niyad
niyad's JournalMy happy, NOT magat, day! Had errands, and it was a bit chilly, so I was
wearing my ROEvember sweatshirt (with the tsunami and the raised fists), and carrying my "Childless Cat Ladies Vote (Rosie the Riveter and Cat) tote bag. Stopped in at one of my favourite shops (it was a bit early for some), which always has cool cat-themed things. The owner complimented me, and we spent some time talking about the election. She and her husband turned their ballots in the same day I did, to the same box! GMTA, including that we both have the good sparkly chilling! Then I made my way to the library, and got on a computer, with my tote bag facing out. One woman touched my shoulder, smiled, pointed at my bag, and when I turned and she saw my shirt, gave me a fist bump. A friend came into the library and he told me that he and his wife had just dropped off their ballots.
First thing this morning, a friend texted me that she and her son had filled out their ballots (under their furchildren's strict supervision) and he was on his way to drop them off.
So, just in the space of a few hours, just within my very small circle, in this bluer part of fundieville, eight known votes for Harris-Walz, plus several friends who voted earlier !! Nine and a wake-up, as we used to say!
This Is What Autocracy Looks Like: How Turkey's Justice and Development Party Turned Its Back on Women and Girls
This Is What Autocracy Looks Like: How Turkey’s Justice and Development Party Turned Its Back on Women and Girls
PUBLISHED 10/8/2024 by Lauren Wolfe
With Project 2025 looming over the U.S. elections, Turkey offers a preview of an antidemocratic future.
Stray dogs in a public park in Kemer Burgaz in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 31, 2024. Recently, animal rights activists in the country have held rallies protesting a bill in the Turkish parliament aimed at managing the stray dog population. (Su Cassiano / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP and Getty Images)
Walking the streets of Istanbul, you come across absolutely gorgeous, enormous stray dogs. They are sweet and ask for little more than petting and a snack to eat. But in mid-July, the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP)—President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party—sent a bill to parliament that would order a roundup of these gentle giants and put them in shelters, where they’ll likely be euthanized. In an op-ed for The New York Times in late July, Turkish novelist Kaya Genç wrote that he “can’t shake the sense that for the government, this is not really about the dogs. Mr. Erdogan long ago mastered the art of scapegoating.” Over the years, Erdogan has deflected public discontent with his economic and social policies by pointing fingers at journalists and women’s rights defenders, among others. This time, he’s pulling a smoke-and-mirrors trick with street dogs to deflect from his poor showing in the March elections, which left the AKP in second place by a landslide—the worst outcome for the party since Erdogan came to power in 2002.
. . . .
A woman casts her vote at a polling station on March 31, 2024, in Istanbul, Turkey, for municipal elections. (Chris McGrath / Getty Images)
. . . .
Press freedom is a massive crunch point under the current government. Some 90 percent of media outlets are under direct government control or are owned by Erdogan’s cronies, thereby quashing corruption investigations and policy critiques while villainizing Syrians and other groups. Outlets are censored, fined and shut down. The Coalition for Women in Journalism has tracked Turkey’s abnormally high number of jailed women journalists, who also face physical assaults, organized troll campaigns, workplace harassment, racist attacks and detention.
Women’s rights in general have been backsliding over the past few years—particularly since 2021 when, bowing to the demands of Erdogan’s conservative supporters, Turkey pulled out of the Istanbul Convention. The convention “requires parties to develop laws, policies and support services to end violence against women and domestic violence,” Aydintaşbaş said. “Turkey’s decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention on violence against women can be seen as removing one more layer of protection for women.” Amnesty International called the departure “deeply disturbing,” adding that by retreating from the convention, “Turkey turned its back on the gold standard for the safety of women and girls. Since that happened, there are no more women’s marches,” Akkizal said. “It’s a bleak picture.”
