think for a moment of Martin Niemöller’s (1892–1984) words,
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Let’s NOT go there. The courts need to overturn this and any other immigration ban that 45 puts forward.
We are a country of immigrants. Let’s welcome all. Including people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, the people of Iraq who were removed in this revision, and the US white sons of immigrants.
Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) has shown that he cares about only three things: making money, revenge, and being admired, but there’s actually a fourth—looking better than his predecessor. From the lies about the size of his inauguration crowds to his level of accomplishments since then, DDT has tried to convince people that everything about him bigger and better than President Obama. DDT’s failures sent him into a rage last weekend that ended up with libelous tweets about the former president being a “bad (or sick) guy.”
At this time of his first term, President Obama had proposed, negotiated, renegotiated, and signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that brought the nation back from the brink of a deep economic depression. That was after he signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act during his first two weeks. DDT has signed a few bills overturning earlier regulations that make the country worse and given…
“Protests don’t do any good.” That’s what a progressive friend of mine said yesterday. I launched into my monologue, including the protests against the Vietnam War and for civil rights which we’re both old enough to remember. By the time I finished, he agreed with me—although perhaps out of exhaustion. Earlier this week, “hundreds” of Trump supporters gathered across the country but failed to display much energy. At the same time, the Resistance Movement is overwhelming the nation.
Unlike the Vietnam War protesting, this activism is not around a single issue. The “women’s march” was about far more than women; it showed how all of us need to come together to fight back against the authoritarian regime from the federal government. Everyone needs to know that we are not alone while we are all at risk.
A question after that first march on January 21 was what would happen after…
On International Women’s Day, March 8th, women and our allies will act together for equity, justice and the human rights of women, through a one-day demonstration of economic solidarity. Here are 3 actions you can take on #DayWithoutAWoman:
1. Do not engage in paid & unpaid work
2. Avoid spending money (with exceptions for small, women- and minority-owned businesses)
And here’s another idea. Use the following pictures as memes on your social media posting on March 8. And use the hashtag #ADayWithoutAWoman. The mosaic is my collection of all of these memes. The rest are the individual memes created by the Women’s March.
A Day Without A Woman
Women Together
Support Each Other
Environmental Justice = Gender Justice
Gather Your People
Individual Memes for Your Use
Women Together
Support Each Other
Gather Your People
Environmental Justice = Racial Justice
Environmental Justice = Gender Justice
Environmental Justice = Economic Justice
Consult Your Community
We Honor the Legacy of the Movements Before Us. #DayWithoutAWoman
Representative Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA05): The Cardboard Substitute
Not at the PA 5th Congressional District Town Hall Meeting in the Forum Building at The Pennsylvania State University today.
Neither Representative Thompson nor any member of his staff showed up for the Town Hall Meeting that he was invited to in the 5th Congressional District in Centre County where he lives. This meeting was held during the February 2017 Congressional Recess when he was in the district. These recesses are designed to give Congressional members time to go home and “tackle constituent concerns” back in the district.
Town halls are often used to help “tackle” these issues in an efficient, open and transparent way. When a Representative fails to set up a face-to-face town hall meeting, his/her constituents set it up for him/her and invite the Representative and/or his staff. This is what happened here in Centre County today.
Since no representative from G.T. Thompson’s office, including Thompson himself, showed up to answer our questions, concerned constituents talked to his cardboard substitute. The meeting was taped and will be sent to him for his response.
About 300 voters in Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District showed up at this town hall today to ask Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson questions of concern. These issues included but were not limited to sexual assault, Title IX, education, immigration, gun safety, ethics, healthcare, disability, access to the representative, and open and transparent government.
I spoke about 47 minutes into the meeting about transparency and about the increase in hate crimes and tension here in Centre County, in the state, and across the country over the last several months. This included telling Mr. Thompson about an incident reported to me in my capacity as Chair of the Centre County Advisory Council to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Two or three days ago, a voter’s tires were slashed in State College by another individual because this voter had a sign inside his car that said, “I support immigrants.”
Here’s the full video of the Town Hall Meeting.
The town hall meeting lasted about 90 minutes. But #WhereWasThompson? Where was he hiding? Was he avoiding his constituents?
Mr. Thompson, or as you like to be called, G.T., you were hired (elected) to represent the entire congressional district. Not just those that you agree with. As your boss, we need you to answer our questions. We are not “paid activists” or “the political opposition” as you seem to think; we are your constituents. We want to hear from you now. We want to know what you think and why you are voting the way you do in Congress.
NOW. Not months down the road. And we want your responses on record. Not behind closed doors.
As Marc Friedenberg told the audience and the Centre Daily Times today at this meeting,
“We’re not protesters, we’re not political opposition, we are constituents and there are a lot of things that we care about,” Friedenberg said. “We care about health care, we care about the environment, we’re very worried about the way a lot of different issues in our country are moving right now, and we’d like a chance to at least know that we’ve been heard.”
And isn’t it more efficient for our concerns to be heard at a town hall meeting? Especially since your offices are “overwhelmed” by the calls, letters, etc.?
Even though Mr. Schramm used the pejorative “deplorables” in this article (I generally try to avoid such terms since it reduces the readership), I think he has several good points for people to read and consider.
It’s the 21st century, and white supremacists are controlling the White House. After World War II, the nation was “great” because the United States had defeated Nazism during World War II. Less than a century ago, neo-Nazis are a key component in leading the country.
Steve Bannon, de facto president, has received a great deal of press, including posts in this blog. Readers of Breitbart.com learned about the high “black crime” and the “Muslim hordes” beating down the gates of “Western civilization.” Readers also learned that women who use contraceptives are ugly, but that’s another story.
Senior advisor Stephen Miller made a huge name for himself on last Sunday’s talk shows by explaining that the supreme power of and last word in U.S. government is DDT—a position of czar. College roommate of Richard Spencer, a major white supremacist leader, Miller fiercely advocates for “ethno-nationalism,” a way of claiming the superiority…
Democracy is Dissent. A statement declaring that we have a 1st Amendment constitutional right “of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress.”
DIY Resource for those wishing to have their Italian citizenship recognized through Italy's "jure sanguinis" birthright citizenship & “Jure matrimonii” by marriage
Progressive commentary from Gainesville, Florida, once called the Berkeley of the South. Potano was the chief of and the only known name of the Native American tribe inhabiting the area around what is now Gainesville at the time the Europeans arrived.
“It takes no compromise to give people their rights…it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.” – Harvey Milk
a feminist habit. thinking broadly about life and art. at peak. sometimes broadspoken. not a translation program. crushing the doublespeak. seeking free speech.
The views depicted here are my own, do not represent the views of anyone/anything else, and cannot be reproduced in whole or in part without my express written consent.
Learn more about the state laws being introduced and passed around the U.S. that is limiting Women's rights. Did you know that the Women's Equal Right Amendment from 1983 still needs to be ratified by 3 more states before it goes into effect?
Civil Rights Advocacy 