Showing posts with label gender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gender. Show all posts

Saturday, June 04, 2022

Heard, Depp

OPEC Plus agrees to a bigger increase in oil supply. But prices keep rising.
The Amber Heard Verdict Was a Travesty. Others Will Follow. The confounding part isn’t that the jury sided with him over her; this is the country that elected Donald Trump, where the convicted domestic abuser Chris Brown is still a major pop star, and where a man in Indiana recently won a local Republican primary while in jail awaiting trial on charges of murdering his wife. The explosion of defiant, desperate feminist energy that was #MeToo has now been smothered by an even fiercer reaction. #MeToo was a movement of women telling their stories. Now that Heard has been destroyed for identifying as a survivor, other women will think twice. ........ After the verdict was announced, the official Twitter account of Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee tweeted out a GIF of Depp as the pirate Jack Sparrow, looking dashing and determined. If there’s one thing they hate more than decadent Hollywood elites, it’s mouthy women. ........ Depp’s friend Marilyn Manson is already suing the actress Evan Rachel Wood, one of a number of women who have alleged sadistic abuse at his hands. He won’t be the last. ........ One of the statements in her Washington Post essay that was deemed defamatory was, “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.” The trial that she lost proved her point.



When Elon Musk Dreams, His Employees Have Nightmares with Twitter’s stock falling well below his offer price, Mr. Musk appears to be reneging on a deal that has made even Wall Street grow skeptical. ........ The way that he has managed and marketed his businesses from Tesla’s early days reveals a dysfunction behind the automaker’s veneer of technofuturism and past stock market successes.

Often announcing new features without consultation with his team, he forces his employees to bridge the enormous gap between technological reality and his dreams. This disconnect fosters a negligent and sometimes cruel workplace, to disastrous effect.

......... His ability to repeatedly sell such science fiction fantasies to a credulous public is the foundation for a vast empire and fortune. ......... His presence brought no real manufacturing expertise to bear, just the overbearing pressure of a boss whose public shaming was punctuated by declarations like “I can be on my own private island with naked supermodels, drinking mai tais — but I’m not.” .......... the trauma of working for Mr. Musk. Surviving 10 years of the grind at Tesla is a rare achievement, and it is common for talent to be squeezed dry or pushed out before the end of the company’s four-year stock vesting period. .......... This grim environment is all the more pronounced for women and racial minorities. ......... Black workers were tasked with menial physical labor in parts of the factory nicknamed “the plantation,” where they were subjected to racist slurs and graffiti. Female workers have sued, alleging a pervasive culture of sexual harassment and groping by supervisors. Mr. Musk was indifferent, emailing workers who experienced abuse that “it is important to be thick-skinned.” .......... Mr. Musk’s interest lies in supervising entrepreneurial projects that result in flashy new components. In more prosaic areas of the business like manufacturing, service and sales, he tends to get involved only in order to put out the fires that regularly threaten the company’s immediate future .......... When the success of the company is tied to one man’s whims, you get bizarre phenomena like managers deciding whether or not to take issues to Mr. Musk based on the shade of blond of his wife’s hair that day (with platinum shades being correlated with better moods). ......... After the collapses of Theranos and WeWork — companies with similarly confident founders who insisted that they would achieve their soaring ambitions if given more time and money — Mr. Musk’s reliance on hype is especially jarring. ........ Tesla does make cars, and SpaceX does land rockets. But as a number of old promises like fully self-driving cars appear to be more aspirational and less plausible, the distinction between him and those fallen heroes is starting to lose its meaning. His long list of unfulfilled commitments — a fully solar-powered electric vehicle charging network, a fully automated manufacturing system, an autonomous minibus and even a rocket-powered flying car — wildly exceed his achievements. ......... Ultimately Mr. Musk’s goals for Twitter, as they are for Tesla, are not about making the right decisions for his companies or the people who make them possible. They are about playing to the crowd and burnishing the legend that keeps fresh bodies and minds moving through the businesses that chew them up and spit them out. Now if Twitter falls into his control, Mr. Musk will have seized the means of making the product he has always cared about most: his own myth making........ that he was going to vote Republican since Democrats who were “(mostly) the kindness party” are now the party of “division & hate.” That was preceded by a more paranoid one that posited that “political attacks on me will escalate dramatically in coming months” and another saying that the “dirty tricks attacks will be next-level,” leaving out the pertinent fact that next-level is, in fact, a G.O.P. specialty.


Elon Musk, Chaos Monkey “The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress,” he tweeted. “Don’t think people want to hear about the last two.” ....... His ability to articulate the emotional challenges of high-level innovation is why it’s always been so interesting to interview Musk. ......... Musk, through Tesla, has single-handedly pushed the electric vehicle sector into the mainstream and, with SpaceX, has moved space tech into a new age with reusable rockets. .......... Many top entrepreneurs genuinely respect Musk’s tech chops. ....... Twitter has dropped by about 25 percent since he reached agreement on a deal ....... Tesla shares undergirding the acquisition have hit the skids amid the deal talks, falling to nearly $700 this week from about $1,000 when Twitter accepted Musk's offer.

I Thought Putin Invaded Only Ukraine. I Was Wrong.
Live Updates: As War Rages Into Its 100th Day, Russia Now Controls a Fifth of Ukraine
‘The Elon That We’re Seeing Today Is Not the Same One We Saw a Couple Years Ago’
African Union Head Has Plea for Putin: Release Ukraine’s Grain.
Gov. Greg Abbott Has a Lot of Nerve
Billionaire Candidates and Their Wild Promises
The Actual Malice of the Johnny Depp Trial In this post-#MeToo moment, misogyny and celebrity go hand in hand.
Is It Better to Cook With Coconut Oil or Olive Oil?
The Ascension of Cauliflower Food companies are capitalizing on the low-carb, gluten-free trend by using vegetables like cauliflower to replace flour, rice and other simple carbs.
The Good News in Georgia That’s Bad News for Trump
How Jack Welch Revolutionized the American Economy David Gelles’s “The Man Who Broke Capitalism” examines the impact of one of the country’s most powerful chief executives.
Biden to Travel to Saudi Arabia, Ending Its ‘Pariah’ Status As a candidate, President Biden vowed to punish the kingdom for the brutal assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. But now he wants to rebuild relations as he seeks to lower gas prices and isolate Russia.

