NOT SO FAR BABY

1942 was the first time I started to think something was wrong. That year, my godmother lived next door to a single mother who served as a WAVE during the war years. (That was WWII, not any of the endless wars since the munitions industry captured our government). My godmother told me that every day her neighbor had to be away from home, she chained her child to the bed during the entire time of her absence, leaving the door to her apartment slightly ajar. My godmother was not one to intervene in any way that would cause family separation, but she sang so that the child would at least know there was anther human being within calling distance. The child never called.

It is now going on 2022, 80 years later. Americans still don’t have universal childcare for working mothers. If a single mother is caught leaving a child alone in a car while she hunts for work, she is certain to be charged with a criminal offence. But who is the criminal here?

During the Middle Ages, numerous hapless souls were burned at the stake, among them, a great number of women. Although most were accused of witchcraft, many were women of means who lived economically self-sufficient lives. Therefore, they lived beyond the reach of male control, whether of husbands, or civic authorities.

In the present day, the pattern seems to replicate itself. By the time I established my own experimental theater company in 1969, I already knew of at least two women in the San Francisco Bay Area who had started non-profit businesses in very modest circumstances only to be replaced by male dominated board trustees when their budgets reached a figure of one million or more. For that same reason, when it became clear, if my company were to qualify for the 501c3 non profit status that would allow us to raise funds with a tax write-off for the donor, I made sure that mine would always remain a rubber stamp board.

White, male supremacy has its roots way back in 3000 BC when the Yamnaya herders (sometimes called Kurgans) from the Russian steppe (the area between the Caspian and Black Seas) invaded Europe, massacring what had been a peaceful, egalitarian civilization, bringing with them weapons, warfare, hierarchy, misogyny, sky gods, a notion of the life cycle ending in death, and worst of all (because language is the generation-to-generation vessel of culture) the proto-Indo-European which is the root of all but 4 of Europe’s languages. Sweeping across the face of Europe in less than 1000 years, the Kurgans either killed or castrated men, and enslaved women, forcing them to bear their children, corroborated today by the science of genetics. To this day, the chromosomes of all white, European males carry the Y chromosome of the Kurgans. Navigational technology would allow white Europeans to extend their genocide to the New World only much later, in 1492.

In the present political era, women’s bodies are still under male control. In Texas, with the recent 6-week abortion cut-off law, the state sees to it that women’s bodies are still up for grabs. Although the Supreme Court left the law in place, it allowed a legal challenge to proceed. Notwithstanding, already a likely 26 states are planning on copy-cat laws. One member of Congress even referred, handmaiden style, to women as “vessels.”

In Manhattan, the Ghislaine Maxwell trial has made public the achievements of a 21st Century bawd: young girls procured and deflowered as young as 13 for the delectation of middle aged men of power, one of them a British crown prince, two of them U.S. presidents eager to parade their genitalia before admiring voters. “Vessels” indeed.

To say that women have come a long way, baby, is at best a way to dull our perceptions that matters have not advanced very much since the Kurgan invasion of 3000 B.C. or that a thing called “progress” is at best a self-congratulatory bromide dangled before our still enslaved eyes by the chieftainship of the powerful, and greedy. And it sells cancer-causing cigarettes.

PROTECT our right to reproductive liberty.

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URGE Manchin to rethink Build Back Better before tanking the economy.

Belgium to close all existing nuclear power plants.

European supermarkets pull beef products linked to Brazil deforestation.

Europe finally recognizes platform workers are not self employed.

Peru ratifies UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Lawsuit filed in Peru with indigenous ownership of millions of acres on the line.

Canada’s Wet’suwet’en retake checkpoint a month after police crackdown.

Stoney Nakoda language resources launched to preserve language.

Despite refusal by China, Russia and India, 100 nations ledge to cut 30% of methane emissions by 2030.

Egypt to build $20K electric vehicles with Chinese firms.

China to help build 1,000 schools in US war-torn Iraq

China and Nicaragua to collaborate in New multipolar world.

