Sunday Open Thread: August 26 is Womens's Equality Day in the US

and it is also Pungenday, Bureaucracy 19, 3184 YOLD

(for you Discordians out there)


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World History this day

1071 – The Seljuq Turks hammered the Byzantine army at Manzikert, and took the emperor captive.The emperor was ransomed for some gold and assorted chunks of Anatolia. The Byzantine army was shattered and scattered, as well as demonstrably no longer invincible. The emperor was humiliated, there were coups and rebellions, and the whole empire went downhill from there fairly rapidly.

1346 – Though greatly outnumbered, the English won a horribly lopsided victory over the French at Crecy. The English use of massed longbows proved vastly superior to the French combination of crossbows and armored knights and took an especially heavy toll upon the knights. Because of this stunning victory, the war only dragged on for 107 more years, and, in the end, the French won.

1789 - The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France, proving yet again that talk is cheap.

US History this day

1920 - The 19th amendment to US Constitution took effect, giving women the right to vote. Et Voila!, women's equality, non? Heh.

1970 - Leaders of the "second-wave feminist movement" led a nationwide Women's Strike for Equality. I surmise that a full on prolongued national strike by all women and all of their allies might accomplish something, probably martial law, unfortunately. Every woman in this country needs to go (re)read Lysistrata.

Science & Technology this day

1768 - Captain James Cook set sail from England aboard HMS Endeavour.

1791 - John Fitch got a US patent on the steamboat.

1883 - The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa began its final stage

The Arts this day

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Misc. this day

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Birthdays of Note this day

1676 - Robert Walpole, scholar and politician

1728 - Johann Heinrich Lambert, physicist, astronomer, mathematician, logician

1740 - Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, inventor, developed a man carryng hot air balloon.

1743 - Antoine Lavoisier, chemist

1873 - Lee de Forest, engineer, invented the triode

1874 - Zona Gale, novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Pulitzer winner.

1882 - James Franck, physicist

1901 - Jimmy Rushing, singer and bandleader

1906 - Albert Sabin, physician and virologist

1918 - Katherine Johnson, physicist and mathematician

1935 - Karen Sparck Jones, computer scientist

1937 - Don Bowman, country singer and songwriter who wrote wildwood weed

1940 - Vic Dana, dancer and singer

1940 - Nik Turner, musician and songwriter

1941 - Chris Curtis, drummer and singer

1943 - Dori Caymmi, singer, songwriter, arranger, and guitarist

1944 - Maureen Tucker, singer, songwriter. and drummer

1946 - Valerie Simpson, singer and songwriter, half of Ashford & Simpson

1949 - Leon Redbone, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Deaths of Note this day

1723 - Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, microscopist and biologist

1865 - Johann Franz Encke, astronomer, think Encke's gap

1910 - William James, psychologist and philosopher

1958 - Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer

1972 - Francis Chichester, pilot and sailor

1974 - Charles Lindbergh, pilot and explorer

1981 - Lee Hays, singer, songwriter and weaver

1989 - Irving Stone, author

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It is pretty clear that we are not yet remotely close to achieving women's equality, and, if I may, I have a suggested solution to propose, yet another march:

womanwarriors.jpg

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So now some music


Womens Equality Day

Jimmy Rushing

Don Bowman

Vic Dana

Chris Curtis

Dori Caymm

Maureen Tucker

Valerie Simpson

Leon Redbone

Ralph Vaughn Williams

Lee Hays

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Photo:

It's an open thread, so do your thing

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Lookout's picture

Another Krakatoa might help cool the planet...they say sunsets were red planet wide for a year or two due to all the dust in the atmosphere...

The island exploded with the force of 100 megatons (the Hiroshima bomb was about 20 kilotons). The explosion was heard as far away as Madagascar (2,200 miles). Ash from the explosion rose 50 miles in altitude, into the stratosphere, where it affected weather patterns for the next year. Large amounts of ash which reach the stratosphere can have a cooling effect on weather because the ash remains in the sky and reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the surface. Tsunamis from the explosion were raised to 131 ft, destroying 163 villages along the coast of Java and Sumatra, and drowning 36,000 people.

https://www.windows2universe.org/earth/interior/Krakatoa.html&edu=high

for more than you want to know about the eruption visit...
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255700466_Climate_effects_of_th...

I think it will take more than a march to create gender equity, el. I had a mathematician once tell me biologists are entirely wrong to place men and women in the same species. I explained reproduction is the way the taxonomy is defined. They still didn't see it that way. It will be a long march alright.

Thanks for the OT and music love Ain't misbehavin' and Brother can you spare a dime.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout
an ordinary march would be insufficient, hence the particular picture below that comment and the earlier reference to Lysistrata. You did notice the pikes, halbreds and cannon in the pic, right?

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

...and it will take a fight to even get folks to consider real equality. So many cultural barriers to hurdle...but a march worth having I think. We are prisoners of our conditioning as well as our XX, XY genetics. Have a great day!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/nyregion/queens-candidates-nominated-...

Though there’s a lot of focus on the struggle of progressives at the higher levels of the Democratic Party, sounds like getting a foot in the door at the ground level is even harder. Good luck reforming a party who would rather run candidates without telling them and against their will (and who have no intention of serving) than risk filling a seat with a left leaning candidate who actually wants to be there.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Declaring what every woman in the US needs to read....? (Ruh roh.) Especially a comedy about women ending a war by withholding sex because they had no other power to impact such matters? Besides, it's not exactly women who have been the deciders about US wars so far. Even SOS Hillary was not the decider.

