#ucla women rally

[eretzyisrael]

by Daniel Greenfield

The mob besieging the synagogue on Pico Boulevard past which a children’s parade had recently passed to celebrate the Lag Baomer interregnum between the biblical Passover and Pentecost came accompanied by all the infrastructure developed over the years of leftist riots.

The younger leftist thugs wore ski goggles and masks, carried skateboards and metal water bottles, ‘legal’ weapons typically seen during Antifa clashes, and some were likely among those who had previously terrorized Jewish students at the UCLA terror encampment. And it did not take much time before they were assaulting Jewish community members in the neighborhood.

The terrorist supporters had brought their own legal aid with them in the form of the sneering ‘observers’ from the National Lawyers Guild, a Communist Cold War era organization, in their caps and shirts. They also had human shields in the form of activists in black face masks holding up handwritten signs claiming that they were Jewish and opposed to the Jewish State.

A handful of women (who were by far the minority) circulated between the Jewish community members and the LAPD officers and the terrorist supporters to also provide cover for the repeated terrorist assaults in the ‘chicks out front’ doctrine from the Marxist riots of the 1960s.

In a small scale recreation of the Gaza war in the middle of Los Angeles, Muslim teenagers and men masked in keffiyahs gathered near an alley and launched sorties, attacking Jewish community members, then using bear spray to cover their retreat, hiding behind the women, the leftist activists and the ‘Jewish’ opponents of Israel who turned around and played victim.

The stakes might be smaller but here was Hamas, here were the Jewish targets, and here also was the support infrastructure of leftists activists, lawyers and ‘journalists’ covering for them.

The whole Islamic terrorist strategy of Jihadists masking up, attacking and then hiding behind human shields was playing out on a normal street between two synagogues, a tailor shop, a dress shop, a watch repair place, and several restaurants.

The microcosm of clashes outside the synagogue became a citywide and then a national story. Public officials were forced to condemn it, but the media, led by the LA Times, whitewashed the attacks, quoted officials from CAIR, whose leaders had celebrated the Oct 7 atrocities by Hamas, and then editorialized against security for synagogues and a terror mask ban.

By the time the LA Times, the rest of the media and the leftist allies of the Islamic thugs were done, attacking a synagogue and assaulting Jewish community members had become a virtue.

Much as the only person to face serious charges after the Hamas encampment at UCLA terrorized Jewish students was a Jewish high school student, so too the only person arrested by the police when terrorist supporters attacked a synagogue was a Jewish community member.

The ‘Israel’ model was playing out the same way in L.A. And it can play out this way anywhere.

That is the most important lesson of the assault on a previously unknown synagogue in a neighborhood that most people ignore while passing between Santa Monica and Downtown LA.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Armin Navabi

On the morning of the 7th of October, 2023, the Palestinian militant group Hamas orchestrated a multi-pronged assault against Israel from the Gaza Strip. Their fighters breached the heavily fortified border, committing a mass murder of more than a thousand Israeli civilians, including young children. The political discourse surrounding these brutal events and the war that has come in its wake, especially in the West, has been tinged with a misguided transposition of Western identity politics onto the Middle East that collapses all nuance and reduces a complex situation into a simple binary of “oppressor versus oppressed.” As such, leftists in English-speaking nations tend to see Palestine (including Hamas) as an oppressed, brown victim class whose freedom-fighting “resistance” against their oppressive, white, US-backed colonizers in Israel is a righteous cause with which to stand in solidarity. This simplistic view of the long-standing conflict in the Middle East leads to confused and contradictory thinking, as seen in the slogan (and now meme) “Queers for Palestine” brandished at anti-Israel rallies. It’s worth exploring just how incoherent this concept is.

On the surface, “Queers for Palestine” attempts to meld LGBT advocacy with Palestinian liberation, a juxtaposition that has precipitated a whirlpool of ridicule and criticism due to the fact that LGBT rights scarcely exist within the Muslim world, and the Palestinian territories are no exception. The slogan has been widely satirized with variations like “Chickens for KFC” or “Blacks for the KKK”, which highlight the basic lack of awareness of just how incompatible the values of the Western left are with the Islamic right they so readily champion.

The reality of the situation could not be more stark. Though it has much room to improve, Israel is at the forefront of LGBT rights in the Middle East. In Israel, LGBT people are visible members of society with legal protections, civil rights, and a plurality of public acceptance.

Palestine, by contrast, is quite a different story. The UCLA Williams Institute’s 2021 global report on LGBT acceptance rated Israel 44th out of the 175 countries/territories examined. Palestine came in at 130, behind Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Georgetown University likewise placed Palestine 160th out of 170 countries on their women’s peace and security index, in good company with most of the region. Amnesty International’s 2020 report on human rights highlights the criminalization of male same-sex relationships in Gaza, punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment, with a conspicuous absence of legal protections against anti-LGBT discrimination or harassment. This lack of civil rights has led hundreds of gay and bi Palestinians to flee to Israel to escape persecution. One such refugee, Ahmad Abu Marhia, a 25-year-old gay Palestinian man, was living under asylum in Israel. In 2022, he was kidnapped and beheaded in the West Bank city of Hebron. His murderers uploaded footage of the killing to social media.

However, every time these disparities are mentioned, critics are quick to lob accusations of "pinkwashing" — a concept invented to frame any discussion of Israel’s progressive stance on LGBT issues as a distraction from their mistreatment of Palestinians. The fact remains that these “Queers for Palestine” could march in Pride parades in Israel if they wanted to. In Palestine, they’d better be wearing iron neck guards if they don’t want to lose their heads.

Another disconcerting element of “Queers for Palestine” is that it popped up in prominent left-wing anti-Israel/pro-Palestine rallies in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s terrorist attacks, before Israel had the chance to respond. As such, there is no way to interpret this slogan and the surrounding leftist fervor except as a signal of support not merely for Palestine, but specifically for Hamas, the jihadist movement with the explicit aim of eradicating the state of Israel. It's imperative to understand that Hamas, as detailed in its 1988 Covenant, is propelled by a fundamentalist Islamist ideology with the goal not only of eliminating all Jews but also conquering the world — just like ISIS. Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar was recorded saying, “The entire planet will be under our law, there will be no more Jews or Christian traitors.”

[ One of the many memes that the original “Queers for Palestine” image spawned. ]

Western support for Hamas, under the guise of Palestinian liberation, overlooks the deep-seated radical Islamist ethos driving the organization, which, if unbridled, would jeopardize the very freedoms cherished by LGBT people across the developed world. Anyone who doubts this should try being gay, bi, or trans in most of the Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA) Muslim-majority countries. Virtually all of these nations have laws that criminalize homosexuality and being trans, some of which carry the death penalty. Human Rights Watch’s "Everyone Wants Me Dead" report succinctly encapsulates in its title alone the perilous environment faced by LGBT individuals in these regions.

Many on the Western left, including the LGBT left, have become enamored with Critical Social Justice, which provides a warped lens through which they perceive all of humanity as oppressors versus oppressed classes. Armed with this simplistic, binary worldview, leftists gravitate toward perceived liberation movements for other so-called oppressed groups. This narrow prism, however, obscures the universalist ideology of Islamism espoused by groups like Hamas, which, under a facade of anti-imperialist rhetoric, harbors a brutal dogma that is antithetical to the liberties and rights championed by LGBT activists. No amount of screaming about “pinkwashing” can drown out the irony of folks who believe in LGBT liberation cheerleading ideological movements from which they would flee as refugees.

To be sure, the Palestinian people have suffered more than their fair share, and it’s easy to see how the Palestinian resistance narrative can carry the allure of righteous rebellion, especially for factions of the hard left who have their own aspirations of a large-scale dismantling of our liberal society. The vicarious thrill of romanticized revolution that leads some to go far beyond simply advocating for the Palestinian people and expressing solidarity with Hamas, ignores the jihadist ideologies at the core of such organizations. These ideologies are oppressing LGBT Palestinians at this very moment, and given half a chance, they would oppress the very leftists now voicing support for the Palestinian cause. And, indeed, this has happened before.

The aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran is a harrowing tale of leftists being tortured and executed en masse by the very Islamic regime they supported for the sake of their anti-imperialist goals. Many Iranians who aligned with leftist organizations supported the revolution only to find themselves persecuted by Islamists they helped put in power.

Immediately following the revolution, the new regime led by Ayatollah Khomeini began systematically oppressing LGBT people and publicly executing them by the thousands. These atrocities were justified as a means to "eliminate corruption" and prevent the "contamination" of society. Between 4,000 to 6,000 gay, lesbian, and bi people have been executed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran’s legal system, rooted in Islamic law, criminalizes consensual sexual relations between same-sex individuals, with penalties ranging from lashes to death. Iranian law does not distinguish between consensual and non-consensual same-sex intercourse, allowing authorities to prosecute both perpetrators and victims of sexual assault.

