Happy Halloween! The stories below are serious, but the titles are not-srs and in the spirit (so to speak!) of the holiday. Enjoy!
Ghosts of Politics Past or Ghosts of Politics Future?
The GOP, of course, being the home of the ghosts of politics past. And with about 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus, they sure are scary! The Democrats are of course the home of the ghosts of politics future, as a new president and Congress must successfully combat the pandemic, climate change, income and wealth inequality, systemic racism, way-too-conservative courts, etc., etc. At least the pandemic and the GOP non-response have demonstrated the stark differences between parties, which will hopefully result in a landslide next week!
But Tuesday is Election Day, so for those who haven’t voted yet, let’s complete our review of the rest of the Senate candidates. We showcased a few of the races a couple weeks ago, so if you didn’t memorize those and need info on Arizona, Delaware, Georgia’s special election, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky or Maine, please click on the link. I will be taking only short note of women’s issues because generally, the candidates are all the same — the GOP want to set us back to the only abortions occurring in back alleys or obtained only by wealthy women who can afford to travel; the Dems will at least protect as many rights as we’ve wrestled out of the system so far, and some would push them further.
At any rate, if you live in a state with a contest, and if your vampires have not sucked all the time and energy out of you yet, please call the campaign and see if there is anything you can do to help in the home stretch, if you are able. Some of these races are deemed “safe” for the incumbent, but my philosophy is, “Take nothing for granted.” We took some things for granted in 2016 and as a result are worse off than ever. So not this time! For 3 more days, we purrsist! (Then we push our newly elected Democratic politician to work for women and minorities and the planet!)
This “Ghosts” section is tl;dr for most, probably. Just check for your state and read that part, then skip on down to “Halloween Headlines”.
Alabama — Doug Jones, D, incumbent, won a special election, but Alabama has been a very red state where $Rump is very popular. Challenger is Tommy Tuberville, Auburn coach!
Jones already has a record in these areas amongst others:
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Not only did Doug sign on to co-sponsor the bipartisan Equality Act, he also took to the Senate floor in June of 2019 to express his support for this important legislation. The Equality Act would finally guarantee protections for the LGBTQ community from discrimination in employment, housing, credit, and other federal programs and services.
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Doug co-sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act, which extends and strengthens the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the first piece of legislation to make wage discrimination illegal.
Tuberville, on the other hand, according to his website, believes in “individual liberty” and yet:
Stand for the Right to Life
A Christian conservative, I will always stand up for those who can’t do so on their own. I will fight to protect the sanctity of every human life because future generations may very well look back at the current wave of infanticide sweeping across our nation as this generation’s holocaust.
Individual liberty for men, but not for women. Eye roll.
Alaska — Dan Sullivan, Reptublican. D candidate an Independent, Al Gross. Son of former AK AG. en.wikipedia.org/… That’s Doctor Al Gross. From his website:
We must keep the government out of our healthcare decisions, whether it be at the beginning or at the end of our life decisions. As a doctor, I know how personal and complicated those decisions can be. Especially now, during the current COVID-19 crisis, respect for people’s choices and for their health decisions must be safeguarded and protected. With a majority of Supreme Court justices on record as opposing the constitutional protection of individual choices, it is especially important that we have a United States Senator who stands by these constitutional rights – and insists on only confirming judges who stand by them, too. But the current court also highlights that relying on judges is not enough. It is past time to pass legislation enshrining women’s reproductive rights into federal law.
It’s also time we recognize that affordable family planning services and comprehensive age-appropriate sex education helps to reduce unintended pregnancies….
Arkansas — Tom Cotton, R, has no Democratic challenger! Apparently there was some sneaky rat-effing going on. It is believed that Cotton wants to run for president in 2024 and in some ways he’s worse than $Rump, so embarrassing him in this race is nearly as important as maybe causing him to lose this race. $Rump actually considered Cotton for the Supreme Court but finally decided on Barrett! Cotton actually tweeted “It’s time for Roe v. Wade to go”!
Cotton doesn’t even bother with trying to do nuance. Thank you, Andrew Wortman!
His remaining opponent is Ricky Dale Harrington, Jr., a black former prison chaplain running as a Libertarian. I can’t find his views on women’s rights stated on his website, but here’s his interesting take on foreign policy from his website:
Every sovereign nation has a right to determine their future. The United States should find mutual interests with these foreign nations, seek peace, and should never engage in agitation or in aggression against any country.
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End Non-Defensive Conflicts. Support our troops by not sending them off to kill and die overseas for corporate and geopolitical interest.
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Reduce Military Spending. Reduce spending by ending our perpetual state of war, reducing fatalities and healthcare costs.
