Informed – Page 37 – Confluence Daily

Reading Time: 3 minutes Trump doesn’t want a free press. He wants free praise. After Democrats failed to clap for him at his State of the Union address in January, he accused them of treason. He admitted he hired Omarosa Manigault Newman because she “said GREAT things about me.” He clearly revoked former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance because he said mean things about him — mean but true. On Twitter, Trump quotes Fox News hosts who flatter him the way I quote my old flames who told me — and I quote — “you’re sooooo sexy.”

Informed

August 28, 2018 Confluence

We hereby reclaim our Mollie

Reading Time: 5 minutes “It is not your right to exacerbate this grievous act by hijacking Mollie and all she believed with your racist fear-mongering,” Tibbetts Murphy wrote. “You do not get to use her murder to inaccurately promote your ‘permanently separated’ hyperbole. You do not have permission to callously use this tragedy to demonize an entire population for the acts of one man.”

Engage Informed

August 27, 2018 Confluence

Please Share: Emergency Preparedness for Voting

Reading Time: 3 minutes Check Your Status, Make Your Plan, Help Your Neighbors
It’s not that far away. The 2018 midterms are rapidly approaching. I’m not going to spend too much time pontificating about the urgency and importance of these mid-term elections other than to say the fate of our democracy undoubtedly depends on it. We can’t sit this one out because it’s inconvenient – and depending on who you are or where you live it might be very inconvenient.

Informed

August 17, 2018 Confluence

A White Person’s Guide to the 5 Fables that Hold White Fragility Together At the Seams

Reading Time: 7 minutes I’ve been called a racist flat out and I didn’t like it at all. The problem with that word is racism is murky. If someone called me a serial killer, that would be pretty cut and dry. Nope. There are no bodies to be uncovered. I’m not a serial killer, plain and simple. However, if someone calls me a racist, I have to sit with that and sort through my shadow places to try make sure I’m not missing something someone else sees.

In order to work our way through this, as white people, we need to let go of the myths we cling to in an effort to distance ourselves from the discomfort of an uncomfortable conversation so that we can do that sorting – preferably before someone calls you a racist.

Informed

August 15, 2018 Confluence

Paul Manafort: The International Man of Mystery is Not Stressed and We All Know Why

Reading Time: 4 minutes If you’re wondering why Manafort’s defense team just sat there and took a proverbial knee when it was their turn you’ve got to ask yourself one central question.

Why are we even here?
Why did Paul Manafort decide to put his neck in the gallows when almost everyone around him cut deals with the special prosecutor?
Why would a man who’s so clearly fucking guilty sign up to go to jail when he didn’t have to?

Because even though Paul Manafort is so clearly guilty he will not do hard prison time and we all know it.

Trump will pardon him and by doing so he will set a precedent that if you’re willing to stand in the fire publicly at trial, Trump will put that fire out before you’re completely toasted.

Informed

August 14, 2018 Confluence

We Shouldn’t Have to Go to These Ridiculous Lengths to Avoid Medical Bills

Reading Time: < 1 minute Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know. The cost of healthcare is out of control,

Informed

August 13, 2018 Confluence

Understanding Antifa: The Unnerving, the Destructive, and the Admirable

Reading Time: 6 minutes Years before the alt-right even had a name, antifascists were spending thankless hours scouring seedy message boards and researching clandestine neo-Nazi gatherings. They were tracking those who planted the seeds of the death that we all witnessed in Charlottesville. Agree or disagree with their methods, the Antifa, who devote themselves to combating racism, are in no way equivalent to alt-right trolls who joke about gas chambers. Behind the masks, Antifa are nurses, teachers, neighbors, and relatives of all races and genders who do not hesitate to put themselves on the line to shut down fascism by any means necessary.

It should not have taken the murder of Heather Heyer for so many of us, especially white people, to take seriously the threat of white power that has plagued communities of color for generations. The history of anti-fascist demands that we take seriously the violence of white supremacists. The days of “just ignoring them” are over.

Informed

August 7, 2018 Confluence

Melania Trump: Living in the People’s House with the Racist-in-Chief

Reading Time: 4 minutes Melania Trump defied her husband publicly by coming down on the right side of that issue then and she did again regarding Lebron. Out of all the paint-peeling bullshit Donald Trump routinely spews on Twitter Melania picked two issues to speak out on and they both had to do with race.

Everyone has biases. A lot of people are racist. However, there is a difference between being a garden variety racist and a white supremacist. Donald Trump is the latter. His Alt-right rhetoric leaves little to the imagination when it comes to the black, brown, and white of the President and our nation. We know where he stands.

What’s less clear is where she stands. When a First Lady’s job is to support her husband, Melania Trump is the most independent First Lady this nation has ever had. Especially when it comes to issues of race and racism, Melania Trump does not fall into lock-step with the Racist in Chief.

Informed

August 3, 2018 Confluence

How to Have a Healthier, Positive Relationship to Sex

Reading Time: < 1 minute From our fear of women’s bodies to our sheepishness around the word “nipple,” our ideas about sex need an upgrade, say sex educators (and hilarious women) Tiffany Kagure Mugo and Siphumeze Khundayi. For a radical new take on sex positivity, the duo take the TED stage to suggest we look to Africa for erotic wisdom both ancient and modern, showing us how we can shake off problematic ideas about sex we’ve internalized and re-define pleasure on our own terms. (This talk contains mature content.)

Informed

August 2, 2018 Confluence

You Decide: Understanding Obstruction of Justice

Reading Time: 4 minutes Our forefathers framed the Constitution around one simple belief. A President would not be allowed to abuse his power. These people were trying to build something that wouldn’t devolve into tyrannical abuses of kings and queens. They had some experience there. They knew what they wanted to avoid. The power handed to a president is a sacred trust, and if abused should be revoked. If you want to know what the founders had in mind, read the Declaration of Independence, which formed the essential backdrop for the constitutional debates.