DEAR SISTERS!

My Dear Sisters:

Here is what we have.

We have predominantly white men in charge of our country at the local, state, and national level and in every branch of government.

These men are controlling our lives through legislation and policy as well as through academia and their professional lives and works. And, they are shockingly ignorant and hateful toward women.

They reveal continuously, in public, that they lack even the most basic knowledge of women, anatomy and physiology, basic reproduction, birth control, abortion, psychology, etc.

And, they reveal their complete lack of empathy and their utter disregard for the welfare of their wives, mothers, sisters, daughters.

This level of disregard amounts to hatred.

Are we so accustomed to this that it has become invisible to us? Don't let that happen.

Let’s correct the record.

No, birth control is not abortion. Perhaps this has been a talking point within the Catholic Church to discourage birth control. But, millions of women are not Catholic, don’t want to follow the religion of our lawmakers, and don’t want a Supreme Court Justice this ignorant and biased.

Brett Kavanaugh Refers To Birth Control As 'Abortion-Inducing Drugs' At Confirmation Hearing – this week. NYT

And, no, the female body does not have a way of “shutting that whole thing down” in the case of rape as Todd Akin professed. Women – and girls – get pregnant from rape. Republican men and women elected a man this ignorant and vile to a position of power over women. 

19 August 2012, U.S. Representative Todd Akin (R) of Missouri

Nope. There is no such thing as "legitimate" and "illegitimate" rape.

Republican Akin didn’t give up! “Two years later, while appearing in another television interview with MSNBC to promote his new book Firing Back, Akin asserted that “legitimate rape” was a law enforcement term and that his original remark had been “intentionally misunderstood.” No, it isn’t a law enforcement term.

No, women cannot relax and enjoy rape. Rape is brutal. Internal and external organs are ripped and damaged, their hair is pulled out, they are beaten and bruised, and they are sometimes raped by pipes, brooms, etc. Imagine a man having a broomstick forced up his anus or down his throat while being beaten. Can you hear us now?
“Rape is kinda like the weather. If it’s inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” (Clayton Williams, GOP nominee, TX, 1991)

No, women don't usually feel this way, Mr. Santorum. 

“Santorum responded by saying that although a pregnancy resulting from a rape might be “horrible,” it was nonetheless a “gift of human life” and that “we have to make the best out of a bad situation.” 

Does any woman alive believe that “God intended” for her to get pregnant from rape? No.

“Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

23 October 2012, Richard Mourdock (R)  

No, women do not “get cleaned out” by rape kits. Even women can be shockingly ignorant or willing to go to disgusting lengths to promote her view:
“In the emergency room they have what’s called rape kits, where a woman can get cleaned out.”

23 June 2013, Jodie Laubenberg, Republican of TX

No. No one ever has a right to use his -- or her -- superior strength to harm another human being. This makes me think someone should have done a background check of Rep Lockman.

“If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.”

February 2014, Lawrence Lockman, Maine

I think women might be forgiven for engaging in "identity politics," or a little misandry. 

Not feeling the love today, 

VLL

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/personal-foul/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/health/kavanaugh-abortion-inducing-contraceptives.html

DEAR VIPP'S AND VRD'S

Dear Political Parties and...

VIPP's (Very Important Political People) & VRD's (Very Rich Donor's):

I love you to pieces! I don't know you, but I sure know who you are. What's not to love!?! 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for thinking for me! For choosing my candidates and making all political decisions for us women! I appreciate that you let me know who you are choosing for me! Thank you so very much for suppressing the candidates that women want to run! What would happen to the world order if our choices were taken into account?!? You are really looking our for us, in spite of what people say. 

Hmmmm... I know that you know that women have uhhhh ... uteri. Oh, wait, I am not sure that you realize that we have uteri -- based on comments by politicians. We do have uteri.

[Thank you for looking out for our reproductive care! You are looking out for us, aren't you? Do you know what reproductive care is? Did you know that we have uteri? Can you define Fallopian tube?]

