niyad
niyad's JournalAhhh, Shrove Tuesday. Sun is shining. I annoyed a trumper. Snow melting.
The weather is lovely today, after a nasty weekend, so I ran errands. I needed several items from Dollar Tree, picked them up, and got in line. The guy in front of me was talking to the clerk about a huge bequest (18 million) being made to a college here. Said he didn't know which one, but what a boost for education. I told him that it was an alum from my college, and the entire CC community is still in a bit of shock. Then he smiled and said, "Maybe they could use some of that money to get rid of #####," and left.
The clerk (with whom I usually exchange pleasantries when she checks me out), said, "That wasn't nice. I love #####. I voted for him." I said, "why, since he doesn't give a damn about you?" She sputtered, then said, "It isn't nice when people have murder in their hearts." To which I replied, "you mean, like the man you love and vote for?" She sputtered again, "No, he does not". I said, "oh, I guess bragging about shooting someone on 5th Ave, or inviting an enemy to do whatever he wants to our allies is okay?" No response. I took my receipt and left.
And, no, I am not giving up annoying trumpers and magats who get in my face for lent. Why do you ask?
Just out of idle curiosity: I keep hearing about how Taylor Swift is the most
successful FEMALE artist, the the highest grossing FEMALE artist, the whatever-the-hell-category FEMALE artist. So I wonder-- which male artist equals her wealth, her crowds, her. . .well, everything, as a male artist? The not-so-subtle implication with the emphasis on FEMALE artist, that she doesn't quite equal male artists.
By the way, I just watched Taylor and Carole King at Carole's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two years ago. Taylor's speech was great, such a loving tribute. And Carole's speech, calling Taylor "my professional granddaughter". It also cracked me up about the cat references!
The moscow fire is all a deep state plot. cucker tarlson is really a deeply
embedded agent of the deep state, only playing the role of reichwing asshole. His real mission was NOT the interview with the murdering bastard putler, that was the window dressing. His REAL mission was to sabotage that metro station.
Only a very few know that kkkucker has secretly been one of our best operatives for many years.
Shhhhhh, be sure to keep this to yourselves! We would not want word to get out!
Okay, I am going to get my coffee now.
Rape Threats, Misogynist Slurs, Sexual Harassment and Doxing: How Online Abuse Is Used to Intimidate, Discredit and Sil
((very trigger-warning reading)
Rape Threats, Misogynist Slurs, Sexual Harassment and Doxing: How Online Abuse Is Used to Intimidate, Discredit and Silence
1/18/2024 by Viktorya Vilk and Jeje Mohamed
Online abuse is one part of a broader spectrum of attacks—digital, physical, legal and psychological—aimed at pushing women and nonbinary individuals offline, out of public discourse and out of their fields of expertise.
Eighty-five percent of women globally have witnessed online harassment and nearly 40 percent have experienced it directly. (tommaso79 / Getty Images / iStockphoto)
In 2011, I was a young student marching alongside millions of Egyptians to demand the removal of then-president Hosni Mubarak, who brutally clung to power for nearly 30 years. As I washed off tear gas and blood and patched up protesters violently attacked by the police and military forces, I made a fateful decision: I would leave my premedical studies to pursue a career in journalism to expose human rights abuses. Covering human rights abuses under a dictatorship was hard. Being a woman doing that job was outright dangerous. The government and its supporters tried to intimidate me, to take away my power and silence me, as they did with many journalists and activists. Danger followed me everywhere. From sexual harassment, stalking, physical attacks and constant attempts to hack into my accounts to threats of rape and kidnapping, it became a nightmare that swallowed my existence, online and off. Well-intentioned people suggested I leave social media, spend less time online and on my phone, or just quit journalism.
. . . .
