Orrin Hatch: Will talk to the women when they “grow up”

MoonHowler

 

Washingtonpost.com:

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) raised the ire of protesters on Thursday after telling a group of mostly women who confronted him in one of the Senate buildings that he would talk to them when they “grow up.”

Video of the incident ricocheted around social media Thursday night, the latest in a string of confrontations reflecting the heated emotions coursing through the Capitol amid the fight over Brett M. Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.

In the video, a group of protesters confronts Hatch, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has been front and center in the confirmation process, as he gets into an elevator in the Hart building. The video starts mid-confrontation, with the voice of a woman asking Hatch over a wall of staffers why he isn’t “brave enough” to talk to her and her group. Hatch waves his hand in midair.

“Don’t you wave your hand at me,” the woman says.

Hatch looks at her and says, “When you grow up, I’ll be glad to” talk to you. The comment incenses some of the protesters.

“How dare you talk to women that way?” one says.

Hatch waves at the group from the elevator as they continue yelling at him.

Kathy Beynette, the protester whose voice is the one predominantly heard in the video, said in an interview that she was deeply offended by Hatch’s remarks.

Read More

Donald Trump: profile in cowardice

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — President Trump mocked the account of a woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of assault and told a Mississippi crowd that the #MeToo movement was unfairly hurting men.

Trump, in a riff that has been dreaded by White House and Senate aides, attacked the story of Christine Blasey Ford at length — drawing laughs from the crowd. The remarks were his strongest attacks yet of her testimony.

“ ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ ‘Upstairs? Downstairs? Where was it?’ ‘I don’t know. But I had one beer. That’s the only thing I remember,’ ” Trump said of Ford, as he impersonated her on stage.

“I don’t remember,” he said repeatedly, apparently mocking her testimony.

Read More

The Pill should be illegal????

MoonHowler

This clarity should be etched in everyone’s brain.   Many folks in the anti-choice movement are also opposed to contraception.

What should also be clear is that no one is “pro-abortion.”  People who favor abortion rights (and I am one of those people) believe that people have the right to make their own morally appropriate choice about reproduction.

I respect people’s personal opinions on the subject of abortion.  I just don’t respect anyone’s attempt to make personal decisions for me or to enact laws that take away my rights.

The Women’s March: A brief glimpse…

MoonHowler

Thanks, Eric Byler
‘s

It is obvious that some folks here have no idea what a woman’s march is really like.  It has almost nothing to do with celebrities and stages.  That’s the boring part that most attendees don’t see.  The stage is what CSPAN shows you because that’s just what they do.

The real action  is on the streets and on the mall.  Saturday people reenergized and threw off their shroud of depression.   It’s pretty difficult to stop what happened here.  This march was surely larger than any of the three I attended in my pre-gimp life.

Women go home with a clearer idea of what they are personally going to do about the injustice they perceive.   Look at the crowd.  You will understand better.

Finally, don’t hold women to a higher standard than your president.  If you voted for Trump, you seriously don’t have any room to talk about how anyone else behaves.

#IcantKeepQuiet: A new Anthem

MoonHowler

We have spoken about the power of communication and the power of just getting together to share ideas…These young women didn’t meet until 2 days ago and they practiced their song online.

My brother sent me this video and yes, I cried.

Never underestimate the power of people coming together.  They can move mountains.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke

Some people are calling this song the anthem of the women’s march on Washington.

Read More

Who says size doesn’t count?

MoonHowler

Newyorktimes.com:

The women’s march in Washington was roughly three times the size of the audience at President Trump’s inauguration, crowd counting experts said Saturday.

Marcel Altenburg and Keith Still, crowd scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain, analyzed photographs and video taken of the National Mall and vicinity and estimated that there were about 160,000 people in those areas in the hour leading up to Mr. Trump’s speech Friday.

Those are just Washington figures.  Consider all the sister marches around the world.  My guess is the new president and Congress are going to have a rough go of it.  That’s a lot of energy out there.

Not to snag and paraphrase a famous saying but…a sleeping giant has been awakened and she is pissed.

Pink Pussycat hats soften the message!

MoonHowler

From the Washington Post  by Petula Dvorak:

The Women’s March needs passion and purpose, not pink pussycat hats

Please, sisters, back away from the pink.

Pink pussycat hats, sparkly signs, color-coordinated street theater, all of it is gleefully in the works for the upcoming Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21.

And that scares me a little. Because all of this well-intentioned, she-power frippery can make this thing more Lilith Fair than Lilly Ledbetter. And the Women’s March of 2017 will be remembered as an unruly river of Pepto-Bismol roiling through the streets of the capital rather than a long overdue civil rights march.

This is serious stuff.