[ Source: The Algemeiner ]

Images of gay and bi men hanged from cranes so that they may slowly suffocate to death serve as grim reminders for anyone interested in human rights: align with Islamic fundamentalists at your peril.

"Queers for Palestine", and the nuanced realities it glosses over, underscores the need for a more informed and discerning discourse — a discourse that transcends catchy slogans and moral binaries and delves into the complex, often discordant ideologies at play in the Israel-Palestine conflict. That way, we can advocate for a better future without bolstering forces antithetical to liberal values, and without betraying LGBT people by undermining their very rights and freedoms. We can’t do that while overwriting the complicated dynamics of a 75-year foreign conflict with our own provincial identity politics.

==

Intersectionality is an institutionally acquired neurological disorder.

[stele3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-drug-enforcers-ease-restrictions-cannabis-ap-reports-2024-04-30/

[bearterritory]

No. 11 Cal Edges No. 17 UCLA 4-3

BERKELEY – Katja Wiersholm clinched a California women's tennis victory for the second straight match, as the 11th-ranked Golden Bears defeated No. 17 UCLA, 4-3, on Saturday at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The 53rd-ranked Cal junior bested 72nd-ranked Bianca Fernandez, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, to end the match and keep the Bears unbeaten in the Pac-12 Conference at 5-0 (12-3 overall).   UCLA now has a 10-4 record (4-1 Pac-12).   Wiersholm clinched Cal's 6-1 win over No. 45 Utah last Saturday in Berkeley, and she also clinched the season-opening, 4-0 win over Illinois.   "It's important in these moments to convince yourself that you want it to come down to you, that you want to be the one to put that number four up on the board," Wiersholm said Saturday. "I kept reminding myself of that today, and it really helped push me through."   The Bears took a 1-0 lead when the 23rd-ranked pair of Mao Mushika and Hannah Viller Moeller beat Elise Wagle and Tian Fangran, 6-4, on court one to clinch the doubles point. Earlier, Cal's Jessica Alsola and Valentina Ivanov won 6-4 over the Bruins' 80th-ranked Kimmi Hance and Anne Christine Lutkemeyer on court two.   "We did a really good job in doubles, and we didn't even get to hit a ball yesterday because it was wet," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. "I wanted to see us come out aggressive and quick, and I really thought we did. That was important. UCLA is a very good team. We know if we can get that doubles point, it helps a lot, because it's hard to win four singles matches against a good team like that. They always battle hard."   In singles, Alsola, ranked 54th, gave Cal a 2-0 lead when she topped Lutkemeyer, 6-4, 6-4, on court four. But losses on court two and court one left the match tied, 2-2.   Mushika, a freshman, beat Wagle on court five, 6-4, 7-6(7), to momentarily give the Bears a 3-2 lead.   But UCLA knotted the match at 3-3 when Ahmani Guichard defeated Cal's Lan Mi in three sets, 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-1, on court six, in what was just Mi's third singles loss of 2024. The junior leads the Bears with a 32-5 record.   That left court three to decide the match. Wiersholm had the chance to end it when leading 5-4 in the second set, though Fernandez rallied to take the set. Given another chance in the third, Wiersholm slammed the door shut on the Bruins.   Like Mi, Wiersholm has lost just three times in singles in 2024, after losing just once in the fall. The junior has compiled a 21-4 record through Saturday.   "At the end of the day it is about the results, it is about the winning," Wiersholm said, "and every day I just keep telling myself to try and get better each day so that when it comes down to it, I can be that one percent better than the girl on the other side of the net. That's what I've been working towards, and I feel like it's been getting better and better each match and each month. The season's going by quick, though, and that's what makes it challenging sometimes."   Added Augustus, "I'm just proud of us finishing that match out, and I'm looking forward to another tough battle tomorrow."  

[sa7abnews]

Fox News Politics: Kamala's 180

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/16/fox-news-politics-kamalas-180/

Fox News Politics: Kamala's 180

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington, D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. Here’s what’s happening…- Vance and Walz to debate October 1st – RFK Jr. reportedly seeks out Harris cabinet position in exchange for dropping out- Google confirms Iran targeted the Trump & Harris campaigns…Vice President Harris is doing an about-face on several far-left policies as she distances herself from President Biden and attempts to make a name of her own as the Democratic presidential nominee. In her first policy speech in North Carolina later this week and then next week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Harris plans to present to Americans who she is and how she will govern essentially for the first time since Biden backed out of the race and endorsed her presidential campaign. In recent weeks, Harris has shifted on at least five major policy stances: mandatory assault rifle buybacks, fracking, immigration, health care and a federal jobs guarantee. While campaigning for president in 2019, she endorsed a mandatory buyback program for assault rifles. “We have to have a buyback program, and I support a mandatory gun buyback program,” Harris said in October 2019, according to NBC News. “It’s got to be smart, we got to do it the right way. But there are 5 million [assault weapons] at least, some estimate as many as 10 million, and we’re going to have to have smart public policy that’s about taking those off the streets, but doing it the right way.” In 2024, a Harris spokesperson says she wouldn’t push a mandatory buyback program for assault rifles. …Read moreNO ‘GENIUS’ NEEDED: Retired NYPD Lt. exposes how Biden-Harris administration cooked the books on crime record …Read moreLATE ENTRY: DOJ finds 11th-hour Biden transcripts: watchdog …Read moreSTAY THE COURSE: Biden says Harris ‘not going to’ distance herself from his economic policies …Read moreNO ‘MAGIC WAND’: Unearthed video shows longtime Dem rebuked student loan forgiveness before flip-flopping …Read morePOINT SCORING: Tense US, China standoff over Olympic drug testing hits House GOP …Read moreDISGRACED AND REPLACED: NJ Gov Phil Murphy has a pick ready to fill disgraced Sen. Menendez’s seat …Read more’DUCK AND HIDE’: Trump flips script on Harris with second press conference in a week as pressure mounts to face media …Read more‘WE DON’T BELIEVE IT’: Vance accuses media of painting Harris as ‘second coming of Abraham Lincoln’ …Read moreSTAGE IS SET: Vance agrees to debate Walz on Oct. 1 in NYC …Read more’COMPLETELY SCRIPTED’: Harris, Walz ripped for interviewing each other before doing media interviews …Read more25 DAYS AND COUNTING: Harris camp still silent on when VP will hold formal press conference …Read moreQUID PRO QUO: RFK Jr. reportedly asked Harris for Cabinet position in exchange for dropping out …Read more’BEYOND CONTROL’: Trump says under Biden-Harris admin US has ‘new category’ of crime …Read moreSTAMP OF APPROVAL: More Americans are liking both Harris, Trump: poll …Read more’PLAYING POLITICS’: Harris campaign ���playing politics’ by announcing her stance on key issues: strategist …Read more’SO UNIMAGINABLE’: Federal judge rules against UCLA in lawsuit over ‘Jew Exclusion Zone’ …Read morePOLICE CLASH: Anti-Israel protesters clash with law enforcement, unleash smoke bombs following Harris rally …Read more’NOT MY GOVERNOR’: Minnesota small business owner rips Harris VP pick’s ‘radical’ policies dealing with this key issue …Read moreHOSTILE INTERFERENCE: Google report confirms Iranian hackers targeted Trump, Harris campaigns …Read more’PREGNANT PERSONS’: Ohio Sen Sherrod Brown scrubbed ‘women’ from bill on pregnancy …Read more’QUESTIONABLE’: Climate Judiciary Project accused of ‘corruptly influencing courts’ through judge training program …Read more’NAKED ELECTION-INTERFERENCE’: Trump legal team calls for sentencing in Bragg case to be delayed until after election …Read moreSubscribe now to get the Fox News Politics newsletter in your inbox.Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

[news4usonline]

Bruins, Utes play for a bigger cause than hoops

Head coaches and players from Utah and UCLA cherished the opportunity to take part in Play4Kay night, acknowledging the profound connection basketball has with the entire world LOS ANGELES - With the Pac-12 Conference Tournament on the horizon, the UCLA women's basketball team hosted Play4Kay night at the Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 23. The game highlighted improving the lives of those who are battling cancer, encouraging those who are on their way to finding a cure, and overall raising money for research to assist the underserved.