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Reshma Saujani's Book: Pay Up (Or Go Home)

Motherhood in America is broken, and we need a plan to fix it,” Saujani said in a statement Wednesday. “I wrote ‘Pay Up’ because mothers are tired of being America’s social safety net and working for free. And we know that equity in the workplace will only be accomplished when there is equity at home. I want women to see themselves and their worth in this book and it provides a guidepost on what we can do to bring about change on a structural, cultural and personal level.”

Deep in the archives of this blog are several months of blog posts from when I volunteered for Reshma Saujani's campaign for Congress on the Upper East Side, and Astoria. She has impressive political instincts, not to say amazing intellect. To me it felt like a product launch before the market was ready. Gender is not a statement on Reshma Saujani, it is a statement on the rest of us, particularly men. I am very selective about who I volunteer for. For example, right now my focus is on this dude in Nepal who has never held any office but who I think is going to pull a Macron in Nepal. Dr. CK Raut. When America is trying its best to become South Africa, I think Nepal where I grew up and which has been seeing revolutionary fervor since 2006 just might give the world its most cutting edge democracy.



At the election returns party, when it became obvious she had lost, Reshma Saujani's then fiance Nihal approached me. To console him I said, Bill Clinton lost his first election for Congress, so did Barack Obama. To console me he told me how many times Lincoln had lost!

Might I suggest, a Marshall Plan for women can only be global. There is no other way for it to succeed.

Earlier this year, Saujani placed an advertisement in The New York Times, with co-signers including the actors Julianne Moore and Charlize Theron, urging President Joe Biden to pass a “Marshall Plan for Moms” that called for mothers to receive $2,400 monthly checks for unpaid labor at home. For her book, Saujani interviewed hundreds of women, and also shares her story of “waking up to the notion that overwork is a path to burnout, unhappiness, and rage,” according to One Signal.

Go big or go home!

Saturday, December 07, 2019

Why Resign!?

My home life was another story. That day on the train to New York was also five months to the day from when I moved out of my house and told my husband, who I had been with since I was 16 years old, that I wanted a divorce. It wasn’t the first time I had tried to leave; the last time was less than a month before the election, and when I tried, he made it clear to me that if I left, he would ruin me. I knew he could, so I went back to him and finished the campaign. But, after five months on the job and with the toxicity of our relationship growing worse, I knew I had to finally leave once and for all........ the nudes and private text messages that had been published on a right-wing website called Red State, everything came crashing down. I believe my husband is the source of the images. ....... one of the most difficult moments during my resignation process was my phone call to the Speaker, a woman I admire more than anyone and whom I had come to love. She told me I didn’t have to do this, that the country needed me and that she wished I hadn’t made this decision ........ The future I thought was in store for me that was instantly and irrevocably gone. ........ Alex — “A.O.C.,” as people like to call her — said I was a warrior and always would be. ....... So the next day I put on my battle uniform: a red dress suit that my mom had bought me. I put on my war paint: bright red lipstick. I stepped up to that lectern and told the world that although my time in Congress was over, I wasn’t done — I was just moving to another battlefield.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Camille Claudel: A Film Review



The woman and her career is a contemporary theme in politics. That topic is more clearly seen with the distance of time. Here is a gifted woman whose mother was deeply hostile to her talent, and took the one available escape route to do justice to her talent. And the dude who was outshined did not take kindly to her talent either. You see the loneliness of a genius. You also see that the one man two woman thing does not work. It causes deep and lasting pain.

It is not easy to be a gifted artist. It is much harder as a woman. She was more gifted than the guy, as well her poet brother.

It is a great work of art, duly recognized. But it is also deeply contemporary.

2020 is that year of reckoning.

But then you also see pragmatic stuff like, this artist could have used a good agent.

Camille Claudel Camille Claudel, in full Camille-Rosalie Claudel, (born December 8, 1864, Villeneuve-sur-Fère, France—died October 19, 1943, Montdevergues asylum, Montfavet, near Avignon), French sculptor of whose work little remains and who for many years was best known as the mistress and muse of Auguste Rodin. She was also the sister of Paul Claudel, whose journals and memoirs provide much of the scant information available on his sister’s life...... She became obsessed with Rodin’s injustice to her and began to feel persecuted by him and his “gang.” .... On March 10, 1913, she was committed involuntarily to an asylum at Ville-Évrard. In September 1914 she was transferred to the asylum of Montdevergues, where she remained until her death.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Priyanka Chopra's Unique Position To Influence

PC, having straddled the two biggest movie industries on the planet (by production volume and dollar volume) - Mumbai and Hollywood - is uniquely placed to influence how men and women see women.

Bruce Lee did not start out wanting to make movies. He was a martial arts innovator. But he got into movies because he figured that was the best way to reach out and teach the largest possible number of people. He was right. 

She acts, but also has her own production house. And she sure cares. 




She knows marketing Indian style, she knows marketing American style, and she knows marketing Chinese style. Her much anticipated Baywatch movie did so so in the US but earned major dollars in China.


I love to cook, time permitting. There is a secret recipe behind this chutney that I am willing to open source. The taste is an absolute delight, if you like it "hot." The top quality is it is super healthy. I also make pizza with whole wheat flour. मैदा स्वास्थ्य के लिए अच्छा नहीं होता। I make exceptionally good chicken curry, goat curry and fish curry. I make decent vegetable curries. दाल भी बहोत अच्छा बना लेते हैं। But enough bragging. चावल बनाने का अपना अलग स्टाइल है। लेकिन मेरा recommendation है रोटी खाओ। (रोटी बनाना नहीं आता) Health is supreme. Body Mass Index (BMI) ठीक रखो। Smoothie एक favorite item है। Grinder जिन्दाबाद। ये चटनी भी मुख्य रूप से Grinder में ही बना।
A post shared by Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) on

A post shared by Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) on

Gender is a social construct. Men can learn to take care of babies. Men can learn to cook. No problem. It is also about this point in time. The global economy is fast becoming a knowledge economy. Women, when given a chance, seem to have a leg up there. Many American colleges now make a point to admit enough men for gender parity even though their test scores suck.