And, yes, we are awash in female hormones. We are prone to hysteria and tend to vote only for attractive men -- so you better watch out. JK. We are unable to think straight because of throbbing ... hormones. 

We would be lost without you and your firm guidance and sage-like wisdom!

Thank you so much for allowing me to get an education - in spite of being female! To become a professional - in spite of my hormones! To earn a living - in spite of fits of hysteria! To travel the world - in spite of my fragility! To pay taxes. To have a retirement plan! And, to get rich off Social Security - in spite of just being the little lady! I love cat food, BTW.

I am buying stock in Purina, BTW!

Oh, wait. I am female. A woman. A girl. A daughter, sister, mother, aunt.

And, who do you choose for me to vote for? Men! Men who do not have a history of treating women well.

But, I've got big news:  Women have the right to vote in the USA! Wow. You didn't know, did you?

Yes: The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right known as women's suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest.

In two years, we will be celebrating 400 years of suffrage! No... 200? No, we have only had the right to vote for 98 years this August 18. 

And, that makes me furious. So, did you know that some of us "spite vote?" Yes, we vote just to prove that we can! 

My grandmothers and all of my great aunts and all of my matriarchs were born without the right to vote. But, they still ran farms and businesses or went out and got jobs when widowed - or, God forbid, when divorced. Or... they took jobs as poor women have always done. 

They followed the laws of the land.

They still paid taxes. 

They still paid taxes! Taxation without representation. They couldn't vote but they weren't exempt from paying taxes! Whaaaaa????

I bet that, in spite of what the polls say, there are lots of Republican women who are disgusted with the candidate that VIPP's and VRD's graciously chose for them.

I am disgusted with elected Democrats, VIPP's and VRD's choosing candidates for voters at all. By the time they add their money, their power, their influence... Did I mention money & power & influence? 

Your system has motivated many hysterical, misguided, ill-informed women who are drunk on estrogen to run for office.

Well, women, we better get to the polls and vote for these #WonderWomen who are #RunningAndWinning

A record number of women are running for office this year - and, winning! Running and winning. I like the sound of that.

Have our illustrious overwhelmingly male political leaders failed to notice that over half the population is women? 

We vote. We donate money. We volunteer in droves.

The majority of volunteers on every campaign is women.

So, watch out. We are #RunningandWinning. 

Voting in Spite Forever Yours,

Viviain LL

DEMS WHO ACT JUST LIKE TRUMP

Dear Trolls,

 Anonymous trolls. Bots. Fake accounts. And, real people who troll in their own names! People with jobs. Families. Friends.

How do they ever make and keep friends? How did they ever find a partner? Maybe they make a pact to hate the same people? What if one troll hates someone and the other troll friend loves that person? Do they get a troll divorce. Ah, who cares...

So, the Silly Season is here and has been for a year. That is Election Season. When best friends stop speaking to you because they don't like who you supported in a Primary Election. When you finally realized that most of those folks that you thought were friends were merely "connections." And, you appreciate your true friends even more.

But, it is also Troll Season. Icky.

Last week, it occurred to me that trolls remind me of Donald Trump. They lie. They twist & degrade every single thing that their target says. And, they lie. And, they lie. And, then lie some more. With no shame whatsoever. If you have a different opinion, they call you a liar. They call misunderstandings lies. They call demonstrable facts lies. Just like #45!

And, I suspect that they believe their own lies. Just as #45 does. They don't know that they are lying. They really really don't. 

They have no shame! They are never embarrassed. This is the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed. They have no self-awareness and hence no pride and hence no shame. Just like #45. None. This is astounding to me.

How could you not know that no one thinks you're cool? No one believes a word that you say? That you are making a complete ass of yourself every day! Just like #45.

Were trolls the playground bullies or were they the shy kids who got bullied and now have "keyboard courage?"  I suspect that they are scared little rabbits IRL.

