Political Flavors


Feminist Coffee Hour Episode 65: Leading With Empathy

Posted in Book Reviews, Podcast Episodes on August 19th, 2021
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Elizabeth interviewed Supriya Vani author of “Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy” about her biography of the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

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Feminist Coffee Hour is now on Patreon.

This episode was edited by Brianna Ansaldo.

Our theme song is composed by Bridget Ellsworth, check out her sound cloud page!

We’ve joined the Apple affiliate program. If you’re going to sign up for Apple Music, please do so by using this link.

Feminist Coffee Hour Episode 64: NYC Politics Deep Dive

Posted in Podcast Episodes on July 15th, 2021
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Join Elizabeth for a conversation with Alexis about the results of the NYC primary elections and some speculation about what’s to come in the Big Apple and the feminist outer boroughs.

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Feminist Coffee Hour is now on Patreon.

This episode was edited by Brianna Ansaldo.

Our theme song is composed by Bridget Ellsworth, check out her sound cloud page!

We’ve joined the Apple affiliate program. If you’re going to sign up for Apple Music, please do so by using this link.

Photo Credit: “NYC Midtown East from Queens, Blue Hour” by John Cunniff is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Feminist Coffee Hour Episode 60: Apocalypse Parenting with Kelley Freeman

Posted in Podcast Episodes on January 29th, 2021
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Apocalypse Parenting with Kelley Freeman

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Feminist Coffee Hour on Stitcher

Listen to episode in browser/Right click to download file

Elizabeth talked to Kelley Freeman of NARAL Pro-choice Ohio and Ramen Needles Yarn and Fiber about parenting during a pandemic, an anti-racist uprising and a fascist coup attempt. (Recorded before the hedge funds were bankrupted by memes, a good thing.)

Discussed in this episode:

The Conscious Kid, books by black authors

14 Antiracist Books for Kids and Teens Recommended by BIPOC Teachers and Librarians

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Feminist Coffee Hour is now on Patreon.

This episode was edited by Brianna Ansaldo.

Our theme song is composed by Bridget Ellsworth, check out her sound cloud page!

We’ve joined the Apple affiliate program. If you’re going to sign up for Apple Music, please do so by using this link.

Feminist Coffee Hour Episode 58: Dianne Morales

Posted in Editorials, Podcast Episodes on November 16th, 2020
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Dianne Morales

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Listen to episode in browser/Right click to download file

We interviewed Dianne Morales, democratic candidate for NYC Mayor. It was a fascinating conversation!
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Feminist Coffee Hour is now on Patreon.

This episode was edited by Brianna Ansaldo.

Our theme song is composed by Bridget Ellsworth, check out her sound cloud page!

We’ve joined the Apple affiliate program. If you’re going to sign up for Apple Music, please do so by using this link.

Feminist Coffee Hour Episode 57: Lindsay Beyerstein and QAnon

Posted in Editorials, Podcast Episodes on October 15th, 2020
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Lindsay Beyerstein and QAnon

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Feminist Coffee Hour on Google Play

Listen to episode in browser/Right click to download file

Lindsay Beyerstein joined us to discuss her article in Rewire “How Dangerous Conspiracy Theories Like QAnon Find a Home in Anti-Choice Politics,” election predictions and more.
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Feminist Coffee Hour is now on Patreon.

This episode was edited by Brianna Ansaldo.

Our theme song is composed by Bridget Ellsworth, check out her sound cloud page!

We’ve joined the Apple affiliate program. If you’re going to sign up for Apple Music, please do so by using this link.

Feminist Coffee Hour Episode 51: Melanie D’Arrigo

Posted in Podcast Episodes on May 19th, 2020
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Melanie D’Arrigo

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We interviewed Melanie D’Arrigo who is running for Congress in NY’s 3rd District. She faces Tom Suozzi in the primary election on June 23.

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Feminist Coffee Hour is now on Patreon.

This episode was edited by Brianna Ansaldo.

Our theme song is composed by Bridget Ellsworth, check out her sound cloud page!

We’ve joined the Apple affiliate program. If you’re going to sign up for Apple Music, please do so by using this link.

Saturday Night Live is Entertainment. Do Not Take Tina Fey’s Cake Sketch Seriously.

Posted in Editorials, Videos on August 18th, 2017
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I’ve written before about how Saturday Night Live’s politics are maybe not as liberal as you think, in their choice to have Donald Trump host the show during the Republican primary and to blunt criticism of his racism.

I want to talk now about a sketch in which Tina Fey encourages people to eat cake instead of protesting Nazis.

Heather Heyer is dead but cake is delicious.

Saturday Night Live is what Jon Stewart insists he is: entertainment, not political commentary. However, many people, including people I respect and love look to it for analysis and catharsis. (My alternative suggestion – The Majority Report with Sam Seder. It’s funny but also provides in depth information.) If you like SNL because it’s funny, great! But if you watch it for political commentary, you need to know this: Lorne Michaels doesn’t want the show to be liberal (or conservative). He wants it to appeal to all Americans, and he’s aiming for the middle. He said so during an interview with Marc Maron in 2015.