To your point, though, I once read that Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi proved that, unfortunately, women were not very different in that department than men. Maybe it's because women heads of state felt they had something to prove regarding "defense?" But,not many heads of state have the courage to buck their national security and military types. (That was a remarkable thing pulled off by WWII hero JFK and WWII Naval Reservist, RFK. "Coincidentally," both were assassinated by lone gunmen acting independently of everyone in the world. But, I digress.)

In a related vein, I've sometimes wondered if the "strong on (snort) defense" reputation the American Firsters--mostly Republicans--cultivated after WWII, once we began fighting Communism instead of Nazis, and the "tax and spend" label Republicans awarded Democrats is the reason Democratic Presidents tend to appoint Republicans for either Secretary of Defense or Secretary of the Treasury, or in Obama's case, both.

With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the 2008 economic crash being the two hugest issues once Obama became President Elect, he re-nominated Bush's Gates and Kissinger's Geithner, head of the NY Fed, who had overseen the lion's share of the activity that led to the crash. Oh, what a disappointment Obama was! (But, again, I digress. Apologies for the Sunday stream of consciousness.)

And, because this is an open thread, I will go entirely off topic and add how much I miss posters like the Shah and Shahrazade, Dammit Janet and duckpins. I enjoyed their posts greatly.

Enjoy the rest of the day

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enhydra lutris's picture

@HenryAWallace
Lysistrata would be interpreted in the context of war, and I was right. My point was other.

Lysistrata illustrates the use of a specific tactic to achieve a specific end, but that tactic is like a wrench, it can be used for many things in many situations. In this case, in the demand for full equality, mucho pronto, dudes, or go sleep in the garage, permanently.

Why are women waiting for men to grant them equality? It isn't really men's to give, it is their inherent right and entitlement and they need to use all weapons and tactics at their disposal to simply take it. If it seems strategically unsound to go for it all at once, seize chunks. "Pass a new, stronger, ERA within 6 months or go sleep alone until you do", etc.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris

Lysistrata would be interpreted in the context of war, and I was right."

It is about wives ending war by withholding sex from their decider and warrior husbands.

"Why are women waiting for men to grant them equality?" IMO, women never did that. Even when only men could vote or earn good money, women did everything to win the vote, including marching, raising money, getting beaten, getting force fed in prison, especially in England, but also in the US.

I'm not sure I would tell women, as a group, what to do about anything. As my prior post indicated, I would particularly not urge women to withhold sex to get what they want/need. Moreover, IMO, equality for women should be the fight of all people: Diminishing any group of that kind, women, minorities, seniors, the disabled, "furriners," etc. diminishes me and my society as a whole, whether or not I belong to any of those groups. And men do have moms, wives and daughters whom, presumably. decent men wish to have equality.

""Pass a new, stronger, ERA within 6 months or go sleep alone until you do", etc." I don't understand this wording. Nothing was wrong, on its face, with the IRA proposed back in the day except that it never got ratified.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@HenryAWallace
everybody should be supportive and working for full equality for all, the sad truth is that no such feeling seems to exist today on the part of the majority of the populace. Since this is the laughably named Womens' Equality Day, I focused on that piece of the struggle.

It seems, from the information available to me,that a reintroduction of the ERA is needed and that it would likely not be ratified unless women and their allies gain additional clout and numbers. Hell, nobody is even re-introducing it, let alone working to pass and ratify it. The reference to Lysistrata was a nod to a fictional ancient tactic for perhaps gaining some additional clout and supporters, I don't seriously expect all women to take up that crusade, though the threat might be useful on selective individual bases.

The text of the ERA, as I read it, only assures "equal rights" under the law. That leads to a situation where each and every challenge to discrimination not covered by the Bill of Rights and such winds up in court. Is there a right to equal pay for equal work? Seemingly not. Equal access to education and certain employment opportunities is another issue. Hence, I would like to see the next attempt include some non-discrimination provisions.

I would also like to see something addressing the right to contraception and abortion. Women's medical decisions and options should not be decided by the judicial system, but by women as individuals and their doctors. Similarly, there should be no room for states to impose special requirements for feminine medication and medical procedures like lectures, ultrasounds, videos and all that crap that is going on now.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris

well-defined by state and federal courts. That is why I think it sufficient. Equal employment comes under the equal rights act and the EEOC (and the lame Lilly Ledbetter, which Lilly herself pronounced inadequate).

I could be wrong on this, but I think the ERA was the first attempted Constitutional Amendment that Congress put to rest (though so doing is not provided for in the Constitution). Again, not sure, but I think that, until then, amendments that were not ratified (yet) stayed in Constitutional limbo, allowing states to ratify at any time.

What is worse than having no Constitutional amendment? Attempting to get one, and failing. That puts even a well-meaning SCOTUS in a bind. (Although there was no ERA and the SCOTUS said the extant Equal Rights Amendment did not protect women, it almost inexplicably invalidated a state law excluding women from serving as administrators of estates and later did the same as to serving as jurors. https://nwlc.org/blog/reed-v-reed-40-landmark-decision/

What is even worse than attempting to get a constitutional amendment and failing to get it ratified? Making a second attempt and failing at that, too. Unless and until it is certain that an ERA would be ratified, I think attempting one would hurt women.

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smiley7's picture

Gee, what a terrific party. Later on we'll get some fluid and embalm each other. ~ Neil Simon

I heard the news as i was about to post about Lysistrata, a few hours ago, and i'm a little floored right now trying to breathe in the scope of having grown with his works intimately, recalling the wonderful characters he set for us mixed with memories of them.

Walk on in love, piece and gratitude.

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