South Korea declares multilateral agreement to end Korean war.

In UK Assange appeals his extradition to US.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says Assange should not be extradited to the US.

Change is coming to UK schools taking up the racist schools system and adding Black history to the curriculum.

UK’s Boorish Johnson suffers massive Shropshire by-election upset.

300 doctors implore Australia to bring Assange home.

In Glasgow Extinction Rebellion blocks Home Office to protest nationality and borders bill.

Anti-Nazi, Israel critic Gabriel Boric vows to be president of all Chileans as Nazi Kast concedes defeat by wide margin.

Latin America hails Boric’s victory in Chilean elections

Honduras defeats US-backed narco-dictatorship of Juan Orlando Fernandez at the ballot box, electing Xiomara Castro, its first female president.

At its meeting in Cuba, Bolivarian Alliance — People’s Trade Treaty renews its commitment to strengthen political coordination based on solidarity, social justice, cooperation and economic complementarity.

Corbyn receives award for supporting Palestinians amid UK Labor debate on BDS.

Prior to Brazil elections Lula returns in broad alliance.

More than 120 nations with 90% of world’s forests agreed to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030; 450 financial institutions overseeing $130 trillion in assets align portfolios seeking net zero emissions by 2050.

Ethiopian TPLF announces retreat to “give peace a chance.”

Ethiopians, Eritreans hold #NoMore march outside U.S. State Department.

Palestine hails UN resolutions against illegal Israeli settlements.

Venezuelan envoy, Alex Saab’s diplomatic immunity freezes his court case.

Three UK activists defacing Israeli drones engines factory acquitted.

U.S. fully prepared to lift Iran sanctions, allowing Iran to receive economic benefits of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran threatens sanctions against US over treatment of Black Americans.

Biden commits federal government to 100% zero emission vehicle purchases by 2035.

Biden demures sending US troops to the Ukraine.

CIA chief says intelligence (?) agencies haven’t concluded Russia will invade Ukraine.

Biden blasts Kellogg’s plan to replace striking workers.

Biden endorses filibuster carve-out for voting rights and election reform.

Biden extends pause on student loan payments through May 1.

After blocking idea, Biden administration to distribute 500 million free COVID tests.

Giving finger to anti-choicers, Biden administration FDA allows abortion pills by mail.

Senate told to act on voting rights bills after Biden backs filibuster exception.

House passes Protecting Our Democracy Act to prevent presidential abuse of power.

Progressive Caucus urges Biden to wield executive action as agenda stalls

AOC leads demand for Biden to work on ending Saudi blockade of Yemen airport

Warren endorses Judiciary Act.

114 Reps sign letter urging Biden to engage with Cuba.

US issues ‘broad authorization’ to enable aid to Afghanistan.

Garland sues Texas Republicans for redistricting maps discriminating against Black and Latino voters.

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Federal class-action suit filed over Haitian migrants’ abused and dehumanized at US border.

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Erie PA cement workers strike for better raises, and a dental plan.

Kellogg workers reject temporary agreement.

Amazon warehouse workers in Chicago walk off job.

Amazon workers organize for cellphone access.

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Oregon plans to build natural gas export facility have been cancelled.

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Apple workers organize Christmas Eve walkout, demanding respectful workplace, frontline protection, and mental health care.

New York City’s Home care workers protest 24-hour work day.

Oregon decriminalizes personal use of all illicit drugs with impressive results.

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Kentucky candle factory workers sue company, alleging ‘flagrant indifference’ to their safety.

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Penn East cancels New Jersey pipeline.

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Innocence Project petitions Court allowing Rodney Reed to file new petition based on evidence disproving states theory and demonstrating prosecutorial misconduct that sent innocent man to death row.

U. C. recognizes student researchers united union of 17,000 workers.

Columbia University student workers defy university’s strikebreaking threats.

Indiana University graduate workers submit cards, seek union election.

Smith College students rally to support prison moratorium.

California’s Gov. Newsom won’t order Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to stay open.

Washington State’s governor pushes big state EV credit.

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