Please Note

Privilege

Can we say that part (though certainly not all) of why people think Bernie is "authentic" is because he doesn't appear or sound polished, BUT:

• If a white woman yelled a lot, wore ill-fitting clothes and had unkempt hair, people would call her "crazy"

• If a black woman did that, people would call her "angry" 

• And if a black man did that, people would call him "dangerous"

Only a white man can get away with that.

Hell, it can even become a positive meme for him:

A 2 Political Junkies Proclamation

WHEREAS, on July 21st, the Huffington Post declared that "The Song Of Summer Is Dead," as it being more than halfway through July and yet, no Song of Summer has emerged as a contender for that title; and, 

WHEREAS, people need a Song of Summer to get us through these cruel months; and,

WHEREAS, recent promotional videos for the City of Pittsburgh--ranging from Time Magazine's business-oriented tribute, to The New York Time's trendy view, to the AMPD Group's barftastic cheesefest--have been very, very, very white/and very, very, very male/for the male gaze; and,

WHEREAS, Adam Shuck's EAT THAT, READ THIS (subscribe already!) has come across a piece--Pittsburgh! Then & Now by DJ Icey White--that comments on the lacking-in-diversity promos of the City of Pittsburgh in a musical manner.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the 2 Political Junkies blog does hereby recognize Pittsburgh! Then & Now and DJ Icey White for promoting and preserving the very, very, very whiteness/malesness of the City of Pittsburgh in a satirical, musical form worthy of the title of Song of Summer.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the 2 Political Junkies blog does hereby declare July 25th, 2015 to be “Pittsburgh! Then & Now and DJ Icey White Day” in the City of Pittsburgh and further declares Pittsburgh! Then & Now to be the "Song of Summer" in the City of Pittsburgh.

Sponsored by Maria of 2 Political Junkies 

In Blogger, July 24th, 2015

Gov. Corbett's Greatest Hits!

Just a reminder as you go to vote...

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Corbett compares same-sex marriage to incest.


Corbett makes insensitive remarks about the mandatory ultrasound bill, telling women who do not want to see the ultrasound "you just have to close your eyes."

Independence Day

"I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."

- Patriot Abigail Adams, 1776

"Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't. Nobody ever thought that that's what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws."

- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 2011

While the Founders would obviously have no problem with discrimination against women, how many truly believe they'd be in agreement that corporations were people who had religious beliefs that allow them to discriminate against a class of citizens and be exempt from duly passed laws?

Certainly the five Catholic, male judges on the Roberts Court believe that it's perfectly fine for corporations to hold others (others of course being women) hostage to their own particular religious views.

And while the media and supporters got the Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case wrong by insisting that it was a "narrow" ruling, it only took a day for that to be proven false and for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be correct (in calling it a "decision of startling breadth"):

In fact, it only took a day for the Court’s “narrow” decision to start to crack open. On Tuesday, the Court indicated that its ruling applies to for-profit employers who object to all twenty forms of birth control included in the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, not just the four methods at issue in the two cases decided on Monday. 

In light of its ruling on Hobby Lobby and a related suit, the Supreme Court ordered three appeals courts to reconsider cases in which they had rejected challenges from corporations that object to providing insurance that covers any contraceptive services at all.

[snip] 

 It’s bad enough that the Court privileged the belief that IUDs and emergency contraceptives induce abortion over the scientific evidence that clearly says otherwise. With Tuesday’s orders, the conservative majority has effectively endorsed the idea that religious objections to insurance that covers any form of preventative healthcare for women have merit.

Just as bad, these males on the court actually lied about their ruling.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing in a dissent on Thursday (signed by all the women on the court), noted, “Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word. Not so today.”

Sotomayor was referencing that accommodation was one of the reasons Justice Samuel Alito cited to justify his Hobby Lobby decision:

Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the government has to show it has pursued the least restrictive means to accomplish its goal. Alito claimed that because the nonprofit accommodation exists, that means the government has other ways to get women access to contraception that respects religious liberty. Yet only a few days later, he ruled that the nonprofit accommodation – again, signing a form – is also a violation of religious liberty.

