Dear Raw Story readers,
I know, what you’re doing. Because I did it too. I thought that the peaceful protests and the riots in Baltimore were in response to the police murder of Freddie Gray, police brutality, the culture of police impunity, and systemic racism. It turns out, we’re off. Way off. Here’s what’s really to blame (besides Obama, but we already knew that): gay marriage, single parenting, low self-esteem, entitlements and personal behavior, whatever that means.
To quote Voltaire, I may not agree with Matt Drudge, but I must admit the guys is astute, insightful and one hell of an intellectual.
Only Drudge has the clarity to see, and laser-like ability to pinpoint, the man behind the the tear gas and chaos of Baltimore riots; President Barack Obama. Check out his brilliant tweet:
I have nothing to add.
Here are the best jokes from President Barack Obama and Cecily Strong during Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. They take on Hobby Lobby, Dick Cheney, sexism, racism, police brutality, Islamophobia and Obamaphobia.
Who, in the media, will have the courage to call out Israel once Jon Stewart leaves the Daily Show? (On Monday, the date of Stewart’s final show – August 6 – was announced.)
As a secular Jewish woman who has been called self-loathing for both my comedy and writing, I’ve always had a particular appreciation for Jon Stewart’s brave critiques of Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. Considering his background as a bi-racial, South African comedian who came of age during apartheid, the incoming host of the Daily Show, Trevor Noah, could bring a refreshing perspective to many political issues, especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But I worry that the same kinds of people who try to stifle legitimate debate about Israel with unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism will silence Noah. (I fear the silencing campaign has already started.) The irony, though, is that silencing the discussion around Israel is bad for both Israel and Jews. Continue reading “Comedy as criticism: Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah and the issue of Israel”
I guess it’s utopian of me to think that today’s politicians and mainstream media would be as radical as a Batgirl from a 1970’s Department of Labor PSA. But a girl, bat or otherwise, can dream, can’t she? Either way, it’s Equal Pay Day!
In the 1970s the radical, gender-norm-challenging-binary-questioning Batgirl character came out in support of equal pay. Today, decades later, the gender pay gap stands at 78 cents to the dollar and hasn’t narrowed in the last decade. Every April, Equal Pay Day marks how far into the year the average American woman must work to make what the average man made last year.
It’s sad that many of today’s politicians and so-called journalists aren’t quite as progressive as this character from over 40 years ago.
For instance, when I search Google News for “equal pay,” the first thing that comes up is an opinion piece by Diana Furchgott-Roth, a free-market fundamentalist who rails against feminism and the environment. Her book Regulating to Disaster: How Green Jobs Policies are Damaging America’s Economy is a page-turner, I’m sure. Her op-ed, published in Market Watch is called “Feminists overreach with Equal Pay,” and it argues that “in many ways, women already are ahead, but feminists won’t acknowledge that.”
Furchgott-Roth opens her opus by writing, “April 14 is feminists’ misconceived Equal Pay Day. That’s the day of the year, they say, when all women’s wages, allegedly only 78% of all men’s, ‘catch up’ to what men have earned the year before. The fairy tale is that women have to work those extra months to get their fair share.”
Just listen to all the terrible things we feminist extremists are agitating for:
Paycheck Fairness Act would allow women to sue for unlimited compensatory and punitive damages. It would encourage class actions by requiring workers who do not want to participate to opt out, rather than opt in, a radical change from conventional law and practice. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would collect data on the race, sex and wages of workers to test for and prevent discrimination.
In other words, Furchgott-Roth argues that this law would…wait for…discourage discrimination. What could be less lady-like and more unAmerican?
She continues, “Feminists want Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, introduced in this Congress on March 25 by Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, both Democrats.” Like the best of journalists, Furchgott-Roth makes her point by using incredibly unflattering images of the two Congresswomen. Because doing your darndest to make so-called feminists look unattractive is a great way to compensate for your lack of logic or integrity.
Since we’re mentioning political parties, you may want to know that Furchgott-Roth served under George W. Bush as the chief of staff on his Council of Economic Advisers and as the chief Economist of the United States Department of Labor. Her position make sense, given that the Republicans in Congress have voted down the Paycheck Fairness Act four times since 2012!
Here is an updated Batgirl-based PSA from today’s Department of Labor, which is sadly as relevant today as it as back then. The text below the video reads, “40 years ago, Batgirl fought for equal pay for equal work, a fight that persists today. While the wage gap has closed slightly, women still earn 78% of what men earn, on average. And for women of color the gap is even wider. We can — and must — do more for #EqualPayNow.”
Here is the transcript for the original video:
Batgirl Teaches Batman a Lesson about Equal Pay
Announcer: A ticking bomb means trouble for Batman & Robin.
Robin: Holy Breaking and entering it’s Batgirl!
Batman: Quick Batgirl! Untie us before it’s too late.