Individual harms have systemic consequences. Online abuse stifles press freedom, chills free speech and undermines equity and inclusion. When online abuse drives women, LGBTQ+ people and people of color to leave industries that are already predominantly male, heteronormative and white, public discourse becomes less equitable and less free. Attempts to harass and intimidate women, nonbinary people and people of color are hardly new. But while hate and abuse are as old as time, the internet is just 40 years old—and it’s an amplification machine. We know that hateful, harassing and inflammatory content travels further and faster online, especially on social media platforms that rely on eyeballs and engagement to make money. Governments, political parties, corporations and other powerful actors have figured out that they can manipulate algorithms to instigate coordinated online attacks to intimidate and threaten critical voices and stifle dissent.
When Lebanese journalist Ghada Oueiss criticized the Saudi regime for murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi, disinformation trolls and bots linked to the Saudis tweeted death threats and sexualized, disinformation-filled memes about Oueiss. Indian journalist Rana Ayyub is frequently inundated with abusive comments within seconds of posting on X. Such volume and speed are hallmarks of coordinated harassment campaigns.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/01/18/online-abuse-women-journalists-lesbian-gay-trans-rape-misogyny-sexual-harassment-doxing/
Rape Threats, Misogynist Slurs, Sexual Harassment and Doxing: How Online Abuse Is Used to Intimidate, Discredit and Sil
((very trigger-warning reading)
Rape Threats, Misogynist Slurs, Sexual Harassment and Doxing: How Online Abuse Is Used to Intimidate, Discredit and Silence
1/18/2024 by Viktorya Vilk and Jeje Mohamed
Online abuse is one part of a broader spectrum of attacks—digital, physical, legal and psychological—aimed at pushing women and nonbinary individuals offline, out of public discourse and out of their fields of expertise.
Eighty-five percent of women globally have witnessed online harassment and nearly 40 percent have experienced it directly. (tommaso79 / Getty Images / iStockphoto)
In 2011, I was a young student marching alongside millions of Egyptians to demand the removal of then-president Hosni Mubarak, who brutally clung to power for nearly 30 years. As I washed off tear gas and blood and patched up protesters violently attacked by the police and military forces, I made a fateful decision: I would leave my premedical studies to pursue a career in journalism to expose human rights abuses. Covering human rights abuses under a dictatorship was hard. Being a woman doing that job was outright dangerous. The government and its supporters tried to intimidate me, to take away my power and silence me, as they did with many journalists and activists. Danger followed me everywhere. From sexual harassment, stalking, physical attacks and constant attempts to hack into my accounts to threats of rape and kidnapping, it became a nightmare that swallowed my existence, online and off. Well-intentioned people suggested I leave social media, spend less time online and on my phone, or just quit journalism.
. . . .
Individual harms have systemic consequences. Online abuse stifles press freedom, chills free speech and undermines equity and inclusion. When online abuse drives women, LGBTQ+ people and people of color to leave industries that are already predominantly male, heteronormative and white, public discourse becomes less equitable and less free. Attempts to harass and intimidate women, nonbinary people and people of color are hardly new. But while hate and abuse are as old as time, the internet is just 40 years old—and it’s an amplification machine. We know that hateful, harassing and inflammatory content travels further and faster online, especially on social media platforms that rely on eyeballs and engagement to make money. Governments, political parties, corporations and other powerful actors have figured out that they can manipulate algorithms to instigate coordinated online attacks to intimidate and threaten critical voices and stifle dissent.
When Lebanese journalist Ghada Oueiss criticized the Saudi regime for murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi, disinformation trolls and bots linked to the Saudis tweeted death threats and sexualized, disinformation-filled memes about Oueiss. Indian journalist Rana Ayyub is frequently inundated with abusive comments within seconds of posting on X. Such volume and speed are hallmarks of coordinated harassment campaigns.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/01/18/online-abuse-women-journalists-lesbian-gay-trans-rape-misogyny-sexual-harassment-doxing/
With maternal mortality and preterm birth rates at an all time high, reversal of Roe is a major factor
With maternal mortality and preterm birth rates at an all time high, reversal of Roe is a major factor
Emma Hall | February 2, 2024
According to data from the 2022 study completed by the U.S. GAO office, maternal death rates in the U.S. are at an all time high, where significant factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the reversal of Roe v. Wade greatly exacerbated the situation. From 2019 to 2021, maternal death rates rose 40%, a number that reflects the greatest impact on women of color. The rising maternal death rate is deeply concerning as we enter into 2024, a year in which we should have the most technology, knowledge, and resources available for prenatal and postpartum care. Yet, the U.S. is facing more maternal death rates than ever, with a significant number of these deaths a direct result of racial disparity within the U.S. healthcare system.
