International Women's Day 2017

This year International Women's Day is different.

It began in 1909 in Russia as a day to mark women's fight for equal rights, especially equal wages--enough to buy both "Bread and Roses."  It has been observed more by socialist and communist nations than by North American women, though in 1975 the UN adopted IWD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_Day

But this year US women and their sisters around the world have an additional problem to deal with: the Groper in Chief, who bragged of sexual assault and cut off US funding for any UN or NGO work that provides women's health care, if that care includes mention of where women can get an abortion.

Thus the day is a bigger event this year in the US, and a strike has been called to show the economic clout of women--no work, no shopping.  A Day Without Women.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/a-day-without-a-woman/518943/

Here are two resources to enjoy to mark this day:

1)  Photos from around the world of women's demonstrations and parades:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/international-womens-day.html?_r=0

2)  Amy Goodman's IWD special on Democracy Now with great interviews and music:
a. "Eve Ensler & Christine Schuler Deschryver on the Predatory Mindset of President Trump":
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/3/8/eve_ensler_christine_schuler_deschryver_on

b.  "'Hurray for the Riff Raff' on Feminism, Gentrification, Gender Violence, and Art in the Era of Trump" with Alynda Segarra:
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/3/8/hurray_for_the_riff_raff_on

I'm celebrating by not cooking or washing the dishes.  As a retiree, I can't stay home from paid work, and as a 68-year-old, I no longer have unpaid labor from which I can't take a day off (such as caring for my children), but I can join in by not buying anything today or going out to lunch or dinner.

Because I take a four-hour writing class on Wednesdays, followed by a two-hour Hebrew class, I can't go to City Hall or the Federal Building and demonstrate.

So I'm just taking a vacation in honor of women's rights to rest.

Video of Stephen Miller at 15 yrs.

My daughter Ellen and her friends were classmates at Santa Monica High School with a kid who is now Trump's "senior" advisor at age 31. 

His name is Stephen Miller.  He was notorious even then for his racism, especially toward immigrants.

One friend had the insight and skills to make a 6-min documentary about him for her film class in 2002.  It was never shown in the campus film festival because Stephen's mother refused to grant permission for it to be seen.

Now part of it has been aired on Univision, the Spanish-language tv station and is available on the internet.

http://www.univision.com/noticias/politica/video-exclusivo-el-discurso-de-secundaria-de-stephen-miller-que-ofendio-a-otros-estudiantes-y-motivo-su-expulsion-del-escenario

 Ellen speaks for about a minute in the video.

Univision aired it a few days ago and placed an article with more details about Miller's past on its website.  The video is in English with Spanish subtitles.  The article is in Spanish, but my computer gives me the option to see it translated into English.

This is the type of person whom 45 hires and admires.

See these other recent reports on this strange young man being used by the prez:

Amy Goodman on Democracy Now:

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/2/15/the_stephen_miller_story_from_pestering

New York Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/king-stephen-miller-latest-liar-bigot-team-trump-article-1.2971639