Welp, folks, now that the right to abortion and the entire right to privacy may be about to be demolished, it’s past time to realise that we need our candidates to win the popular vote over and over again in races big, small, and in between. Before we have Huge numbers of deaths of pregnant women — a number that is already too big. Not to mention the other shenanigans the right wing will get up to if abortion prohibition stands.
So how do we increase the chances that we win the popular vote? I was relistening to Evita and this part stuck with me:
Don’t cry for me Argentina, for I am ordinary, unimportant,
and undeserving of such attention unless we all are.
I think we all are.
This is how we win: Every vote is important. No one is ignored. We create ads that appeal to everyone or at least most, we volunteer to talk door-to-door or with other communications (T shirts? Bumper stickers?). We reach out to those who voted GOP because of other priorities, those who didn’t vote (nonvoters were the biggest “voting” bloc), everyone. We try to reach everyone, and we will reach enough to flip the narrative and the numbers.
There are several issues that we can fight for, that have been mischaracterised by the GOP. Of course abortion is one. Here’s another one: “Tough on crime”:
The GOP is trying to make inroads on urban and suburban voters with “crime” rhetoric, with more success than you might think, www.usnews.com/…
Is the GOP really more law and order then the Democrats? www.washingtonpost.com/…
Republicans used to be the party of “law and order,” denouncing Democrats for being weak on crime. They now demonstrate on a near-daily basis their indifference to law enforcement and contempt for those who enforce laws against their political allies.
-snip-
Unlike Democrats who demand harassers be held accountable regardless of party, Republicans’ ire is reserved for accused Democrats only. Moreover, the right-wing now assumes that the president should micromanage the Justice Department, as the former president did to ensnare designated targets.
-snip-
Law and order. Respect for the police. Reverence for the impartial administration of justice. Enforcement of the law against the rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. These are the attributes of a constitutional democracy. That’s not what Republicans want these days.
And from Salon, www.salon.com/…
Whatever happened to the Republicans as the “party of law and order”? True, Richard Nixon, who first branded the party that way, was lying when he famously said, “I am not a crook.” Both Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal rank among the most notorious examples of executive branch lawlessness in our nation’s history. But through it all, the narrative commitment to the brand never wavered. It was a source of moral and political strength, always to be contrasted with “soft on crime” Democrats, however contrary the front-page facts might be.
-snip-
In turn, dramatically increased polarization is a predicted result of historical trends described by structural demographic theory (SDT), which I wrote about previously in October 2016, reviewing “Ages of Discord,” an analysis of American history by evolutionary anthropologist Peter Turchin. SDT identifies three underlying factors contributing to increased levels of political instability: mass immiseration (stagnant or falling wages, worsening health, declining well-being), elite overproduction (increased competition for wealth and power), and fiscal distress (a product of both public debt and trust in public institutions).
-snip-
In short, the lawlessness at the top of the GOP isn’t new — just vastly more blatant than it was during Watergate. But the infrastructure supporting, defending and excusing it is dramatically more powerful and robust, and the authoritarian mass base is much more consolidated within their voter base.
So let’s consider increasing our margins in the suburbs this fall by talking about who is really concerned about crime — in addition to medical safety and privacy, currently at high risk. They might be reachable on these issues if we can prove that our party is more likely to protect them.
In Other News
Of Course the Abortion News Rolled in All Week Long
But if you weren’t paying attention:
Republicans Eye Nationwide 6-Week Abortion Ban
Overturning Roe v. Wade is not the GOP's end goal; it's the beginning of their plan.
https://jezebel.com/…
If you’re thinking, well this is fucking insane!, it gets worse: Antis’ real, actual end goal is fetal personhood under the 14th Amendment, which would amount to a total ban on abortion nationwide and could outlaw in-vitro fertilization and certain forms of birth control. There are currently 19 Senators and nearly 150 Representatives co-sponsoring a bill that would establish every zygote, embryo, and fetus as a human being, granting them more legal rights than pregnant people.
DK diary Draft Opinion Leaked -- Roe Overturned
From Meteor Blades: If you haven't already, turn that anger over Roe (and all the other GOP crap) into activism
Under the circumstances, despair can be tempting. Understandably. So what I’m going to suggest as an antidote to the despair and depression and compassion fatigue isn’t meant to apply to everyone. I’m not about to tell anyone I understand their personal situation better than they do. Nor am I offering some quackery claiming activism cures all that ails you. But after nearly 60 years working side by side with activists in the streets, in elections, in prison, and in the media, I firmly believe activism can undermine personal and political malaise. Okay, call it half an antidote. But that’s a start, right?