UCLA women's basketball players with signs of loved ones and those they support on Play4Kay Night at Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 23, 2024. The Bruins defeated Utah in a Pac-12 Conference game, 82-52. Photo credit: Carlos Jones/News4usonline UCLA scored the victory over Utah with a final score of 82-52. On such an impactful night, the Bruins had themselves some tough competition. In this case, it would be the fierce Utah Utes. The Utes have had a great statistical season on the offensive side of the ball, yet it seemed the gameplan for limiting Utah’s shots worked, as the Bruins started the game off with a 12-0 run which led into the end of the first quarter. During a crucial timeout, junior Utah guard Kennedy McQueen rallied her team, urging them to narrow the deficit with each basket. As the second quarter began, Utah's relentless effort paid off, slicing the lead to just 10 points with a string of consecutive open shots from beyond the arc. As UCLA saw this comeback on the horizon, they adjusted their gameplan and locked in on defense which was led by sophomore guard Londynn Jones who had a career-high points (23) and 3s made in a game (7). UCLA head coach Cori Close gave credit to Jones for her efforts against the Utes. “Londynn’s defense tonight was amazing, and all credit to her and all the extra effort she has been putting in,” Close said. “Her dedication to extra sessions and personal coaching with assistant coach Tasha Brown became evident as her hard work bore fruit in this pivotal game.” As well as Jones's big game, UCLA forward Lauren Betts had herself 14 points with three monstrous blocks. Sophomore guard Kiki Rice contributed 13 points and six offensive rebounds in the win. Charisma Osborne also achieved the assist of the game which was a rapid full-court pass to Angela Dugali? for a swift and stylish layup. The blowout win against the Buffaloes wasn't the only thing to excite the UCLA players. Rice’s recently released Jordan sneaker turned out to be a big deal and it lifted the mood of the Bruins before the game was played. “I don’t know if the shoes gave us superpowers but it was a great experience to have finally have a personal pair for the game,” Jones said. “It was a surprise and I feel it gave the team an extra amount of confidence knowing the fact that we are as close as family.” Rice’s shoes were described by Betts as “comfortable and versatile when having to shift in many directions on all the intense fastbreaks.” The shoes may have been a part of the game but, Close wanted to acknowledge and give a tremendous amount of love and support to Utah head coach Lynne Roberts. Close stated that she was truly honored to play against her team in their matchup. “I have so much respect for Lynne and I love playing against her team it will always be truly an honor,” Close said. “She is just a remarkable coach and I feel she has so much experience in helping players develop in so many ways off or on the court.” Utah is also actively participating in the Kay Yow Cancer Fund by joining the Play4Kay National Free Throw Challenge. With every shot, it will make a serious impact on those battling cancer. Each team expressed these ideas by having the Utes go 15-17 on free throws while the Bruins went 9-13.

UCLA women's basketball head coach Cori Close (center) holds up a sign for those she supports on Play4Kay Night on Feb. 23, 2024. Photo credit: Carlos Jones/News4usonline Roberts emphasized that her team took this game as seriously as possible when coming close to the end of the season and that they also felt extremely passionate out there on a PlayforKay night. “We had a gameplan and UCLA outmatched us, yet I felt my girls knew what they did wrong tonight and are going to be ready for the quick turnaround in our next game,” Roberts said. “They also loved the passion for such a great cause and it may even lead to us having more impactful themes nights at our arena. Thanks, UCLA for all the positive feedback.” Roberts also stated that her team will check film a lot moving on to the next game. The Utes star senior forward Alissa Pili found herself getting harassed by UCLA defenders all night, getting double-teamed for the majority of the game and being limited in her shotmaking. Eventually, Pili would find a rhythm last in the game and it showed to her having scored a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Pili's teammate, junior guard Kennady McQueen, stated that she felt “Pili was the main reason that their team kept positive when entering each quarter” and that her energy lifted up the team’s vibe when trying to score from every open look. McQueen also highlighted her teammate junior guard Ines Vieira who played 40 minutes in the long and tiring game.

UCLA guard Charisma Osborne brings the ball up the court against Utah defender Ines Vieira (2) in the Bruins' 82-52 win at Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 23, 2024. Photo credit: Carlos Jones/News4usonline “She played her heart out tonight and she really kept the mentality that we all needed to step up to try and have a chance to come back in the game,” McQueen said. “Even if the win didn’t happen, keeping that attitude will only gain our ability to learn and capitalize on great opportunities in our next game.” McQueen also contributed 11 points and delivered two electrifying assists, crucial in keeping the game tight throughout the first quarter. Close appreciated the Utes for coming out and being a part of their monumental night and even highlighted that the free-throw challenge was just as equally as important as getting the win tonight. “When something we love can connect with something that is so much bigger than the game of basketball, it connects with the world and is just purely phenomenal,” Close said. “So many people are affected by cancer and our team has even lost some of those mentors that helped us on our way we just want to let everyone know we have their back together as we overcome the battle against cancer.” Read the full article

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamorous actresses of her day, nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor" because she photographed so well in that medium.

Fleming was born Marilyn Louis in Hollywood, California, to Harold Cheverton Louis, an insurance salesman, and Effie Graham, a stage actress who had appeared opposite Al Jolson in the musical Dancing Around at New York's Winter Garden Theatre from 1914 to 1915. Fleming's maternal grandfather was John C. Graham, an actor, theater owner, and newspaper editor in Utah.

She began working as a film actress while attending Beverly Hills High School, from which she graduated in 1941. She was discovered by the well-known Hollywood agent Henry Willson, who changed her name to "Rhonda Fleming".

"It's so weird", Fleming said later. "He stopped me crossing the street. It kinda scared me a little bit -- I was only 16 or 17. He signed me to a seven-year contract without a screen test. It was a Cinderella story, but those could happen in those days."

Fleming's agent Willson went to work for David O. Selznick, who put her under contract.[5][6] She had bit parts in In Old Oklahoma (1943), Since You Went Away (1944) for Selznick, and in When Strangers Marry (1944).

She received her first substantial role in the thriller, Spellbound (1945), produced by Selznick and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. "Hitch told me I was going to play a nymphomaniac", Fleming said later. "I remember rushing home to look it up in the dictionary and being quite shocked." The film was a success and Selznick gave her another good role in the thriller The Spiral Staircase (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak.

Selznick lent her out to appear in supporting parts in the Randolph Scott Western Abilene Town (1946) at United Artists and the film noir classic Out of the Past (1947) with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, at RKO, where she played a harried secretary.

Fleming's first leading role came in Adventure Island (1947), a low-budget action film made for Pine-Thomas Productions at Paramount Pictures in the two-color Cinecolor process and co-starring fellow Selznick contractee Rory Calhoun.

Fleming then auditioned for the female lead in a Bing Crosby film, a part Deanna Durbin turned down at Paramount in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), a musical loosely based on the story by Mark Twain. Fleming exhibited her singing ability, dueting with Crosby on "Once and For Always" and soloing with "When Is Sometime". They recorded the songs for a three-disc, 78-rpm Decca album, conducted by Victor Young, who wrote the film's orchestral score. Her vocal coach in Hollywood, Harriet Lee, praised her "lovely voice", saying, "she could be a musical comedy queen". The movie was Fleming's first Technicolor film. Her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well and she was nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor", a moniker not worth much to her as she would have preferred to be known for her acting. Actress Maureen O'Hara expressed a similar sentiment when the same nickname was given to her around this time.

She then played another leading role opposite a comedian, in this case Bob Hope, in the The Great Lover (1949). It was a big hit and Fleming was established. "After that, I wasn't fortunate enough to get good directors", said Fleming. "I made the mistake of doing lesser films for good money. I was hot – they all wanted me – but I didn't have the guidance or background to judge for myself."

In February 1949, Selznick sold his contract players to Warner Bros, but he kept Fleming.

In 1950 she portrayed John Payne's love interest in The Eagle and the Hawk, a Western.

Fleming was lent to RKO to play a femme fatale opposite Dick Powell in Cry Danger (1951), a film noir. Back at Paramount, she played the title role in a Western with Glenn Ford, The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951).

In 1950, she ended her association with Selznick after eight years, though her contract with him had another five years to run.

Fleming signed a three-picture deal with Paramount. Pine-Thomas used her as Ronald Reagan's leading lady in a Western, The Last Outpost (1951), John Payne's leading lady in the adventure film Crosswinds (1951), and with Reagan again in Hong Kong (1951).

She sang on NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour during the same live telecast that featured Errol Flynn, on September 30, 1951, from the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.

Fleming was top-billed for Sam Katzman's The Golden Hawk (1952) with Sterling Hayden, then was reunited with Reagan for Tropic Zone (1953) at Pine-Thomas. In 1953, Fleming portrayed Cleopatra in Katzman's Serpent of the Nile for Columbia. That same year, she filmed a western with Charlton Heston at Paramount, Pony Express (1953), and two films shot in three dimensions (3-D), Inferno with Robert Ryan at Fox, and the musical Those Redheads From Seattle with Gene Barry, for Pine-Thomas. The following year, she starred with Fernando Lamas in Jivaro, her third 3-D release, at Pine-Thomas. She went to Universal for Yankee Pasha (1954) with Jeff Chandler. Fleming also traveled to Italy to play Semiramis in Queen of Babylon (1954).

