Author: Mary

Thank You, Black Women of Alabama

  By

Call for ALL Women
U.S. News asks: “Why do so many white women vote for misogynists?”

As political observers scrutinize the victory of Doug Jones over Roy Moore in the special election to fill Jeff Sessions’ senate seat in Alabama, demographic trends point, once again, to the significant racial divide between women voters. While a nearly unanimous 98 percent of black women supported Jones, carrying the Democratic candidate to victory, 68 percent of white women cast their vote for his Republican opponent who faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls while he was in his 30s.

 

[…]

 

The real story, though, lies in the 2016 election, when a full 53 percent of white women cast their votes for Trump even in the aftermath of numerous overtly misogynistic and vulgar verbal assaults on women. Prevailing logic seems to suggest that Hillary Clinton was such a toxic, polarizing and unpalatable candidate to this voting bloc that she was simply unable to win them over, “Access Hollywood” tape notwithstanding.

 

But Clinton wasn’t on the ballot this Tuesday in Alabama. Even so, white women once again demonstrated a willingness to vote for a male candidate facing credible accusations of sexual assault over his Democratic opponent. In fact, Jones performed significantly worse than Hillary Clinton with white women, unable to duplicate the six point lead that Clinton held in 2016 with traditionally Republican leaning college-educated white women.

 

What, then, explains the unwavering support among white women for Republican candidates even when they show such disdain for women as a whole? It is first worth noting that Alabama is one of the most conservative states in the nation with a deeply pro-life electorate. It is certainly possible that white women were so concerned by the Democratic candidate’s pro-choice position that they voted for Moore based on the abortion issue alone. But is a reliable pro-life vote in the Senate the only thing they have to gain from aligning themselves with men like Trump and Moore who are not only openly misogynistic in their behavior but who promote and represent institutional norms that devalue women and their rights?

 

Read the editorial:
White Women’s Bad Bargain

 

 

The black Alabamans have spoken.
Resistance is more than a token.
Our sisters have given
a call for all women
to keep the momentum unbroken.

Mary Boren, 12/14/17

 

Heroines

  By

heroines

Vox reports: The Alabama election is the latest example of the political power of black women

When Democrat Doug Jones won Alabama’s hotly contested Senate special election on Tuesday night, observers on Twitter were quick to point one thing out: Jones’s victory was most likely due to high black turnout, particularly among black women.

 

[…]

 

Alabama’s Senate race isn’t the first election this year where a strong turnout among black voters, led by black women, helped determine an election. In a performance that closely matched their 2013 behavior in the state, black women in Virginia helped keep the governor’s mansion in Democratic hands, with 91 percent of their vote going to Ralph Northam last month. They also showed the strongest support for the winning Democratic gubernatorial candidate in New Jersey. And while Hillary Clinton did not win the 2016 election, black women overwhelmingly supported her, backing her by a 94-6 margin over Donald Trump and other candidates.

 

[…]

 

In a state where a disproportionate level of African-Americans face rampant poverty, poor education systems, and unequal access to healthcare, the votes of black women weren’t about some altruistic mission to save America from itself. Their votes were a very real attempt to make a change that would help themselves and their families.

 

They were also counteracting a candidate who argued that America was last “great” when slavery was in place, responded affirmatively when asked if constitutional amendments after the 10th should be abolished, and was backed by a president who has engaged in vitriolic attacks against prominent black women while pursuing legislation that would harm them. The results outline why they were such a powerful political force that should be focused on beyond election season.

 

 

 

 

There are heroines poised in your midst,
preparing to proudly persist.
With their power at polls,
they will further their goals
as a force that cannot be dismissed.

Susan Eckenrode, 12/14/17

 

I Saw Donald Shrugging Off His Flaws

  By

Sing along to I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

I saw Donald missing all that was
Still breathing ‘neath the missile’s glow in flight
He wouldn’t see it sweep
Into his world of cheap
He thought that I had ducked into my boardroom down the street

Then I saw Donald scribble some new laws,
Just beneath where weird and him unite
I cussed at that handshake
And knew I’d not relate
I rubbed my eyes, unmoved by boast, and knew it was too late!

Then I saw Donald shrugging off his flaws
He shook my hand and pulled me to the couch
While whispering, “Just mind!”
Without a care for mine,
Then Donald grooved within that room before he went on-line.

Then I saw Donald fumble – just because
He would not hear he quibbled now and then
When called to answer for
He headed out the door
But left it open, just a crack, so we’d beseech “Encore!”