And here is some activism for you, courtesy of Goodnewsroundup: Please-remember-who-the-real-enemy-is has a BUNCH OF LINKS to good organizations where people can get involved in DOING grassroots community work as well as donating and etc. Reprinted with permission so we can all get going:
DONATE! I set up a place where we can donate and the funds will be distributed evenly between the tossup House and Senate races. Think of it as a one stop shop for using your $$$ to save democracy. Here is the link:
Donate for House and Senate Races
Here are some other things you can do:
From DK FP, Aysha Qamar:
Elizabeth Warren and others react with rage to SCOTUS draft reversing Roe v. Wade
Within hours of the report being published protestors and demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Court, demanding that the 1973 law be preserved.
https://m.dailykos.com/…
Through the Trumpian looking glass, forcing women to die from illegal abortions is ‘pro-life’
Marina Hyde
https://www.theguardian.com/…
(Although I would submit that the anti-life forces have been around for a very, very long time, even before $Rump)
As the US supreme court moves to end abortion, is America still a free country?
There is no condition more essential to democratic citizenship than a person’s control over her own body. We can’t call ourselves a free country without it
https://www.theguardian.com/…
Protests in US
https://www.theguardian.com/…
But there will be those who make money off of our pain!
A 'Data Broker' Is Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Abortion Clinics
It costs just over $160 to get a week's worth of data on where people who visited Planned Parenthood came from, and where they went afterwards.
https://www.vice.com/…
and
A handful of men in adtech are planning to get rich off selling the data of any woman attempting to secure an abortion directly to law enforcement.
Twitter link
https://mobile.twitter.com/…
Of Course the Constitution Has Nothing to Say About Abortion
There is no mention of the procedure in a four-thousand-word document crafted by fifty-five men in 1787. This seems to be a surprise to Samuel Alito
https://www.newyorker.com/…
From RN: Roe v. Wade: Faith leaders react to leaked SCOTUS opinion:
Religious views of abortion are not as monolithic as many may believe. ...A majority of Americans say the Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade — including majorities of nonevangelical Protestant Christians, Catholics and those who identify with no religion, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last week....
Better news:
Maine becomes 1 of at least 4 with laws creating 'bubble zones' that limits protests nears the doors of a medical facility, including abortion clinics
the new law gives health service facilities the ability to establish and mark a "medical safety zone" that extends 8 feet (2 1/2 meters) from the center of an entryway. The zone would prohibit people from intentionally blocking entrances or harassing and threatening patients, said supporters. Violations could be charged as a misdemeanor.
Rep. Jay McCreight, a Harpswell Democrat, said Monday she proposed the bill to "provide important protections so that people will no longer be repeatedly and intentionally obstructed from receiving the health care they want and need." Democratic Gov. Janet Mills announced Monday — the final day of the state's legislative session — that she signed the proposal into law last week.
At 6 months old, Madison Naylor was one of the youngest survivors of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Her daycare center was just a few blocks away from where the Murrah building exploded in a firework of glass and tragedy, leaving 168 [adults and children] dead.
Now, at the age of 27, Naylor has been accepted to a residency program for pediatric health at Oklahoma University Health. Although she does not remember the incident herself, she has heard stories all her life and says that being a survivor is part of her story.
"I think it's one of the reasons why I was very idealistic and wanted to go into medicine in the first place..."
Study Shows Long COVID Affects Women More Than Men
...Researchers in the United Kingdom examined 2,320 people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and discharged from hospitals between March 7, 2020, and April 18, 2021. Researchers checked back with study participants five months and one year after discharge, though the number of participating patients dropped after five months.... Only 25.5% of the study participants who’d been hospitalized with long COVID reported a full recovery five months after discharge and only 28.9% reported a full recovery a year after ... Women were 33% less likely than men to make a full recovery...
Physicians often fail to detect symptoms of toxicity in women undergoing breast radiotherapy, a new analysis suggests - more than half of women with breast cancer experienced at least one substantial symptom during radiotherapy --e.g., severe pain, pruritus, edema, and fatigue-- that went under-recognized by their physician, most commonly in patients of racial and ethnic minority groups and younger patients.
Sexually Transmitted Infections and resultant disability on a 30-Year Rise Worldwide especially syphilis (including perinatal) and including HIV, with younger and younger patients, and with African countries showing the largest rise.