In 2022, for every 100,000 live births in the U.S. there were 68.9 maternal deaths of Black women, 27.5 maternal deaths of Latina and Hispanic women, and 26.1 maternal deaths for white women. These statistics represent not only an appalling number of maternal deaths, but also a deep disparity in the maternal health care services that women of color face, with Black women facing 2.6 times higher maternal mortality rates than white women in the U.S. Disparity in health care services for women of color in the U.S. is a devastating reality. Past experiences of racial trauma and discrimination faced by women of color, systematic racism and bias within the U.S. healthcare system, and socioeconomic struggles that result in lesser access to quality maternal health care are just a few of the factors leading to an inequitable distribution of proper care for women obtaining prenatal care. These issues were only heightened in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Covid accounting for 25% of maternal deaths, a great number of which were women of color.
Yet, the pandemic was not the only driving factor in driving maternal death rates. The recent reversal of Roe v. Wade has also served as a significant factor in reducing proper access to maternal care. With maternal death rates 62% higher in states with abortion bans and restricted access to reproductive health services, the reversal of Roe is working to perpetuate maternal mortality rates, particularly in southern states with greater populations of women of color, and the most restrictions of reproductive health services and abortion access.
Lack of proper maternal health care is also a large factor in preterm birth and death rates, currently at a global high. With maternal health care quality and preterm deaths closely linked, it is imperative to target these issues at the source and work to provide quality, accessible, and equitable maternal health care for prenatal and postpartum mothers and babies across the world.
Calling for better health care for women is a common occurrence in the face of Roe’s reversal, one which is frustratingly ignored in many U.S. states quick to pass abortion bans. Yet, devastatingly it is this very lack of health care that is contributing significantly to preterm births, preterm death rates, and maternal mortality all across the U.S, and thus increasing these rates across the world. The statistics provide a grim picture of reality, and reading them clearly provides an urgent need for change in the health care of women and mothers, especially the women of color who are most impacted by such devastating factors. With increased access to health professionals, safe access to educated health professionals in the field as well as overall investment in maternal health throughout the country, many of these harsh statistics could be greatly reduced. With 80% of pregnancy deaths being preventable, there is certainly no reason to have such high maternal mortality rates. It is clear what needs to be done. Through eradicating the numerous healthcare tragedies that reversing Roe has brought to creating more accessible health care for women all over the U.S., preterm complications and mother and infant mortality rates can be greatly reduced. There is no excuse for such a high mortality rate, nor is there an excuse to be denying women and children all over the U.S. the proper health care they deserve.
https://feminist.org/news/with-maternal-mortality-and-preterm-birth-rates-at-an-all-time-high-reversal-of-roe-is-a-major-factor/
'Deliver Us From Evil': Rape, Reproductive Coercion and the Catholic Church (trigger warning)
(warning, this article is disturbing, angry-making, IMPORTANT)
‘Deliver Us From Evil’: Rape, Reproductive Coercion and the Catholic Church (trigger warning)
1/30/2024 by Carrie N. Baker
For decades, the Catholic Church has shown a disregard for clergy sexual abuse and reproductive health. Why are priests and bishops considered to have any moral authority on issues of sexuality?