Fleming was part of a gospel singing quartet with Jane Russell, Connie Haines, and Beryl Davis.

Much of the location work for Fleming's 1955 Western Tennessee's Partner, in which she played Duchess opposite John Payne as Tennessee and Ronald Reagan as Cowpoke, was filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, (known as the most heavily filmed outdoor location in the history of film and television). A distinctive monolithic sandstone feature behind which Fleming (as Duchess) hid during an action sequence, later became known as the Rhonda Fleming Rock. The rock is part of a section of the former movie ranch known as "Garden of the Gods", which has been preserved as public parkland.

Fleming was reunited with Payne and fellow redhead Arlene Dahl in a noir at RKO, Slightly Scarlet (1956). She did other thrillers that year; The Killer Is Loose (1956) with Joseph Cotten and Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps (1956), co-starring Dana Andrews, at RKO. Fleming was top billed in an adventure movie for Warwick Films, Odongo (1956).

Fleming had the female lead in John Sturges's Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) co-starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, a big hit. She supported Donald O'Connor in The Buster Keaton Story (1957) and Stewart Granger in Gun Glory (1957) at MGM.

In May 1957, Fleming launched a nightclub act at the Tropicana in Las Vegas. It was a tremendous success. "I just wanted to know if I could get out on that stage – if I could do it. And I did! ... My heart was to do more stage work, but I had a son, so I really couldn't, but that was in my heart."

Fleming was Guy Madison's co star in Bullwhip (1958) for Allied Artists, and supported Jean Simmons in Home Before Dark (1958), which she later called her favorite role ("It was a marvellous stretch", she said).

Fleming was reunited with Bob Hope in Alias Jesse James (1959) and did an episode of Wagon Train.

She was in the Irwin Allen/Joseph M. Newman production of The Big Circus (1959), co-starring Victor Mature and Vincent Price. This was made for Allied Artists, whom Fleming later sued for unpaid profits.

Fleming travelled to Italy again to make The Revolt of the Slaves (1959) and was second billed in The Crowded Sky (1960).

In 1960, she described herself as "semi-retired", having made money in real estate investments. That year she toured her nightclub act in Las Vegas and Palm Springs.

During the 1950s, 1960s, and into the 1970s, Fleming frequently appeared on television with guest-starring roles on The Red Skelton Show, The Best of Broadway, The Investigators, Shower of Stars, The Dick Powell Show, Wagon Train, Burke's Law, The Virginian, McMillan & Wife, Police Woman, Kung Fu, Ellery Queen, and The Love Boat.

In 1958, Fleming again displayed her singing talent when she recorded her only LP, entitled simply Rhonda (reissued in 2008 on CD as Rhonda Fleming Sings Just For You). In this album, which was released by Columbia Records, she blended then-current songs like "Around The World" with standards such as "Love Me or Leave Me" and "I've Got You Under My Skin". Conductor-arranger Frank Comstock provided the musical direction.

On March 4, 1962, Fleming appeared in one of the last segments of ABC's Follow the Sun in a role opposite Gary Lockwood. She played a Marine in the episode, "Marine of the Month".

In December 1962, Fleming was cast as the glamorous Kitty Bolton in the episode, "Loss of Faith", on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Kitty pits Joe Phy (Jim Davis) and Peter Gabriel (Don Collier) to run against each other for sheriff of Pima County, Arizona. Violence results from the rivalry.

In the 1960s, Fleming branched out into other businesses and began performing regularly on stage and in Las Vegas.

One of her final film appearances was in a bit-part as Edith von Secondburg in the comedy The Nude Bomb (1980) starring Don Adams. She also appeared in Waiting for the Wind (1990).

Fleming has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2007, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.

Fleming worked for several charities, especially in the field of cancer care, and served on the committees of many related organizations. In 1991, her fifth husband, Ted Mann, and she established the Rhonda Fleming Mann Clinic for Women's Comprehensive Care at the UCLA Medical Center.

In 1964, Fleming spoke at the "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The gathering, which was hosted by Anthony Eisley, a star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series, sought to flood the United States Congress with letters in support of mandatory school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court, which struck down mandatory school prayer as conflicting with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Joining Fleming and Eisley at the rally were Walter Brennan, Lloyd Nolan, Dale Evans, Pat Boone, and Gloria Swanson. Fleming declared, "Project Prayer is hoping to clarify the First Amendment to the Constitution and reverse this present trend away from God." Eisley and Fleming added that John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Roy Rogers, Mary Pickford, Jane Russell, Ginger Rogers, and Pat Buttram would also have attended the rally had their schedules not been in conflict.

Fleming married six times:

Thomas Wade Lane, interior decorator, (1940–1942; divorced), one son

Dr. Lewis V. Morrill, Hollywood physician, (July 11, 1952 – 1954; divorced)

Lang Jeffries, actor, (April 3, 1960 – January 11, 1962; divorced)

Hall Bartlett, producer (March 27, 1966 – 1972; divorced)

Ted Mann, producer, (March 11, 1977 – January 15, 2001; his death)

Darol Wayne Carlson (2003 – October 31, 2017; his death)

Through her son Kent Lane (b. 1941), Rhonda also had two granddaughters (Kimberly and Kelly), four great-grandchildren (Wagner, Page, Lane, and Cole), and two great-great-grandchildren.

She was a Presbyterian and a Republican who supported Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.

Fleming died on October 14, 2020, in Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, California, at the age of 97. She is interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

[chiseler]

The House of D

As one of his final acts in office, Mayor Jimmy Walker broke ground in 1932 for the New York City House of Detention for Women, built on the site of the old Jefferson Market jail in Greenwich Village and colloquially known as the House of D. According to sociologist Sara Harris’ Hellhole (on John Waters’ list of recommended reading), It was intended as a model of prison reform. Opened in 1934, the twelve-story monolith of brownish brick with art deco flourishes loomed behind the old Jefferson Market courthouse on Sixth Avenue, looking more like a stylish if somewhat cheerless apartment building than a prison. Windows were meshed instead of barred, and the one sign on its exterior merely gave the address, “Number Ten Greenwich Avenue.” There were toilets and hot and cold running water in all four hundred cells, and it was going to focus on rehabilitating its inmates – prostitutes, vagrants, alcoholics and/or drug addicts – rather than merely punishing them. From the start the reality was at variance with the intentions, and the facility quickly became infamous as a combination of Bedlam and Bastille. Within a decade it was chronically overcrowded with a volatile mix of inmates: women who couldn’t make bail awaiting trials that were sometimes months off, women already convicted and serving time, alcoholics and addicts, the mentally ill, violent lesbian tops, street gang girls, hookers and other lifelong multiple offenders, and teenagers spending their first nights behind bars. Tougher, more experienced prisoners brutalized and sexually assaulted the weak and inexperienced. So, of course, did the staff. The halls rang with the howls of inmates suffering the agonies of drug or alcohol withdrawal. There were cockroaches and mice in the cells and worms in the food. Village lesbians called it the Country Club and the Snake Pit. The IWW organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn did time in the House of D, as did accused spy Ethel Rosenberg and Warhol shooter Valerie Solanas. In 1957, Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, spent thirty days there for staying on the street during a civil defense air raid drill. Her ban-the-bomb supporters picketed outside every day from noon to two; the Times called them “possibly the most peaceful pickets in the city.”

Despite its bland exterior, the House of D made its presence very known in the neighborhood through the daily ritual of inmates yelling out the windows or down from the exercise area on the roof to the boyfriends, girlfriends, dealers and pimps perpetually loitering on the Greenwich Avenue sidewalk – a carnivalesque Village tradition for almost forty years. Waters first caught the spectacle in the early 1960s. “It was amazing. No one can ever imagine what that was like. All the hookers would be screaming out the windows, ‘Hey Jimbo!’ And all the pimps would be down on the sidewalk yelling stuff.” Writer and film producer Jeremiah Newton initially encountered it at around the same time. “It was this huge, monolithic building, looking like the building the Morlocks dragged the Time Machine into, and the girls were always yelling down, screaming obscenities and throwing things out the window. It was the biggest building there. I sat on a stoop watching the people walk by. I’d never seen anything quite like it before.” The Village writer Grace Paley lived near the facility in the 1950s and 1960s, and walked her kids past it regularly. She wrote that “we would often have to thread our way through whole families calling up – bellowing, screaming up to the third, seventh, tenth floor, to figures, shadows behind bars and screened windows, How you feeling? Here’s Glena. She got big. Mami mami, you like my dress? We gettin you out baby. New lawyer come by.”

