ACTION - Born Alive Bills - NCGA S359

I wrote our governor today about the born alive bill. I did use two paragraphs from a NARAL post, but I added the first and last paragraphs.

So this is one of those ALEC copy/paste things - frequently referred to as the "born alive bill".

See here and here for how they keep popping up, why we don't need them, and how they push an anti-choice agenda through seemingly innocuous means.

Online: https://governor.nc.gov/contact/contact-governor-cooper

Please veto these extreme anti-woman, anti-abortion bills. This is a religious/healthcare/moral issue for pregnant individuals. The simple fact is this is a human rights issue. By denying women abortion as healthcare, lawmakers assume women lack the capacity to make health and moral decisions for themselves. What's next? Taking away our bank accounts or forcing our husbands to co-sign loans?

S359 (H602 in the house) is an extreme anti-abortion bill written by politicians, not doctors, that has no basis in medicine or science. The sole purpose of this bill is to intimidate patients and criminalize doctors and healthcare practitioners.

It's yet another effort by the anti-abortion majority to push extreme and inflammatory rhetoric in order to achieve their ultimate goal: banning abortion altogether.

Please veto all anti-abortion legislation and don't let the religious right take away our right to healthcare, autonomy, privacy, and religion.

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*PACK THE GALLERY--#StopS359!*  MONDAY, APRIL 15th, 2pm

North Carolina General Assembly
16 W. Jones Street, Raleigh

Bring all your friends and come pack the NCGA Senate gallery Monday, 4/15, at 2pm.  The Senate will be voting on the extreme anti-abortion bill S359--Come fight for reproductive rights and abortion access and to #Stop359!

The North Carolina General Assembly is again trying to restrict abortion access and use our bodies for political stunts. S359 (H602 in the house) is an extreme anti-abortion bill written by politicians, not doctors, that has no basis in medicine or science.  The sole purpose of this bill is to intimidate patients and criminalize doctors and healthcare practitioners.

It's yet another effort by the anti-abortion majority to push extreme and inflammatory rhetoric in order to achieve their ultimate goal: banning abortion altogether.

Help us pack the Senate gallery of the NCGA

Please also keep calling and emailing your members of the NCGA and tell them to vote against S359 and its companion bill H602! Find your NC House and NC Senate members here: https://www.ncleg.gov/RnR/Representation

And, keep contacting Governor Cooper to tell him to veto S359, to veto H602, and to veto all other anti-abortion bills that reach his desk.
Phone: (919) 814-2000
Online: https://governor.nc.gov/contact/contact-governor-cooper

Antisemitism or media bias?

Antisemitism or media bias?

No, I'm not asking this in general, so please don't take the gloves off yet. Relax. There has been a specific controversy lately and very little pushback on a large scale. There was an excellent discussion on this in the FB group for a podcast I love, Radio Dispatch, they considered the charge and as new facts were brought to light, people didn't double down on the original position or throw around baseless personal attacks, which was refreshing and productive.


NYT smear piece: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/opinion/im-glad-the-dyke-march-banned-jewish-stars.html


Another, rather worse, smear piece I became aware of through a supposedly liberal organization online:

http://time.com/4839592/anti-semitism-lgbtq-pride/?xid=homepage
Always a good resource, here's what Mondoweiss had to say on the whole thing:
Anti-Semitism accusations against ‘Dyke March’ prove pro-Israel lobby will torch LGBT rights for marginalized peoplehttp://mondoweiss.net/2017/07/semitism-disproved-accounts/


This TIME article is particularly bad because it is not only devoid of facts, but also makes wild baseless accusations. First, it asserts that Jews were denied expressing their intersection of religion and sexuality, which is false - others with stars of David on shirts, signs and flags were welcomed and not ejected. Which begs the question, what did these three individuals do differently?