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Presidential Accountability. Hold the Executive Office accountable for engaging in military conflicts without a congressional declaration of war.
Ah, further digging found something at last! He was scheduled to debate Tom Cotton and Cotton didn’t show. So he spent an hour answering interviewers’ questions all by himself! Nobody else listened to the whole thing, apparently. News report:
Harrington also shared his thoughts on topics including war powers, equal rights, abortion, the death penalty, COVID-19 response, climate change, bipartisanship, and defunding the police.
Gee thanks, that’s enlightening! So below the video is my transcription of his answer regarding abortion (Yes, the first part was in response to the abortion question!); I transcribed from about 30:20 to 32:20. Short version: He DOES do nuance!
Please feel free to share my transcription if you wish, with attribution to the transcriptionist, thanks!
I was serving in the capacity as a chaplain during the executions in April, 2017. So at night, I had to make myself available for the families of the victim, and during the daytime make myself available for the families of the condemned. So I'm right in the middle of two opposite and opposing situations. And people, during that time I remember people arguing about the merits of the death penalty and whether we should have it or not. But I didn't have that luxury. Because I was tasked with one thing: To provide a service, to provide care, and to be there for those who were hurting.
My stance on abortion is this: Is that we as a people should spend more time caring for others, caring for the young lady who is caught in that situation and has to make that decision whether or not she is going to keep the baby. I cannot imagine what that is
like because I am a man, I am not a woman. I personally do not agree with it, but I believe that if someone's health is at risk, it is between them, their God and their family. And the goal is of course to try to reduce abortions, but we need to try another way, because fighting it out through the legislative process and fighting it out in the courts just is not working.
Now it is against site rules to advocate for 3rd party candidates, but I presume they would make an exception when there IS no Democratic candidate. I certainly hope that next time, the Democrats will run more than one person so that a candidate is guaranteed! Also, “Libertarians” are notoriously for men’s liberties and against women’s, see for example Rand Paul. So I present the above not to advocate but to educate, for your information. I am only advocating that if you live in Arkansas, you vote against Republican Tom Cotton! You may have access to more local information and can perform more due diligence, to decide whether it is better to leave the Cotton line blank or to vote for his remaining opponent.
Colorado — Incumbent Cory Gardner, R, vs. former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper for Senate. Gardner has nothing on his website regarding abortion. Hickenlooper has been a strong ally.
The constitutionally protected right to an abortion is one essential component of a comprehensive approach to reproductive health care. We must also guarantee access to affordable and safe contraception, coverage for routine cancer screenings and management of chronic conditions, and access to reliable information about reproductive health that is private, fact-based, and tailored to an individual’s needs.
Georgia — David Perdue, R, vs. Jon Ossoff, D. Mr. Ossoff has been kicking rump, calling Perdue a crook to his face. Heh. From the “electjon.com” website:
I am pro-choice. I believe that women, not the government, should control the private, personal, and complex decision whether to terminate a pregnancy.
I run a business that investigates organized crime and corruption for news organizations worldwide. Our teams have gone undercover to expose how dangerous, unqualified, and unregulated abortion providers kill thousands of women in places where safe abortion services are not available legally.
Georgia demographics have changed. Atlanta has about half of Georgia’s voters now. So a Democratic win is possible.
Illinois — Dick Durbin, D, incumbent. Mark Curran, R challenger. The seat is not as safe for the incumbent as originally thought, abc7chicago.com/… I don’t see anything on Senator Durbin’s website about women’s rights. Generally pro-choice, he had a troubling vote here, www.huffpost.com/… but it seems to be SOP for federal judges. Maybe we can change that with majority Democrats all over federal government next year.
Louisiana — Bill Cassidy, R, vs. Adrian Perkins, www.usnews.com/…, a black Democrat and former Captain in the Army Rangers, who later graduated from Harvard Law School. He is another candidate who seems to have decided that the less said about abortion on his website, the better. In conservative states, that may be a reasonable choice. A news reporter pinned him down:
“Where I stand, this is a topic that people of good will often differ, this is a very, very personal issue that I think a woman should be consulting with her doctor, her family, and God on that decision”, said Perkins.
When pressed a second time by Childers for a more definitive answer, Perkins replied, “yeah, I think a woman, legally has a right to choose, but in this conversation with how do we value life, and that’s the basis of that particular topic, we got to value life in a whole lot of ways even outside of this. My record shows I’ve talked about childcare, I’ve talked about investing in early childhood development.”