Batgirl: It’s already too late. I’ve worked for you a long time and I’m paid less than Robin. Same job, same employer means equal pay for men and women.
Batman: No time for jokes Batgirl.
Batgirl: It’s no joke! It’s the Federal Equal Pay Law.
Robin: Holy Act of Congress!
Batgirl: If you’re not getting equal pay, contact the Wage & Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor.
Check out this photo of Ted Cruz checking off George W. Bush’s win in the Texas governor’s race in 1994. Cruz was then a student at Harvard Law School. But what you may not know is that Cruz was a thespian. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen! During his first year at Harvard Law, Cruz was in a play. And not just any play. Cruz was what is arguably one of the most famous dramatic indictments of McCarythism… Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. True, he played Samuel Parris, a villainous character. But, still Ted Cruz endorsed the work of a Jewish, liberal, Blacklisted playwright.
To ensure a victory for himself and his party, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a race-baiting video, which he posted on Facebook. Here is what the video said.
The right-wing government is in danger.
Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls.
Left-wing organizations are busing them out.
We have no V15, we have Order 8
Originally posted on FeministingWe can all exhale and unbunch our panties. Because the War on Women is officially over, according to the right-wing, anti-feminist, evangelical Christian organization Concerned Women for America.
Given how much the right wing has tried to pretend there’s no War on Women at all, I’m kind of impressed that the Concerned Women for America hosted a panel discussion called “War No More” in Washington, DC on Monday. The title acknowledges that there has, indeed, been a war on women. What isn’t quite as honest or accurate is the claim that it’s over.
Rather than deny sexist policies and persisting gender inequality per se, the women on the panel argued that economic and geopolitical issues are more important — and totally separate from — gender issues. GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway, for example, asked, “What do most women do every week? Do they fill up the gas tank and the grocery cart? Or do they get an abortion?” Ahhh, yes. Ye ole abortion vs. shopping conundrum.
But groceries and gas guzzling pale in comparison to Jihadi rape, which, apparently, is the result of Democrat, not Republican, policy. As Concerned Women for America president Penny Nance explained, “Women are being violated at the hands of Islamic jihadists.” Compared to raping, pillaging, and beheading, things like unequal pay (or, basically, anything besides raping, pillaging, and beheading) don’t really sound that bad, right?
Besides, as Nance explains, the pay gap is “greatly exaggerated” and is about “women’s choices, and maybe a little bit of discrimination as well,” according to CWA’s Sabirna Schaeffer. But it is definitely not an issue to be addressed through legislation like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. And you know what else isn’t going to help women, according to these allegedly “concerned” women? Things like increasing the minimum wage or paid sick and family leave.
So, how do you argue that policies that demonstrably improve women’s lives and well-being don’t actually do that? How do you, in other words, distort reality or…well… lie? Blame porn! As Carly Fiorina, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, explained to the audience, Democrats want to pay people to watch porn. Thanks to seniority systems, “we keep getting inspector general reports that say that people watching porn all day long are getting paid exactly the same as someone who works hard and does their job. And who supports the seniority system? Unions. Government bureaucracies. The constituencies that the Democrats like to protect.”
Got it, ladies? It’s not about unequal pay. It’s not about reproductive freedom. It’s about union-belonging, government-bureaucracy-supporting, over-paid porn addicts with job security. Sounds about right to me.
![Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during an awkward speech to the International Association of Firefighters in Washington D.C. [MSNBC]](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Sen.-Ted-Cruz-R-TX-during-an-awkward-speech-to-the-International-Association-of-Firefighters-in-Washington-D.C.-MSNBC-800x430.jpg)
When a very understated Cruz said, “the whole world is on fire,” A three-year-old girl, already traumatized by hearing Ted Cruz speak, I’m sure, had to check that she had not misheard him, asking, “The world is on fire?” Cruz replied “Yes! Your world is on fire!” And it was adorable.
Continue reading and see the video…
Ladies and gentleman… in case you needed any more proof that we are engaged in a clash of civilizations, a battle between good and evil, between enlightenment and the dark ages… If you’re not already aware that Israel is a lone oasis of refined, civilized, reasonable thinking, surrounded by a desert of Muslim/ Arab/ whatever barbarism, violence and blood lust… I present to you… major mensch and dialectical, rabbinical, skeptical and nuanced thinker Avigdor Lieberman.
Lieberman, the Foreign Minister and head of the right wing ultra nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, dropped one of his signature bombs during a post-speech Q & A at an election conference at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya on Sunday. When an Arab-Israeli woman in the audience asked how Lieberman’s policies would affect someone like her, he responded, “I have no problem with your being a citizen. I expect all Arabs, Christians and Jews to be loyal to the state, regardless of religious affiliation, and to serve in the IDF. We accept and encourage those who identify with us.” Oh, and then he added this nugget about Arab citizens of Israel, who make up 20% of the population:
katiehalper.com 