So with that in mind, let’s think about how this cake sketch meets that standard. On one hand liberals can see themselves in Tina Fey, angry, righteous, feeling helpless. And conservatives can laugh at the paranoid liberal chick getting fat because she doesn’t like that someone challenged her PC notions. And the “middle” if there is one, can feel good about doing nothing. Because that’s what Tina Fey is saying here, she’s affirming complacency and inaction, as long as there’s some guilt mixed in, it’s ok. She’s telling people to channel their outrage into self indulgence. As entertainment, it’s funny. But as praxis, it’s terrible. Now, I’m all for self care. So here’s what I propose instead:

Feminist Coffee Hour 17: Lindsay Beyerstein’s Care in Chaos

Posted in Editorials, Podcast Episodes on May 25th, 2017
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Lindsay Beyerstein’s Care in Chaos

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We interviewed Lindsay Beyerstein about her upcoming documentary “Care in Chaos” which is the story of two abortion clinics in red states and how their relationships with police impact access to reproductive healthcare.

Discussed in this episode:

Rewire

Tape Reveals Nixon’s Views On Abortion

Lindsay’s new podcast, The Breach

Lindsay Beyerstein on Twitter

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Feminist Coffee Hour is now on Patreon.

This episode was edited by Brianna Carpenter.

Our theme song is composed by Bridget Ellsworth, check out her sound cloud page!

We’ve joined the Apple affiliate program. If you’re going to sign up for Apple Music, please do so by using this link.

Conservatives are the OLD Punk Rock

Posted in Editorials on February 27th, 2017
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I balk when I see tweets about conservatives being the new punk rock just because people vehemently hate Milo Yiannopoulos for being a *fashionable* blowhard. This is because I associate punk with my rebellion against fascistic tendencies and I associate the alt right with shitty old nazis who just so happen not to carry the SES association with rednecks. But today, my “shuffle all” played 7 Seconds and I realized how much I cling to the good and put aside the bad in my memories of the punk rock I loved in my youth. As a tween and teen, I clung to bands like 7 Seconds because they had the edge and the energy I loved about punk, but they also created space for me. With feminist 101 songs like “Not Just Boys Fun” and lines like “fuck big business, church and war/that’s not what we’re fighting for” in “Definite Choice,” I had music to get me fired up for the political work and to comfort me in times when I felt like maybe I was the crazy one and I should just conform. The flip side of that realization of how fucking great 7 Seconds was, is that there was SO MUCH that was garbage.

I remember the first time I listened to Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols and thought Bodies was an incomprehensible story of abortion stigma. Is the problem that she was poor? “A case of insanity”? That she was a “no-one who killed her baby”? Was the transgression supposed in the graphic gorey descriptions? If so, then the purity ring wearing indoctrinated tweens outside clinics who carry signs bearing gorey images of god knows what are as punk rock as the Pistols. I did not find it to be progressive or transgressive, and I didn’t have the language or discourse of the problematic fav so I just had to live with my cognitive dissonance and continue to call punk progressive while knowing it could be weirdly conservative. Bodies is downright milquetoast compared to what I heard as I got into hardcore and oi!

I remember smiling while my at-the-time boyfriend and his bestie listened to “Politically Incorrect” by Combat 84 not quite ironically enough to justify their smirks at “Equal opportunity?! What about my fucking opportunities?!” (also lol, this line basically sums up the entire argument of conservative transgression). Yes, for every kid with a SHARP patch, there was a kid with an 88 patch (or the little patch with a no symbol over the SHARP logo because I guess graphic design for nazis died in the 40s); for every Kathleen Hanna there was a Fat Mike; for every “Jesus was a Communist,” there’s a really bizarrely high number of white dudes trying to convince you that Screwdriver is just really great punk music if you can put aside the white power shit. As a kid I had a lot of trouble navigating whether or not some kid I was meeting was gonna say some outrageously dehumanizing shit about Jews without noticing (or maybe intentionally because they did notice) that I’m Jewish.

At that time, I had to dig to find Team Dresch or Bitch and Animal (ok, does anti-folk count as punk? I don’t know, don’t @ me) to express that queer anger I had inside me, an anger that was definitely not acceptable to a lot of the traditional-gender-role-loving hardcore scene. Punk rock and queercore is now a huge part, if not the dominating genre, of punk. Thanks in part to band like MEN and Gravy Train!!!, we have bands like PWR BTTM being featured in the New York Times. The new punk rock is a glittering queermo paradise, not some fucking punch bait dude with a frog pin talking about how he’s *technically* not a member of the KKK.

What Do I Say When I Call My Representative? January 23, 2017 edition

Posted in Editorials on January 23rd, 2017
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In the past two days, two people have asked me, “But Elizabeth, after I call my Congressperson, what do I say?