According to Akkizal, for the past five or six years, police have attacked people who tried to march for Pride Month. In Istanbul, if women now march at all for International Women’s Day, it’s on a side street, whereas before thousands would march through the city’s main commercial district. She told Ms. that LGBTQ+ and even unmarried straight couples who live together are denied benefits. Not to mention, feminist and LGBTQ+ associations are constantly under “investigation” by the government. It’s all part of a conservative push to promote traditional families. Freedom House reports that LGBTQ+ people face “widespread discrimination, police harassment and violence. Laws do not protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.” The organization notes that homophobic hate speech played a central role in the AKP’s 2023 election campaign. In February, about a dozen young protesters gathered at the Süreyya Opera House in Kadiköy, on Istanbul’s Asian side, to demonstrate for LGBTQ+ rights. Police arrested them as they tried to unfurl a banner in support of their cause. Still, the cause of civil and human rights in Turkey is not a hopeless one. With the shift in the AKP’s power, “there’s more of an effort for pushback,” Aydintaşbaş said. “People are more galvanized.” When asked whether there is any hope for improvement in the country, Akkizal describeed the students she works with as “full of hope, full of energy and motivation. So I think that in five or 10 years, a huge change will happen for Turkey, because a very, very intelligent and clever and brave generation of young people is coming.”
https://msmagazine.com/2024/10/08/turkey-women-girls/
US women having abortions at the same rate as before ban: New study
US women having abortions at the same rate as before ban: New study
A study shows women in the US are getting around state bans by using telehealth to obtain abortion pills.
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An anti-abortion rights supporter sits behind a sign near a women's health clinic that provides abortions. [File:Rogelio V. Solis/AP photo]
Published On 22 Oct 202422 Oct 2024
Women in the United States who live in states that have banned abortions are still getting them at a similar rate compared to before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, according to a new study. Women are traveling to other states for the procedure and increasingly using telehealth to have abortion pills mailed to them according to a #WeCount report, released on Tuesday by the Society of Family Planning that advocates for abortion access.
“The abortion bans are not eliminating the need for abortion,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a University of California public health social scientist and a co-chair of the #WeCount survey. “People are jumping over these hurdles because they have to,” she added. The #WeCount study created a snapshot by surveying abortion trends just before Roe was overturned. It found quick changes right after the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs v Jackson ruling that ended the national right to abortion, putting the issue into the hands of the states.The number of abortions in states with bans at all stages of pregnancy fell to near zero. It also plummeted in states where bans kick in around six weeks of pregnancy, which is before many women know they are pregnant.
But nationally the numbers are different – about the same level or slightly higher than before the ruling. The study estimates nearly 98,000 abortions occurred each month in the first half of 2024, up from the 81,000 monthly from April through December 2022 and 88,000 in 2023.
In fact, #WeCount survey found women in states with bans throughout pregnancy were getting abortions in similar numbers as they were in 2020. It shows that women are working around the bans and increasingly choosing telehealth prescribers. Those providers got a boost when some Democratic-controlled states last year began implementing laws to protect them from prosecution. A major provider of the telehealth pills is the Massachusetts Abortion Access Project. Co-founder Angel Foster said the group prescribed to about 500 patients a month, mostly in states with bans, since it launched in September 2023. It expects to increase abortions to 1,500 to 2,000 a month with a new model that lowers costs to patients.