I think there is room for a movie character who will lead the way on gender role transformation. I think there is room for a movie franchise around that character. I am thinking one movie every three to four years. A female James Bond, if you will, only she is not a government spy. She is a corporate leader on the cutting edges of technology and innovation. But movies being movies there are plenty of action scenes, sure.

मैंने एक script पर काम शुरू कर दिया है। Working draft हाथ में आ जाए तो पेश करूंगा।

A Movie Production House Big Enough For PC



I think there is room to build a company around the idea. The Internet could be the central distribution channel for the franchise.

So it is a challenge in gender role transformation, movie making (gotta use the latest in computer animation technology), as well as riding the wave of video as a medium getting mainstream online because soon gigabit will be all the rage in most parts of the world.

This is to be social science fiction. Has to feel like science fiction.




Tuesday, January 31, 2017

A Movie Production House Big Enough For PC



Steve Jobs could not have created the personal computer working inside Hewlett Packard or another similar company. The existing movie studios are like HP. Truly revolutionary cinema would ask not just for acting chops but also an entrepreneurial spirit. The paradigms of racism and sexism that are the firm frameworks of the current corporate arrangements, both in terms of movie production houses and their twin counterpart, the mass media, especially television, would make truly revolutionary work impossible.



Source

A successor franchise to Star Wars, not just in terms of science fiction, technology fiction, but also social science fiction, imagining the woman of tomorrow, is necessarily an anti racism idea. The intelligent life they have been looking for is in Africa and India; the vast cosmos was created so you may feel special, so humanity may feel special. A successor franchise to James Bond, a Cold War relic, is just a nod to geopolitics. The post World War II world order is over. A successor franchise to Jason Bourne, which had a shelf life of a total of three movies anyways, is that Bourne is slightly biologically enhanced; there is massive room for enhancement in the sociological sphere. You would end up with more dramatic results. Would make for great entertainment. It would be a major departure from current ground reality.

The earth is your only home. If God wanted to destroy humanity, He would send one meteor to earth, and another to Mars at the same time, if you might also be on Mars.



I have already started to flesh out the concept. I have no plans to approach any existing movie studio. I am going to create a new company to cocoon the movie franchise. I am going to create a family of companies anyways. What's one more company?

A truly global release would be big money.

Racism is Lucifer's final grip on humanity. That grip is to be broken. That is why I am here. That, and a few other reasons.

Your racist arguments are being supplied to you by Lucifer. He gets insider your head and talks. And you listen.

Sometimes, or maybe often times, the best way to break the glass ceiling is by walking out of the glass house. It's called entrepreneurship. It's called out of the box thinking.

Everywhere to go, everywhere to be.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Priyanka Chopra: The Non Movie Aspects



I think people in general vastly underestimate the non movie aspects of Priyanka. Look at it this way. Here's the first person who reached the heights of Bollywood, the largest movie industry in the world by sheer production volume, and then quickly also reached the heights of Hollywood, the largest movie industry in the world by dollar volume, without losing her stature in Bollywood. This has never happened before. And she is a college dropout along the lines of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. She is a trailblazer. She is not even a dropout. She completely skipped it. She is obviously a very smart person (she was top of class at high school, and angling to be an engineer when her mother sent out her portfolio, and next she knew she was first Miss India, and then Miss World), a voracious reader more happy in a bookstore than in the stereotypically female shopping destinations.

Time magazine captured it though. The best is yet to come. I look at her trajectory and see she is going to be the top paid actor in Hollywood. It will happen sooner than most realize.

There are a lot of women (and men) around the world who want the idea of a career woman to no longer be news. Her role in Quantico (which is now seen all over the world, as on Indian television) speaks to them.

Art feeds society. Society feeds art. It is a non stop two way conversation. In that I think of movies as an art medium uniquely positioned to recreate gender roles and help make them more equal across the board.

As seen from the platform, Lefferts Blvd, final stop in Queens on the A train: World Trade Center and the Richmond Hill Gurudwara

A photo posted by Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) on

Richmond Hill Gurudwara, A train to the last stop in Queens, Lefferts Blvd

A photo posted by Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) on

A Train last stop in Queens.... Bollywood music.

A video posted by Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) on

Thursday, October 20, 2016

प्रियंका चोपड़ा और बिकीनी

क्वान्टिको अभी तक देख नहीं पाया। लेकिन हिट शो है। तभी तो सीजन दो तक आ गई। मेरे पास टीवी नहीं। गरीब आदमी।

हॉलीवुड बिजनेस है। पैसे छापते हैं। प्रियंका चोपड़ा के मार्फत भारत का मार्केट ताक रहे हैं।

अब एक मुवी बना रहे हैं। बेवाच।

सलमान का एक मुवी आया। सुल्तान। पहलवान। मैंने अभी देखा नहीं। लेकिन ट्रेलर देखा है। लन्गोटी पहने  सलमान चक्कर लगा रहे हैं।

अभी तक किसी ने एक कमेंट नहीं मारा। कि देखो। सलमान ने भारतीय पुरूष की तौहीन कर दी। सारी की सारी बॉडी दिखा दी। लन्गोटी मैचिंग कलर का है। लगता है जनाब नंगे घुम रहे हैं। भारतीय परम्परा सन्सक्रिती सब सत्यानाश।

अभी तक किसी ने एक कमेंट नहीं मारा।

बिकीनी और लन्गोटी में क्या फर्क है? कोई फर्क नहीं।

बेवाच में जो बन्दा हीरो है वो अभी हॉलीवुड में टप पेड ऐक्टर है। नम्बर वन। काला आदमी। एक काला आदमी वाशिंग्टन में रिटायर हुआ नहीं दुसरा हॉलीवुड पर छा गया।

प्रियंका चोपड़ा ने तो I came I saw I conquered वाली बात कर दी। सत्य नादेला, सुन्दर पिचाइ और प्रियंका चोपड़ा, तीनों बराबर। लेकिन रफ्तार के हिसाब से तीनों में नम्बर वन प्रियंका।

This is a geopolitical shift.  