It’s about human rights. It’s about the way 51 percent of our nation’s population still gets less pay, less representation in elected office and in corporate corner offices, less access to health care, less safety and less respect that the other 49 percent of our deeply divided nation.

Read More

“Day of Tears”? I don’t think so!

MoonHowler

Ben Cline (above)

WTOP.com:

WASHINGTON —Abortion rights opponents want to pass a resolution in the Virginia General Assembly that would make Jan. 22 as a “day of tears.”

 The U.S. Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade on Jan. 22, 1973. The law established a nationwide right to abortion.
Anne Fitzgerald, who is with the organization Day of Tears, said the resolution was “in memory of those babies that are not with us.” She said there have been more than 58 million abortions since Roe v. Wade.
The resolution, HR 268, was introduced by Republican delegates Benjamin L. Cline of the 24th District and Richard P. Bell of the 20th District. The resolution would not only designate Jan. 22 as “Day of Tears” but also encourage Virginia residents to lower flags to half- staff.
“On the morning of Jan. 22, citizens wake up and they’re driving around and they’re seeing people’s flags lowered, they’re going to ask who died,” Fitzgerald said.

Read More

Pence calls Mrs. Obama “vulgar”

MoonHowler

U.S. Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) arrives for a news conference about their goal of permanently extending Bush-era tax rates at the Capitol in Washington, DC, U.S. on December 2, 2010. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

USpoln.com

Mike Pence said he didn’t understand why Michelle Obama had so passionately condemned his running mate, Donald Trump, for boasting about forcibly grabbing women by their genitals. The First Lady denounced the Republican presidential nominee, although she never dismissively spoke his name, for “speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior” – which she said had “shaken (her) to the core.”

“First and foremost,” Pence argued, “I have no idea why Mrs. Obama, who will be departing the White House shortly, is even commenting on the future President of the United States, God-willing. That’s the first thing I don’t quite get. Secondly, if she’s the First Lady, shouldn’t she be focused on doing whatever it is that First Ladies are supposed to be doing as their duties while their husbands are rescuing the world? What’s she doing commenting on and obviously worrying about her successor? That’s not what she should be doing.”

Read More

The first woman president….

MoonHowler
This baby will be able to vote
This baby will be able to vote!

I would be remiss not to  mention the significance of the woman issue on this blog.  Never before has a woman been one of the candidates from a mainstream political party.  Yes, it is a big deal.

I can remember when President Obama was first elected.  There in that park in Chicago, on election night, one could see famous blacks like Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey standing there listening to the newly elected first black president who addressing the huge crowd.  Tears were streaming down their faces.  It was then that I realized I would never understand how blacks, rich or poor, felt about seeing the election of a first black American president.

I thought about how I would feel if a woman were elected.  I didn’t think it would hit me quite as hard but it would hit me.  I guess I am now on the precipice of testing my theory.

This morning I though about my own personal history.  My grandmother was 30 years old before she could vote.  My mother was born just 4 months after the passage of the 19th amendment.    WWII began when women had only had the vote for  21 years.  Now on November 8, 2016, some 96 years after getting the right to vote, a woman could be elected president of the United States.

Yes, as a female, I am standing in awe.  I don’t think I will cry when it happens.  I am not that moved.  However, the special social  and political significance is not lost on me.  It’s about damn time!

Rolling Stone and reporter found guilty of defamation

MoonHowler

 

Washingtonpost.com:

CHARLOTTESVILLE — A federal court jury decided Friday that a Rolling Stone journalist defamed a former University of Virginia associate dean in a 2014 magazine article about sexual assault on campus that included a debunked account of a fraternity gang rape.

The 10-member jury concluded that the Rolling Stone reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, was responsible for defamation, with actual malice, in the case brought by Nicole Eramo, a U-Va. administrator who oversaw sexual violence cases at the time of the article’s publication. The jury also found the magazine and its parent company, Wenner Media, responsible for defaming Eramo, who has said her life’s work helping sexual assault victims was devastated as a result of Rolling Stone’s article and its aftermath.

The lawsuit centered on Erdely’s 9,000-word article titled “A Rape on Campus,” which appeared online in late November 2014 and on newsstands in the magazine’s December 2014 issue. Opening with a graphic depiction of a fraternity gang rape, the story caused an immediate sensation at a time of heightened awareness of campus sexual assault, going viral online and reverberating through the U-Va. community.

But within days of the article’s publication, key elements of the account fell apart under scrutiny, including the narrative’s shocking allegation of a fraternity gang rape. The magazine eventually retracted the story in April 2015, and Eramo’s lawsuit came a month later, alleging that the magazine’s portrayal of her as callous and dismissive of rape reports on campus was untrue and unfair.