I have met 2 trolls. One of them trolled under his real name and under some fake accounts. He made a technological mistake that enable me to see/prove that he was the troll. He glowed when accused of trolling. He appeared delighted while also denying it -- even though it was provable. 

The other appeared terrified when I walked up and introduced myself. He sat quietly and shyly at a table all night. No mixing and mingling. But, on-line? He is a rattlesnake. Not a very good writer. Not very witty. Not very literate. But nasty in the "na na nuh boo boo" way from grade school. A lot like #45! He also writes, "OMG!" a lot!

They are relentless. They win every argument because they count on being the meanest SOB at the keyboard. And, they lie. Just like #45. Do they ever clean the house or go fishing or have dinner with a friend?

They love drama! Love it! Just like #45! 

And, they must be filled with hate. They must be really icky inside. Just like #45.

What is the purpose of all of this? 

Bullies feel good about themselves. They like bullying. They enjoy it. They were often the victim of a "bully" parent and now they believe that they have power. POWER! They may have the strategic goal of stopping/limiting participation in some group or forum -- Most people won't speak up if 5 trolls are going to jump in and make fun of them then call them liars.

So, do not be deterred and do not feed the trolls.

I tried to say, "Dear Trolls, I love you! I really really do!" But, I spit up a little in my mouth and couldn't get the words out.

I love every one else in the world except narcissists/trolls. Because I suspect those are synonyms.

VLL

Dear Women-Hating Men

Yes, we sure do have some women haters out there! Why isn't that as horrible an insult as calling women, "man haters?" Ever notice that?

The purpose of "mild" sexually inappropriate behavior  is to humiliate women and to show us that we are powerless. Surely that is not a secret?

I am not talking about someone who misreads the cues and leans in for a kiss... Although saying "I feel like kissing you," would give men the answer.

Common acts of abuse of power as sexual misconduct:

+ Boys used to snap girls' bra straps when I was in HS. Back in the dark ages.

+ Boys used to "dunk" girls at the pool until I really thought that they were going to miscalculate and drown us. No they did not respond to fighting back nor to reason and logic. 

+ Boys in science classes at Janesville Craig High School made very inappropriate comments in science classes during group projects such as dissections.

The teacher told us that since he didn't hear it, he couldn't do anything about it. 

Why didn't I also call their parents? Why didn't he just make a blanket announcement: 

"Hey. Stop making sexually inappropriate comments in class. All sexual comments are inappropriate in class."

+ A boy at Craig was making a disgusting sexual play on words using a certain girl's name. She insisted that I not contact him, his parents, or the school. I told her she that had one day to stop it or I would stop it. She found an acceptable way to address it - through a friend.

Compared to gang rapes during war - and other extreme violence - this is very mild.

Yet, each of these event enraged me. They made me very aware of how small I was - and, I was. 

That I was fundamentally helpless. 

And, that was the goal: To show girls that boys are big and strong and we are helpless against them.

What if women went around grabbing me by the crotch? Do not tell me that any man would like being randomly grabbed.

What if we stuck our hands down men's pants or grabbed them by the balls, or rammed our tongues down their throats, or rammed broom sticks up their a$$es. If you find that inappropriate conversation...?

No! Adults & other teens do not help. Teachers did not help.

#TestosteronePoisoning

#TheFutureIsFemale

I love y'all!

V

Dear Immigrants: Ryan and Company

Dear Republican Immigrants:

No, not the newly despised, the formerly despised. YOU. All of you recovered immigrants.

Paul Ryan, remember when your Irish family came to these shores? Remember when they were starving in Ireland? Literally. Dying of malnutrition. Watching their children die. Of starvation.

Paul, I don't know your ancestry, of course, but if you have anything in common with other Irish immigrants... Did you just spring up in Janesville with a beautiful home in the Courthouse District. I doubt it. Even if you did, most of your fellow Irish did not.