Massachusetts — Ed Markey, D, vs. Kevin O’Connor, R, www.wgbh.org/… A strong progressive, there is no doubt where Ed Markey stands:
In the Trump administration, women’s rights are under attack. From sexual assault, to attacks on Planned Parenthood, to unequal pay, it’s more important now than ever to fight for gender equality. Ed realizes that fighting for women’s rights means fighting for health, for equality, and for dignity.
A vocal advocate for a person’s right to choose, Ed has continuously stood up to extremists in Congress who attempt to overturn ROE vs. Wade and has earned the endorsements of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL Pro-Choice. Ed voted for a health care reform law, which has helped expand women’s access to free preventive health services, like contraception and mammograms.
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We also have to guarantee that women are being paid the same wage for the same work. We can no longer abide by a system where a black woman makes 63 cents to a white man’s dollar and where Latinas make 53 cents to a white man’s dollar. If we closed the gender pay gap, we would cut poverty amongst working women and their families by more than half and add $513 billion to our national economy. Ed is a co-sponsor of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and supports the Paycheck Fairness Act to eliminate the gender pay gap and end workplace discrimination.
Michigan — Gary Peters, D, vs. John James. Their fortunes are predicted to echo Biden/$Rump. Senator Peters has served in the Navy Reserve. I don’t see anything about abortion on his website, but he won us over (bolding mine)!:
Gary understands the unique challenges women face in dealing with domestic abuse and violence. That’s why he supported the landmark Violence Against Women Act to reduce intimate partner violence and provide resources to ensure that more women can be safe and healthy. He also led passage of the PAWS Act to support domestic violence shelters in providing pet-friendly housing so the facilities can provide support for both survivors and their pets.
I may have to move to Michigan to vote for him!
Minnesota — Tina Smith, D, vs. Jason Lewis, R. Originally predicted a win, it’s now a tossup! Senator Smith was appointed after Al Franken resigned, then elected in a 2018 special election. Lewis thinks when women misbehave by his standards, he should be able to call them sluts. He seems nice (not).
From Senator Smith’s website:
People… don’t have economic opportunity and security if they don’t have the right to make decisions about their own body or how to raise a family. As the only Senator to have worked for Planned Parenthood, Tina believes that someone’s decision about their health care should be between them and their provider. As both Lt. Governor and Senator, Tina has fought to protect reproductive health care and stood against the endless assaults on reproductive rights.
Please throw some support her way if you can. If there isn’t a Sluts for Senator Smith group, there’s a missed opportunity. ;-)
Mississippi — Cindy Hyde-Smith, R and loathsome. Definitely a woman who needs to be replaced by a man. Her opponent is Mike Espy, black Democrat. They’ve competed before, but Democratic turnout is usually heavier in presidential years. OTOH, Mississippi has implemented no early/absentee Covid plans, so expect voter suppression and extremely long lines.
Espy’s website addresses healthcare issues in detail, but not abortion. According to Erin Logan, a black LA Times journalist:
For a woman such as Laurie Bertram Roberts, a 42-year-old local activist and Jackson resident, Espy’s stance on abortion rights is intriguing.
“I appreciate he isn’t out here blowing the pro-choice horn,” Roberts told me. “That’s not normal for Mississippi.”
Espy told me that while he’s personally opposed to abortion — except in cases of rape or incest — “Roe versus Wade is the settled law of the land. I believe a woman should have the right to make a decision about her own body,” he said.
Apparently another guy who is unaware that pregnancies cause health problems for women attempting them. His opponent, however, is a privileged white woman who says she is completely anti-choice.
Montana — Steve Daines, R incumbent, vs. Steve Bullock, D Governor. Most expensive campaign in Montana’s history, still locked in a dead heat. In my hands, Steve Daines’ website didn’t work. Oh well. From Steve Bullock’s website:
REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
Women must have the right to make their own healthcare decisions without interference from Washington, D.C. politicians. Steve will protect access to contraception without copays, and make sure bosses don’t get to dictate their employees’ private health decisions. We need to solidify Roe v. Wade as the law of the land. Defending and fully funding Title X will ensure that folks across the state, especially in rural areas, are able to access family planning services.
If you live in Montana, don’t get your Steves mixed up!
Nebraska — Ben Sasse, R incumbent. Oh boy, is he considered safe! He was already favored to win when the Democrat, Chris Janicek, did something stupid but it’s too late to remove him from the ballot. Nebraska Dems are promoting black Democrat Preston Love Jr. as the write-in candidate. This should go well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
According to the local newspaper, Janicek sent a “sexually charged text message” to staff. Actually, it was several messages, and the staff member filed a harassment lawsuit. He then smeared her. Sigh. Come on, Dems, aren’t we better than this??
