ismnotwasm
ismnotwasm's JournalNo. Its being sorely tested
And we are going to lose some battles. Important ones. Democracy will survive, because it is by and large very successful. Its not perfect, and some of the imperfections led us to where we are right now, but its not dying. In fact, unless I miss my guess, its spreading across the world, Democratic principles of freedom and human rights are if nothing else becoming a seed of knowledge in those places without it.
Im a fan of cyberpunk. Its the one genre that can paint a fairly accurate picture of what happens when Democracy is replaced or subverted by corporate control.
This has happened, to a certain degree. But Democracy comes roaring back, because its an ideology that says you, the individual are also important, you have a say (vote) in what happens next. You can participate. You can be heard. You can be a change agent,
Trump is clearly not a fan Of Democracy. Republican are on a collusion course with it, but I refuse to believe that either is stronger than the idea of Democracy. Ultimately they are going to lose, and they are going to lose ugly. And it will serve them right, because while Trump may be a incurious man with limited reasoning skills, many of the The Republicans who have hitched themselves to his trainall in hopes of shrinking government are not stupid. They are caught up in a dying patriarchal culture in the midst of an information revolution. They have no bend, and therefore will break.
Well Im not done
While I wish Franken would have let this go to investigation, perhaps there is a reason he didnt that we dont know. Two of the Senators calling for his resignation Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell are my senators from Washington state and Im certainly not abandoning them. Ive read their statements. I know their work, and I guarantee the Democratic Party needs them right where they are. If people are going to leave, I hope they do it soon.
I expected something like this to happen the moment #metoo became a hashtag. That we equivocate the moment a movement becomes challenging is to be expected. Franken took a fall in an atmophere attempting to call attention to a problem of behavior while simultaneously setting standards to behavior that has been present for millennianot just decades. This isnt new, this is ancient. (Thats not to say people havent evolvedthey have) Franken, whatever the truth of extent of his behavior, did the right things, requested an inquiry, apologized, reisigned when his peers, many his FRIENDS asked him to. (Unless hes playing a larger game, sacrificing himself in a very bold political move, which I wouldnt put past him) even his resignation speech cannot be ignored for its political power.
So no, Im not done. I do wish the resignation of Conyers brought about as much angst. But of course it didnt
Conservative Women Keep Turning The Feminism Thing On And Off, Cant Get It To Work!
(For what it is worth, Bristol should you want to lead a campaign to get Chris Wallace fired for those comments, I would be right behind you. I would absolutely support you in any way I could, as would many other women on the Left. But why is it that were supposed to do all of this ourselves? Could you maybe help a little, or are you just here to stand over our shoulders and point out when weve missed a spot?)
Bristol Palin and Kellyanne Conway are far from alone when it comes to conservative women claiming that feminists only care when women on the left are sexually assaulted or harassed or experience sexism. Yet, if we look at the coverage of Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kellys accusations against Roger Ailes, or at the accusations by a female conservative radio host against formerly beloved liberal icon Al Franken, that is demonstrably untrue. Even going back to the 2008 election, feminists who hated Sarah Palin and all she stood for were still calling out sexist bullshit against her perhaps most notably, at the Sarah Palin Sexism Watches at both Shakesville and Feministing.
When Sarah Palin was asked about what she thought of Bill OReillys firing from Fox News, she said that the onus was on women to just not take a paycheck if they are being harassed.
Corporate culture there obviously has to change. Women dont deserve it, they should not ever have to put up with any kind of intimidating workspace. At the same time, if a woman believes she is being intimidated and harassed, she needs to stand up and do something about it, not stick around for a paycheck for years and years and years and then after the fact complain about what she went through.
Read more at https://wonkette.com/626697/conservative-women-keep-turning-the-feminism-thing-on-and-off-cant-get-it-to-work#hMXhuz0Ie0UgeP61.99
Many of them are not stupid
They are bigoted, and occasionally honestly ignorant. They have access to the same information I do.
I come from bigoted, ignorant people, and I learned. Interestingly, it was 1974, at the start of middle school when forced busing happened, when I was brought into contact with African American children for the first time, (and no, we didnt become instant friends, segregation had powerful roots in our psyches) and the school curriculum including black history, when I, a voracious reader, read books on Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, and Sojourer Truth, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Black like Me, The Diary Of Anne Frank-oh so many books available. And because I was NOT stupid, I processed that information in the way it was intended, got in huge fights with my parents who would make me cry on purpose by saying words like Jigaboo, and tell me blacks were good at sports because they ran through the junglesaying These things when I was learning about the ancient African Dynasties and things like the Library of Alexandraall because they were afraid I would find a black boyfriend. (The N word was de rigueur around my house since I could remember, except from my Swedish grandparents, who had a softer bigotry)
Those people are me. I know them. I understand them. They dont get a pass from me because if I know better, and I hope, continue to learn better, all it takes from them is willingness. They are not willing.
What the fuck
You are assuming women have more power than we do.
I went to partynot to get laid. No matter what I wore, or how I danced. There were ALWAYS guys that wanted to obscure the line between flirting and sexual assault. Flirting is fun, and is a way to gauge response does he/she like me? Fun, and acceptable.
My own father grabbed my butthe thought it was funny when Id get angry. What do you suggest I did back then? Oh, thats right, I was under age. I should have called the cops, right? Boy, I fucked that up, Didnt I. Maybe I shouldnt have run away and hit the streets and learned entirely new set of survival skills.