Did you know that your kith and kin from Ireland came here in something very similar to slave ships? Called coffin ships. They were packed together in their own excrement with barely enough food to make it. Well, really, they often didn't. Just like slave ships.

Did you know that your ancestors were not considered "White?" The Irish were considered a minority race.

They were unwelcome and they faced a solid wall of discrimination. Businesses boldly put up signs: "No Irish Need Apply."

Your Irish family was dirt poor. They had to work at any form of job or hustle that they could get. 

Did your family come straight to the Midwest? Did they live in a single room (maybe even 10 ft. x 10 ft.) in a tenement in Chicago or Milwaukee first? All of them. Parents and children. Procreating, giving birth, wasting away, and dying all together in one room.

Without running water, ventilation, windows, electricity, or toilets perhaps? 

Remember when WASP's just despised the Irish? Wasn't one of those horrid diseases called "Irish Fever?" Oh, yes. Typhus. 

Notice how we associate contagious illness with the people who suffer the most from it? HIV in recent years. Typhus? Smallpox? Spreading wildly in tenements by.. What?  British Isles and European immigrants? 


They were dying of malnutrition or the contagious diseases of cramped squalid conditions: Poverty -> squalid conditions -> malnutrition -> poor health -> agonizing lives and deaths. And, oh, yeah,  being despised as lazy drunken people with too many children.

Oh, yeah! Almost forgot. The WASPS who got here first just hated you Catholic Irish. Hated drinking. Hated your large families. Hated your poverty and illness and squalor. Hated your religion. Hmmm... something like hating Islam?

Now, we would be shocked by those cruel attitudes  toward the Irish or the German or the ... well any of those former "good" immigrants.

And, I am shocked and enraged when people who belong to formerly despised immigrant groups blame people for their own lot in life.

Haven't you learned anything from being here?

You did clearly not get enough love when you were growing up. I am so so so sorry. Because people who did not get enough love grow up empty and lacking in compassion.

There is love enough. You can spare some for the current crop of despised newcomers.

Love, VLL


"From 1820 to 1860, 1,956,557 Irish arrived, 75% of these after the Great Irish Famine (or The Great Hunger, Irish: An Gorta Mór) of 1845–1852, struck. Of the total Irish immigrants to the U.S. from 1820 to 1860, many died crossing the ocean due to disease and dismal conditions of what became known as coffin ships." Wikipedia

http://www.history.com/news/when-america-despised-the-irish-the-19th-centurys-refugee-crisis

I highly recommend this book:
https://bookspics.com/ebooks/flesh-and-blood-a-history-of-my-family-in-seven-maladies/

Dear Fascists... errr Republicans

THE REPUBLICAN AGENDA

For decades now, the Republican Party, Republican leaders and officials, Republican talk radio, and Fox news have been aggressively pursuing an agenda that sometimes doesn’t seem to make any sense or have any cohesive message.

But, there is an agenda and the message makes perfect sense if the goal is to create an unquestioning citizenry willing to turn over US assets and commons to private corporations for the benefit of the 1%.

Long ago, we saw a marriage of convenience between Evangelical Christianity and the Republican Party. There is nothing quite like having God and the only true religion on your side! Evangelicals vote in droves for Republicans. And, single issue voters create a win for Republicans: Opposition to abortion sealed the deal.

A bonus is that creating a marriage made in heaven between the Republican Party and the religious right gives Republicans a large following of people predisposed to be authoritarian followers. See what I did there!

It is easy to fuel the fires of envy and jealousy and nothing does it better than propaganda against non-white non-Chrisitan groups. And, add a heavy dose of  “Us vs. Them” and you have a winning political strategy. We seem to have large numbers of citizens who

·        hate Muslims and African Americans, and immigrants, and…

·        approve a ban on Muslim immigration,

·        are happy to break up families to deport people who have been law-abiding hard working members of our communities for years,

·        believe that Black Lives Matter is a violent anti-white group and that white men are the most persecuted group in the USA.