Women arrested at antiwar rallies during the Vietnam era found themselves locked up in the House of D with the hookers, junkies, crazies and butch lesbians. On Saturday, February 20 1965, two eighteen-year-old college students, Lisa Goldrosen of Bard and Andrea Dworkin of Bennington, were arrested during an antiwar protest at the UN and sent to the House of D. There, they later testified, they were brutally mistreated and humiliated by male doctors “examining” them for venereal diseases, and forced constantly to fend off the rough advances of other inmates. They were not allowed to use a telephone until Monday. That March, the New York Post ran an exposé based on their testimony. They didn’t experience anything other women hadn’t for thirty years by then, but in the 1960s those other inmates were overwhelmingly poor black and Hispanic women. Dworkin and Goldrosen were white, middle-class college coeds. As so often happens, that’s what it took to generate public outrage.

When Grace Paley herself was arrested at another war protest some months later, she was detained in the facility. Conditions had slightly improved in light of the outcry the Post had stirred up. Paley had been arrested before at antiwar protests, but it had always resulted in at worst overnight stays. This time a judge threw the book at her and gave her six days. “He thought I was old enough to know better,” she later wrote, “a forty-five year old woman, a mother and teacher. I ought to be too busy to waste time on causes I couldn’t possibly understand.” At least she could look out her cell window and watch her kids walking to school.

In October 1970, Angela Davis was arrested in the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge at Eighth Avenue and Fifty-First Street and taken to the House of D. It was not her first time in Greenwich Village. She was born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, where her father was a car mechanic and her mother was a teacher and a civil rights activist. They lived in a black neighborhood called Dynamite Hill because the Klan had firebombed so many homes there. With help from the American Friends, she and her mother moved to New York, where her mother studied for her Masters at NYU while Angela attended Elisabeth Irwin High School in the Village. She went on to study philosophy at Brandeis, the Sorbonne, and at the University of California, earning her Ph.D. One of her teachers was Herbert Marcuse. By the late 1960s she was an avowed Communist, a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and affiliated with the Black Panthers. She lectured in philosophy at UCLA until 1969, when her Communist and radical affiliations got her fired.

In August of 1970 a black teen named Jonathan Jackson took over a Marin County courtroom and demanded the release of his older brother, Panther member George Jackson, from nearby Soledad prison. He took the judge, the district attorney and three jurors hostage. In the attempted getaway, Jackson, the judge and one other person were shot and killed. When police discovered that Davis, who knew George Jackson, was the registered owner of Jonathan’s weapon, she was charged as an accomplice to murder, a capital crime in California. She fled the state, which put her on the FBI’s most wanted list. A beautiful twenty-six-year-old with a huge and magnificent Afro, she became a global pop star of the revolution a la Che Guevara. When the FBI arrested her she’d spent a few days walking openly in Times Square, unrecognized because she’d slicked down the Afro and dressed like an office worker.

Within thirty minutes of her being locked up in the House of D a crowd of protesters began to gather outside the monolith, chanting; prisoners stood in their windows and chanted along, their fists raised. The NYPD sent a Tactical Defense Force unit – riot police – and House of D officials turned off all the lights inside, hoping to quiet things down. Instead, women set small fires in their cells, and demonstrators cheered the flickerings in the windows. They dispersed without major incident. Placed in isolation, Davis went on a ten-day hunger strike. She spent nine weeks in the facility while fighting extradition to California, where, she was quite convinced, she’d be convicted and put to death. In fact she would be acquitted of all charges in a San Francisco courtroom in 1972, after spending eighteen months behind bars.

Davis was the facility’s last celebrity tenant. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Greenwich Village civic and neighborhood groups had constantly called for the facility to be removed to some location more appropriate, which is to say far away from where they lived and walked their children to school. More liberal souls in the neighborhood thought it should stay, fearing that if the women were shifted to some more isolated location they might be all the more easily mistreated. Before he wrote the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles, Villager Jerry Herman wrote a satirical revue called Parade, which included a song about the House of D controversy:

Don’t tear down the House of Detention

Keep her and shield her from all who wish her harm

Don’t tear down the House of Detention

Cornerstone of Greenwich Village charm…

So I say fie, fie to the cynic

Know that there’s love in these hallowed walls of brown

There’s love in the laundry, there’s love in the showers,

There’s love in the clinic

'Twas built with love, my lovely house in town

Save the tramp, the pusher and the souse

Would you trade love for an apartment house?

Dworkin and Goldrosen’s testimony before a commission studying conditions at the House of D helped lead to its being shut down in 1971. Inmates were moved to a new facility on Rikers Island. After some debate about possible new uses for the Village monolith, it was simply torn down in 1973. The site is now a small, fenced-in garden. In 1974 Tom Eyen’s spoofy play Women Behind Bars, set in the House of D in the 1950s, premiered. John Waters’ star Divine performed in a later production.

by John Strausbaugh

[yikesharringrove]

Can we just have a whole ass FIC about Steve being non binary? Like I want it ALL. Him realizing it himself, him coming out to billy, them living their hella gay life in Cali and being hot. I just want IT ALL.

uuuh, modern.

-

“I don’t think I’m a boy.”

I came out of nowhere one night, Billy’s hands trailing over Steve’s back.

“Oh?” Billy didn’t really know what to say.

Billy knew a lot of queer people in California, grew up amongst all sorts of folks. He didn’t care if Steve was trans, or genderqueer, or fluid or anything, he just wanted Steve to be happy.

“I don’t really think I’m anything.” Steve’s head was on Billy’s chest, long fingers tracing over golden skin.

“That’s okay.” Steve turned to look at Billy, blinking a few times.

“I’m, I’m nonbinary. I don’t, I think of myself as agender. Mostly. Like I’m just, a person.”

“Then you are agender, Baby. However you think of yourself, however you identify, that’s true and its good.” He ran a hand through Steve’s hair. “I love you.” Steve pressed a kiss to his chest. “Thank you for telling me, trusting me.” Steve was smiling softly. “But we should probably, like talk. I don’t want to do anything that hurts you, or makes you feel bad.”

“I, um, I don’t want to be your boyfriend.” Billy’s heart fucking stopped. “No! I still wanna be with you, I just, I don’t want the boy part of it. I wanna be like, your significant other.” Billy slumped back into the pillows.

“Thank fuck. I thought you were dumping me.” Steve laughed, poking at Billy’s chest. “Okay, S.O. I can do that. What else? Have you thought pronouns?”

“They. Unless my parents are around. Then just use he. I don’t think they’ll be cool about it if I did come out to them.”

“Are you thinking about, like, changing your name or anything?”

“Nah. Steve is fine. I mean, honestly, when do you ever actually call me Steve, though?” Billy laughed.

“Don’t act like you don’t love a good nickname.” He pinched their side.

But for Billy’s best efforts, Hawkins was hard on Steve.

There were a limited group of people they felt comfortable coming out to. The party rallied around them, were as sweet and supportive as ever, Joyce would still give them warm hugs, and Claudia made Steve cry one night telling them that they were still the role model she felt Dustin needed, that not being a man didn’t mean they were any less of an older sibling figure.

But they couldn’t be who they were.

Billy had suffered through far too many dinners with Mr. and Mrs. Harrington, calling Steve their son.

They loved playing accepting, Mr. Harrington would boast about his gay son to liberal work associates, got brownie points despite his child being neither gay nor his son.

But Steve knew if they corrected them, told them the whole pansexual nonbinary truth of it, they would kick up a fuss, would say Steve was taking it too far.

Steve also couldn’t present how they wanted.

They leaned towards femme on any given day, loved the softness of women’s clothes, loved how beautiful they felt in makeup.

They found somewhere in between, sticking to soft sweaters, sweet pastels, growing their hair out a little more.

But when Billy graduated, they packed everything they cared about into the Camaro, and set off for California.

Billy had gotten a full ride to UCLA through basketball and academics. He and Steve had pooled their savings together, had found a little apartment on Zillow.

When they arrived outside Billy carried Steve over the threshold bridal style, giggling all the time.

They slept on an air mattress and lived out of boxes until they found good furniture second-hand.

Steve decorated the apartment, getting a lot of plants, and string lights, and vintage posters. It was cozy, blankets strewn about. They had a large shelf in the living room, had set up Billy’s mom’s old record player, sifted through 99 cent bins at the record store to find random ones, made fun of the terrible albums while they drank wine on the couch.

But the best part of this idyllic little California dream, was that Steve could be out.

They bought all kinds of clothes, dresses and overalls and skirts and jeans and high heels and anything they wanted, anything that made the happy.

