The Council of National Policy is a name everyone needs to be made aware of

 Go here for the video.

Excellent article about Trump's attacks on women

By Josh Marshall:

This is the ultimate gendered election. As Frank Foer explained in March, denigrating attacks on women are the one consistent theme throughout Trump's entire public life. They're not tactical or opportunistic. They're part of his essence. What makes the general election contest more volatile and febrile is that not only is Trump basically the embodiment of 'dominance politics' and assertive violence. But Clinton, for all the toll the last two years has taken on her public popularity, is still seen as strong and a strong leader by a majority of the public. As I've written in similar contexts, when we look at the messaging of a national political campaign we should be listening to the score, not the libretto, which is, like in opera, often no more than a superficial gloss on the real story, mere wave action on the surface of a deep sea. You're missing the point in trying to make out the logic of Trump's attacks on Clinton. The attacks are the logic. He is trying to beat her by dominating her in the public sphere, brutalizing her, demonstrating that he can hurt her with impunity.

Update:  5/25 Readers respond.

Wild radioactive pigs!

With radiation you get wild boars, radioactive reindeer,

With the 'modification' of the Voting Rights Act, you get 'problems' and voter suppression.

Predicted flash points: China and oil.  Who do you want in the White House to deal with it?

A journey to the heart of the modern ‘Red Pill’ misogynist movement.

Insults and rape threats. Writers shouldn’t have to deal with this

Feminists don't hate men. But it wouldn't matter if we did

Melting Paint Stripping Sex Robots and then some

Video suggesting what Earth would look like if all the ice melted.

Remembering what Republicans would like to forget about Reagan.

Gut-punching article on the mass incarceration of blacks and what it has done to the family.

Trumpets across Jakarta?

Having to follow ALL the rules not to get raped.

Why day dreaming, science fiction, and libraries are necessary.

Paint-stripping chemicals like methylene chloride are deadly.  Fatal.  Fatally deadly.  Deadly fatal.

Would sex robots help misogynists stay out of the dating pool?

Mathematician suing to get Kansas election records because suspicions of election fraud.

Trolls, Jeb Bush and explosive volcanoes

Call it violent misogyny rather than trolling.

More about Jeb Bush and his preaching to a rather unimpressed evangelical crowd.  And his support of White Supremacy.  And his lack of regret for getting involved with the Terri Schiavo case. And his declaration that he too would have invaded Iraq.  Student tells Jeb that his brother created ISIS.   If you want a repeat of the wonderful years of Georgie Bush but this time with Iran.... vote for Jeb.

Oatmeal has suggestions on what we should have been taught in senior year of high school.

Bees are still in trouble:
U.S. Honeybee Population Plummets by More Than 40%, USDA Finds

Something called volcano monitoring.

Banks and Oysters and everything in between...

Of course he wants to give the banks your money.   That's what Republicans do.

The House of FEAAarrrrrr... (Tom Tomorrow).

Lies about Iran and its nuclear program.

How Canada handles terrorism.

Why are some men so angry?

Trolling discussed.

When we hooked up with Neanderthals.

Oysters. They are good for you AND the environment.

The immature in the gamer's world

Need to grow up.

Not One More

Gun violence survivors share their photos.

Misogyny let loose. After the Isla Vista shooting, the anger of those males who feel they deserve women's attention has come to the forefront.  And women try to explain what a day can be like.

Southern Law Poverty Center reports on White Homicide Worldwide and begins with this chilling quote:

A typical murderer drawn to the racist forum Stormfront.org is a frustrated, unemployed, white adult male living with his mother or an estranged spouse or girlfriend. She is the sole provider in the household. Forensic psychologists call him a “wound collector.” Instead of building his resume, seeking employment or further education, he projects his grievances on society and searches the Internet for an excuse or an explanation unrelated to his behavior or the choices he has made in life.

Someone who left the NRA when the bozos came in.

Focusing all their technological know-how on...