Yep, that means that the often trotted out example of the Little Sisters of the Poor (with a name like that, how could anyone deny them anything?) can refuse to even sign a damn sheet of paper saying they want a waiver for providing birth control because: religion.

To recap: Corporations are people with religious beliefs. Their beliefs trump women's beliefs, women's rights under the law and women's health. Women can be discriminated against and have no rights against discrimination under the Constitution. And, it's perfectly fine for Supreme Court justices to lie in their rulings.

Happy Fucking Fourth, ladies!

SCOTUS rules that many corporations are people with religious rights and that they can discriminate specifically against women's health care because Eve was a dirty, dirty slut

Did you expect anything else?

Silly Tea Party! Everyone knows that penis-shaped cakes are for birthdays, not weddings!

(Via Cake Wreks)

From the Headlines:

Tea Party Leader: Arizona Veto Enslaves Christians into Baking Giant Penis Cakes 

Bill O’Reilly: A woman can’t be leader of the free world because of a ‘gender deficiency’ 

Maine Republican regrets saying men should rape women if abortion is legal

Roll Back Those Lazy-Crazy-Hazy-Days Of Summer

It's the summer of 1963, err, 2013 in the Good Ol' U.S. of A and everything is A-okay!

Any 'War on Poverty' Is Thankfully Still Just A Dream
Poverty? What poverty? This is the greatest nation on the face of the Earth!

(80 Percent Of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment: Survey)

We Will Arrest Those Who Practice The Love
That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Really, what do they expect?

(Gays in Baton Rouge arrested under invalid sodomy law)

The Little Lady Knows Her Place (As She Should)
We're working hard to ensure that the only abortions will be back alley ones!
(As abortion limits sweep US, even 'purple' states join the crackdown)

Negroes Know Their Place Too
Because they know death lies only a whistle at a white woman (or a hoodie) away!

(George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty And Goes Free)

And For the Ones Who Are Still Too Uppity...
We'll make it as hard as legally possible to vote!

(North Carolina Passes the Country's Worst Voter Suppression Law)

Yes siree, Bob! We wish that summer would always be here!

You have just 24 hours left (Madame Presidentá: Why Not U.S.? Vamos Meninas!)

Last week the U.S. celebrated the birth of our country. It took 144 years after that birth for women to gain the right to vote. And 237 years after that first July 4th, we have yet to have a woman president. Meanwhile, right now there are four women presidents in the rest of the Americas (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Costa Rica).

Pittsburgh's Women and Girls Foundation (WGF) and ELAS Women’s Social Investment Fund in Rio de Janeiro are currently in the production stage of creating a documentary about women presidents. WGF CEO Heather Arnet is the writer and producer. But, they need your help NOW to bring it to completion:

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

This is getting exciting - we are really close to meeting our Madame Presidenta Kickstarter goal. For three years, WGF has been working with partners across the globe to create a film about female presidents that will debut on Pittsburgh's own WQED this fall, tour college campuses, and inspire girls for generations to come! 

Now, we need your help to take this project over the finish line. If we can raise $25K by 5:00pm this Saturday, July 13th - we will receive all the funds and be able to complete the film! But, if we are short by even $1 - we won't recieve ANY of the money! Not even the funds pledged by the 90 people to date. Kickstarter is all or nothing. 

Click here to watch the trailer, be inspired, and MAKE YOUR PLEDGE TODAY. 

P.S. If you need an extra dose of inspiration, click here to watch what two ten year old girls are doing this week to help the campaign too!

If you'd rather make your pledge offline or via check, call (412) 320-6334 today.

Let's make this happen!

Young male punk who got his job straight out of college via nepotism tells first female Speaker to get out of the way for a younger model

(h/t to Wonkette)

Vote like your lady parts depend on it!

