“The Peaceful Atom is a Bomb”, was a bumper stick on the VW Bus parked across the street from me growing up. I thought they were the coolest. It was the late 80’s and most hippies had joined the corporate 9-5 jobs by then. Nuclear bombs equaled world domination, which was in. People wanted more bombs as the Communists were just around the corner.
Now people know nuclear bombs aren’t cool, but don’t really think about how they are out there, quietly ready to annihilate. The reality is we are barely skirting our own destruction with this Tr*mp and J*ng debacle,
Here is a visual tool to remind us that this is serious business. We are the guardians of our world.
After you test out where you live, your parents live, and your ex that broke your heart, then go here to see what you can do to put and end to this global threat!
Tr*mp + Sinclair Broadcast Group (the country’s largest broadcaster, which owns or operates 193 television stations. The company is seeking a $3.9 billion deal to buy Tribune Media, a move that’s being held up by regulators over antitrust concerns.) = Extreme Danger to Our Democracy.
It’s not just national media like Fox “News”, it’s more and more of our local stations, across different brands…NBC, ABC, and CBS are all part of it. The local anchors we’ve trusted for so long (more than national ones) are part of propaganda system most of us didn’t even know actually existed or thought it was happening elsewhere or on channels we don’t watch. Only ONE television news brand source isn’t part of it: PBS.
I just got a little scared watching this video and I rarely get scared. I am always prepared, so I am not scared of what’s going to come, now I am scared that it is here.
Unplug the TV. Don’t watch/read the mainstream news. Read a book. Go outside. Play. Love. Change the world for the better.
Joyful Heart Foundation, launched a new national PSA campaign, Shelved, yesterday to raise awareness about the untested rape kit backlog and engage people in helping solve this problem. They “are seeking to activate grassroots support for our work in state capitols around the country to change the way rape kits are handled, expand survivors’ rights, and ensure every single kit is tested. Every single kit, in every state.”
Mushpa + Mensa has written about Joyful Heart in a previous entry entitle, No More Boys Will Be Boys. Please go check it out to learn more about how they are helping to end rape kits backlog and how you can help as well.
By supporting us we have been able to support them and for that we thank you!
The news needs to be true. You can help make truth possible by checking out Factcheck.org as a starting point. Let yourself get lost in finding the truth and then spread it all over that wondrous world wide web.
Factcheck.org sister sites include FlackCheck.org, which provides resources to help you recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular, and SciCheck, which sniffs out false and misleading scientific claims.
Want more? The people at Politifact have broken down a seven step process.
This is such a special time in our American History, and I am proud to be alive in these times. The Women’s March on Washington is most likely going to go down in our history books as the start of another wave of feminism, and this time, WE WILL NOT STEP BACK.
Mushpa + Mensa were unable to hitch a ride to DC, and maybe all happened for a reason. We were meant to stay at our own city rally in Wilmington, NC. We stayed in our home town, made signs, and shouted, chanted, and participated in the Wilmington’s Sister Women’s March. What a phenomenal experience. Even more amazing was coming back home and seeing the pictures and videos of ALL THOSE WOMEN. Men and children also there supporting. Political figures, icons, celebrities, artists, and humans from all walks of life. All these little pink hats, all these powerful signs. So much to say, yet such unity in our voice. Despite the hiccups of what it means to be part of this march (Can a pro-lifer still be a feminist? Is there space for white woman oppression?) the energy was ONE.
I am so proud of all of us. This light inside me grows. The strength in me grows, and so does the motivation. We are awake, and ready to go.
Despite not being in Washington physically, our collective energy filled every corner of the world, from Berlin, to Paris, from London to Costa Rica. This is not an American movement. This is WORLD WIDE.
The internet has united us, and I have witnessed some amazing and moving moments from the Women’s March. Here a few favorites. I hope you play them, enjoy them, and let them fill you with hope, motivation, and furious energy to fight this culture of hate, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and darkness that has crept up to a mainstream platform.
Without further ado, press play, and may the force be with you.