“There’s an irony in what’s happened in the post-Dobbs landscape,” Foster said. “In some places, abortion care is more accessible and affordable than it was,” she said. There have been no major legal challenges to laws that protect abortion providers from prescribing pills in states where it is restricted or banned, but abortion opponents have tried to get one of the main pills removed from the market. Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court unanimously preserved access to the abortion drug, mifepristone. It ruled that anti-abortion rights doctors could not challenge the federal approval of the drug.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/22/us-women-having-abortions-at-the-same-rate-as-before-ban-new-study
Survivors Know Donald Trump's Type (trigger warning)
Survivors Know Donald Trump’s Type (trigger warning)
PUBLISHED 10/2/2024 by Amy Barasch
Protesters cheer as E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York as her defamation suit against Donald Trump resumes on Jan. 25, 2024. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
As advocates and activists around the globe hold events to recognize October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, it’s worth acknowledging what we have recognized since 2016. Just like Vice President Harris, we know Donald Trump’s type. Domestic violence, also called intimate partner violence, is an international phenomenon that in the U.S. is experienced by 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men. The most recognized form of domestic violence is physical violence, but physical violence is often embedded in broader coercive and controlling behavior. The coercive behavior—emotional abuse, isolation, threat and false promises and bullying—is what most victims say is the most harmful and powerful, in part because it can be so confusing and/or invisible to the outside world. The braggadocio and attention lure you in, and the threats of harm, false promises and insults that erode your self worth can cause you to stay.
As someone who has worked in the field of intimate partner violence for 30 years, Donald Trump has felt familiar to me—and not in a good way—since the campaign leading up to his 2016 election. His belittling of opponents, his savior-like language and his implicit (and explicit) threats of harm for those who are not loyal to him sound exactly like my former clients’ partners writ large. In abusive relationships, the abusive partner is often initially charismatic and attentive, seducing partners with professions of love and protection that demand loyalty and obedience in return. When you are good, you are in a wonderful romance. (“Women love me.”) When you step out of line, you are crazy and no one will believe anything you say. (“Kamala Harris is mentally disabled.”) If you leave, you’ll be sorry. (“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole—that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”)
. . .
Donald Trump regularly traffics in hyperbole and gaslighting. (He has proclaimed that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters.) He also states things as fact that are patently untrue. (“I am going to build a wall on our Southern border and make Mexico pay for it.”) Trump’s behavior also mirrors an abuser’s ability to distort information and make it seem like the truth. His exaggerations and lies are stated with such conviction, and reference to outside sources (“people are saying,” “I saw it on TV”), that they can seem persuasive. He gaslights by saying things that go against what we’ve seen with our own eyes. To take the most obvious example, during his debate with Joe Biden, he said that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol involved a “relatively small” group of people who were “in many cases ushered in by the police,” despite video evidence that thousands of his supporters were outside the Capitol that day and hundreds broke in, many of them beating and injuring law enforcement officers resulting in more than 1,400 people being charged with federal crimes.
. . . .
Sometimes abusers have former partners who are brave enough to speak out about their abusive behavior. If that spooks the new partner at all, it’s easy to just paint the former partner as crazy. “She’ll say anything.” “She’s a whack job.” In this month when we recognize the scourge of domestic violence, I wish I could loan my domestic violence advocacy-colored glasses to the voting public. Through those glasses, you can recognize threats and coercion for what they are. You can appreciate the nature of a person who promises protection and punishes disloyalty. This month, I invite you all to see the world through those glasses, to honor people who have suffered at the hands of their partners, and to benefit from the hard lessons they have learned.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/10/02/domestic-violence-donald-trump-type-women/
For Three Decades, 'Remember My Name' Has Memorialized Those Lost to Domestic Violence (trigger warning)
For Three Decades, ‘Remember My Name’ Has Memorialized Those Lost to Domestic Violence (trigger warning)
PUBLISHED 10/23/2024 by Ruth M. Glenn
11,178. That’s how many women, men and children are memorialized by Remember My Name, a national registry of people whose lives ended because of domestic violence. Each name represents a unique individual and yet, these cases all share something in common: systems and policies that failed to protect them from the one causing them harm and ultimately taking their life.
Millions of people experience domestic violence each year. These failures can be the difference between life or death, not only for people experiencing abuse, but for their families, friends, neighbors, co-workers and first responders who are also vulnerable to the impacts of domestic violence in their communities. For too long, domestic violence has been treated as an individual or private matter, rather than a systemic problem and a public health crisis—making it difficult for people to reach out for support and when they do an under-funded response means services are overwhelmed with demand. Enough is enough. It’s time to get loud about domestic violence and ensure everyone understands the scale of this crisis and how it impacts everyone’s lives—not just those directly affected..