Love is “a longtime civil rights crusader and community activist with a national political profile”. Still, has a write-in candidate ever won?
Sasse has occasionally stood up to $Rump, but still needs to be defeated. He thinks SCOTUS has not been conservative enough on abortion.
From Janicek’s website, which does not address the text message scandal:
I believe it is the woman's right to choose. Not yours. Not mine. Not politicians. Nobody is for abortion, nobody. We are all for life in the sense. There will always be a need in healthcare for the decision to be made concerning a woman's health and the health of the unborn. It is a decision to be made by the woman and whoever she chooses to receive counsel from. Her doctor. Her faith. Her family. My job is to keep it safe, legal, and very, very rare.
Revocating the law will not stop abortion. Taking the need for one away will. Unplanned and unwanted pregnancy must be addressed through progressive sex education at a young age. Reproductive education, the availability of birth control and condoms, comprehensive sex education, and responsibility for men all must be implemented. We have to stop the shaming of single pregnant women and hold men accountable for support. We have to address and fix the complicated and expensive adoption process in our country to encourage more adoptions.
Love’s website has nothing on abortion and I couldn’t find anything recent. But this is from 2018 (bold mine):
The Nebraska Democratic Party pushed its platform to the left Saturday, adopting new sections supporting abortion rights, raising the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21 and a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system.
The party held a statewide convention this weekend and re-elected Chairwoman Jane Kleeb and First Associate Chair Frank LaMere. Preston Love Jr. was elected to be the second associate chair.
The new platform language says Nebraska Democrats “continue to oppose any state and federal laws that would impede a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.”
OK, I’m digging WAY too deep into all this and running out of time! There are more races but I want to post on time. So I will edit the diary later tonight. Enjoy what’s here so far! And if your race falls closer to the end of the alphabet, look back here later.
Speaking of Democats to the rescue: Best. Pawlitical. Ad. Ever. I have posted it several times, but you can’t watch this too often! ;-)
Halloween Headlines (aka In Other News)
Remember, headlines are satirical! It’s Halloween!
demonic forces take over roman catholic institutions
From the UK's Independent:
https://www.independent.co.uk/...
October 25 – Polish Women’s Rights activists staged protests during Sunday Masses in predominantly Roman Catholic Poland against a tightening of the nation’s already restrictive abortion law.
In the fourth straight day of protests, activists held up banners during Masses in several churches. A young woman in one Warsaw church stood near the altar with a sign that said “Let's pray for the right to abortion.”
The protests came after a ruling on Thursday, October 22, by Poland's constitutional court that declared that aborting fetuses with congenital defects is unconstitutional. Poland already had one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, and the ruling will result in a near-complete ban on abortion.
From the Huffington Post:
https://www.huffpost.com/...
Two years ago, when Megan King enrolled at Saint Mary’s College, a private Catholic women’s liberal arts school in Indiana, she quickly noticed the college’s official anti-abortion club. The student group Belles for Life, which stands against “abortion, infanticide, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia,” had posters in the hallways promoting its events, and handed out stickers for students to affix to their laptops. Online, the group recruited volunteers for the annual March for Life rally in Washington, D.C.
She had thought college would be a place of self-discovery, where students could test out ideas and challenge each other. But at St. Mary’s, she found, a woman’s right to an abortion wasn’t open to intellectual debate. King, who is a neuroscience major and calls herself pro-choice, wondered how many other students shared her views on abortion but were afraid to say so.
She, along with a few friends, are now fighting to start an official pro-choice club on campus — the first in Saint Mary’s history.
More than half of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and most oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that established the right to choose.
pervy robots
A deepfake bot is being used to “undress” underage girls: https://www.technologyreview.com/... A technology similar to DeepNude, the 2019 app that shut down shortly after launch, is now spreading unfettered on Telegram. by Karen Hao | October 20, 2020
In June of 2019, Vice uncovered the existence of a disturbing app that used AI to “undress” women. Called DeepNude, it allowed users to upload a photo of a clothed woman for $50 and get back a photo of her seemingly naked. In actuality, the software was using generative adversarial networks, the algorithm behind deepfakes, to swap the women’s clothes for highly realistic nude bodies. The more scantily clad the victim, the better. It didn’t work on men.
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But a new investigation from Sensity AI (previously Deeptrace Labs), a cybersecurity company focused on detecting the abuse of manipulated media, has now found very similar technology being used by a publicly available bot on the messaging app Telegram. This time it has an even simpler user interface: anyone can send the bot a photo through the Telegram mobile or web app and receive a nude back within minutes.