Greenblatt of the ADL in the TIME piece pointed to these things as examples of intolerance

Last summer, a plank in the platform of the Movement for Black Lives bizarrely accused Israel of genocide.
Linda Sarsour, a leader of the women’s rights movement, has lambasted Zionism as incompatible with feminism and advocates for the exclusion of pro-Israel Jews from activist groups. And some in the anti-Israel movement have accused Israel of “pink-washing,” claiming that Israel and its supporters celebrate freedoms enjoyed by the LGBTQ community in Israel to divert attention from Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

Genocide? Bizzare? It's a frequent consideration due to the indiscriminate use of deadly force and talk of "demographic threats." Here's one example of Holocaust survivors' concern for Israel's genocidal tendencies:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/holocaust-survivors-and-their-descendants-accuse-israel-of-genocide-9687994.html

The TIME piece ends by saying they, the ADL,". . . demand that our allies observe those fundamental values that we also seek to live by: equality, fairness and respect for all."


This is a noble goal, but when you try and whitewash history and ignore Palestinian suffering at the hands of the oppressed turned oppressor, you are no longer heading in the general direction of these ideals; you're going the opposite direction.

Zionism is to many, by definition, a colonial and genocidal undertaking. Maybe we need to be asking what do YOU mean by Zionism? What do you mean by a Jewish homeland? The right simply to exist in peace with equal representation such that all peoples' rights are protected? Great! Or do you mean the right to exist as a Jewish entity protecting Jewish rights, thereby necessitating the ethnic cleansing of another group, namely Palestinians? The right to continue the Occupation until a (suitable to you) government emerges from the rubble of the starved open air prison you created? When a person objects to Zionism, you cannot charge antisemitism automatically.

A few notes and facts can be found in the links to the official statements of several groups below, facts which are missing in the TIME and NYT articles that only seem to quote one woman who was kicked out and no other witnesses or organizers or Palestinian groups that may have been involved to make this grand pronouncement of antisemitism. From what I gathered, one or all of the three ejected were members (one was a director, possibly?) of A Wider Bridge, a problematic organization in support of various IDF actions against Palestinians that go against the anti-colonial position of the March and violate human rights more broadly. They weren't just there as LGBTQ Jews, they were loudly anti-Palestinian and increasingly belligerent when asked to be respectful of the March's aims and others marching.

Chicago Dyke March Collective's statement:
https://chicagodykemarchcollective.org/2017/06/27/chicago-dyke-march-official-statement-on-2017-march-and-solidarity-with-palestine/

JVP statement:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VG2cPkufLCFVSv4DmvRbOSQnzMdUt7so8AlrQHcXSyA/pub If Not Now statement:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/ifnotnow-chicago/ifnotnow-chicago-statement-on-the-chicago-dyke-march/1160560540756467/



More on A Wider Bridge and why these individuals as opposed to other Jewish participants were asked to leave:
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/chicago-dyke-march-accuser-wider-bridge-has-record-fabrications


Among problems with A Wider Bridge are (from EI article above):

+ In 2016: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-advocates-falsely-claim-chicago-lgbtq-protest-disrupted-jewish-prayers

+ "In 2014, A Wider Bridge sponsored rallies addressed by Israeli government officials in support of Israel’s 51-day bombing campaign that devastated the Gaza Strip and left 2,200 Palestinians – more than 550 of them children– dead."

 + And at the March-  "the altering of chants to erase the word “Palestine,”" among other things.

+ In general- "A key goal of Israel and its lobby groups in recent years has been to inoculate Israel against criticism by obscuring the line between anti-Jewish bigotry, on the one hand, and criticism of Israel and its state ideology Zionism, on the other."

Women's March - Raleigh, NC - January 21, 2017

There were said to be 17,000 people in attendance!