Created in 1994, the Remember My Name project continues to raise awareness of individuals who have died from domestic violence.
. . .
Before these landmark moments, domestic violence was seldom spoken about—in fact, we had a long history of social and legal systems that ignored domestic violence and in some cases, even justified it. There was little research into domestic violence and limited recourse for victims and survivors. Support services were grassroots and often operated from kitchen tables and living rooms; women coming to the aid of other women in their communities. Remember My Name helped make the invisible, visible. When The Hotline and NCADV merged in 2021, we knew Remember My Name would be a critical part of our ongoing work. These names and stories have been collected since 1994, but some go back as far as 1930. While we cannot reach back through time to all the people who have lost their lives because of domestic violence, we can make sure we honor their lives. We can make sure their surviving loved ones know that we see them, and that we are committed to a future where people can live free from abuse. And we can work to do better so that no one else has to lose their lives to domestic violence.
. . .
And yet, without a clear and standardized data collection of the lethal consequences of domestic violence, we cannot get a full sense of the overarching barriers and risk factors victims are experiencing. While the circumstances of each case vary, together they tell a broader story about the epidemic of domestic violence, and what we need to do to end it. We know from both local and national data sources that victims are disproportionately women—especially Black and Indigenous women. We also know that firearms are the most common weapon used. In fact, the mere presence of a gun makes it five times more likely that a domestic violence dispute will end in a fatality. And what’s worse is that leaving an abusive relationship is also the most dangerous time for a survivor: Seventy-seven percent of domestic violence-related homicides occur after a separation, and there is a 75 percent increase in violence following the separation for at least two years.
We owe it to those who have died because of domestic violence, to every survivor and every person actively planning for their safety, to do better. As we near the end of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and reflect on the 30 years since Remember My Name launched, we invite all those who read this to join us not only in remembering the people who have died because of domestic violence, but to join us in saying their names. Loudly. Often. We need people to hear their stories, demand better tracking and reporting at all levels to fully understand this crisis, and work towards a day where we can stop adding names to the list. If you have lost a loved one because of domestic violence, submit their information here (https://www.emailmeform.com/builder/form/e8m0fM6db7hNbcr49IBR7) to be included in the Remember My Name registry.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/10/23/domestic-violence-death/
'The Hidden History of the Pelvic Exam': Larry Nassar and the National Nightmare (trigger warning)
(May all involved in this horror receive everything they deserve)
‘The Hidden History of the Pelvic Exam’: Larry Nassar and the National Nightmare (trigger warning)
PUBLISHED 10/25/2024 by Wendy Kline
The 2000 USA women’s gymnastics team accepts their bronze medals on Aug. 11, 2010, in Hartford, Conn. Team members included Amy Chow, Jamie Dantzscher, Dominique Dawes, Kristin Maloney, Elise Ray and Tasha Schwikert. (Gary Hamilton / Icon SMI / Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)
This excerpt is from the first chapter of my new book, Exposed: The Hidden History of the Pelvic Exam. Here, I emphasize the importance of stigma when it comes to the pelvic exam. It’s an awkward procedure in part because of the question of impropriety. When is it OK to touch a person’s genitals? Stories in the media remind us that it is a procedure easily abused or misconstrued, with devastating consequences.
Larry Nassar, the former doctor for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison in 2018 after over 250 women accused him of sexual assault. Nassar is not representative of the majority of medical professionals who perform pelvic exams—but his story serves as a warning of how easy it is for pelvic violence to happen under the façade of medical treatment. Nassar got away with sex crimes precisely because of the stigma surrounding reproductive healthcare. Without a common language to articulate what should be going on down there, it makes it harder to identify what shouldn’t.