-Mensa
“We too must stand united….if we fall into the trap of separating ourselves by our causes and our labels, then we will weaken our fight, and we will lose. But if we commit to what aligns us, if we stand together steadfast and determined, then we stand a chance at saving the soul of our country.” -America Ferrera
“I’m not nasty like the combo of Trump and Pence being served up to me in my voting booth. I’m nasty like the battles my grandmothers fought to get me into that voting booth…We are here to be respected. We are here to be nasty!” -Nina Donovan interpreted by Ashley Judd
“We are the people. We have people power, and we will use it…This is the upside of the downside. This is an outpouring of energy and true democracy like I have never seen in my very long life. It is wide in age, it is deep in diversity, and remember: the constitution does not begin with “I the president”, it begins with “We the People.” So do not try to divide us…” -Gloria Steinem
The 4 things we need to do according to Michael Moore:
1. Call Congress every single day (1 rep in the house, 2 senators) 202-225-3121
2. JOIN A GROUP!
3. Form your own rapid response team: people that you will call, when we need to move fast. 10 people
4.Form regions of resistance. Blue states and cities. The country will follow your lead!
I started this Blog entry today, as we here at Mushpa + Mensa want to start backing charities we believe in. Every month we will give 10% of our income to a charity we pick each month and promote in our blog, newsletter and on our website. This is something we have wanted to do and in 2017 we are making it happen!
The first charity we are covering will be End the Backlog. It is a is a program of the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national non-profit organization founded by actress and activist Mariska Hargitay with the mission to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, and to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues. We heard about this organization as Cara (me) is obsessed with, My Favorite Murder, a podcast by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark about, you guessed it, murder. Each episode the girls tell each other their favorite tales of murder, and hear hometown crime stories from friends and fans. Check your anxiety at the door, ’cause Karen & Georgia are dying to discuss death. They gave 50% of their sales or MFM products for 1 month to End the Backlog.
In Joyful Heart Foundation‘s own words End the Backlogis the cornerstone of Joyful Heart’s Policy & Advocacy work, focuses on shining a light on the rape kit backlog in the United States. Our goal is to end this injustice by conducting groundbreaking research identifying the extent of the nation’s backlog and best practices for eliminating it; expanding the national dialogue on rape kit testing through increased public awareness, engaging communities and government agencies and officials; and advocating for comprehensive rape kit reform legislation and policies at the local, state and federal levels. Ultimately, we seek to change attitudes about sexual violence and abuse, educate the public, improve systems to lessen the trauma survivors experience and ensure greater access to justice for survivors.
With this new person, whose name I shall not speak, in office we must fight this rape culture, now more than ever. Ladies, men, children, let’s do this. Buy our organic cotton and upcycled stuff and we will work to #changetheculture. I love you ladies!
If you are anything like us, we can get real close to the time of whatever-it-may-be and then get what needs to be done, last minute style, done. Don’t get us wrong, we do it well under pressure. The Women’s March tomorrow is no different. We are going to wake up around 7AM to get our signs done to get out to our local Wilmington, NC Women’s March. I did some image research and quote digging and came up with 10 good sign suggestions off the World Wide Web.
We go high.
Your silence will not protect you.
Nasty Woman
“Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities, Can Make You Commit Atrocities” Voltaire
Hate Kills
“I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.” Audre Lorde
Woman’s place is in the resistance. (in reference to Carrie Fisher…Princess Leigh….Star Wars. You get it.)
I am stronger than fear.
Truth matters.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Alice Walker
Get your recycled pieces of boxes, cardboard, old sheets and get to creating. We will collectively be with every human at every women’s march tomorrow. We love you.
We got a lot of messages this morning from friends and family, some telling us about their plans to move to Canada, others worried about what maniacal plans of revolution we may be coming up with, and some excited about said plans. The rest are in utter shock. Thankfully the government is not just run by one man. We must remember that we as a people are more powerful than the few, if we work together. The key words being work and together.
Here is what my basic response has been while a bit shell-shocked.
“This is what this country needed. This is the time where we decide to wake up and take our country back from corporations and nut jobs. This is our time to fight. To make sure he doesn’t take away things or pass things we don’t want. I will no longer be complacent. I would have most likely been while Hillary sold us out to Wall Street. This is a blessing in disguise. He could and might, on day 1, take away my healthcare, just because… You realized this country just elected a man who said he wanted to make America great again, meaning make it the white man’s America again, and disenfranchised white men and women, Donald Trump wouldn’t even let ride in an elevator with him, voted for him. We just elected a man that has sexually assaulted women numerous times and that basically tells people it is ok to do that to women. Actually, you can even become president. I am ashamed of my fellow countrymen that voted for Donald Trump or did not vote or voted for libertarians. This man will forever be in our history books like Hitler to the Germans is if WE allow this. He is a horrible racist, sexist, faithless, mentally unstable, sad man and our president. This is our battle cry to wake up and make change. We must start with ridding ourselves of the rigged electoral system and educating ourselves on our political system. Hillary won the popular vote and Donald still is our president!!!! Check out wolf-PAC.com and The Young Turks online. -c ”
I will not run. I am excited for the changes to come. I am excited for us to see the greater good of people that will come to light because of this darkness. I am ready for more of us to become enlightened and with that greater health for all and this world. We need to heal, but to heal we must first fight the sickness and this diseased government.
No me jodas, because now I’m awake. Stay tuned for more on this front.
The Young Turks, nice stuff. I just found this video while looking for the soundtrack for a lesbian short film I really dig called, Camp Belvidere. Don’t ask, I have no idea. :]
Point is, The Young Turks got me interested. They reeled me in with the shallow, then hit me up with some depth. I need to plug in a bit to this election. I have been avoiding it like splinters in my fingers, but that won’t help anything.
There are so many things spinning in the air around me.
Here’s the skinny on Laurel Hester. She was a 23-year veteran of the Ocean County prosecutor’s office, where she worked on a variety of cases, when she was discovered she had stage 4 lung cancer (Stage four (IV) means the lung cancer has spread to more than one area in the other lung, the fluid surrounding the lung or the heart, or distant parts of the body through the bloodstream. Once released in the blood, cancer can spread anywhere in the body, but it is more likely to spread to the brain, bones, liver, and adrenal glands.). She was one of the first women to achieve rank of Lieutenant in her department and was greatly respected by her fellow officers.
While in Ocean County, where she earned the rank of lieutenant, she
worked behind the scenes on a number of high-profile cases, devoting
most of her career to organized-crime intelligence. She helped develop
information that investigators in New York would later use for
successful prosecutions of mob figures there.
She met her girlfriend in the early 2000s, Stacie Leigh Andree (born 1975) who was 19 years younger than Hester and worked as a car mechanic.
The cancer then metastasized and spread to her brain, leaving her with little time to live. Laurel lived with and jointly owned a house with her registered domestic partner, Stacie Andree, who would not be able to afford mortgage payments upon Laurel’s death. A married heterosexual with Hester’s years of police service would be able to pass on pension benefits to a spouse, but this privilege was not accorded to same-sex domestic partners in Ocean County, NJ.
Hester and Garden State Equality Founder and Chair Emeritus, Steven Goldstein appealed to local authorities to change this policy, and was supported by the local Policemen’s Benefit Association. Instead, in a private meeting on November 9, 2005, the five Republican county freeholders voted against the proposal, with freeholder John P. Kelly arguing that it threatened “the sanctity of marriage.” On November 23, a rally of supporters rallied by Steven Goldstein gathered to protest the county’s inaction.
On January 18, 2006, an impassioned videotaped appeal by a weakening Hester from her hospital bed was shown at a meeting of the freeholders, who then met with county Republican leaders in a teleconference on January 20. The next day, the freeholders announced that they were reversing their stance, and would meet on January 25 to extend pension benefits to registered domestic partners.
She died exactly a month later after sending the committee the video plea on February 18, 2006, in her home in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.
There is a new movie about Hester’s fight for equality coming out October 2nd starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page, also titled Freeheld.
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