These photos featured are my own from the actual event in Raleigh, but there are links to many more at the end!

https://womensmarchonraleigh.org/program/

Here's some local coverage for the Raleigh event:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article127914819.html


Marches on every continent, here are some photos of that:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/21/world/womens-march-pictures.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0





Many Congressmen bowed out of inauguration attendance and a few stood with the women marching the next day, notably Gutierrez:

https://gutierrez.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/why-i-will-not-be-inauguration-and-will-be-marching-women

http://m.democracynow.org/stories/16989 

Here are some more not attending, though it may not reference the Women's March. Some 70 Democrats boycotted.

 http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/14/politics/democrats-boycotting-donald-trump-inauguration/

http://people.com/politics/members-of-congress-boycott-donald-trump-inauguration/

A week before the March, Trump made a claim, then some evidence to the contrary was presented. . . 

I wrote at the time- didn't the Cheeto elect just say formal wear in DC is sold out :p
". . .to retail shop owners saying they’ve never seen less demand for formal party wear. ."

D.C. official: We've received 200 bus parking applications for inauguration, 1,200 for Women's March
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/12/1619764/-D-C-official-We-ve-received-200-bus-parking-applications-for-inauguration-1-200-for-Women-s-March

This below may not be credible, but certainly is true to his character. There was a Rogue POTUS staff account that we all were hoping was legit in the early days that likely isn't. In the spirit of the time capsule, I'll keep it in the mix.

Insider: Donald Trump, exasperated by protesters, yells “Don’t they know I’m the f—ing president?”

http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/insider-donald-trump-exasperated-protests-yells-dont-know-im-f-ing-president/1223/

Lard being sent to office of NC senator who knocked women’s marchers

What did she say??

“Message to crazies @ Women’s March - If Brains were lard, you couldn’t grease a small skillet. You know who you are,” Krawiec’s tweet said.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article128870129.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article128870129.html

One of the leaders of the Washington, DC March, Linda Sarsour, was accused of terrorism by the right leaning tabloids simply for being a Muslim Palestinian American- or rather- excuse me- for holding up her index finger?! (because that's an ISIS sign???)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/linda-sarsour-womens-march-attacked-online_us_58865134e4b0e3a7356adbb2

Since the election, I've seen many activist groups spring up, some very good, some less good in dealing with diversity, or intersectionality. I've read comments from people of color feeling unwelcome and alienated, some were all white to begin with, in the women's groups. I struggle myself with how best to use my privilege to help, how the majority can show up and support (as in being there in such numbers to prevent police violence) but not take over and tell them how to run a movement a minority is leading (such as Black Lives Matter). I feel clumsy talking about it, I certainly am no expert, but we all need to do better listening to each other to do the most good.  

What every White Person Attending the Women's March Needs to Know:
https://www.bustle.com/articles/201378-what-every-white-woman-attending-the-womens-march-needs-to-know

Or, as feminist icon Gloria Steinem told the New YorkTimes, “Sexism is always made worse by racism — and vice versa.”

Two articles I found helpful in parsing the difficulties of race within sexism:

**https://medium.com/@mankaprr/what-i-witnessed-at-the-womens-march-c4df91f53938#.b8a07o97l

**http://www.harlemlovebirds.com/2017/01/i-attended-womens-march-now-what.html?m=1

There was an anti-choice rally very near the Women's March event on the same day and there was a sign war near the end. I hope the pictures show some of it. 

In the Women's March Washington, DC, The pro-choice and anti-choice groups butted heads but decided to march together. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/womens-march-abortion_us_5883d51be4b096b4a23245f8


A post march confrontation of sorts?

 Not so for the Women's March in Raleigh, I believe- they had their own rally:

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article127968199.html

Note the creeping in of the giant fetus sign of anti-choicers trying to be visible from the front near the stage and the dedicated effort of other sign holders to block them out. I have a hard time calling them pro-life with the disregard for education, birth control, welfare, peace, healthcare and other programs that help once you're outside the womb.

Other signs from the Women's Marches:

• https://news.vice.com/story/womens-march-best-signs
• http://www.upworthy.com/9-kick-ass-inspiring-signs-you-can-print-and-take-to-the-womens-march?g=2
• https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=884524331689075&id=407570359384477&_rdr