Awful "Achievements." Must-See Videos. Women Who Love Their Jobs. Fake Feminist Ivanka. Unique stories from the Holocaust & Israel-Palestine.
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN NEWSLETTER #46 MAY 3, 2017
I really try to keep the Trump items to a minimum but it's impossible to avoid reacting to his heinous policies, stupendous ignorance, and hostile outbursts. Still there are other people in the world. And other issues.
TRUMP WATCH
Bogus bragging rights. Re caption, even that's not true. It's been a long slog.
Set aside enough time to read every word of David Remnick's sharp assessment of DT's first 100 days
"23 Environmental Rules Rolled back in Trump's first 100 days." How do we explain these developments to our grandchildren -- that coal, insecticides that threaten the fetal brain and nervous system, methane & greenhouse gas emissions, & toxic discharge into public waterways are suddenly all okay?
VIDEOS
Stephen Colbert, infuriated by Trump's treatment of "Face The Nation" host John Dickerson, strikes back at POTUS hard and hilariously. Watch & cringe.
The power of eye contact. The Director of Amnesty International Poland writes: "We decided to conduct a simple experiment during which refugees and Europeans sat across from each other and looked each other in the eyes. We recorded these very human encounters and the short film speaks for itself."
Etienne Cardiles, at podium. Xavier Jugele, insert
"You lived like a star; you leave like a star." Video of the beautiful eulogy spoken by Etienne Cardiles (above), husband of Xavier Jugele, the French police officer who was shot dead while on duty in Paris.
Joe Biden levels with young men about sexual assault. Plain talk delivered with passion by the former Vice President. Sample: "A woman who is dead drunk cannot consent."
WOMEN
Who says feminists have no sense of humor? Lynn Sherr, author & broadcast journalist, emailed the above cartoon to her friends, adding, "Evolution ...was an angry wife." Former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder responded, "We'd still be fishes if it weren't for women!" "Maybe lobsters???" countered writer Ellen Goodman. "Nooo thanks!" wrote novelist Pat O'Brien. "We're already in enough hot water." [Quoted with permission.]
[AP Photo/Nick Ut]
"100 Days of Harm to Women and Counting" by Dorothy Samuels, formerly of the New York Times Editorial Board, now a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, details the damage done by Trump in just 14 weeks. "Going forward, concerned Americans should expect more attacks on women’s rights and lives from Trump and be ready to challenge this onslaught at every opportunity.
[Julie Doucet}
"Are Women Allowed to Love Their Jobs?" With this rhetorical question, Jill Filipovic effectively combines her mother's poignant story with decisive research findings and comes up with these conclusions. "...women are better off when we work outside the home: Working correlates with better mental and physical health, and working women not only report higher levels of happiness than women who don’t work, but the more hours women work, the happier we are...Mothers who work are also good for families: Daughters of working mothers tend to be higher achieving, work themselves, make more money and spend more time with their children than do daughters of women who did not work; men who were raised by working mothers do more household work and help more with child care than sons of stay-at-home moms." A must read for women who love their work & the men who love them.
Shobha Nehru (above) ) dies at 108. A Hungarian Jew who escaped the Holocaust and married into India's most prominent political family, Nehru dared to challenge Indira Gandhi's mass sterilization policies.
"Unsung War Hero who Subverted Japanese," Florence Finch (above), died at 101, her heroism virtually unknown until Coast Guard announced that she would be buried with full military honors. “Women don’t tell war stories like men do,” explained her daughter, Betty Murphy.
Department of Anti-Women Women
Charmaine Yoest, anti-choice advocate picked for HHS post
Trump puts two more foxes in charge of the hen house. Last week he named anti-abortion activist Charmaine Yoest (above) to a top P.R. job at HHS. This week he appointed Teresa Manning an anti-birth control proponent to head up the family planning program. Incredible.
[Demonstrators protest Ivanka's visit to Berlin, April 25, 2017]
First Daughter's feminism is a sisterhood sham. "What Ivanka is selling is far more dangerous than it appears, wrapped as it is in pastels and good lighting,"writes Adele Stan. Read Stan's strong piece in tandem with today's front page story on Ivanka Trump in the NY Times.
Support for low-income, first-time moms. The New York City Nurse-Family Partnership impressed me deeply when I heard a client and a nurse talk about the great work the organization does preparing expectant and new mothers for active, creative parenthood. Contact susanorkin@gmail.com for more info.