You are aware that women cant leave their drinks unattended? Thats the self protective culture that has arisen. We carry our keys in our hands walking to the door, we get escorts, we get dogs, we get security systems, we take self defense courses we get weapons. If we work in a strip clubs, there are always bouncers for protection against men. If we prostitute on the streets we are forgotten and unnamed, and the crimes against us ignored. If we are ambitious in the business world, we run into sexual pro quid pro situation for sexual favors. We are touched, brushed against, grabbed, leaned over, threatened. Assaulted
As I type this, there is a woman feeling terrified and helpless because she doesnt know what to do. Her boss just shoved his tongue down her throat and shes terrified of losing her job, shes not interested in him that way. Nothing to do with clubbing and everything to do with our culture.
You know what Julian Assange is accused of? After having consensual sex with women, they awoke to find him at it again, inside them, without a condomwith no consent asked or given. And He would walk in an American court. Swedish law is quite different.
A woman alone is always in danger because she a woman alone. We are always frightened. Not the mind numbing kind of fear, the look over your shoulder kind, because a stalker or an assault is always a possibility.
Im sick of women HAVING to be on-guard because hooking up in somenot all but some minds is a predator/prey situation
And then there thisa real attitude that Ive seen here recently as yesterday to discredit the stories of women
Donna Brazile: I considered replacing Clinton with Biden as 2016 Democratic nominee
Well Well. Digging that hole deeper
In an explosive new memoir, Brazile details widespread dysfunction and dissension throughout the Democratic Party, including secret deliberations over using her powers as interim DNC chair to initiate the removal of Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) from the ticket after Clintons Sept. 11, 2016, collapse in New York City.
Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.
Brazile paints a scathing portrait of Clinton as a well-intentioned, historic candidate whose campaign was badly mismanaged, took minority constituencies for granted and made blunders with stiff and stupid messages. The campaign was so lacking in passion for the candidate, she writes, that its New York headquarters felt like a sterile hospital ward where someone had died.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/brazile-i-considered-replacing-clinton-with-biden-as-2016-democratic-nominee/2017/11/04/f0b75418-bf4c-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?utm_term=.4bcaca6c970d
Poised for West Coast Dominance, Democrats Eye Grand Agenda
Leading in the polls and anticipating victory, Democrats have sketched an aggressive agenda on issues where strong consensus appears to exist in the party, including new laws on gun control, contraception and environmental regulation. Ms. Nelson said she had met with the speaker of the Oregon Statehouse about enacting policy across state lines. The three states Democratic governors have spoken regularly about policy collaboration, and over the summer began coordinated talks on climate change with foreign heads of state.
Most ambitious of all, Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, harbors dreams of enacting a muscular carbon pricing plan along with California, Oregon and officials in Canada. In an interview, Mr. Inslee said the special election in Eastside Seattle could open the way for broad action, including taxing carbon but also joint initiatives on energy efficiency, research and clean water.
We intend to make a full-scale effort in the next session of the legislature if we win, he said. It will be a bell in the night, showing hope for the country, rejecting the Trump agenda of denying climate science.
A coastal alliance, Mr. Inslee added, especially at a time when cities such as Seattle and Portland, Ore., and throughout California are booming economically, would help make the case to a national audience that addressing climate change through energy policy is good for business and job creation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/us/washington-state-west-politics-democrats.html
Donna Brazile retweeted this
https://twitter.com/smartflexin/status/926173910747570177Im so confused..
No, Hillary Didn't "Rig" the Primary Against Bernie By Signing That Fundraising Agreement
Nowhere in the piece does Brazile mention that Politico reported the fundraising agreement between the DNC and Hillary when it happened, nor does she mention that the Sanders campaign also signed a joint fundraising agreement with the DNC. Bernie could have raised more money through that agreement, which would have helped the DNC financially and also arguably helped down-ballot Democrats, but he chose to raise money through small donations.
Though you'd be forgiven for trying actively to forget everything that happened last year, at this point it's helpful to remember that former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz stepped down after DNC e-mails hacked by Russians and distributed widely by WikiLeaks "appeared to show coordinated efforts to help Clinton at the expense of her rivals in the Democratic primaries," according to The Washington Post. "That contradicted claims by the party and the Clinton campaign that the process was open and fair for her leading challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont."
Brazile stepped in as interim chair shortly thereafter, but she caught a lot of heat for giving the Clinton campaign advanced notice of the questions she planned to ask during a primary debate against Sanders.
At the time supporters of Hillary Clinton brushed off this evidence of the DNC's bias toward Clinton. Sanders wasn't a Democrat, after all, and anyway he could never beat Trump. When Clinton comfortably won the primary, her supporters pointed to the win as proof of her rightful dominance among Democrats, mostly because it was. Democrats clearly preferred Hillary Clinton. Some still do. It makes sense that she would work more closely with the DNC and thus reap the benefits of working closely with the DNC. It also makes sense that Bernie would distance himself from the DNC, and then slam Hillary for being close to the DNC and their corporate donors, which is exactly what he did.
http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/11/02/25537553/no-hillary-didnt-rig-the-primary-against-bernie-by-signing-that-fundraising-agreement
Weve been trying for years
From Anita Hill to hollaback. And before and after.
https://www.ihollaback.org
Weve been trying.
For this feminist, bemused is the best description of how I feel about these latest reveals that certain men in powerpower of any kind, be it the power of a patriarchal society or personal power, abuse it to sexually coerce or assault women with much less power. What did people think feminism was about? What we were sometimes screaming in the streets for? Why we fought against everything unfair laws to ingrained sexist language? Gender equality includes not being constantly afraid of sexual assault because of gender.
The Weinsteins of the world are no surprise. That women, after decades, wait, you know what? Fuck decades, after centuries of fighting, whoops, wait, lets makes that millennia, when women gather some power of their own, they finally feel able to speak out is no surprise either.
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Gender: Do not displayMember since: Mon Aug 23, 2004, 10:18 PM
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