In September of 2000, Tasha, a 15-year-old gymnast, called her mother from Sydney, Australia, with some exciting news. Three weeks earlier, she was not Olympic-bound; she had not been placed in the Olympic trials. But, shortly after the trials, she received a call from Béla Károlyi who asked her to be an alternate. She flew down to his ranch to train, then directly to Sydney. And now, after a member of the team withdrew with injuries, she wouldn’t just be on the sidelines; she was officially competing. Her mother, Joy Schwikert, answered the call from work—at the craps table at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where she worked as the first-ever female craps dealer, along with Tasha’s father, Shannon Warren. Joy high-fived the other dealers in the pit, and the shouting “echoed off the slot machines.” The U.S. Olympic Committee had funds to fly one parent over, but not both, so the workers at Caesar’s took up a collection to fly her father and younger sister Jordan (also a gymnast) as well. Though they didn’t have any more money than the Schwickerts, “everyone wanted me to see my daughter at the Olympics,” her father said.
. . . . .
Tasha Schwikert unwittingly entered the ranch at one of its most intense times. “We were all so broken down and injured,” remembered Jeannette Antolin, who was a member of the U.S. national team from 1995 to 2000. “No one was taking care of their bodies. We were all malnutritioned. Most of us had eating disorders at the time. Most of us were being abused by Larry and not knowing it.” Schwikert joined the ranks of the abused after an injury she believes was caused by Béla. She and her teammates were busy performing elevated splits, propping their front legs “up on a stack of mats so they can extend beyond 180 degrees.” Béla would forcibly push down on the shoulders of a gymnast who didn’t appear as flexible, forcing her legs closer to the ground. When he pushed Schwikert, she felt unbearable pain, and the next day she found she could barely walk, and was sent to Larry Nassar for treatment (she would eventually be diagnosed with a partially torn tendon in her groin). It was a treatment like none other she had experienced. “He massaged and penetrated me vaginally with his bare hands, claiming it was a medical treatment that would loosen my muscles,” she explained. She didn’t question it and she didn’t resist. “I trusted him because he was a respected doctor.” She didn’t understand that what he was doing was wrong; she didn’t know about sexual abuse, and had “no experience with boys or sex.” Years later, as she put the pieces together, she saw things differently. “Now my whole Olympic experience is clouded by the fact I saw Larry Nassar four times a day.”
. . . . .
Like Tasha, she knew nothing about sexual abuse. “I had always thought of it as something more violent, like a rapist holding you down, not something your doctor would do while pretending to help you.” Like so many Nassar survivors, it wasn’t until the story broke in the news that Jordan recognized that the “treatment” she’d received was so similar to what others described. “That’s when it all came to light. His hand had been in my vagina, and not for medical reasons. I felt disgusted.” At first she wanted to block it out, but as the scandal grew, she finally went to Tasha, to reveal her secret. “We were both surprised to hear that it had happened to the other. It was a hard conversation to have.” On Oct. 29, 2018, they filed civil suits against both the United States Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/10/25/larry-nassar-pelvic-exam-sexual-assault-violence-women-rape-doctor/
The Daily Bi*ch**: "That's it!!! I have HAD it!! I am quitting humanity and
joining the Fae!!!"
*Both a noun, and a verb, depending on usage.
New scam in CO: I do not know how widespread this BS is, but wanted to
let everyone know.
A friend called me last night, fuming about an unexpected $500 extra bill as she is trying to get a new furnace. The company (years ago, I knew the owner, and he was a jerk when I knew him, but I did not know he was a total sleaze!) told her that it is CO law that any building built before 1983 must be checked for asbestos.Testing is $480. Remediation is, of course, extra.
Well, I immediately got online, and, guess what, there is no such law. Certified asbestos testing MUST be done in cases of remodel, renovation, or demolition (anything that requires a permit). The assholes finally admitted thry lied about the testing being required. I am waiting to see if she gets her money back before I take the company down.
With the mental health crisis we already have in this country, I started wondering
about just how we are going to deal with the magats and others when this election is over. They clearly need help, but I don't see how our current system is going to cope with all the neceessary care and attention. This dangerous group cannot be ignored, but how do we deal with them, and in ways that reflect our values?