Friday, August 26, 2016

Hillary Should Give A Gender Speech

Hillary gave a wonderful speech on race in Reno. It felt to me like she was reading out of a catalogue. Everything racist Donald has said and done, she read it all out loud. It is good to have it all in one place.

Hillary should now give a gender speech. The first woman president has to talk some gender.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Women To Lead Both Parties In The UK

Angela Eagle launches leader bid 'to heal Labour' 

One of the pleasant surprises of the Brexit vote was not the guy with Donald Trump hair and temper but a woman is going to be Prime Minister. Now looks like the opposition might also go to a woman. Men have created enough mess.

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Men's Genius On Abortion

That the way to eliminate abortions in society is by making abortions illegal, I have no idea who wrote those laws when they existed, but if I had to guess, those laws were written by men. Only manly genius could have come up with such a thing.

Like some dude said only a few years ago, the way to stop rape was for women to "shut the whole thing down," which takes us right down to Anatomy 101, back to the basics, as they say.

You could not make poverty illegal and thus end it. You end poverty through economic growth and public policy. That there is any trace of poverty on earth is a failure of public policy.

Abortion is the same way. You have to tackle it through a wide range of policy initiatives. Helping women attain purchasing power parity with men tops my list on abortion. Treating domestic violence as the top global security threat is right up there. Universal and easy availability of family planning services is a no brainer, and by universal I mean global. Sex education (yes, that would mean Anatomy 101) for men has got to be top priority, but not just sex as biology, but broadly speaking gender, with the social, cultural aspects. A sex educated man will not crack sexist jokes, will not make demeaning sexist comments, will complain about a sexist media, etc. Sex illiterates should not be able to survive a primary season.  

(I am starting to sound more and more like Elizabeth Warren. I guess I do admire her. She is the only person who seems to know how to absolutely demolish Trump. When Warren goes after Trump, it feels like Mike Tyson stepped into the ring. The fight might be over in a few minutes. She is so good at it, many Republicans wish she had her on their side during the primaries. And to think once upon a time early in life, she was a Republican indeed, just like Hillary was.)

Saturday, January 30, 2016

"Like Trying To Interview A Ball Of Mercury"

When I arrived to do interviews, children would be sent to fetch an older man, someone with the authority to speak to me. Someone would drag over a chair, an honor reserved for dignitaries or bureaucrats. And those I wanted to speak with, the women, would slide down onto the ground, which was the only place they could sit when older men were present, or disappear into the dark interior spaces where they did their chores.

It was like trying to interview a ball of mercury.

........ Last summer, the increase in female employment in the village had erupted into a raw power struggle, with the conservative male caste leaders demanding that the women resign from their jobs. ...... We spent so much time in the village that the people there began to regard us with sincere pity........ Then they began to ignore us. This is when the work began to bear fruit. We became professional eavesdroppers. Four months into our reporting, we were in the village for a series of tense, clamorous late-night meetings, in which the elders grudgingly decreed that the women could return to work........... That night, the headman, Roshan, pushed us out of the village with his hands pressed against our backs; later he admitted that he had done so because he did not want us to witness violence. We returned to New Delhi and almost immediately learned that a large group of villagers had assaulted Geeta and her friends, also leaving her husband badly injured. We returned to find our subjects utterly changed — unhurt for the most part, but

humiliated and shrunken

. One teenage girl never forgave us for failing to protect her.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

2016 And Gender

The real gender issue this election cycle is that the fourth industrial revolution is going to balance it out for women in the workforce.
  • Universal pre-K education everywhere in the country. 
  • Universal child care, many at the workplace itself or very near it. Self driving cars will mean less space needed for parking. 
  • Paid maternity and family leave. 
  • Universal public transportation everywhere in the country. It should no longer be a NYC or big city thing. 
This will also mean more women entrepreneurs will take the plunge. Capitalism moves fast when new companies get formed fast and furious. 

And there is a global dimension that is by now so in your face, thanks to social media. Gender empowerment is not a national issue. 
If anything technology makes gender more of an issue. You can ignore it less and less. Sexist jokes and sexist comments should be offensive. 


Sunday, April 12, 2015

Hillary Clinton And The Global Gender Basics

When Hillary Clinton's email "scandal" took over the proverbial airwaves, I chuckled. I had to restrain myself from sending out a blog post missive, Saturday Night Live style, making fun of the fact that no, I don't think Hillary Clinton has sent out 30,000 emails in her lifetime ("Deleter In Chief," one tabloid headline screamed), the number of emails she is "accused" of deleting. I truly don't think Hillary Clinton has written and sent out 30,000 emails in her lifetime. But then when did facts get in the way of fiction in the Clinton "scandals!" Why will they start now?

When the dude Clinton launched his foundation, I feared even his disease trips to Africa might be spun into sex scandals. I am glad it did not happen, at least not to my knowledge. Whereas there are still big chunks of the country  that think the Clintons murdered Vince Foster, and "Whitewatergate" (a small, failed land deal in a part of Arkansas, the remotest American state, that was remote even by Arkansas standards) was the Clinton Enron. Some black folks called Bill Clinton the first black president because the criminal justice system failed him so monumentally. How can Ken Starr do so much damage and get away with it! He is still walking around free!

Pretty much every detail of Hillary Clinton's life is out there. And I still do not underestimate the vast right wing conspiracy's (yes, such a thing exists) ability to stay fascinated by The Hillary. Her candidacy and presidency for that reason will stay interesting to even those who routinely err on the side of thinking she is better than she is.

It truly is about gender. And gender is all around you. Your mother, your grandmother, and her mother, your sister, cousin, daughter, friends, colleagues. There are a lot of women, look around, to paraphrase Larry Summers. The thing about sex is that is how you were born, Hillary once chided a young something reporter.