New "on- demand" pericoital female oral contraceptive drug combo exploratory study published in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health.
Sexual Harassment
From The Guardian:
Power, Politics and Porn: the toxic cocktail that rocked Westminster
Parliament’s recent sex-related scandals are just the latest in a tradition of misogyny. Why do women have to put up with it?
https://www.theguardian.com/…
Justice (or not)
What’s next for Melissa Lucio: It looks like she will get a chance to present her new evidence, which wasn't obvious in the first things written about the stay of execution.
https://innocenceproject.org/...
REligious History
from AP Black Catholic Nuns: A Compelling, Long Overlooked History (with slideshow)
Even as a young adult, Shannen Dee Williams – who grew up Black and Catholic in Memphis, Tennessee – knew of only one Black nun, and a fake one at that: Sister Mary Clarence, as played by Whoopi Goldberg in the comic film “Sister Act.”
After 14 years of tenacious research, Williams – a history professor at the University of Dayton -- arguably now knows more about America’s Black nuns than anyone in the world. Her comprehensive and compelling history of them, “Subversive Habits,” will be published May 17.
Williams found that many Black nuns were modest about their achievements and reticent about sharing details of bad experiences, such as encountering racism and discrimination. Some acknowledged wrenching events only after Williams confronted them with details gleaned from other sources. “For me, it was about recognizing the ways in which trauma silences people in ways they may not even be aware of..."
Flexibility
Prehistoric women were hunters and artists as well as mothers, book reveals:
“The reader will perhaps be astonished to find that men’s and women’s roles were not so clearcut, and that it was cooperation between all members of the group, regardless of their gender or age, which ensured their survival,” she writes.
Religion
From TheConversation: American-Muslim-women-are-finding-a-unique-religious-space-at-a-women-only-mosque-in-Los-Angeles
Goddesses
A reminder that even female gods have often been the creation of men, and that's part of how women are shaped/taught/influenced to imagine only roles/endeavors that support/build male agenda: 4,500-year-old Canaanite statue discovered in Gaza by farmer in his field
Gaza's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of an ancient statue dating back to the Canaanite era on April 26. A farmer had found the statue in the Sheikh Hamouda area of Khan Yunis in the southern enclave.
Jamal Abu Rida, director of antiquities at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the Gaza Strip, told Al-Monitor that the 22-centimeter (nine-inch) limestone statue is of a head wearing a crown of snakes.
Abu Rida said, “The statue dates back 4,500 years and belongs to the Canaanite goddess Anat, who is the goddess of love, beauty and war, according to Canaanite mythology. The statue is currently exhibited in the Pasha Palace Museum in Gaza.”
From hiphopcanada.com
US-based #iVoted Festival 2022 announces first round of artists including Run The Jewels, Lil Nunni, Lil’ Scrappy, & more #iVoted Festival, which built the largest single night digital concert in history in 2020, is back for the 2022 US midterms. #iVoted Festival 2022 will take place virtually on Election Day in the United States, November 8. Fans RSVP to access the Mandolin hosted stream with a selfie from outside their polling place or at home with their blank and unmarked ballot. Underage fans RSVP by letting #iVoted Festival know what election they will be 18 for and why they’re excited to vote. Non-citizens and ineligible voters can RSVP by letting the group know which artist they’re most excited to check out. The RSVP portal opens later this year and fans can sign up for the festival’s email list to be alerted.
The 100% women-led non-partisan 501(c)3 non-profit voter turnout group has unveiled over 250 artists for #iVoted Festival 2022’s election night webcast. Talent is booked per the data of the top streaming and trending artists in key states whose electoral margins are often decided by the size of a concert venue. Highlights include Run the Jewels, Lake Street Dive, CNCO, Carl Craig, Rise Against, Umphrey’s McGee, Lil’ Scrappy, Halestorm, Jamby El Favo, Shakey Graves, An Exclusive Video Message from Piper Perabo, 3OH!3, DeVotchKa, Yonder Mountain String Band, Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup, The Suffers, Eliot Sloan of Blessid Union Of Souls, Doll Skin, Lotus, Twiztid, The Starting Line, Duane Betts, ACRAZE and more...
As always, TWITWOW is a group effort. Many thanks to Angmar, officebss, mettle fatigue, and ramara for this week’s items and discussion!
Please note: As always, I have to take care of Mom first. Please discuss amongst yourselves and I’ll join you later this evening!