 

Read More

The War on Women now recognized by GOP women

MoonHowler

war-on-women-banner-text

Washingtonpost.com:

A growing number of prominent Republican women are worried that as members of their male-dominated party step up to defend Donald Trump against accusations of sexual assault, they are causing irreparable damage to the GOP’s deteriorating relationship with female voters.

Trump has faced questions throughout his campaign about his crass comments about women, but concern escalated this month following the release of a 2005 video in which Trump boasted that he had sexually assaulted women and subsequent allegations by 11 women that Trump had inappropriately touched or kissed them. A series of mostly male Republicans have come to Trump’s defense — dismissing the accusers as liars and, some worry, further alienating the female voters that the party desperately needs to survive.

“For next-generation professional women, the party is going to have to do something very, very drastic to change the course of where this candidate has taken us,” said Katie Packer, a deputy campaign manager for Mitt Romney in 2012. “I think the leaders in our party are going to have to aggressively reject this. Come November 9, they better be prepared to make very strong statements condemning all of Trump’s behavior.”

This division within the Republican Party comes as polls suggest the nation is on the verge of electing its first female president even as misogyny remains a part of American life and culture. Ironically, it is Trump’s candidacy rather than Hillary Clinton’s that has brought sexism to the forefront of political debate.

Finally!  It’s about time the problem was seen by all women.  Non-GOP women have always recognized that there was a war on women.  This issue became very apparent when  various  issues involving reproductive rights were in the forefront.  There was great denial amongst Republican males.   “War on women?” they scoffed.  “Nonsense!”  Then numerous reasons were given to negate when we knew.

GOP women now see  instance after instance of disrespect shown to women, starting with the trashing of Megyn Kelly,and on to the  fat-shaming of Miss Universe.  They heard  the famous bus genital-grabbing remarks with their own two ears.  The bad behavior has been verified by  11 women who stepped forward so far to discuss in detail, their own personal experiences with Mr.  Trump.    They also see men who so far have refused to  denounce much of the personal behavior of the GOP candidate.  These same women also see  many other examples of creepy behavior   far too numerous to list  that just shouldn’t be acceptable in the year 2016.

Listening to leadership as well as Trump supporters minimize or deny allegations of sexism and misogyny has made GOP women nervous.  It has made them realize there really is a war on women.  In 2016, we shouldn’t even be having these conversations.  Yet alas, we still are.

 

An app for birth control?

MoonHowler

pill

NYTimes.com:

A quiet shift is taking place in how women obtain birth control. A growing assortment of new apps and websites now make it possible to get prescription contraceptives without going to the doctor.

The development has potential to be more than just a convenience for women already on birth control. Public health experts hope it will encourage more to start, or restart, using contraception and help reduce the country’s stubbornly high rate of unintended pregnancies, as well as the rate of abortions.

And as apps and websites, rather than legislative proposals or taxpayer-funded programs, the new services have so far sprung up beneath the political radar and grown through word of mouth, with little of the furor that has come to be expected in issues involving reproductive health.

At least six digital ventures, by private companies and nonprofits, including Planned Parenthood, now provide prescriptions written by clinicians after women answer questions about their health online or by video. All prescribe birth control pills, and some prescribe patches, rings and morning-after pills. Some ship contraceptives directly to women’s doors.

Some accept insurance, including Medicaid for women with low incomes; some charge modest fees. Some send prescriptions to local pharmacies, where women can present their insurance information when picking up the contraceptives.

It’s about time!  Birth control is a private matter.  It shouldn’t be open to the politicians.  Throwing a doctor in the mix adds an unnecessary, often unaffordable,  expense to the woman.    Technology birth control strips doctor visits, politicians, religious nuts, and most of the aggravation out of the process of safe, affordable birth control.

I wonder what Margaret Sanger would be thinking now.

Confirmation: 25 years later

MoonHowler

hill

Washingtonpost.com:

As assistant counsel to President George H.W. Bush, Mark Paoletta played a role in the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

But he’s taking on a new role when it comes to the upcoming HBO movie about the hearings starring Kerry Washington as Anita Hill, the woman who accused Thomas of sexual harassment: Paoletta is now leading an effort to fact-check the flick. Today he launched confirmationbiased.com, a website he thinks will combat what he calls the pro-Hill “false narratives” in the movie, with documents, video footage and other content about the real-life hearings. (Washington and HBO brass say it’s not biased against Thomas.)

While some other Republicans involved in the hearings have preemptively bashed it, Paoletta says his complaint isn’t just a drive-by one — he plans to “devote himself” to correcting the record.

25 years later, the Thomas-Hill affair is still a “he said-she said.”  Will we ever know the real truth? Probably not.

Read More