They got to walk down the street, hand in hand with Billy, looking every bit how they want, and no one would bat an eye. There were actual weird things going on at the Venice Beach Boardwalk, things that drew the eye away from Steve, wearing something that would’ve been the gossip of Hawkins for months.

Steve felt so fucking free, in this beautiful little corner of Cali they had carved out with Billy.

[gaia-aviva]

Earlier in the evening, several pro-Israel supporters showed up at Hunter College to face off with people they accused of “supporting terrorism.”

“All these people are ignorant, uneducated and blindly following each other. It feels like we’re back in World War two,” said 17-year-old Jewish Upper East Sider Elena Bakhchi.

The two opposing sides engaged in screaming matches on the campus while cops warned demonstrators that they could face arrest for “unlawfully walking in a roadway.”

Across town, nearly 1,000 pro-Israel demonstrators gathered in Riverside Park in support of Jewish students at colleges like Columbia University.

The rally coincided with Yom HaShoah, the day of Holocaust remembrance.

Jewish Columbia students denounced an uptick in antisemitism they said they witnessed on their college campus.

“Today, we stand here 91 years and three months since Hitler was appointed the Chancellor of Germany and 79 years since the last death camp was liberated. Since then, we have all had two main responsibilities. Never forget. And never again,” Columbia sophomore Elisha Baker said. 

“Never forget is about the past. Never again is about today, and it’s about tomorrow. For us, this means doing everything in our power to prevent antisemitism from becoming normal in society again,” he continued. “I am here today because I am watching antisemitism become normal in my own backyard. For the first time in my life, it truly feels that never again is right now.” 

The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, compared the anti-Israel protests to “modern-day Nazis” in a shocking speech at the rally.

“Words are being weaponized to spread bigotry, to incite violence, to inflame the targeting of Jews. Columbia, Harvard and UCLA are new hotbeds of Nazi-like ideology, branding Israel as the root of all evil and the Jewish people is a global scourge,” Erdan said. 

He said the hypocrisy of protests shows they are not liberal activism but are antisemitic. 

“Did we see encampments to protest Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine? Did rioters barricade buildings to protest Assad’s brutality in Syria? Did we see Chinese students attacked because China is torturing Uyghirs? Were quads vandalized while Iran murdered women and protesters?” he asked, before answering his own question with “Of course not.”

By Jack Morphet, Alex Oliveira, Reuven Fenton, and Allie Griffin

Anti-Israel protesters vandalized a World War I memorial in Central Park on Monday and burned an American flag after a mob of more than 1,000 marchers was blocked by cops from reaching the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the star-studded Met Gala was in full swing.

At least one America-hating vandal torched Old Glory at the site of the 107th Infantry Memorial, the base of which was defaced with graffiti reading “Gaza” in large black letters. 

Others plastered the statue’s bronze soldiers with stickers of the Palestinian flag that read “Stop the Genocide. End the apartheid. Free Palestine.”

Some of the protesters climbed atop the infantrymen and waved Palestinian flags or draped them over the figures.

18A protester prepares to burn an American flag at a World War I memorial statue in Central Park.

[casorasi]

UCLA women rally from 22-down to stun No. 2 Oregon

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Cori Close emerged from the UCLA locker room with her shoes in her hand and a big smile on her face. UCLA women rally from 22-down to stun No. 2 Oregon

[sagiow]

Would you share a snippet of Peanuts & Crackerjacks with us? One solitary peanut, if you will ;)

Ah, the return to Mansion House Pharma (pre-PE4CHE5) about baseball that briefly pops back in my writing-boycotting summer brain every May when I return to the field and am reunited with our Jed Foster-lookalike umpire (I wonder if him and his ill-advised manbun will have finally parted ways this year?).

It’s mostly just dialogue at this point (surprise, surprise), here’s a handful:

They had all been lunching in Mansion House Pharma’s breakroom when Bridget Brannan burst in, a clipboard in hand. “Ah, perfect! My little rabbits all cozily gathered in their burrow: you make my trapping much easier.”

“What are we getting trapped for this time?” Jed asked with a frown.

“The annual DC Health charity softball tournament,” she answered, to a chorus of groans. “You know McBurney’s dead set on us having a team and beating Dixie Medical. And so far, only Percival, Charlotte and Dr. Diggs have put their name on the roster.”

“Centerfield’s mine, y’all,” Samuel called, leaning back in his seat.

“And I’m pitching,” chimed Charlotte.

“Pitching? In a co-ed tournament?” scoffed Hale.

She tilted her head at him. “I was a starter for UCLA both years we won the NCAA Women’s College World Series. I think I can manage.”

“That leaves eight spots open,” Bridget rallied. “Pick your poison.”

“Shortstop,” Jed and Mary both called at once, and looked at each other in surprise.

“Okay, I take back what I said earlier,” said Hale. “Mary, shortstop in a co-ed tournament?!”

“It’s been my position since I started playing when I was 10,” she explained. “Biggest Red Socks fan in my class. All my friends had Leonardo Dicaprio or Brad Pitt posters, I had Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez.”

“Boooooo Boston,” Henry called through his cupped hands.

Mary stared him down. “Yankees fan, I take it?”

“You know it,” he smirked. “27 World Series, three back-to-back in the 90s over your… zero? Bridget, I’ll take left field. Patrol with my man Sam here.”

“Thank you, Henry. Mary, Jed, we never settled: who takes what?”

“I can take second,” Jed said. “It’s easy shortstop.”

“We can share, swap innings,” Mary counter-offered. “Is that allowed, Bridget?”

“It’s charity slowpitch, dearie. You’ll all be eating chips and drinking beer on the bench while waiting to bat; I’ll go out on a limb and say you can swap positions. And play in a dinosaur suit if you’d be so inclined.”

Thanks for asking!

[brostateexam]

Why Are Women Less Likely Than Men to Support Sanders?

One of the central messages of Sanders’s campaign is the need to take on the political establishment — including the party whose nomination he is seeking. On the day before he won the Nevada caucuses, Sanders tweeted, “I’ve got news for the Republican establishment. I’ve got news for the Democratic establishment. They can’t stop us.”

That kind of message obviously appeals to people who are disaffected with the Democratic Party — but to people who don’t have a problem with the party, it can seem like an unnecessary risk. “I understand why the young people love Sanders — student debt, it’s a real problem,” said Grace Andrews, 79, who was waiting outside the Biden rally in Detroit with her grandson. “I just have a concern that he is not willing to make the compromises that are necessary in our political system, or work with people in the party who may not share his views.”

Women are especially likely to say that being a Democrat is an important part of who they are. According to our analysis of a Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape survey of likely primary voters administered from Feb. 20 to Feb 26, 63 percent of Democratic women say that their party affiliation is somewhat or very important to their identity, compared to 58 percent of Democratic men. That’s not an enormous difference, but it is statistically significant — it also lines up with other research that finds partisanship functions as a more important social identity for women than it does for men. Women over the age of 45 are especially likely (67 percent) to say being a Democrat is an important part of their identity.

Of course, not all women are turned off by the idea of radical changes to the system — including radical change to their own party. “It just feels like the Democratic Party has forgotten what it means to be the party of the working class,” said Diana Post, 30, who lives in Detroit and said she was torn between Warren and Sanders until Warren dropped out of the race. She now describes herself as a “big Sanders fan.” “We need someone more radical than what the establishment is putting forward, a candidate who can shake things up.”

Over the course of the primary, voters have been asked if they would prefer a candidate who agrees with them on the issues or a candidate who can beat Trump. According to the exit polls so far, women are likelier to be in the latter category: 65 percent of women say they would prefer a candidate who can defeat Trump, compared to 59 percent of men. That isn’t an overwhelming gap, to be sure, but it’s still noteworthy given that women make up a disproportionate share of the Democratic electorate. And in the primaries so far, voters who prioritize a candidate who can defeat Trump are disproportionately likely to support Biden.

That was where Ruth Vail, 77, said she had landed. She was standing on the University of Michigan quad, waiting with her 15-year-old grandson Leo to hear Sanders speak. But even though she was curious to hear what Sanders had to say, she said she’d probably be voting for Biden. “I think unfortunately it’s just going to be very easy to paint Sanders as an extremist, someone who’s a scary person who wants to change everything,” she said. “And I really just want a president who won’t keep me up at night, thinking about what he’s going to do next, thinking about who he’s going to appoint to the Supreme Court. The most important thing to me in this election is just ensuring that Donald Trump is no longer our president.” (x)

While I kind of figured Sanders’ message appealed to more men than women, I had no idea the skew was so big (about an 8% gap). And as the article points out, since women (and especially older women, who are likely to be more moderate and therefore already hesitant to back Sanders) make up a lot of the electorate for democratic nominations, that’s a pretty big handicap.