For me personally, Hillary 2016 only gets interesting after she puts a second woman on the ticket. A minority woman would be perfect. If you think gender is awkward, try race plus gender. I do not expect any of her policy positions to surprise me. I don't expect to "stay glued to the screen." I don't expect to follow closely. I read tech news mostly.

But you can not be the first woman to occupy the most powerful office on the planet, political and otherwise, and pretend you only owe it to those who voted for you. As soon as an American president is sworn in, she is no longer just president of those who voted for her, but also of those who might have voted against her. In this case, Hillary is going to belong to women across the world in ways the German Chancellor simply can not. Her having been Secretary of State and traveled the world so very extensively helps me relate to her. I am a Third World Guy. That is who I am for this lifetime.

And just like Barack Obama to me was about 500 years of world history, Hillary to me is about three and a half billion women. She needs a woman running mate because a woman running for and being president should no longer be news, not after her. It should feel normal. We should enter an era where half the time the best candidate on merits just so happens to be some woman.

FDR won a fourth time. Hillary doing two terms will be Barack Obama pulling a FDR. They are comrades.

On issues for me Hillary 2016 is all about Third World women. Nixon went to China, Hillary went to Burma. I was so impressed by what she was able to do for Burma. Especially because I was not even following the developments until the Big Splash showed up in the news. And I grew up practically next door to Burma.

The basics are pretty simple. Slavery should long have been extinct. But it still exists. Sex slavery should be so past tense, but it exists in huge numbers. There are more women sex slaves today than there were black slaves in Abraham Lincoln's time. Poverty is hard knocks, and micofinance is known to work, and Hillary bought into it a long time ago. Gender violence is cut and dry. It is no grey zone. Policing globally has to reorganize itself to bring an end to gender violence. Violence is violence, inside the home, outside the home, does not matter. Women face it both inside and outside.

And if a capable woman who by now knows the government machineries like the back of her hand (I think she will prove why she got better grades than Bill Clinton at Yale) can not put a firm stamp on these issues, then the world will be waiting a long, long time. I think that wait unnecessary.



Friday, July 30, 2010

Firefighters Booing Hillary: Sexist

Gov. Sarah Palin has breakfast and visits with...Image via Wikipedia
I don't care if you are a firefighter and I don't care that 9/11 happened, if you are a sexist pig, you are a sexist pig, and I would take that exact same logic to so called progressives acting sexist towards someone like Sarah Palin. What is sexist is sexist. Your wearing the progressive label does not change that. And stop cashing on 9/11 that way. That is wrong and disrespectful. Palin has taken plenty of wrong stands, like in Arizona. Got to beat her on ideas. Acting sexist can not be in the arsenal.

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I hear some "firefighters" showed up at Netroots Nation.







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Monday, June 02, 2008

Hillary's Tuesday Night Speech


Hillary must know by now Barack is king.

A Jack Kennedy advisor who went to win the Nobel Prize in Economics once asked Kennedy to pick a political fight. If you win, you do good. If you lose, you will at least have fought a good fight, he said. Jack Kennedy did not like the idea.

"That's vanity, Paul, that's not politics," Jack Kennedy said.

If Hillary is still running Wednesday morning, put her on the cover of Vanity Fair, because by then she will have switched careers. She will no longer be in politics, she will have switched to being in the vanity business.

In February it was about not quitting. Ohio and Texas were about not quitting. Pennsylvania was about not quitting, it was about fighting all the way. West Virginia, Kentucky. Puerto Rico was about paying attention to the very last voter.

But after the last voter has spoken, and if Hillary keeps chugging along, that is not politics, Paul, that is vanity.

Hillary's best bet is to end up on Barack's ticket now. Someone who so badly wanted to become president can not now tell herself she is going to be happier being just Senator, or Senate Majority Leader, or Governor of New York. If you so badly wanted to be president, you must equally badly want to be Vice President.

During her scheduled Tuesday evening speech, Hillary has to decide she is now running for Vice President. You thank your staff, your supporters, voters, volunteers, your family. Then you congratulate Barack Obama and go ahead and flat endorse him that very night. You can't wait for those final 20 superdelegates as if they just might go for you. If you think they will, you lack political judgment, which is why you are not the nominee perhaps.

Show some political judgment. And do the next big thing you can do for the women of America and the world. Accept Barack's leadership, in good faith, and cheerfully. And get ready to go to the White House regardless. After eight years in the White House might be a good time to go full time with the Clinton Foundation and spend a ton of time with the hubbie guy.

Endorse Obama on Tuesday. Make it a joy for him to offer you the Vice Presidency. His decision to offer you the number two spot should not feel like constipation which it will feel like if you keep fighting like that Japanese soldier who was still fighting the second world war in 1973.

On Barack's part, I think it would be a bad idea to do the short list thing. Bill Clinton did not do the short list thing in 1992. He met up with Al Gore, and talked for a few hours, and when they emerged the world knew who the mate was. George W put Cheney in charge of the vice presidential candidate exploratory committee. That way the mate feels special. The mate has to feel she is who you had on mind all along. The heck with short lists. Short lists make for loser, lousy vice presidents.

It really is Hillary. Do the math. Feel the chemistry. Look at history. This is the woman you have in your mind. It has to be a woman, and that woman has to be Hillary.

If Hillary keeps pushing on after Tuesday, she is not a determined woman, but a white woman who believes in the caste hierarchy of white male, white female, minority male, minority female. The minority male might win the electoral race, but she will still not accept him for the leader he has proven himself to be. That would not be a great way to advance the gender agenda, and that takes the race agenda backwards rather.