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As of July 2020, the bot had already been used to target and “strip” at least 100,000 women, the majority of whom likely had no idea. “Usually it’s young girls,” says Giorgio Patrini, the CEO and chief scientist of Sensity, who coauthored the report. “Unfortunately, sometimes it’s also quite obvious that some of these people are underage.”
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The researchers also reached out to Telegram and to relevant law enforcement agencies, including the FBI. Telegram did not respond to either their note or MIT Technology Review’s follow-up request for comment. Patrini says they also haven’t seen “any tangible effect on these communities” since contacting the authorities.
witches
Very interesting honors thesis, "Cultural Appropriation in Contemporary Neopaganism and Witchcraft," https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/...
The whole thing is worth reading. One quote to pique your interest:
As an archetype, the witch is almost never seen as a central figure in society. She is an outcast, the strange lady in the strange clothes living on the edge of the village, her broken down hut nestled against the treeline. She’s the shadowy figure girls go to when they’re carrying a baby they can’t keep, or the old woman who slips the lord’s wife a vial of poison when the two pass in the marketplace. She subverts old power structures and represents the hidden, resentful power of the oppressed. She poses an ancient and sustained threat to the patriarchy: “Witchcraft, it seems, defeats the masters, while at the same time it is a weapon women can use to bring an end to male power."
Halloween as a feminist issue – The Courier Online
Oct 29, 2019 · Our writers discuss Halloween as an opportunity to empower women and celebrate feminism. Em Richardson. Picture this: you're at a Halloween party. Now, imagine what everyone present is wearing
http://www.thecourieronline.co.uk/…
vampires
The continuing BS that sucks us dry
A black doctor died in childbirth, highlighting a tragic trend that affects pregnant women of color in the US, www.insider.com/…
ghouls
Number of Women Alleging Misconduct by ICE Gynecologist Nearly Triples
werewolves
They pretend to be good by day, but then by night….
U.S. Christian groups spent $280m fighting LGBT+ rights, abortion overseas
https://news.trust.org/... Specific right-wing U.S. groups have put more than $280 million into campaigns against LGBT+ rights and abortion worldwide since 2007, almost $90 million of which focused on Europe, according to an OpenDemocracy report on Tuesday.. Many of the groups - most of which are “Christian” - have close links with U.S. President Donald Trump, who is campaigning for re-election on Nov. 3, investigative website openDemocracy found, amid the rising popularity of the far-right in Europe.
Defying the werewolves: Chrissy Teigen's heartbreaking essay about having to end a non-viable, life-threatening pregnancy.
stalkers
From SheThePeople.tv, an opinion piece by smita singh, "Why Can’t Indian Men Take “No” For An Answer?" October 27, one day after Navratri, when girls are worshipped as goddesses, two women are attacked by the men they rejected: -- A CCTV-footage caught a 21-year-old college girl being harassed and then shot in broad daylight in front of her college in Faridabad, by a former classmate who was infatuated with her; she was declared dead at the hospital she was rushed to.-- in Mumbai, television actress Malvi Malhotra survived reported knife-stabbing by a producer after she allegedly rejected his proposal for marriage.
So what does a ‘no’ really mean to a man?
Firstly, I really think often men who are pursuing women just want their answer to be ‘yes’, more than they want their affection. That they must respect the agency and autonomy of women is seldom on their mind. That’s because men prioritise their own needs and desires and exclude that of others. Secondly, they feel a need or even an entitlement to control and believe that hearing a ‘no’ threatens that control. Thirdly, let’s remember they’re not really asking, they’re demanding, and so ‘a no’ is irrelevant. One of the best ways to tell the difference between a request and a demand is in how the person reacts to a ‘no’. Finally, some underlying jealousy, insecurity, or other psychological factor makes hearing the ‘no’ unbearably painful. The ‘no’ may, for example, strike at their sense of self-worth.
Claire Parry death: PC Timothy Brehmer jailed for manslaughter
A police officer who strangled a mother of two after she exposed their affair to his wife has been jailed.
Timothy Brehmer killed nurse Claire Parry, 41, after they met in a pub car park in Dorset on 9 May. The two had been involved in a secret relationship for more than 10 years, a trial at Salisbury Crown Court heard.
https://www.bbc.com/...
zombie servants of their monster master
Zombie servant activities include that he rammed through the confirmation of an ultra-reactionary justice to the Supreme Court, so as to overturn Roe v. Wade; voted to overturn the ACA during a pandemic; and perhaps will try to declare the monster the winner of the election, even if he really isn’t…
Hope your Halloween is not too scary and you can celebrate much less morbidly on Tuesday night!
As always, this is a group effort. Many thanks to the WOW crew for help with the links!