If you need a glass is half-full perspective, check out The Feminist Majority Foundation's list of the top 10 feminist victories of the past 100 days:
1. Global Women's Marches. 5.6 million people took to the streets in 661 marches in the U.S.. Plus there were marches in 92 countries on all 7 continents.
2. Activists have thus far stopped the GOP health bill & repeal of Obamacare.
3. Activists & courts stopped Trump's travel ban.
4. The March 8th "Day Without Women" strike supported labor rights, reproductive justice, and more.
5. Andrew Puzder was forced to withdraw as nominee for Secretary of Labor.
6. Mass protests keep proliferating and attracting huge crowds.,For instance, last week's Women's March on Springfield in Illinois, and last weekend's March for Science.
7. The Equal Rights Amendment moves forward. (Nevada became the 36th state to ratify the ERA )
8. Progressive legislation introduced in Congress including the "Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act;" "Women's Health Protection Act" to prohibit states from imposing medically unnecessary abortion restrictions; "Protecting Sensitive Locations Act"to limit immigration enforcement actions at hospitals, courthouses and schools;"Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act" to classify sexual conversion therapy as fraud; "Paycheck Fairness Act" to strengthen federal equal pay laws; "Healthy Families Act" to enable workers to earn a minimum of seven paid sick days per year; and "Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act" to provide up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.
9. Sanctuary cities. Supporters of undocumented immigrants have rallied in support of local governments' refusal to advance Trump's mass deportation agenda.
10. Fox News forced to fire Bill O'Reilly after feminist & progressive groups pushed more than 100 companies to withdraw their commercials from his show. Next out the door was Bill Shine, Fox co-president, due to mounting criticism of his cover-up of sex harassment claims against former CEO Roger Ailes.
ACTIVISM
Tweet & follow @ShadowingTrump. 18 experienced political progressives have formed a "shadow cabinet" based on the British model. The team of seasoned experts has formed "an agency-by-agency one-stop site that daily debunks Trump & offers alternatives. Because truth trumps lies."
Equal Rights Advocates (above) "a nonprofit legal organization dedicated to protecting & expanding economic & educational access & opportunities for women & girls." Their agenda: Strengthening Girls; Access to Justice; and Women at Work. Read about them here and support their litigation & policy work.
CREDO Action is a social change network of 5 million activists. Join their current campaigns:"No arms sales to human rights abusers," "No tax legislation until Trump releases taxes," "Demand Congress act on climate change, and "Call the FCC: Don’t kill net neutrality."
NYC Fundraiser for Jon Ossoff, Here's your opportunity to meet and support the up-and-coming young Democrat running for Congress in Georgia. Jon nearly had an outright victory last month in a primary against 18 candidates in what traditionally has been a conservative stronghold. But he now faces a run-off election on June 20th against a well-known anti-choice Republican opponent buttressed by a new onslaught of negative ads; an avalanche of outside money; and Donald Trump's hectoring from the bully-pulpit. The NYC event is expensive but Jon desperately needs funds to fight back. if you can afford it, please come. Date: May 17, 6:30 PM on Upper West Side. Invitation here.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
Combatants for Peace. Israeli authorities refused to grant travel permits for Palestinians from the West Bank to enter Israel for CFP's 12th annual joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day commemoration. But the speeches, performances, and ceremonies proceeded nonetheless with Palestinians appearing on screen from Beit Jalla. Watch the testimonies of people who have lost loved ones in the I-P conflict but who struggle against all odds to break the cycle of hate and violence and promote peaceful reconciliation.
M.K. Merav Michaeli [photo by Ron Kedmi]
Member of Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Merav Michaeli revisits her family's Holocaust story, which she calls "very unique, complicated and painful in an unexpected way." "My grandfather was Dr. Israel Rezso Kasztner, a Zionist in Budapest, who found himself negotiating face to face with Adolf Eichmann, saving tens of thousands of Jews. When he came to Israel after the war, he was accused of collaborating with the Nazis. Israel's Supreme Court ruled that this was a lie, but by then he was already murdered, assassinated by three youngsters who were incited by right wing activists." Kasztner's story is told in Gaylen Ross' superb documentary “Killing Kasztner” View it free here.
November trip to Israel will focus on women's spirituality. Itinerary combines touring with transformational "activities that engage the senses... experience the Kabbalistic elements of Israel: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Archaeology...Biblical women, contemporary mystics, and prophetesses ." Details here.
Hope your spirits are soaring on this beautiful spring day.