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Hillary Is Seeking The Green Party Nomination
Gender Talk: Coming At It From The Future
Sexism Bothers Me Directly
But, Hillary, Quit

In The News

Obama offers to meet with Clinton “once the dust settles” Reuters a conversation he had with Clinton when he called her on Sunday to congratulate her on her win in Puerto Rico. ...... “There aren’t many people who understand exactly how hard she’s been working. I’m one of them,” Obama said ....... once the dust has settled, I was looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing,” he said. ...... has been making a point of publicly praising the New York senator.
Obama nears win amid signs Clinton may admit loss The Associated Press The former first lady has given no hint of quitting the race, and she has said repeatedly she may continue her candidacy even beyond the end of the primaries. ..... Obama's aides prodded uncommitted lawmakers and other "superdelegates" to climb on board quickly ....... he said, "It is my sense that between Tuesday and Wednesday we have a good chance of getting that number of delegates" needed for victory. ....... if Obama failed to gain 2,118 delegates by Tuesday night, one possibility under discussion was for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to issue a statement on Wednesday urging superdelegates — members of Congress and other party leaders — to state their preferences as soon as possible. ..... she has repeatedly declined to say she would concede defeat if her rival appeared to gain the delegates he needs. ....... Ickes also conceded that Obama was likely to reach the delegate threshold by Wednesday, and that Clinton would need some time to consider her next step.
The Comeback Id Vanity Fair the private-jetting around with a skirt-chasing, scandal-tinged posse ...... the smiling, snowy-haired man who is the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral he attends ....... Burkle had come with an attractive blonde, described by a fellow guest as “not much older than 19, if she was that.” ...... On any given visit to London, for example, Clinton is as apt to dine with Tony Blair or Kevin Spacey as with anyone who might raise an eyebrow. ........... No former president of the United States has ever traveled with such a fast crowd, and most 61-year-old American men of Clinton’s generation don’t, either. ...... Bill Clinton’s relevance—and his presence in public life—is as close to permanent as any politician’s can be. ........ among the most popular figures on the planet ...... every future presidential election of his lifetime ........ his never-a-dull-moment presidency ....... his roving intellect, his protean political talents, his outsize personality ........ his indiscipline ...... the donors who have contributed some $500 million to Clinton’s library and foundation ...... never made more than $35,000 a year as governor of Arkansas and left the White House about $12 million in debt ........ the world of rich friends, adoring fans, and borrowed jets ....... his eight-year absence from a political workplace that has changed radically in the interim has left him conspicuously rusty at the craft of which he was once a master ....... an abiding anger in him ..... a huge force of nature ...... cavernous narcissism ...... presented him with a big batch of condoms, and a participant told me at the time that Clinton instantly replied, “My staff thinks this is the last thing I need.” .......... “Do you think I would be stupid enough to go running with someone I was foolin’ with?,” Clinton later asked Lewinsky. ....... . “I was lost for three weeks after I left the White House,” he said on the campaign trail this winter. “Nobody ever played a song anymore. I had no idea where I was.” ........ ‘I’ve always been a guy who could bloom where I was planted.’ ....... paid speeches at $150,000 to $250,000 apiece ...... he set about earning an income that would “support a senator,” as he put it. ...... $10 million in book income for Hillary and $29 million in book income for Bill, along with $51 million in speaking fees for the former president. ......... everybody wants to grab his sleeve ...... Democrats about their only two-term president in 80 years, a man who took the party from the wilderness of loserdom to the White House and created the strongest economy in American history ......... Clinton’s craving for conversational companionship ...... Burkle, 55, a onetime supermarket boxboy who eventually parlayed ownership of several grocery chains into a fortune that Forbes magazine estimates to be at least $3.5 billion, is said to have bonded with Clinton over their shared origins as outsiders who rose to the very biggest leagues. ............ the self-reinforcing network of rich personal, charitable, political, and business supporters Clinton has built since his White House years. ...... “Now, when I got elected, I had the lowest net worth of any president of the 20th century” .......... He is visibly older and thinner. His hair is whiter and his countenance paler. At times, as the day wears on, he makes an odd cotton-mouth sound, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth as he talks. ........... he now tires more easily, and loses energy. ...... “He still has energy, but not stamina. He can recover, but he used to do that nonstop, with three hours’ sleep.” ........ fatigue, muscle pain, dehydration, depression, and impotence. ....... Many people who have bypass surgery get depressed afterward, while others suffer from increased irritability. “It’s very similar to postpartum depression. You deliver a child and then a week later it’s a dismal anticlimax. The same thing happens with heart surgery: you wonder if you’re going to make it, and then you wake up in the intensive-care unit and you’re the center of the universe, and a week later you’re exhausted and sore and about to be sent home.” ........ the Reverend Al Sharpton said that it was time for Clinton to just “shut up.” His old flame Gennifer Flowers, who has endorsed Hillary, referred to him as an “idiot husband.” ....... Senator Clinton herself had to tell him—as she did after he revived controversy over her imagined landing in Bosnia under sniper fire by unleashing a string of new inaccuracies to defend her—“Let me handle this.” ........ “There’s not a detail that escapes his notice and commentary,” the aide said, “and as usual with Clinton, much of what he says is worth listening to.” ...... Clinton’s temper has continued to get the better of him. ...... You really gotta go something to play the race card with me—my office is in Harlem. ...... the kinds of smaller towns presidents never visit—47 stops in Pennsylvania, 39 in Indiana, 50 in North Carolina ......... a rambling tour d’horizon of world problems ..... the way you summon people up and get them to do things has changed. All of this stuff, the blogging and the YouTubing and the way in which everything is instantaneously available ......... funneling low-cost anti-retroviral drugs to more than a million aids patients, shining the singular power of a presidential spotlight on the good work of others, and raising millions of dollars for practical programs in places much of the world’s power establishment never bothers with. .......... Reagan briefly scandalized late-80s Washington by taking $2 million for a single speaking trip to Japan. ......... Harry Truman was so reluctant to accept any business or commercial offer, however high-minded, that might be seen as capitalizing on the presidency that he nearly went broke in retirement. ......... Each year at Christmastime, Clinton sends out to supporters a slim, paperbound volume of his Selected Remarks, with a gold-embossed “Happy Holidays” greeting card replete with the requisite “bug” showing it was printed in a union shop. ......... He was never, ever, on time. ...... “Ken Starr spent $70 million and indicted innocent people to find out that I wouldn’t take a nickel to see the cow jump over the moon.” ....... Clinton’s invariable insistence that his problems are someone else’s fault ........ He will remain a presence, a force to be reckoned with, as long as he draws breath. ....... But for a politician with so many admirers, allies, acquaintances, faithful retainers, and hangers-on, Clinton remains a profoundly solitary man, associates say, without any real peers, intellectual equals, or genuine friends with whom he can share the sweetest things in life.
A Woman in Full the unconventional family she and Pitt have created ....... the mother she lost last year, the father she’s estranged from ...... I happen to be with somebody who finds pregnancy very sexy. ...... It’s as if the Jolie-Pitts are pioneering a new genre of family, with children from every global hot spot and parents who are beautiful and famously not married. ..... she is a Method actor in reverse; whereas a Method actor brings the things of her life into her roles, Jolie brings her characters’ stories into her real life. Which is why, though Jolie is an outstanding actress, she’s a more outstanding celebrity. It’s not that she becomes the character—it’s that the character becomes her. ......... in the process forcing those who follow such things (everyone) to re-write the hierarchy of the lunchroom. ...... Angelina is a new kind of movie star in just the way Barack Obama is a new kind of politician ....... been among the highest-paid actresses ever ...... she has become an obsession to women in America ....... “After my last divorce, I said I was absolutely going to marry somebody in another field, an aid worker or something. ....... I don’t see him as an actor. I see him very much as a dad, as somebody who loves travel and architecture more than being in movies.” ....... “It’s our media,” she said. “People always slow down for a train wreck. It’s like junk food. If you don’t feel good about yourself, you want to read crap about other people, like gossip in high school. You don’t understand why it’s there, but somehow it makes a lot of people feel better. ......... Jolie has children from three continents ...... I’m giving them the childhood I always wished I had. ........ Shiloh’s birth—they decided to have the baby in Namibia, far from the paparazzi. ....... a book on every religion. That’s how we plan to raise our kids. Teach them about all religions. ....... and taught me about dying ....... what’s most fun—to put yourself aside for these other little people you’re raising ....... “It’s a great thing about being pregnant—you don’t need excuses to pee, or to eat.” ....... They are officially estranged. Like Syria and Israel. ........ Voight wanted to control his daughter