[elyssajakim1111]

Dear Magnificent One,

Welcome! 🌸

I'm Conversion Copywriter for conscious business, specializing in heart-centered storytelling. 

My areas of focus are:

- Writing empowering email copy that makes your subscribers feel seen (launch emails and welcome sequences).

- Creating uplifting, powerful sales page copy.

- Delivering positive, joyful facebook ad copy.

I view this work as a copywriting strategist as an abundant offering, helping you and your audience to claim prosperity and empowerment...

BIRTHED BY COMBINING WRITING WITH HEALING

Writing

I recently graduated from UCLA with a Master’s in Screenwriting. I focused on writing ethereal, striking feature films about women in heightened worlds.

Since 2014, I have written extensively on wellness, healing, and spirituality for publications such as Mind Body Green, The Local Rose, and The Numinous.

My cultural, critical, and journalistic writing has been published in MUBI Notebook, Theatre for a New Audience 360 Guide to Plays, and iMedia Connection.

Check out my writing archive on the "WRITING PAGE" if you're keen!

Healing

Since 2014, I have served as a healer, providing Reiki, intuitive energy healing, and a connection to the goddess and Divine Feminine across the United States.

I am a devotee Paramhansa Yogananda.

I am also co-founder of NAMAH, an ecological Chinese medicinal herb farm that serves as a yogic retreat and education center in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I believe in the power of holistic, small, and intentional businesses like yours to move mountains...

As a Screenwriter and Healer, I bring my cinematic, artful storytelling style into creating compelling, compassionate marketing experiences that convert because they have heart.

Rather than relying on “marketing fear tactics,” I write to empower to your audience and teach you how to do the same.

THIS IS INTUITIVE MARKETING

My writing has a sensitivity and compassion for your audience's challenges so that you can help them grow.

I work with conscious business, because it makes this world better.

I write to the heart, because I want your audience to feel seen.

With writing that feels like a warm hug or a sorely-needed rallying cry, Nourishing and nurturing your relationships with a good dose of humor and positivity. :)

Intuitive Marketing keeps you from feeling icky about marketing...

This work’s highest intention is to help your audience uncover what Paramhansa Yogananda called, “The deathless Self within.”

I believe good writing that speaks to your soul can help you take agency.

I know that good writing has saved my life, and it’s my highest intention to return the favor, by blessing my readers with love. In fact, I sent this page love for you to receive when you read it!

There’s no gimick here. Simply a true love for your audience.

Speaking of true love, I wanted to talk to you about...

LOVE LETTERS:

I love emails because they're like good love letters.

I have a history with love letters.

I’ve been writing since age 14, when my high school drama club crush inspired a year full of sonnets that escalated into an actual love letter.

Sadly, the feeling wasn’t mutual.

But a good friend told me that at least the heartbreak could feed my writing...so then the sonnets got angry. And then, you know, I moved on. I started writing... other weird things...

Like stream of consciousness plays about repressed robots.

Like an undergraduate senior thesis at Harvard called The Dressing Room, about boudoirs and dressing rooms in cinema.

Like articles on love, empowerment, and spirituality for top wellness publications...

Like movies about sisters, depression, faeries, and healing set in the Pacific Northwest.

...So I guess you could say I never looked back...

I didn’t let an unrequited love letter stop me.

Don’t let your writing pains stop you. Turn them into the compost of your writing garden.

WORK WITH ME:

If you feel you need some loving expansion for your business's copy, send me an email at elyssa@elyssajakim.com. It will be so fun and powerful to connect!

Enjoy the day that the divine has become.

Blessings and Joy to you!

Love,

Elyssa

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Los Angeles: Human Rights Day March & Rally 

Tuesday, December 10 - 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm

Gather at Consulate General of El Salvador, 3450 Wilshire Blvd Suite 250, Los Angeles

On December 10th, progressive organizations in Southern CA will host a march and rally in commemoration of International Human Rights Day to highlight the struggles of migrants, refugees, indigenous people, and displaced communities impacted by state violence and war.  The U.S. currently spends $717 billion on military defense and only $60 billion on education.  We are coming together to build a movement to Resist US-led War & Militarism and we want to invite you to participate in this year’s activity. Our Demands* - End U.S. Militarism at home and abroad! - Defund DHS (US Department of Homeland Security)! - Divest from Boeing and other military contractors​​​​​​​! - Stop military recruitment of students and youth! - Redirect funds for housing, jobs, and education! What:  Human Rights Day March & Rally When: December 10th, 2019 - Tuesday at 6:00PM starting at Consulate of El Salvador marching with a few stops.  Total Distance is about 1 mile. To get involved, please contact us as soon as possible and fill out this form https://tinyurl.com/D10-2019.   For more info:  www.resistusledwarmovement.com #HumanRightsDayLA  #ResistUSledWar  #BuildJustPeace Co-sponsored by: AIM SoCal - American Indian Movement SoCal BAYAN USA-Southern CA BORDER ANGELS CISPES- Los Angeles Chapter - Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador Human Rights Alliance for Child Refugees & Families Guatemaya LA Mujeres Resistiendo International Migrants Alliance - IMA in Southern CA Me Too Survivors' March International   Occupy Ice L.A. Party for Socialism and Liberation - PSL LA PUSO SoCal - Philippine US Solidarity Organization Struggle - La Lucha for Socialism Unión del Barrio Los Angeles We Are All America Endorsed by: CODEPINK: Women For Peace (Los Angeles) Colectivo Guatemalteco IDEPSCA Gabriela Los Angeles Long Beach Area Peace Network Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition Migrante USA-Los Angeles National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles @Progressive Asian Network for Action Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) - UCLA Student Labor Advocacy Project of UCLA Unión Centroamericana - UNICA de UCLA _______________ Día de los Derechos Humanos Marcha y Rally (Titular principal) Resistir el movimiento de guerra liderado por Estados Unidos (subtítulo) 10 de diciembre, 6 p.m. Frente al Consulado de El Salvador 3250 Wilshire Blvd., Los Ángeles Únase a nosotros para conmemorar el Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos para levantar la lucha y la resistencia de los migrantes, refugiados, pueblos indígenas y comunidades desplazadas afectadas por la violencia y la guerra. Estados Unidos actualmente gasta $717 mil millones en defensa militar y solo $ 60 mil millones en educación. Nuestras demandas Desfinanciar el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional  (DHS)! ¡Fin al militarismo estadounidense en el país y en el extranjero! ¡Alto al reclutamiento militar de estudiantes y jóvenes! ¡Desinvierta de Boeing y otros contratistas militares! Redireccionar fondos para vivienda, trabajo y educación! Para más información: www.resistusledwarmovement.com

[seasonson5th]

The G-spot doesn’t exist

There is no magic button. We’re here to correct the record—and to apologize.

Once upon a time, that time being 1982, there was sex. And then, suddenly, there was sex.

The difference? A teensy half-inch ribbed nub on the upper front wall of your vagina. Scientists—and magazines (hi) and books and sex-toy companies and movies and TV shows and your roommates and your sex-ed teacher—reported that it was a universal key to The Mysterious Female Orgasm. And thus began the era when you were supposed to be able to say “it blew my mind” to your girlfriends at brunch.

Or was it three inches wide? Farther down, near your vulva? Slick instead of ribbed? Kinda springy to the touch?

Whatever, it was it. And fuck if we all didn’t work hard to find our own. Back in 1982, Cosmo told women to get there by “squatting” so it would be easier “to stick one or two fingers inside the vagina” and make the necessary “come-hither motion.” A 2020 Google search turns up thousands of road maps (“where is the G-spot?” has been searched more times than Michaels Jordan and Jackson). That cute-adjacent guy you slept with in college tried the classic pile-drive maneuver, to middling success.

🩸THE G-SPOT IS ALLEGEDLY…
🩸🩸“One inch in.” 
🩸🩸🩸“Three inches in.”
🩸🩸🩸🩸“Barely in.”
🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸“Near my cervix.”
🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸“The roof of my uterus.”
🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸“The back right of my vagina.”
🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸“In a little pocket of space up near my belly button.”🩸

But it must not matter, because the G-spot economy is booming: G-spot vibrators, G-spot condoms, G-spot lube, G-spot workshops, and, for the particularly daring and/or Goop-inspired, $1,800 G-spot shots meant to plump yours for extra pleasure.

Hell, even Merriam-Webster is in on it: The G-spot is a “highly erogenous mass of tissue” in every dictionary it prints.

So then why, when we talked to the woman who helped “discover” it, did she tell us we’ve all been obsessed with the wrong thing?