'Will I be next?': Fear haunts Kenyan women athletes after Cheptegei murder (trigger warning violence)
(lengthy, incredibly difficult and horrific read. GODDAMNED FUCKING WOMAN-HATING PATRIARCHY)
‘Will I be next?’: Fear haunts Kenyan women athletes after Cheptegei murder (trigger warning violence)
At least four professional female runners have been murdered by their intimate male partners since 2021.
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People attend the burial of late Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei in Bukwo, Uganda, on September 14, 2024 [Badru Katumba/AFP]
By Shola Lawal
Published On 10 Oct 202410 Oct 2024
It was a sun-baked August day on the streets of the French capital, Paris, when Rebecca Cheptegei rushed across the finish line of the women’s marathon at the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 33-year-old elite long-distance runner came only 44th in the race, but Uganda’s women’s marathon record holder was riding the high of her first Olympic Games, with years of races ahead of her. But just four weeks later, she was dead – murdered by her ex-partner at her home in the quiet village of Kinyoro in Kenya’s western Rift Valley region.
The horror of her killing left East Africa reeling. For years, women have suffered physical and sexual abuse, including gruesome murders, from partners, spouses and other male family members in Kenya. Cheptegei’s killing underscored how even successful, elite athletes weren’t safe. Yet, according to female athletes and the organisations supporting them, it is the very success these women achieved that may have made them a target among men still governed by more patriarchal gender norms. One in three women in Kenya reports at least a case of abuse by the age of 18, according to Kenyan charity, the Gender Violence Recovery Centre, largely from their intimate male partners, male family members, or other males known to them.
In January this year alone, there were at least 32 women murdered by male perpetrators – about one woman every day – according to Femicide Count Kenya, a monitoring group tracking media-reported femicides – or the intentional murder of a woman by a man. Although hundreds of women marched in the streets of Nairobi calling for an end to violence against women in a massive January demonstration, the killings have continued through the year, said Audrey Mugeni, co-founder of Femicide Count. “We had 154 cases by the end of last year … we are already at 174 now,” Mugeni said. At the present rate of killings, the femicide count for 2024 will pass 200 cases by the end of the year, she added.
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People gathered in Nairobi to protest against increasing violence against women in Kenya, in January 2024 [Gerald Andersen/Anadolu Agency]
. . . .
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Rebecca Cheptegei in action during the women’s marathon final in Hungary in 2023 [Dylan Martinez/Reuters]
Tirop’s Angels
At least three other female runners have been murdered in Kenya since 2020. The death of long-distance runner Agnes Tirop, who was murdered in 2021, has left lasting effects. A small-statured athlete, Tirop once sported a closely cropped cut but was beginning to flaunt braids and flashy long nails on the track as she evolved from a junior athlete to a senior. In September 2021, she put on a dazzling performance in Germany, smashing the world record in the 10,000km world women’s race – called the 10k road race. Barely a month later, on October 13, she was found stabbed to death in her home in Iten. Police confirmed her husband and coach, Ibrahim Rotich, was the main suspect. Tirop was only 25.
. . . .
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Dina Tirop, mother of murdered Kenyan distance runner Agnes Tirop, poses with Tirop’s portrait and a trophy at her home in Kapyemisa, in 2021 [Casmir Odour/AFP]
. . . .
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Motorcyclists pass under a town sign on the way to the house of Kenyan distance runner Agnes Tirop, who was found dead with stab wounds to her stomach in Iten in 2021 [Casmir Oduor/AFP]
. . . . .
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Agnes Cheptegei mourns next to the coffin of her daughter and Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after her former partner doused her in petrol and set her ablaze, in September 2024 [Edwin Waita/Reuters]
. . . .
Video Duration 25 minutes 35 seconds 25:35
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/10/10/rebecca-cheptegei-and-the-epidemic-of-women-athletes-killed-by-men-in-kenya
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