Kennedy Has Surgery for Brain Tumor New York Times
Ousted Nepal king consults astrologers in house hunt? Reuters India
Maoist rebels destroy railway tracks, buildings in Bihar Reuters India
Clinton's Endgame
Washington Post A Clinton nomination at this point would tear the party apart.
An assault on Bill Clinton so powerful it just might change his image San Diego Union Tribune, United States
Clinton faces another hurdle in Vanity Fair story on husband MarketWatch an unflattering profile on the post-presidential life of her husband. ..... Bill Clinton is portrayed as keeping fast company in the eight years since he left office, but the story falls short of saying the 61-year-old ex-chief executive has continued his womanizing ways. ....... leaving the White House with more than $12 million in debt ..... Ron Burkle, the billionaire Los Angeles supermarket magnate, as well as entertainment producer Steve Bing
Article: Friends Feared New Clinton Bimbo Eruptions ABC News Clinton's office distributed a memo to reporters Sunday calling Purdum's 9,600 word article "journalism of personal destruction at its worst." ........ a portrait of an undisciplined, sometimes reckless man trapped in a vacuum of self indulgence. ....... "Clinton was apparently seeing a lot of women on the road" ..... Clinton has never been the same since heart surgery in 2004. ..... Ron Burkle, a California billionaire and Clinton business partner, who has investors that include an entity connected to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai.

Clinton seeks to go after Obama superdelegates The Associated Press "One thing about superdelegates is that they can change their minds," she told reporters aboard her campaign plane Sunday night. ....... Obama, campaigning in Mitchell, S.D., confidently predicted Clinton "is going to be a great asset when we go into November." ...... Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor and a national co-chairman of Clinton's campaign, said Sunday: "It does appear to be pretty clear that Senator Obama is going to be the nominee. After Tuesday's contests, she needs to acknowledge that he's going to be the nominee and quickly get behind him."
Clinton ponders next move in marathon race AP New York senator is said to be considering a range of options, including dropping out of the race and endorsing Obama .... some of Clinton's most stalwart supporters, who have reluctantly concluded that it's time to move on. ...... "I have put together a much broader coalition" of voters than Obama. .... Clinton is simply trying to keep all options open until Obama is declared the winner, at which point she'll reassess. ....... privately, her aides have said Clinton's run is over and it's simply a matter of when it becomes formal ..... Obama campaign aides have begun to reach out to their counterparts on the Clinton campaign in hopes of pulling together and ameliorating hard feelings.
Obama: He and Clinton to work together in fall AP Obama said to applause that "she and I will be working together in November." ...... Both parties see Michigan as a key swing state in the general election.
Clinton plans New York speech AP
Clinton Will Have Abundant Future Options, All With Obstacles Bloomberg she could run for governor of New York or Senate majority leader, or try to become a legislative power in the mold of Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. ...... have led party leaders such as Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo to call for a joint ticket. ...... A more likely path for Clinton is a higher-profile role in the Senate, political analysts and fellow senators say. In that way, the role model may be Kennedy, who became a legislative heavyweight in the decades after his failed 1980 bid to challenge President Jimmy Carter. ...... Clinton is considered one of the most knowledgeable leaders on health care ...... she perked up when talk turned to the minutiae of education and health policy. .... David Paterson, is the first black governor of New York
Franken's old Playboy article concerns Democrats AP
Lieberman plays down chances of being on McCain ticket AFP
McCain wants nuclear talks with China, Russia AFP
Bush hits trail for McCain, sparking Obama attack AFP 71 percent of Americans disapprove of how Bush is doing his job, the first time any president had smashed the 70 percent barrier.
Bill Clinton hints at end to wife's campaign AFP "I want to say also that this may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," the former president told Clinton supporters in South Dakota ...... she would hold an election night "celebration" in her home state of New York ...... far-flung members of Clinton's travelling staff had been summoned back to New York for Tuesday evening and told their roles on the campaign are ending. ...... Clinton is to huddle with advisers and her husband at her home in Chappaqua to monitor the final results and decide whether and how to end her campaign.
Power awaits Mrs Clinton - just not in the White House at The London Times For five months it has been said that both major candidates in this race, if victorious, would transform America's political landscape simply by virtue of their race or gender. ..... she has out-toughed her every male rival, including Mr Obama. ..... she has instead dragged out this race at the risk of permanent damage to the Clinton brand. ...... Her determination has fatally clouded her judgment. For many the last straw was her mention last week of the assassination of Robert Kennedy late in his nomination bid in 1968, apparently to justify her own refusal to concede. ...... Her destiny, instead, is to lead the Democratic majority in the Senate.
Obama: He and Clinton to work together in fall AP
Clinton plans New York speech AP She planned to address AIPAC Wednesday in Washington. ..... There was a sense of denouement in the campaign. She planned to rally with husband and former President Clinton and their daughter Chelsea in South Dakota Monday night — a reunion usually reserved for election nights.
Exit rumored for Clinton as Democratic race climaxes AFP she may challenge a decision by Democratic leaders on convention delegates from Michigan and Florida. ...... The two clashed anew Monday over Iraq, national security and Obama's advocacy of a new diplomacy with US adversaries such as Iran. ....... McCain's warning came hours after Iran's firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Israel "is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene." ..... Obama was set Tuesday night to address thousands of supporters in the same conference hall in St. Paul, Minnesota where the Republican convention will be held in September.