Anti-abortion marchers and parishioners walk from the Old St. Patrick’s Church to a Planned Parenthood clinic where they pray as a protest against abortions, on April 1, 2023 in New York City. (Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images)
A version of this article was originally published by The Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Sexual assault and reproductive coercion share similar dynamics: Both are forms of violence that intimately violate another person’s body. The Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandals, combined with its efforts to control women’s reproductive choices by banning abortion and attacking contraception, expose a troubling pattern of sexual sociopathology. This conduct fundamentally undermines the Church’s claims to moral authority on issues of sexuality.
By now, the stories are familiar and well documented.
The 2006 documentary Deliver Us From Evil chillingly reveals how Catholic bishops repeatedly relocated a priest named Oliver O’Grady from parish to parish in an attempt to cover up his rape of dozens of children.
The 2005 Academy Award-winning film, Spotlight, dramatizes the true story of the Boston Globe investigative reporting team that exposed widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the 1970s and the cover up by the Boston archdiocese.
In 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury published a 1,356-page report documenting decades of sexual abuse by more than 300 Catholic priests who victimized thousands of children in six dioceses. The report found a “systemic coverup by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.”
But incidents of sexual abuse by priests are not confined to the past. On Dec. 14, a federal court sentenced 68-year-old Providence-based Catholic priest James W. Jackson to six years in a federal prison for downloading and storing thousands of files containing child pornography on his computer in the church rectory. Authorities found 12,000 images and 1,300 videos of child pornography, including videos of prepubescent females portrayed in acts of bestiality and sadomasochism.
. . . .
Members of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), a global organization of prominent survivors and activists, display photos of Barbara Blaine, the late founder and president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), during a protest during the papal summit on Feb. 23, 2019, in Rome. (Vincenzo Pinto / AFP via Getty Images)
. . . .
In the many hospitals they control, the Catholic Church blocks access to reproductive healthcare, including emergency contraception for rape victims, medically necessary sterilization, and abortion care. Due in part to hospital consolidations, the Catholic Church now controls one in every six acute care hospital beds in the United States. The first woman to die because she was not offered a life-saving abortion due to a Catholic-backed abortion ban enacted in 2021 was Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick. She died in July 2022 in Luling, Texas. Catholic priests and bishops perpetrate and tolerate astounding levels of sexual violence, and then deny their victims the right to prevent or end life-threatening pregnancies. The all-male Catholic leadership’s long history of perpetuating sexual assault and reproductive coercion grows out of a toxic masculinity that devalues women’s lives, rights and dignity. Both are forms of intimate assault that deny the bodily autonomy of women in particular. Given the Catholic Church’s history of clergy sexual abuse, and their callous disregard for the reproductive health and safety of women, why are priests and bishops considered to have any moral authority on issues of sexuality?
How is it that supposedly-celibate men, who know nothing about women’s bodies and who tolerate, cover up and excuse widespread sexual abuse in the church, have the right to speak about anything related to women’s sexuality? Is the unnatural suppression of their own sexuality perhaps fueling their frantic attempts to suppress the sexuality of others? Are their actions, at some level, due to a jealous rage that others are experiencing the natural sexual pleasure they deny themselves? *******The essence of rape is taking control of another person’s body against their will. In the same way, compelling another person to carry a pregnancy to term is taking control of another person’s body against their will. Rape and reproductive coercion are two sides of one coin: misogynist violence. The emperor has no clothes. Why can’t people recognize this?**********
https://msmagazine.com/2024/01/30/rape-abortion-catholic-church-sexual-child-abuse-priests/
'Deliver Us From Evil': Rape, Reproductive Coercion and the Catholic Church (trigger warning)
(warning, this article is disturbing, angry-making, IMPORTANT)
‘Deliver Us From Evil’: Rape, Reproductive Coercion and the Catholic Church (trigger warning)
1/30/2024 by Carrie N. Baker
For decades, the Catholic Church has shown a disregard for clergy sexual abuse and reproductive health. Why are priests and bishops considered to have any moral authority on issues of sexuality?