I’m glad more people are interested in contacting their representatives and this seems like such a responsibility. I don’t really want to tell people what to say – it seems so personal to me. But since people have been asking me, here’s a few suggestions. Notice, this post is dated, in case I write more posts like these in the future.

If you haven’t yet, read the Indivisible guide. I know it’s 26 pages. But. Read it.

Ok, onto calling your representative:

First, know who you are calling. If you live in one of the 50 states, you have one Congressional Representative and two Senators in Washington DC. You also have one state assembly member and one state senator representing you to your state government. [Unless you live in Nebraska, then you just have one legislator]. You have a governor. There’s probably also people who represent you at the local level. In New York City, there’s my city councilman and the Mayor. When I lived on Long Island, I had village trustees, a village mayor, a town councilman, a town supervisor, a county legislator and a county executive. Local government varies wildly but most have websites where you can find out who represents you – and since many localities in the United States have local elections in odd years – the people who will be knocking on your door this summer and fall are the ones who will represent you the closest to where you live.

Second, pick a specific issue that the person you are calling has direct influence over. Learn about the issue and find out who votes on what before you call. For example, your Senator can’t help you with a pothole (thus why you should learn the nitty gritty of your local government). And your congressperson doesn’t vote on Supreme Court nominees (only Senators do).

When you call, make it short and sweet:

Hello, my name is __________, and I live in (town) (zip code). I’m calling to ask (the Congressman/Senator/Assemblywoman/Councilman) to vote (Yes/No) on __________. Thank you

But, you may ask, what goes in that last blank? I hesitate so much to do this because I really think people should decide for themselves, but here’s my personal suggestions, and links which support my position. Pick one or two of these at a time. You can always call back the next day with more requests.

Call your Senators and tell them:
Vote No on Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State
What Rex Tillerson’s Exxon Mobil track record tells us
What Tillerson Could Mean for US. Foreign Policy and Women’s Empowerment Programs
A bunch of military veterans have taken over Sen. McCain’s office to protest Rex Tillerson

Vote No on Jeff Sessions for Attorney General
Read the letter Coretta Scott King wrote opposing Sessions’s 1986 federal nomination
My previous post on this

Vote No on Betsy Devos for Secretary of Education
The Betsy DeVos Hearing Was an Insult to Democracy

Vote No on Steven Mnuchin for Secretary of the Treasury
Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Nominee, Failed to Disclose $100 Million in Assets

Vote No on Tom Price for Secretary of Health and Human Services
Senate Dem [Kirsten Gillibrand] asks for SEC investigation of Trump HHS pick
Tom Price can’t recall voting to allow employers to fire women for using birth control. Democrats help him remember.

Vote No on Scott Pruitt for EPA Administrator
Scott Pruitt Criticizes Environmental Rules

Vote No on The REINS Act
The REINS Act: Why Congress Should Hold Its Horses
Questioning the Constitutionality of the REINS Act: Bill Seeks to Restructure Federal Rulemaking Process

Call your Congressperson and tell them:

Vote no on any budget that the National Endowment for the Arts, or efforts to fight climate change like the Paris Climate Agreement
Report: Trump Team Preparing $10.5 Trillion in Budget Cuts

Also, tell them to vote no on these bills. I found them all on congress.gov you can read the text of all of these bills online.

Vote no on HR 217 Defunding Planned Parenthood

Vote no on HR 175 Repealing The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)

Vote no on HR 34 which would get rid of Gun Free School Zones

Vote no on HR 36 which would ban abortion at 20 weeks

Vote no on HR 49 which would allow oil drilling on the Alaskan coastal plain

If you live in New York State:

Call your State Assemblyperson and State Senator and tell them to vote yes on The New York Health Act.
It’s Time for New York State to Pass Universal Healthcare

If you live in Indiana:

Call your State Assemblyperson and State Senator and tell them to vote no on Senate Bill 285 which “would require law enforcement to clear protesters from roadways by “any means necessary.””
Lawmakers Delay Vote On Bill To Clear Protesters From Roads

If you live in North Dakota:

Call your State Assemblyperson and State Senator and tell them to vote no on bills that crimalize protests or “exempt a driver from liability if they unintentionally injure or kill a pedestrian obstructing traffic on a public road or highway.” I tried to find the names of these bills but the ND Legislature website appears to require being a resident of the state to track a bill. If you’re from ND, let me know. Here’s some sources:
North Dakota’s experience with pipeline protests spurs bills
Pipeline Protesters Decry North Dakota Bills That ‘Criminalize’ Protests

Finally…

Remember to be polite. You might be angry, but you are speaking to a staffer whose job it is to talk to the public all day. It’s basic human decency to be nice to them.

After you call, tell people who you called and what you said and why. Use social media or just bring it up in conversation. You will encourage others to do the same. If you find out your representative is planning to vote how you asked them to, thank them, and tell your friends that too.

Happy dialing.