Between women and men, sexism is most often expressed in the form of male domination, which leads to discrimination, exploitation, or oppression. Between women, male supremacist values are expressed through suspicious, defensive, competitive behavior. It is sexism that leads women to feel threatened by one another without cause. (bell hooks, Feminist Theory)

The planet, indeed, is headed for disaster, and it is now possible, for the first time in human history, that owing entirely to manmade circumstances, not one of us will survive to tell the tale. (Ken Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality)

… fits the disappointment i feel about the debate last night…

This would certainly fit with Mercier and Sperber’s view that logic was invented in order to win arguments, not to take us closer to the truth. (Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things)

… interestingly, some think it was the arrival of the Sophists, who taught retoric, the art of winning arguments, was the beginning of the end of the golden age of Greece…

All the worship of death we see on our television screens, all the death we witness daily, does not prepare us in any way to face dying with awareness, clarity, or peace of mind.

— All About Love: New Visions (Love Song to the Nation Book 1) by bell hooks a.co/9kNpx0t

June 27, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson

… taking a deep breath…

Virtually unmentioned was the fact that Trump lied and rambled incoherently, ignored questions to say whatever he wanted; refused to acknowledge the events of January 6, 2021; and refused to commit to accepting the result of the 2024 presidential election, finally saying he would accept it only if it met his standards for fairness.

… the only thing that matters is keeping 45 from the oval office…

The only good thing about tonight is that it’s still a long time till the election, but there is a huge hill to climb… let’s hope the Biden campaign is capable of a comeback. I will vote for Biden no matter what, but I go to bed with a heavy heart.

MSNCB is confirming my assessment.

Will be interesting to see see if MSNBC tries to rescue Biden or not…

… i am very depressed watching the debate…

… i came out to two of our closest couple friend sets… it went well…:)

June 25, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson

… HCR gives me hope that white patriarchal society is on the ropes… can we seal the deal in Nov?…

Republicans in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas determined to reestablish patriarchy have now taken on the cause of eliminating no-fault divorce. Eric Berger of The Guardian explains that right-wing opponents of no-fault divorce note that women, especially educated, self-supporting women, file for divorce more often than men and that no-fault divorce means men can’t fight it. They claim divorce hurts families and, by extension, society.

…in thinking about the cross dressing i am doing i realize it is more important to me that i feel feminine than look like a woman…

… i am so impressed with bell hooks… her writing about love is amazing… and not new age…

To know love we must surrender our attachment to sexist thinking in whatever form it takes in our lives. That attachment will always return us to gender conflict, a way of thinking about sex roles that diminishes females and males. To practice the art of loving we have first to choose love—admit to ourselves that we want to know love and be loving even if we do not know what that means.

— All About Love: New Visions (Love Song to the Nation Book 1) by bell hooks a.co/iC5IcVd

… effective critique of Betty Friedan feminist era…

Bourgeois women active in feminist movement exploited the notion of a natural polarization between the sexes to draw attention to equal-rights effort. They had an enormous investment in depicting the male as enemy and the female as victim. They were the group of women who could dismiss their ties with men once they had an equal share in class privilege. They were ultimately more concerned with obtaining an equal share in class privilege than with the struggle to eliminate sexism and sexist oppression." (bell hooks, Feminist Theory)

… at the bottom of everything we are experiencing is the capitalist drive to exploit and profit…

Here we see the results of the left hemisphere mindset at work: profit must be maximised by making sure that everyone is maximally efficient. Thus, through the pursuit of efficiency, effectiveness is destroyed. (Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things)

Feminist movement should be of primary significance for all groups and individuals who desire an end to oppression. (bell hooks, Feminist Theory)

… one of the great values to me in reading bell hooks is that she locates feminism, feminist movement, outside the female body where it can be embraced by all sexes, all gender configurations, all sexual orientations and all races… feminine movement is a feminine ethic that embraces qualities normally considered to reside within the female body but truly available to all as my own exploration of feminine space has taught me…

This is bang on! As the Brits might say…

brain does not live inside the head, even though that is its formal habitat. It reaches out to the body, and with the body it reaches out to the world…. [B]rain is hand and hand is brain. (Mike Rose, The Mind at Work)

Though great political work and useful debate about ideas and ethics are happening over social media, much of the time we spend together (or in solitude) has been replaced by the time we spend online, in arenas not conducive to subtlety or complexity. (Rebecca Solnit, Call Them by Their True Names)

Men must begin to challenge notions of masculinity that equate manhood with ability to exert power over others, especially through the use of coercive force. (bell hooks, Feminist Theory)

… watched this video on how to apply eye shadow and discovered i need something called an eyeshadow base… that brings the total for my eyeshadow adventure to $100… it’s expensive to be feminine!…

youtu.be/rcwJUWVOa…

… for a while, i thought it would be enough to get evermore women into leadership positions… then the likes of MTG and Lauren Boebert arrived in congress… i realized that women can execute the patriarchal playbook as well as men…

I am alarmed by the violence that women do to each other: professional violence, competitive violence, emotional violence. I am alarmed by the willingness of women to enslave other women. I am alarmed by a growing absence of decency on the killing floor of professional women’s worlds. (bell hooks, Feminist Theory)

A photo set from a few days ago…

Sky with thin wispy clouds illuminated by early morning sun.

Street scape with a variety of signs.

Weed plants in front of metal industrial buildings. Streetscape.

Streetscape with commercial building wall on left side, a parking lot with one car and mountains in the distance.

Photo set from today…

Vintage items surrounding a painting of an oriental woman in a shop window.

Closeup of an empty Marlboro cigarette package on the ground.

Window wall of a commercial building with two circular tables to the right side of the frame.

Closeup of a shop window with a wooden Indian statue in the shadows on the right side.

A photo set from yesterday…

Thin silver ribbon lying on concrete pavement.

Dead bird lying on concrete pavement.

Empty Marlboro cigarette carton lying on concrete pavement.

Close up of circular paper plate on asphalt pavement.

Closeup of flattened Budweiser beer can on asphalt pavement.

Because Trump is suggesting he might get replace income tax with tariffs…

Separating Tariff Facts from Tariff Fictions | Cato Institute

Tariffs are costly taxes, and economists consider them to be poor tools for boosting the economy, reducing the trade deficit, or achieving strategic objectives.