There have been decades of Republican attacks on education – which makes a smooth transition to for-profit charter schools and religious schools which are able to further the Republican agenda. This paves the way for big tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations.

Add to that, decades of slander against higher education, tenure, liberal professors, etc.and we are contributing to an uneducated unquestioning populace of followers. And, that is terrifying.

Countless attacks on experts and expertise, science and scientists have produced a devout citizenry who put their trust in … a political party!?!

And, that makes deregulation – of wall street, banking, environmental protection, media, etc. very very easy and very very profitable.

Yes, if scientists are liars and scientific processes cannot be trusted, but the GOP can… Well, cut more funding to universities, research programs, the EPA and give more tax breaks to the 1%.

All this leads us to the present where a large segment of the population believes politicians and no longer see science as a means of progress.

Then, falsely present pseudo-science as science and we produce

a voting public who are so ignorant of basic science that the non-expert doesn’t know what legitimate science is and what it isn’t. Global climate change? Accepting the science on climate change might put a damper on business, so that is unacceptable.

Now, we have a large minority of the population who do not believe that experience, knowledge, or expertise is needed to run the government! And, we get 45. His supporters are still happy with him.

Constant attacks on the free press have created a citizenry who seem to feel it is their duty not to listen to or read anything that isn’t specifically Republican. 

95% of talk radio is right-wing. Every day, our 45^th president rails against “fake news.” And, every day, citizens flock to fake news sites and believe even the most demonstrably false information.

These attacks pave the way for total trust in propaganda and “fake news” while insisting that any divergence from the right wing message is “fake news” by definition.

After decades of hate talk about “libtard femi-nazi agnostic atheist humanists (!)” plus successful efforts to own the airwaves and end the fairness doctrine, we have a media dominated by the right wing.

But, large numbers of our citizens are unaware of this.

Listen to more Republican talk radio, watch more Fox News, read more “InfoWars.” We have an uneducated unquestioning populace that are willing to be followers of authoritarians – and, support Fascism.

Have mercy on us.

VLL

Dear Evangelicals: Just Breathe

My dear evangelical friends, please relax! Breathe! You are not under attack. Whatever made you think you were? Oh, yeah. The Republican Party - who are manipulating and using you. And, Fox. You know that there never was a "war on Christmas," right? 

Do facts count? I do hope so.

More than 90% of our House and Senate are Christian! If you count Catholics. You do count Catholics as Christian, don't you? 

Those who are unaffiliated with any religion (terrifying, I know) make up about 20% of the general public but only 0.2% of Congress. That's because voters would rather elect thieves, liars, cheaters, divorcees, drunks, and ... well anyone as long as they are a proclaimed Christian!

There is generally 0-1 person in Congress who is not Christian. Is that one too many for you?

Jews - who are rumored to be taking over the world in spite of being only .02% of the world's population - make up ... oh... about 1 person in the the Congress at any given time.

Over 90% of Republicans in the House are... Christian!

Around 80% of Democrats in the House are... you guessed it! Christian! We do have some diversity - a few Jews, Mormons, occasionally a Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist thrown in.

Does it really sound like Christianity is under attack? 

Our currency does not have "In Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Johovah & Yaweh We Trust" on it, now does it?

After asking for donations, our city council had to have a talk to decide if it was OK to add a dreidle to the holiday decorations. What about all that "Judeo-Christian" BS?

Are the 6 major beliefs and the 5 pillars of Islam up in the courthouse? 

Hey, I want the Jewish commandments on the wall of the courthouse! All 613 of them!

What if... we got a school holiday for every Jewish and Hindu and Buddhist and Muslim religious holiday?

So, cool your engines. The gestapo is not on its way to your door. You are the gestapo! No worries!

Love and Peace, 
VLL

Statistics from PEW