When I saw Donald address all that was
I quickly knew he posed a threat to “fair”
My life now compromised
By ego and by lies
He wasn’t nice and after all he’d find his gall revised.

© 2017 Joy A. Burki-Watson

 

If religion compels your support

  By

if religion compels your support

Think Progress reports: Trump and the Religious Right have made the Religious Left unavoidable.

These days, nobody’s laughing at the Religious Left.

 

Granted, the core catalyst for this shift was something few expected: the election of Donald Trump. His rise caught many by surprise, and sparked innumerable signal fires within activist spheres—a metaphorical call to arms against an enemy who threatens virtually every progressive cause at once.

 

One year later, that shift — combined with continued support for Trump among many evangelical leaders — has proven to be a game-changer for the lefty faithful. Although many have mistakenly lifted up a hypothetical Religious Left as a mirror image of the Religious Right (which attained power over the years through electoral victories), progressive people of faith found themselves at their most influential as agents of protest, not power accumulation. When secular activists sounded the horn to mobilize against Trump, a bellowing symphony of shofars, church choirs, and koras had already filled the air.

 

At long last, the Religious Left has awakened.

 

Read the article …

 

 

If religion compels your support
for a rotten regime that would thwart
the fulfillment of freedom
by piling excretum
on top, then it’s time to abort.

Mary Boren, 12/13/17

 

Even a Dog Knows Better

  By

even a dog knows better

Roger Cohen of the New York Times makes the case for intelligent disobedience “when immense power is in erratic and belligerent hands.”

Jim Kutsch, the president of The Seeing Eye in Morristown, N.J., the nation’s oldest organization training guide dogs for the blind, told me recently: “In all other cases, the human gives a command and the dog is expected to obey that command.” He continued, “In the case of the Seeing Eye dog, the dog is obligated to decide whether the command makes sense. The dog needs to stand still, or turn left or right, and lead me away from danger.”

 

Over months of training, dogs are taught to problem solve rather than obey commands. They are shown the dire consequences of unswerving obedience. Of course, as Kutsch put it, “There has to be a serious reason for the dog to invoke intelligent disobedience.”

 

The world spent the first half of the 20th century learning the moral and legal centrality of disobedience for the preservation of civilization. At a time when President Trump talks about the United States being “locked and loaded,” betrays a fascination with nukes, shows contempt for the law, and equates American greatness with American military power above all (compare what’s happening to budgets at the State Department and the Pentagon), a reminder is in order.

 

Continue reading
In Trump World, the Need for Disobedience

 

 

 

If the voice of the master relays
an instruction that clearly betrays
perspicacious opinions
then, unlike Trump’s minions,
a seeing eye dog disobeys.

Mary Boren, 12/13/17

 

Meanness and What That Portends

  By

mean trump

Our Donald J. Trump is an ass;
It’s clear he has simply no class.
His tweets laced with lying
Are just amplifying
His ego; he’s crude and he’s crass.

He denigrates allies and friends;
The right wing’s extremes he defends.
What’s left of our image
Gets lost in a scrimmage
Of meanness and what that portends.

Minorities upset his dream
Of white people reigning supreme;
Although he’ll deny it,
His actions imply it,
All wrapped up in false self-esteem.

He threatens of nuclear war
With bombast it’s hard to ignore.
It seems he’s a glutton
For pushing the button
That could land us all at death’s door.

America could fall behind
With good sense and kindness maligned.
We failed with our voting
To keep Trump from gloating;
He brings out the worst in mankind.

 

© 2017 Charlie Rankin

Image Source

Senator Doug Jones of Alabama

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The Washington Post reports: Jones victorious in stunning Alabama Senate upset

It was the first Democratic Senate victory in a quarter-century in Alabama, one of the reddest of red states, and proved anew that party loyalty is anything but sure in the age of Trump. The Republican loss was a major embarrassment for the president and a fresh wound for the nation’s already divided GOP.

 

“We have shown not just around the state of Alabama, but we have shown the country the way — that we can be unified,” Jones declared as supporters in a Birmingham ballroom cheered, danced and cried tears of joy. He added, “This entire race has been about dignity and respect.”

 

Hurray, congratulations Mister Jones…
Republicans are tweeting moans and groans
while Democrats are dropping microphones!

Susan Eckenrode, 12/12/17

 

You’re a mean one, Mr. Trump

  By

Another Merry Christmas season in 45’s America. Sing along to the 2015 video by brentalfloss. Rhyming resisters, submit a verse of your own to be added below.