Obama poised for nomination despite Clinton victory in Puerto Rico guardian.co.uk
Obama's former church seeks to step beyond controversy
AFP
Post-Rules Committee, Clinton Camp Argues the Popular Vote
FOXNews
Analysis: Obama's sole focus is general election
The Associated Press It's Barack Obama's party now. He beat the ultimate insider at the insider's game. ..... the floodgates would open this week as remaining superdelegates jump on the Obama bandwagon. ..... Obama's complete break with Trinity United Church of Christ will provide a degree of cover for superdelegates poised to endorse him but possibly still uncomfortable about some of his entanglements. ...... the in-your face decision to hold Tuesday night's primary season wrap-up rally at the Xcel Energy Center, site of the GOP convention beginning Sept. 1. ..... "Obama has to deal with the issue of white working-class reservations about him, highly social conservative attitudes" ...... the sermons of two preachers who are among his longtime acquaintances and supporters...... "I have to say this was one I didn't see coming. We knew there were going to be some things we didn't see coming. This was one," Obama said. "I didn't anticipate my fairly conventional Christian faith being subject to such challenge and such scrutiny. Initially with e-mails suggesting I was a Muslim, later with the controversy that Trinity generated."
Clinton Puts Up Popular Vote Ad Washington Post Obama has 2,052 delegates while Clinton has 1,877. The new magic number to formally become the party's nominee is 2,118.
Clinton threatens "nuclear option" Melbourne Herald Sun

Clinton wins Puerto Rico but Obama still leads Reuters
Clinton wins Puerto Rico primary but Obama gains delegates The Associated Press
Criminal Inquiry Is Opened in New York Crane Collapse
New York Times
Nepal's Gorkha kingdom falls Times of India
For readers, ‘Sex’ isn’t just good — it’s great! MSNBC

Obama Leaves Church That Drew Wide Criticism New York Times
Barack Obama Quits Longtime Church Following Uproar (Update4) Bloomberg
Obama quits Chicago church after latest flap Washington Times
Obama Continues to Press McCain on Iraq Washington Post
Democrats Settle Obama, Clinton Dispute on Delegates (Update2)
Bloomberg
Deal to reseat Florida, Michigan a blow to Clinton
Newsday
Clinton looks for fun on final primary days The Associated Press
Obama Forgoes Chance at More Delegates, Looks to Heal Wounds Wall Street Journal Blogs
Hillary Clinton to be offered dignified exit Telegraph.co.uk
Fears grow that Obama can't win guardian.co.uk
Obama cuts ties to longtime church Chicago Tribune
Obama launches final push to claim crown Times Online
Waiting for Clinton's next move
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Obama Won't Wait for Clinton Concession ABC News

McCain and Obama spar over Iraq Los Angeles Times "This is the guy who says I need more knowledge," the Illinois senator said at a rally with about 2,400 people at the Montana ExpoPark. "He's wrong. It's not true, and anyone running for commander in chief should know better. As the saying goes, you're entitled to your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own facts." ...... the 5-month-long Democratic contest. ...... Not to be outdone by Obama, who danced when he visited recently, Clinton stood on a stage surrounded by politicians and notables, swaying her hips and clapping as a band played booming Latin hip-hop.
What the Clinton Camp Wants from the Rules Committee FOXNews
DNC rules is underway; Howard Dean says Texas is about to turn blue Dallas Morning News through the primaries, more than 35 million voters have come out to vote Democratic. Even in Texas, more people voted in the party's primary than voted Democratic in the 2004 general election. "Texas," he said, "is ready to turn blue."
Obama says nomination will be determined in days MSNBC
Priest's apology to Clinton does little to quiet storm
Houston Chronicle
Nepal king to leave palace quietly: party official
AFP

California Democrats To Clinton: We Prefer Obama Forbes, USA California Democrats disagreed with the Clintons' latest pitch: 51% of those polled preferred Barack Obama, compared to just 38% for Clinton. What is remarkable is that this is a state that Clinton won by eight percentage points in February’s primary. ....... Obama’s California margin over John McCain is currently 17 percentage points, the same margin enjoyed by Clinton ...... Democratic men preferred Obama to Clinton by 21 percentage points and Democratic women, who helped Clinton to many of her victories, preferred the Illinois senator by 8 percentage points. ...... 22% of Clinton supporters are unlikely to vote Obama in November (compared to 17% of Obama supporters who indicate that they would not support Clinton).
Obama, McCain in fierce new duel over Iraq AFP
Obama gets a claim to another Kennedy legacy MarketWatch won an endorsement from three former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission.