Link Me Up, Scotty - Ferocious Women Edition

Monday, December 12, 2016

You know, I've always admired Dolly Parton. She's a hell of a musician, and by all accounts a decent human being, as well. And apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so.
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The Atlantic provides some hopeful photographs from 2016. Number 31 makes me ridiculously happy.
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A lovely story about Annie Glenn, wife to amazing person John Glenn, who is quite amazing in her own right. Now I'm crying again. Stupid humans, who continue to be awesome in spite of our crazy world.
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Madonna is my kind of fiery feminist. Talk to me sometime about what it was like to serve as a woman in the pre-Tailhook Navy, and why I admire Assistant Secretary of the Navy Barbara Pope so very much. Nothing changes unless we stand up for ourselves and others.
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Teen Vogue takes on the President-Elect and advises their core audience to"wake up" and show some discernment in the acceptance and dissemination of information:
There are things you can and should be doing to turn your unrest into action, but first let's empower ourselves with information. Insist on fact-checking every Trump statement you read, every headline you share or even relay to a friend over coffee. If you find factual inaccuracies in an article, send an email to the editor, and explain how things should have been clearer. Inform yourself what outlets are trustworthy and which aren’t. If you need extra help, seek out a browser extension that flags misleading sites or print out a list of fake outlets, such as the one by communications professor Melissa Zimdars, and tape it to your laptop. Do a thorough search before believing the agenda Trump distributes on Twitter. Refuse to accept information simply because it is fed to you, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. That is now the base level of what is required of all Americans. If facts become a point of debate, the very definition of freedom will be called into question.
Teen girl magazines have come a long way since I was their target audience...which is nothing but good. Be sure to watch the video at the end of the article - these young people are our future, and deserve our respect and admiration.

H/T Brother Steve
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Veteran journalist Dan Rather posted this to his Facebook page, and because some of my readers don't have Facebook accounts, I'm going to copy and paste it here. This election season I have found Mr. Rather's analysis and commentary so spot on, so pertinent to an adult political conversation, that I soundly wish he would choose a venue that didn't require an account/login in order for his work to be shared more widely.
Forget talking about the Trump Administration. The question now is whether this will be a Trump Putin Administration or a Putin Trump Administration.

Trump can publicly diss the findings of the CIA all he wants - itself a worrying development for a President-elect seemingly allergic to intelligence briefings. But the reality is that America's intelligence community has found solid evidence that Russia favored electing a President Trump. Tweeting in a post-fact world doesn't change that.

You may say, didn't we already know this? But assessment is different from conjecture. Republican officials cannot be allowed to duck this issue. Yes some, like Lindsay Graham, are sounding the right notes on the dire need to protect our democratic institutions. We need a full and complete Congressional investigation. Damn partisan politics. Let the facts lead where they may. Let’s get to the truth, or as close to the truth as is humanly possible.

I am struck to the point of extreme disappointment by the complicit silence. Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave. This is Russia; a newly aggressive and assertive Russia. Yes, we The People need new thinking and fresh approaches for dealing with the Russia of today. And, yes—as my friend Professor Steve Cohen of New York University (one of the savviest experts on Russia in the English-speaking world) reminds me—demonizing the Russians and Putin can be carried to counter-productive extremes. And, yes, we have and have had all kinds of mutually beneficial dealings with other dictatorial regimes all over the world (leaders of the old Soviet Union, for example; or leaders past and present in China.) But this has to be weighed against the fact that Putin is a former KGB officer and has done things indicative of a demagogic strongman. Throw in the evidence of serious tampering with the recent U.S. Presidential election and what you have is the making of a global strategic showdown over American ideals.

The craven calculus of too many Republicans at this point seems to be that pursuing a reactionary policy portfolio that now includes gutting Medicare and Social Security is more important than the fact that a foreign power has meddled in an election decided in three states by a total vote total that, as somebody I read noted, could fit into a college football stadium.

The news on this front is now compounded by Trump's choice for Secretary of State - Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson - who has close ties to Putin. This is on top of multiple other links to Russia from members of Trump's inner circle.

The Founding Fathers worried about a demagogue rising to power backed by a foreign adversary. That notion seemed to diminish to the point of a quaint anachronism over the centuries as our democracy solidified and our strength as a world power grew. No longer.

Perhaps it is too strong to suggest that to countenance what Putin and Russia did in our presidential election with a shrug or a justification forfeits the right to call yourself a patriot, no matter how many flags lapel pins you own... that may be going too far. But maybe not.
I don't think it's going too far. I think it's not going far enough. The words that come to mind include traitor, and treasonist, and defector. I spent a goodly portion of my adult life as a Cold Warrior with direct responsibility for information and technology that I swore to protect against the Soviet Union and her allies. I take the Russian threat quite seriously - Putin is not fucking around, and neither should we. I've already sent notes to my Senators and Representatives. Have you?
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The amazing and gifted Toni Morrison wrote a prescient essay in March of 2015 about the correct actions for artists in times of dread. I would submit that all people of conscience have an obligation in this arena, not just artists. "There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear." Indeed not. Let us move forward, with courage and conviction.

H/T Debbie the Librarian
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The Mayor of Denver orders police to stop confiscating blankets and tents from the homeless population. Wait....what? Why the hell were they doing that in the first fucking place? And why did it take the threat of a Federal lawsuit to get them to stop? What the fuck is wrong with people? No, really - what?

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