 

 

 

#1
You’re a mean one, Mister Trump.
Your heart’s a lump of coal.
Your brain is addlepated, you have maggots for a soul,
Mister Trump
Your promises are empty lies, division is your goal.

#2
You’re a vile one, Mister Trump
You’re a xenophobic heel
Your foul misogynistic ways and racist rants are real,
Mister Trump
I wonder are you capable of knowing how to feel.

Susan Eckenrode, 12/4/17

 

Trump and justice? Not on good terms.

  By

Esquire reports: Trump’s Disgusting Retweets Suggest a Larger Problem Is Brewing

President Trump does not know much about anything, and he doesn’t much care what he does or doesn’t know. He is the Low Information Voter President. That makes his free-range access to Twitter, a cesspool of unverified information and rampant hate, a serious problem—particularly when he can amplify some of the worst information available on the platform to his 44 million followers. We saw this during the campaign, when he would retweet accounts with the handle “White Genocide” and pass on disgusting misinformation about black-on-white crime. But today he seems to have retweeted his way down a new, incredibly dark path.

 

In three successive early-morning social posts, the President of the United States shared unverified videos from the deputy leader of a British far-right hate group called “Britain First.” The name probably caught Trump’s attention, as he’s been clinging desperately to his “America First” shtick as the tempests of the Russia probe and a thousand daily scandals swirl around him. But Britain First, according to The Independent, has been condemned as an extremist nationalist group. The account tied to the deputy, Jayda Fransen, is partly automated and frequently shares unverified videos that claim to show immigrants and Muslims attacking (white) people in Europe.

 

That’s what the leader of the free world shared today. To be clear, there is no evidence these videos are real or show what they purport to show.

…

By the way, “OCS,” according to The Independent, means “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Not for the first time, you can read “Christian” here as “White.” This whole episode has jarring similarities to Trump’s treatment of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. After hundreds of Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, and those who think it’s a good idea to rub shoulders with them marched armed through an American city, and after one white supremacist killed an anti-racist protester with his car in what even Attorney General Jeff Sessions called an act of domestic terrorism, the president suggested there were “very fine people on both sides.” That is to say, the President of the United States believed good people march alongside Nazis.

 

And let’s not even bother with the argument that it’s “just Twitter.” We saw more evidence just this week that his tweets are seen by the world at large as official communications from the president. Our Dear Leader spends his days tweeting complaints about his coverage on CNN, attempting to undermine it and the free press in general as “Fake News,” and some outside our borders are taking notice. The Libyan media cited Trump’s tweet attacking CNN International to question whether a CNN report on modern-day slavery in that country was accurate.

 

Read the full article.

 

 

Trump and justice? Not on good terms.
He thinks of brown people as germs.
If you burn church and steeple
And you’re white, you’re good people.
Then he’s back to his clubs, greens and berms.

Lily Coals, 11/29/17

 

Deception’s the game they all play

  By

The Week reports: The Republican tax bill is an assault on American values

This conservative radicalism and contempt for precedent can be seen not only in the god-awful content of the bill, but also in the way it was passed. At every point Republicans relied on lies, concealment, and trampling over traditional democratic deliberation. They held no hearings, they had no official score from the Joint Committee on Taxation (the JCT scored an earlier draft, but not the most recent one, especially not a slew of last-minute giveaways to corporations and hedge fund managers) — indeed, they did not even release the final text until the last possible moment. House Speaker Paul Ryan lied constantly about its contents. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin repeatedly promised an analysis “showing” that the bill would not increase the deficit by turbo-charging growth. This was such a preposterous lie that he didn’t even bother faking the numbers. The secrecy prevented people from examining how it is stuffed full of quiet corporate handouts, only some of which have been discovered — like a big one to General Electric.

 

This bill will explode the deficit. And make no mistake, when it does, Republicans (and deficit scolds, who have been notably quiet up to now) are going to immediately start demanding cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — indeed, under congressional rules Medicare is due for a $25 billion cut in 2018 alone.

 

Let us hear no more about how Republicans are the defenders of traditional American values. They are about strip-mining the citizenry to give as much money as possible to rich people. There is no other coherent explanation for this bill.

 

Now deception’s the game they all play
and corruption’s the rule of the day,
so in twenty eighteen
let’s create a new scene
with integrity paving the way.

Susan Eckenrode, 12/2/17