GOP Senate Candidate Tom Smith: Girls Love Shoes!

When we last left GOP Senate Candidate Tom Smith who's running against Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), he was opining that there is no real difference between a pregnancy that occurs outside of marriage and one that is a result of rape. Now this expert on women offers some further insight: Girls love shoes!

Via Think Progress:  

SMITH: What are we talking about here, two girls together talking?  

WOMAN: We’re talking about the power of petite women.  

SMITH: My guess would’ve been you were talking about shoes.

Additionally, he recently offered this nugget of wisdom:

"Perhaps where we're making our mistake is that we are asking President Obama and Senator Bob Casey to do something they have no knowledge of. They've never been in business, they've never ran [sic] businesses, they don't have that knowledge," Smith said. "It would be like, your wife wrecks your car. You're gonna take it to the beauty salon to get fixed? No."

I'm in favor of a Personhood Amendment!

Only I want one for women and girls.

Thank you.

Women's health issues are "shiny objects"

Women's reproductive health as seen by the Romney campaign

Not only are women's jobs a mere distration, but women's health issues are a distraction too as well as being "shiny objects."

Jobs are important (unless they're held by women)

Women doing whatever it is they do that we need not concern ourselves with

The Associated Press (And Republicans): Jobs and the economy are the number one most important issue in this country, unless those jobs are held by women and then they are a mere distraction.

Pennsylvania Unite Against the War on Women

From the website:

Help defend women's rights and pursuit of equality. Join Americans all across the United States on April 28th, 2012, as we come together as one to tell members of Congress in Washington DC and legislators in all 50 states, "Enough is enough!"

Pennsylvania Unite Against the War on Women Rally
When: April 28, 2012, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
Where: Pennsylvania State Capitol Steps, Harrisburg, PA

Facebook page here.

Mad Men Mitt

The women of Mad Men in Mitt Romney terms:

Betty, Trudy, Francine = Good Moms

Joan = Former Good Mom, now Bad Mom

Megan = Bad Step Mom with hint of Good Mom to come

Helen = Bad Mom

Peggy = Either off-the-scale Bad Mom for giving up her baby and continuing in her career or Good Mom for not having an abortion and giving up her kid to some undoubtedly good Christian family instead of keeping it and being a single Mom on welfare.

Mad Men: Set Me Free from Pop Culture Pirate on Vimeo.

(h/t to Pandagon for video)

Gender Gap

"Democrats Winning Women Across The Board, Polls Show"

I can't imagine why on earth there's a gender gap...

Syndicator for Rush Limbaugh Suspends All National Ads For Two Weeks

After reporting that the total number of companies to drop their advertising from the Rush Limbaugh Show was up to 140 earlier yesterday, Think Progress announced that Rush's syndicator was suspending all national advertising for two weeks:

Radio-Info.com reports that Premiere Networks, which syndicates the Rush Limbaugh show, told its affiliate radio stations that they are suspending national advertising for two weeks. Rush Limbaugh is normally provided to affiliates in exchange for running several minutes of national advertisements provided by Premiere each hour. These ads are called “barter spots.” These spots are how Premiere makes its money off of Rush Limbaugh and other shows it syndicates.

Looks like when Rushbo slandered Sandra Fluke -- and by extension, the vast majority of women in this country -- he bit off a little more than he could chew.
Not Safe for Work:

Hillary Clinton on Extremists: "They all want to control women"

(Longer remarks here)

Transcript: "Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me. But they all seem to. It doesn't matter what country they're in or what religion they claim -- they all want to control women. They want to control how we dress, they want to control how we act, they even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and our own bodies. Yes, it is hard to believe, but even here at home, we have to stand up for women's rights and reject efforts to marginalize any one of us because America needs to set an example for the entire world."

Via USA Today:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton waded into the debate over women's rights, warning a global audience that "extremists" are out to control women.

Clinton's remarks to the Women in the World Summit come as Democrats and Republicans fight over issues such as access to birth control.

Thank you, Hillary!