This past Sunday was Mother’s Day, and our very own Jamie Dobie and Mina’s List founder Tanya Henderson uncovered its hidden (feminist!) origins in the New York Times. We can’t help but see a connection between Julia Ward Howe’s vision for Mother’s Day and the movement of women currently leading the resistance against Trump. ?
Your weekly songspiration!
(by the same Julia Ward Howe!)
1. The Trump administration is in, as Republican Senator Bob Corker put it, “a downward spiral.”
Former FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel to investigate the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. To everyone who protested or called their member of Congress to demand an investigation: You helped make this happen. ?
The news is breaking faster than we can type—kudos to the journalists bringing this all to light:
? A 2016 tape revealed House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan laughing about the Russian hacks to the DNC—and McCarthy asserted that Putin pays Trump.
? It was reported that the Trump team knew Flynn was under investigation before they hired him as national security advisor.
? Even White House officials are voicing their concerns.
? A few Republicans have broken from the party line, including Justin Amash, who signed onto a bill calling for an independent investigation and raised the spectre of impeachment. (Words are fine, but we want action!)
? Democrats are beginning to talk impeachment, too. This marriage isn’t looking too good.
2. Chelsea Manning is free! #ChelseaIsFree
As Glenn Greenwald wrote:
“It is rare, especially lately, to find inspiration in any political stories. But the last decade of Chelsea Manning’s life, and the potential it now holds for the future, is one of those cases…and a valuable reminder of how human beings, through pure acts of conscience and determination, can single-handedly change the world for the better.”
3. Single-payer health care is closer to becoming law in New York and California than ever before. New Yorkers: You can take action and spread the word!
Meanwhile, Indivisible groups keep hosting die-ins to oppose Trumpcare.
4. A Wisconsin district court ruled that the “cocaine mom” law—which hurts pregnant women with a history of drug use—is unconstitutional.
5. Progressive civil-rights attorney Larry Krasner won the Democratic primary for District Attorney in Philadelphia and is expected to win November’s general election. His platform: Ending cash bail and stop-and-frisk, never seeking the death penalty, and demanding shorter prison sentences. (No wonder primary voter turnout rose nearly 50%!)
We’re still keeping our eyes on ? Montana, ? Georgia, and ? South Carolina. #FlipThe6th
6. In an important victory against voter suppression, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case defending voter ID laws. #victoriesforvoting
7. Artist Robin Bell projected pointed messages onto Trump’s DC hotel. Nice one ?
8. Public support for gay marriage reached a new high. #lovewins
9. New Orleans continues to dismantle racist Confederate monuments—thank you, #TakeEmDownNOLA! (We also love this brass band that played an impromptu show in celebration.)
“Abolition seemed a fantasy when Frederick Douglass called for all slaves to be released… But the role of the activist has never been to ask for what seems politically feasible, but that which is morally incumbent. It has been to make the sorts of demands that encourage us to consider what a different world might look like.”
Clint Smith
10. Small victories around the world:
? An Indian city’s train system will hire transgender workers for the first time—only a few months after a transgender activist opened a school for trans students.
? A Dutch foundation announced plans to clean up that unnervingly-huge garbage patch in the Pacific.
? Organizers in Beirut are hosting Lebanon’s first-ever gay pride event this week.
11. The first contestant to wear a hijab during the Miss Minnesota USA competition didn’t win the crown—but she did land a deal with a modeling agency and slayed in her first major campaign this week.
12. A New Hampshire state representative resigned after it was revealed that he created a misogynist online forum—and women dressed as Handmaid’s Tale characters protested at a committee meeting.
We’ve been inundated with breaking news alerts all week, so we’re taking a break from it this weekend with some of this and some of this.
And yes, we know this is far from reality, but we’d take these guys over the current administration any day of the week.
P.S. At least some good work is being done in DC.
P.P.S. Barbara is our new BFF.
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