Boobs.  I mean, is it supposed to titillate?  Does it rack up points or knock one back in surprise? Nope. Maybe they should grow a pair....of breasts and find out what it is like to be reduced to just body parts.

The war against women

Has been going on for a long time around the world.  In some places, women face down death threats. In others, legislation to control those naughty lady parts is constantly brought to the vote, pushed forward by those who have no understanding of women's physiology.

Because apparently we are now celebrating the Era of Stupidity.

Update 10/26:  sexism is everywhere.

And Malala Yousafzai is able to walk, talk, and can remember.

The horrific facts about rape.

The war on women, past and future

Thank you, madam, for helping women make their own reproductive choices.

Dr. Jean Pakter, a former health official who made New York City a national model for providing safe, legal abortions and led an innovative effort to educate women about the benefits of birth control, prenatal nutrition and breast-feeding, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. She was 101.

And yet, there is a lack of understanding about reproductive control as a right and some people will never give up trying to stuff women back into a fairy tale make-believe pseudo 1950s life style, where men were men, women were in awe, and minorities knew their place. Times they are a changin' guys.  Finding out that women are humans like men and have feelings comes as a shock to some....

The war on women

As explained by Senator Boxer.

Feminism is not an excuse for being cranky, bitchy about every little thing

Feminism makes one able to recognize society's acceptance of misogyny and its unawareness of how pervasive it is, that it is the little daily things that allow misogyny to grow.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville:

Of all the condescending, dismissive, and factually incorrect accusations used by concern trolls (or hostile trolls) to attempt to silence, shame, or in some other way discourage feminists from addressing sexism in all its manifestations, perhaps none is quite so stupid as the charge that feminists are "looking" for things about which to be offended—as if feminism is a product that will go out of production if there aren't enough buyers and sales are waning because sexism is, like, so over, dude.

This notion is ridiculous for a couple of reasons. For a start, misogyny is so pervasive that no one has to look for it.

[snip]

The idea that feminism should be kept under glass, broken only in case of a "real" and "serious" emergency, is predicated on the erroneous assumption that "the little things" happen in a void, as do, presumably, the "real" and "serious" things, when, in reality, they are interwoven strands of the same rope. And as soon as one begins to judge the worthiness of feminists' attention on a sliding scale, even generally-regarded "serious issues" like equal pay are dwarfed by global concerns like sex trafficking or government-sanctioned use of rape as a tool of war. It doesn't have to be one or the other—feminists can multi-task.

And, in a very real way, ignoring "the little things" in favor of "the big stuff" makes the big stuff that much harder to eradicate, because it is the pervasive, ubiquitous, inescapable little things that create the foundation of a sexist culture on which the big stuff is dependent for its survival. It's the little things, the constant drumbeat of inequality and objectification, that inure us to increasingly horrible acts and attitudes toward women.

Irrespective of intent, the recommendation to "ignore the little stuff," so often intertwined with accusations of looking for things about which to get offended, is not just ill-advised, but counter to the ultimate goal of full equality. It's like a knife in my gut when I see feminists accusing other feminists of "hurting the cause" by focusing on "the little stuff," because that's It—that's the stuff, that's the fertile soil in which everything else takes root and from whence everything else springs, that's the way that the fundamental idea that women are not equal to men is conveyed over and over and over again.

Even though I am a woman, I confess I have indulged in misogyny because it brings a cheap laugh, but in the end I have created one more 'little' thing that will end up hurting myself, my daughter, women. Vigilance is required and it's so much easier to be lazy and say that's just how things are.

I still have a lot to learn.

Hating the bitches

So no one calls me a bitch. Armanda Marcotte of Pandagon asks why so many women shun feminism and reproductive control. She finds it reflects directly back to organized religion:

One of the conundrums of fighting for reproductive justice is that so many women are anti-choice. Now, anyone who looks into the issues realizes that female misogyny is nothing to sneeze at—there’s a real “hate the bitches so no one calls me a bitch” thing going on that has a lot of power—but just on its surface it makes no sense that women are anti-choice in the same numbers men are. Until you look at the churches. Women are the mainstay of churches, the support system, and they have to buy into the B.S. in order to run the picnics and the bake sales and the anti-choice protests. But what happens when women have other options for fulfillment other than contributing unpaid, underthanked labor to religious organizations? They apparently start dropping out and those religions lose their power.