THAT WOMAN IS BEVERLY WHIPPLE, PHD. SHE AND A TEAM of researchers officially coined the term “G-spot” in the early ’80s. They named the thing, which they described as a “sensitive” “small bean,” for German researcher Ernst Gräfenberg (yeah, a dude). And just like that, your most frustrating fake body part was born.

Honestly, it all got out of hand from there, says Whipple. Her team wasn’t saying that each and every woman has a G-spot. (“Women are capable of experiencing sexual pleasure many different ways,” she insists to Cosmo now. “Everyone is unique.”) And despite that bean analogy, they didn’t mean it was a spot spot. They were talking about an “area” that could simply make some women feel good. But the media (hi again!) preferred the neat and tidy version and ran with it like a sexual cure-all.

Researchers did too. In 2012, a study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine proclaimed that of course the G-spot was real. It just wasn’t a bean. It was actually an 8.1- by 3.6-millimeter “rope-like” piece of anatomy, a “blue” and “grape-like” sac. This revelation came from gynecologic surgeon Adam Ostrzenski, MD, PhD, after his study of an 83-year-old woman’s cadaver. (He went on to sell “G-spotplasty” treatments to women.) Over the years, lots of other researchers found the G-spot to be lots of other things: “a thick patch of nerves,” “the urethral sponge,” “a gland,” “a bunch of nerves.”

For the most part, though, the thing that women were supposed to find has remained a mystery to the experts telling them to find it. Dozens of trials used surveys, pathologic specimens, imaging, and biochemical markers to try to pinpoint the elusive G-spot once and for all.

In 2006, a biopsy of women’s vaginas turned up nothing.

In 2012, a group of doctors reviewed every single piece of known data on record and found no proof that the G-spot exists.

In 2017, in the most recent and largest postmortem study to date done on 13 cadavers, researchers looked again: still nothing.

🩸🩸THE G-SPOT IS ALLEGEDLY…
“Really deep in there, not close to the opening of my vagina at all.”
“IDK.”
“My clitoris.”
“By my butt.”
“Behind the clitoris.”
“Right inside my vagina and to the left.”
“In different places.”🩸🩸

“It’s not like pushing an elevator button or a light switch,” asserts Barry Komisaruk, PhD, a neuroscientist at Rutgers University. “It’s not a single thing.”

“I don’t think we have any evidence that the G-spot is a spot or a structure,” says Nicole Prause, PhD, a neuroscientist who studies orgasms and sexual arousal. “I’ve never understood why it was interpreted as some new sexual organ. You can’t standardize a vagina—there is no consistency across women as to where exactly we experience pleasure.”

Sure, she says, some women might have an area inside their vaginas that contains a bunch of smaller, super-sensitive areas. But some women say that when they follow Cosmo’s old two-finger come-hither advice, they feel discomfort or like they have to pee. Others feel nothing at all. Because for them, there’s nothing there.

NOW FOR THE TRICKIEST PART OF this story—and, TBH, the reason this is even a story at all. Despite the lack of scientific evidence, there are still lots of G-spot believers, many of them super-smart, well-meaning sex educators. They’re a pretty heated group (one hung up on us when we called for an interview) and not...entirely...wrong. Their point is: If a woman believes she’s found her G-spot, that should outweigh any lack of science. And specifically, if someone claims to have experienced G-spot pleasure, it seems “bizarre” to shut her down, says Kristen Mark, PhD, a sex educator at the University of Kentucky. “That feels like going backward.”

Fair. It’s just that, as Prause points out, “women deserve accurate information about their bodies.” Can’t we have our pleasure—and the truth too?

As Prause said (and this bears repeating), for some women, there is sexual sensitivity where the G-spot is supposed to be. But for others, there’s none. Or it’s to the left. Or it’s in a few places. And that’s kind of the whole point. It’s all okay. It can all feel good.

What everyone can agree on is that we need more research. Women’s sexual health is vastly understudied, and the scientific hurdles are borderline absurd. In 2015, Prause tried to get a trial going at UCLA that would study orgasms in women who were, you know, actually alive. The board heard her out but wanted a promise that her test subjects “wouldn’t climax” because they didn’t like the optics of women orgasming in their labs. (As you’ve already guessed, the study wasn’t approved.)

So yeah, a new kind of thinking about female pleasure is going to take a minute for certain people to get on board with. Like those brunch friends who go on and on about G-spot rapture. And like men, who might love the idea of the G-spot best of all. A G-spot orgasm requires penetration, which just so happens to be the way most guys prefer to get off. “If you’ve got a penis, it would be super convenient if the way the person with a vagina has pleasure is for you to put your penis in their vagina,” says Emily Nagoski, PhD, author of Come as You Are, a book that explores the science of female sexuality. Related: 80 percent of the men in Cosmo’s survey said they believe every woman has a G-spot; nearly 60 percent called it the “best way” for a female partner to achieve pleasure. (“Once you rally enough experience like myself, you can find it on every girl,” one supremely confident guy told us.)

Just like it did for women, the G-spot gave men a universal performance metric and the “cultural message that pleasure for women happens by pounding on their vaginas with your penis,” says Nagoski.

Things were this close to going in a much better direction. “In the early ’80s, there was research that was really putting the clitoris front and center,” explains Nagoski. “Then along came the G-spot research, creating this pressure for women to be orgasmic from vaginal stimulation even though most women’s bodies just aren’t wired that way. And if you really think about why vaginal stimulation matters so much, it’s because it puts the focus on male pleasure.”

GO AHEAD AND LET THAT SINK in while we gear up to talk about the fallout. Not only the sexual frustration (although that, definitely that) but also the giant emotional burden the G-spot unwittingly dropped on all of us. Turns out, the thing that was supposed to awaken and equalize our sex lives came with a really shitty side effect: shame.

More than half of the women in Cosmo’s survey reported feeling inadequate or frustrated knowing that others are able to orgasm in a way they can’t. Eleven percent said this made them avoid sex entirely. “I have friends who say they always climax from intercourse alone and they’re like, ‘You just haven’t found it yet,’” says Alyssa, a Cosmo reader. “It’s like they’re the lucky ones.”

That’s why on one recent Tuesday, another Cosmo reader, Beth, found herself sitting in a room that looked oddly like a vagina—low, pink light, a candle burning softly nearby—getting her first round of G-spot homework. She and her husband had hired a sex therapist to help them feel more in sync sexually. Basically, he wanted it a lot more than she did, probably because she was still waiting for something...bigger. “I can have a clitoral orgasm,” she says. “But knowing that there’s something better, I wanted to experience that.”

🩸🩸THE G-SPOT IS ALLEGEDLY…
“Just go up with your finger and make a G.” 
“Slightly out of reach.”
“It depends.”
“On the outside of the labia.”
“Part of the lady parts.”
“A secret place.”🩸🩸

The couple’s take-home tasks were a checklist of “sexy” moves, designed to help them find Beth’s G-spot so she could have The Orgasm. “The night we did doggy-style, it felt...god, there was the sound of skin smacking and my husband asking me if it was working. It was terrible.” (We fact-checked this with Beth’s husband. Oh yeah, “it sucked.”) After that, they gave up.

Other couples are still searching: 22 percent of guys say that finding a woman’s G-spot is the number one goal of sex, which helps explain the 31 percent of women who say they’re dealing with exasperated partners. Prause worries about that. She says: “You’ll hear guys say things like, ‘My last girlfriend wasn’t this much work,’ or ‘You take a long time to orgasm,’ or ‘This worked for the last person I slept with.’ That makes women question if they’re normal. And that, we hate.”

WHICH IS WHY WE’RE CALLING OFF THE SEARCH. WE’RE done with the damn “spot” and we’re sorry, again, that we ever brought it up. And actually: Unless sex researchers make a surprisingly major breakthrough, Cosmo won’t be publishing any more G-spot sex positions or “how to find it” guides.

“What would truly be revolutionary for women’s sex lives is to engage with what research has found all along: the best predictors of sexual satisfaction are intimacy and connection,” adds Debby Herbenick, PhD, a professor at Indiana University School of Public Health and a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute.

The science world is revolutionizing, too, trying to figure out how to rebrand the G-spot into something more (and by “more,” we mean actually) accurate. Whipple stands by her “area.” Italian researchers have suggested renaming it the somewhat less sexy “clitoral vaginal urethral complex.” Herbenick has her own ideas: “First of all, it should not be named after a man. It’s a female body we’re talking about, and just because a man wrote about it doesn’t mean he was the first to understand or experience it.” But anyway, she’d go with “zone.”

As for us, we’re going to kick off this new era with a 100 percent G-spot-free piece of smarter, wiser sex advice, courtesy of Nagoski: “If it feels good, you’re doing it right.” Call that whatever you want.

WELL THIS IS A BUMMER...

YEAH, IT FOOLED US TOO