Anti-abortion marchers and parishioners walk from the Old St. Patrick’s Church to a Planned Parenthood clinic where they pray as a protest against abortions, on April 1, 2023 in New York City. (Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images)
A version of this article was originally published by The Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Sexual assault and reproductive coercion share similar dynamics: Both are forms of violence that intimately violate another person’s body. The Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandals, combined with its efforts to control women’s reproductive choices by banning abortion and attacking contraception, expose a troubling pattern of sexual sociopathology. This conduct fundamentally undermines the Church’s claims to moral authority on issues of sexuality.
By now, the stories are familiar and well documented.
The 2006 documentary Deliver Us From Evil chillingly reveals how Catholic bishops repeatedly relocated a priest named Oliver O’Grady from parish to parish in an attempt to cover up his rape of dozens of children.
The 2005 Academy Award-winning film, Spotlight, dramatizes the true story of the Boston Globe investigative reporting team that exposed widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the 1970s and the cover up by the Boston archdiocese.
In 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury published a 1,356-page report documenting decades of sexual abuse by more than 300 Catholic priests who victimized thousands of children in six dioceses. The report found a “systemic coverup by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.”
But incidents of sexual abuse by priests are not confined to the past. On Dec. 14, a federal court sentenced 68-year-old Providence-based Catholic priest James W. Jackson to six years in a federal prison for downloading and storing thousands of files containing child pornography on his computer in the church rectory. Authorities found 12,000 images and 1,300 videos of child pornography, including videos of prepubescent females portrayed in acts of bestiality and sadomasochism.
. . . .
Members of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), a global organization of prominent survivors and activists, display photos of Barbara Blaine, the late founder and president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), during a protest during the papal summit on Feb. 23, 2019, in Rome. (Vincenzo Pinto / AFP via Getty Images)
. . . .
In the many hospitals they control, the Catholic Church blocks access to reproductive healthcare, including emergency contraception for rape victims, medically necessary sterilization, and abortion care. Due in part to hospital consolidations, the Catholic Church now controls one in every six acute care hospital beds in the United States. The first woman to die because she was not offered a life-saving abortion due to a Catholic-backed abortion ban enacted in 2021 was Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick. She died in July 2022 in Luling, Texas. Catholic priests and bishops perpetrate and tolerate astounding levels of sexual violence, and then deny their victims the right to prevent or end life-threatening pregnancies. The all-male Catholic leadership’s long history of perpetuating sexual assault and reproductive coercion grows out of a toxic masculinity that devalues women’s lives, rights and dignity. Both are forms of intimate assault that deny the bodily autonomy of women in particular. Given the Catholic Church’s history of clergy sexual abuse, and their callous disregard for the reproductive health and safety of women, why are priests and bishops considered to have any moral authority on issues of sexuality?
How is it that supposedly-celibate men, who know nothing about women’s bodies and who tolerate, cover up and excuse widespread sexual abuse in the church, have the right to speak about anything related to women’s sexuality? Is the unnatural suppression of their own sexuality perhaps fueling their frantic attempts to suppress the sexuality of others? Are their actions, at some level, due to a jealous rage that others are experiencing the natural sexual pleasure they deny themselves? *******The essence of rape is taking control of another person’s body against their will. In the same way, compelling another person to carry a pregnancy to term is taking control of another person’s body against their will. Rape and reproductive coercion are two sides of one coin: misogynist violence. The emperor has no clothes. Why can’t people recognize this?**********
https://msmagazine.com/2024/01/30/rape-abortion-catholic-church-sexual-child-abuse-priests/
ICYMI, Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow!
"Rapists and criminals*. They are not sending their best." It suddenly occurred
to me, knowing as we do that every accusation from TRAITOR** is a projection and confession, that he confessed to being a rapist, a criminal (including a drug dealer, per the OIG report in the White House medical unit), and most definitely not being their best. (Should have stayed off that escalator, dementia j. loser.)
This was brought to mind by the "undocumented worker meme" posted earlier by K. S. Tornado.
* I hate that phrasing, as though rapists are not, in fact, criminals. Hmmmmm, more projection, you rapist scum???
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