It’s an interesting example of how ideology is intertwined with systems to create oppression.

Amen.

It's about denying control to women

Of their own bodies. The bizarrely stupidly named 'partial-birth abortion' has been banned. More women will now die.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville:

Five men—Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas—just decided that the health of every woman is America is worth less than a terminally ill fetus.

If there were ever any question about whether the movement behind this ban is “pro-life” or really just “anti-woman,” consider that carrying a terminally ill fetus to term increases a woman’s chances of placental abruption and uterine rupture; if she can even become pregnant again, future pregnancies carry greater risks for both her and the fetus. (And that’s to say nothing of her psychological well-being.)

Does any of that sound like these “pro-lifers” give a diddly shit about healthy women and healthy babies? Of course not. Because it’s not about healthy women and healthy babies; it’s about control.

Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof told us so:

This ruling should not be a surprise. It was only a matter of time before the Court would show that it has become more "conservative" since the election of George W. Bush. I put conservative in quotes since most True Conservatives that I know are appalled at the idea of governmental interference in such a personal decision. That's something they usually accuse liberals of. (Perhaps election should be in quotes as well since it was the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore that put Mr. Bush in office in 2000, violating another True Conservative tenet -- state's rights.) In fact, I remember pointing out that this would be the consequence of the re-election of Mr. Bush in 2004.

Explaining the boob wars and sexism on the net

NTodd has the timeline. (And the following link)

Jessica Valenti, editor of Feministing.com, reports about sexism on the net:

Jill Filipovic, a 23-year-old law student who also writes on the popular blog, Feministe, recently had some photographs of her uploaded and subjected to abusive comments on an online forum for students in New York. "The people who were posting comments about me were speculating as to how many abortions I've had, and they talked about 'hate-fucking' me," says Filipovic. "I don't think a man would get that; the harassment of women is far more sexualised - men may be told that they're idiots, but they aren't called 'whores'."

Most disturbing is how accepted this is. When women are harassed on the street, it is considered inappropriate. Online, though, sexual harassment is not only tolerated - it's often lauded. Blog threads or forums where women are attacked attract hundreds of comments, and their traffic rates rocket.

Jessica concludes the article:

Thankfully, women are fighting back. Sparked by the violent harassment of Sierra, one blogger started a "stop cyberbullying" campaign. This was picked up by hundreds of other bloggers and an international women's technology organisation, Take Back the Tech, a global network of women who encourage people to "take back online spaces" by writing, video blogging, or podcasting about online harassment.

It won't mean the end of misogyny on the web, but it is a start. Such campaigns show that women are ready to demand freedom from harassment and fear in our new public spaces. In the same way that we should be able to walk down the street without fear of being raped, women shouldn't have to stay quiet online - or pretend to be men - to be free of threats and harassment. It is time to take back the sites.

Update: Stop Cyberbullying site has info and coping techniques.

Take a look at the guy

Who is delighting in calling Edwards a girly girl. Come to your own conclusions.
Glenn Greenwald explains:

In connection with that post I wrote, it is critical to keep in mind why so many right-wing followers have this compulsive need to feminize Democrats and liberals while (both explicitly and by effect) masculinizing themselves. It is virtually always revealing, whenever this pathetic feminizing tactic is used, to examine the individuals who are using it. In virtually every case, the motivation behind this tactic -- the personal need that it fulfills -- becomes painfully obvious. It is always about the Feminizer, never about the target.

Actually Edwards doesn't look half bad in that Breck ad.....

Update 3/12:
Being a woman, I think I can feminize without danger. Look what I found on these here internetal tubes: