Third Estate Sunday Review

The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Jim's World

Two weeks ago, the edition included one and only one article: "TV: Biden and Handler privilege."

Ava and C.I. wrote it.

It was published on September 16th. C.I. explained in that morning's snapshot:

People need to be listening right now. It doesn't matter what you think, honestly. This is how Joe is being seen and you need to register it regardless of what you think. How important is this issue to me? I'm about to piss off Jim. I'm sick, I've got a nasty cold. But Ava and I wrote our piece for THIRD late Saturday night so it could go up because it's an important topic -- it's largely about this topic. And, hold on a second, because I'm gong to log onto a computer and publish it (the snapshot is dicated).

Alright, it's up: "TV: Biden and Handler privilege" and it addresses the reality that no one wants to talk about. How Joe violated the rules of the debate -- they were noted by David Muir at the start. How Joe had spoken of healthcare first and then had been allowed three rebuttals. It was finally Julian Castro's turn to speak for the first time on the topic and Joe, in violation of the rules, interrupts Julian's time to speak for his fifth time.

It's White privilege, stop pretending otherwise. The Anglo White media started whining about tone and fairness but they never seemed to grasp that Joe was in violation of the rules, outlined at the star of the debate by Muir, and that Joe interrupted Julian's time. Joe did that throughout the debate. Despite Muir declaring that those who interrupted would have time taken from them, no punishment for Joe. He was rude and entitled and it's about damn time the chatty Anglo White pundits explained why they never bothered to note that Joe speaking during Julian's turn was a violation of the rules.

I wasn't pissed off.

I would become embarrassed.

But I wasn't pissed.

First, we could have published other things that day if we wanted.

C.I. putting up the piece she and Ava wrote didn't prevent that.

Second, it was a time issue. The topic was timely and that's why they wrote it. It should have been up on time.

More to the point, the edition should have been up.

Yes, it should have been up for time reasons.

But that's not what I mean. I am embarrassed because Ava and C.I. showed up with an entire edition basically. They were sick and maybe I wasn't paying attention, maybe they were a little off their game because they were sick. However it happened, I was wrong.

They had a video to highlight for the week -- Joy Reid on this topic. Joy Reid? Not a fan and I probably shut down for that reason. When C.I. highlighted it at THE COMMON ILLS and I streamed it, I saw that we should have highlighted it here.

Ava and C.I. had two truest statements regarding Julian Castro's interaction with Joe Biden. They had an article proposal for how Joe's treatment of Castro tied into his earlier treatment of people of color like Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. They basically laid out an entire edition.

I didn't see it. And that's partly because I didn't get it. I didn't get how rude Joe was, I didn't get how the press rudeness that followed was basically telling the Latino to shut the f**k up, that, as a Latino, he didn't matter.

C.I. highlighted (in at least two snapshots, maybe three) Ruben Navarrette Jr.'s "Julian Castro is no ageist, he's just practicing presidential politics while Hispanic" (USA TODAY) and, when reading that, I finally got it.

So, no, I wasn't pissed. I was, however, embarrassed. I didn't get it. It took me a bit to get it. And when I didn't get it, I shot down an entire edition that would have been so easy to do because Ava and C.I. had mapped the whole thing out.

Since I do check out the statistics each week, I should probably note that "TV: Biden and Handler privilege" struck a huge recognition chord. Not only did we get a ton of e-mails on it, it is now the most read piece of 2019 at this site.

When women write memoirs (Ava and C.I.)

If you can't say something nice . . . don't say anything at all?

We've never practiced that -- we couldn't cover media if we were ruled by that bromide.

But Ty tells us about an e-mail that came up. The e-mailer assumes Demi Moore has written a bad book because we haven't commented on it.

The book in question is entitled INSIDE OUT. It was published last Tuesday.

Demi Moore‏Verified account @justdemi Sep 24

Today’s the day! #InsideOutBook is officially out. Available wherever books are sold.

101 replies47 retweets633 likes

Here, we have reviewed many female authors. Not actresses, however. When we started covering books by women, we were covering musicians. We had already noted before that how few books there were about women musicians. There are probably 80 books, at least, on Bruce Springsteen, the same for Bob Dylan, the same for Jim Morrison, the same for . . .

Men get books and books written about them.

Women?

Not so much.

Before the 90s, two female music pioneers had a books -- plural, more than two -- written about them: Janis Joplin and Diana Ross. That was it for what's called 'the rock era.' You can argue Barbra Streisand -- however, those books dealt with her movies and her celebrity. THE SECOND BARBRA STREISAND ALBUM is a classic album -- find the book that ever managed to note that reality before William J. Mann's 2012 book HELLO GORGEOUS: BECOMING BARBRA STREISAND.

In the years since 1990, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell have been the subject of numerous books.

That's three more. That's hardly enough. We noted the shortage here and we noted that it was sexism, that women are not part of the canon because of gender, that their efforts are overlooked or dismissed.

So, after making that criticism for some time, when women began telling their own stories in larger numbers, we saw that as a good thing and we covered books for that reason.

We were happy to cover Ruth Pointer's "STILL SO EXCITED (Ava and C.I.)," and Ann and Nancy Wilson's KICKING AND DREAMING ("Ann and Nancy Wilson share the true story (Ava and C.I.)"). We were less excited to cover Linda Ronstadt's memoir ["She sang so much, she wrote so little (Ava and C.I.)"]. And Carole King should have stuck to writing music because her book was a joke ["Carole King's Conditioned Role and Desire (Ava and C.I)"]. But even a really bad book -- see "Trapped in an AA meeting with Judy Collins (Ava and C.I.)" -- at least brought the spotlight on women for a moment. In fact, Judy's attacks on Joni Mitchell led us to review the sexist and factually challenged book about Joni Mitchell by the laughable David Yaffee [see "Put The Bitch In Her Place (Ava and C.I.)"]. Judy's lied about Joni forever but when Joni took ill, Judy really thought Joni was going to die and so she upped the level of her lies -- as a whisper campaign, of course, she always does it as a whisper campaign. But in promoting his bad book, David started talking about what he didn't put in the book including Judy's lie -- only David's such a dumb ass that he didn't realize Judy was lying.

Are her lips moving?

She's lying.

We stopped sometime ago with those reviews.

We don't think things are perfect but there have been improvements.

In fact, Patti Smith just released her latest memoir last week, Debbie Harry releases her first this Tuesday, Carly Simon's second memoir (TOUCHED BY THE SUN) comes out this month as well. This is great. And Patti and Carly, with their previous memoirs, are best selling authors. Many overly praised male musicians have released books in the last ten years and can't make the same claim. Their books didn't sell.

But, again, we were never covering memoirs by actresses.

Actresses get more books -- many, many more -- than female musicians. There are numerous books on actress Barbra Streisand, on Jane Fonda, on Carole Lombard, on Mae West, on Bette Davis, on Joan Crawford, on Judy Garland (as with Barbra, very few books on Judy have focused on her singing), on Doris Day (again, most books focus on the acting, not the singing), on Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and on Cher (and grasp that it wasn't until Cher was making movies in the 80s that books about her began appearing -- her recording career has been covered in a great article in GOLDMINE but not so much in books), etc.

Contrast that with one of the most gifted and one of the most enduring female singers to this day: the late Cass Elliot. There really is only one book devoted to Cass and it's an import -- a strong selling import but a UK book none the less -- Eddi Fiegel's DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME. That's really it. Cass was a member of the 60s supergroup The Mamas and the Papas. They had hits with "Monday, Monday," "California Dreamin'," "Dedicated To The One I Love," "Dream A Little Dream Of Me," "Look Through My Window," "Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon)," "I Saw Her Again," "Words Of Love," "Creeque Alley" and "Safe In My Garden." Solo, Cass' hits included "Make Your Own Kind Of Music," "California Earthquake," "It's Getting Better," "New World Coming" and "The Good Times Are Coming." She lived an exciting life, she interacted with her peers, she should be the subject of a film. But she's only got one book devoted to her.

This is a good time to mention the other Mama in the group, Michelle Phillips. Michelle's tried for years to get a movie made about the band. And in CALIFORNIA DREAMIN', she writes of Cass and the band and does so in a wonderful manner. CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' remains one of the better memoirs written in the last fifty years about a musical act. If you've never checked it out, make a point to search for it.

Back to Demi.

Demi has written a strong book as well. We'd call it "unflinching."

We know Demi and like her. Since an e-mail raised the issue of the book, we'll note that it's a gripping read and Demi is brutally honest.

About herself.

Ashton Kutcher seems to feel that he needs to respond. Ashton, just sit your ass down. Demi was very kind in her book to you. She didn't name the two people that you had threesomes with. She didn't describe them. We all know who they are. And if you feel the need to attack Demi, that could come out. Demi's not going to be hurt by it coming out. You will be. Your career is already iffy at this point. You've done enough damage so just sit your tired ass down and we can all pretend that you and Mila have a monogamous relationship and that you aren't sleeping with others. Or try to embarrass Demi and we can have the honest conversation that you've never wanted to have.

Demi has nothing to be embarrassed about with regards to INSIDE OUT. It's a strong book and a gripping read. We highly recommend it.

Music video

We agree with Kat and Elaine, "For What It's Worth" is a great song by Stevie Nicks (she wrote the song with Mike Campbell).

This edition's playlist

1) Stevie Nicks' STAND BACK.

2) Taylor Swift's LOVER.

3) Cat Powers' WANDERER.

4) Sammy Davis Jr.'s I GOTTA RIGHT TO SWING.

5) Dionne Warwick's SHE'S BACK.

6) Sam Smith's THE THRILL OF IT ALL.

7) Cowboy Junkies' AT THE END OF PATHS TAKEN.

8) Mavis Staples' WE GET BY.

9) James Blake's ASSUME FORM.

10) Judy Garland's ALONE.

Women veterans deserve better; change the culture at the VA

DAV issued the following Thursday:

Joy J. Ilem Photo — Joy J. Ilem, National Legislative Director

Statement from Joy Ilem
“Last week, allegations were brought by a woman veteran who reported she was sexually assaulted by a fellow patient at the Washington DC Medical Center while waiting for her appointment. The veteran—who happens to be the senior policy advisor on the Congressional Women Veterans Task Force charged with promoting inclusivity and equitable access to resources, benefits, and health care for women veterans—was carrying a copy of draft bill to combat sexual assault and harassment at the time of the incident.

It is absolutely unacceptable that a veteran should be unable to access their earned care without risk of harassment or assault, and it paints a very real picture of a culture that, in many cases, continues to stand as a barrier to women seeking care through the VA. Women veterans who choose to utilize their earned VA benefits and health care deserve the same expectation of safety and respect as their male counterparts. This type of behavior is never tolerable, but it is perhaps even more egregious when one considers it was perpetrated by another veteran.

For years, DAV has worked to bring this issue to light, advocating for real culture change at the VA. We challenged the VA to lead the way in changing their culture into one of inclusivity in our comprehensive women veterans report—Women Veterans: The Long Journey Home—released in 2014, and again in our updated report—Women Veterans: The Journey Ahead—released last fall. Sadly though, as we work toward change, incidents like these continue to occur.

The VA has done tremendous work at many facilities to create an environment in which women veterans feel secure, respected and well cared for. But we regularly hear from DAV members and the wider veteran community that this simply is not the standard across the country. This most recent incident goes to show the urgency with which the VA must act to ensure the safety of its women veteran population. VA leadership must address these discrepancies and prioritize this rapidly growing population immediately by holding its facilities to a much higher standard, ensuring women veterans are shown the respect they have earned through their service.”

UNAMI Welcomes the Government of Iraq’s Efforts to Combat Gender-based Violence

From UNAMI:

Baghdad, 29 September 2019 - On the occasion of the Islamic Day for Opposing Violence against Women, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) welcomed the efforts of the Iraqi government to combat gender-based violence, including domestic violence, and reaffirmed continued UN support towards achieving this.

At an event in Baghdad under the auspices of His Eminence Ammar Al-Hakim, Deputy Special Representative for Iraq of the United Nations Secretary-General Alice Walpole noted Iraq’s ongoing constructive engagement with the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which includes a review of Iraq’s commitments to combatting discrimination in the form of violence.

She particularly welcomed the current efforts of both the Office of the President of the Republic of Iraq and the Prime Minister to support the development of an Anti-Domestic Violence Law that, in line with the Iraqi Constitution, would protect the rights of survivors, as well as those at risk, of domestic violence; would provide them with effective legal remedies; and would contribute towards ending impunity for those who carry out such abuse.

The United Nations in Iraq will continue to support the government in its efforts to protect and promote the rights of women to be free of violence in all its forms, and to create the conditions in which women and girls are fully empowered to enjoy their rights and freedoms, Ms. Walpole underlined.

****************

For more information, please contact: Mr. Samir Ghattas, Director of Public Information/Spokesperson

United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Phone: +964 790 193 1281, Email: ghattass@un.org
or the UNAMI Public Information Office: unami-information@un.org

Rep. Susan Davis Votes to Restore Consumer and Worker Rights

US House Rep Susan Davis' office issued the following:

Washington, September 20, 2019

Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA-53) voted to restore the rights of consumers and workers by prohibiting the enforcement of mandatory, pre-dispute arbitration (“forced arbitration”) provisions in contracts involving consumers, employment, antitrust, and civil rights disputes. The Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act restores access to the courts for millions of American consumers and employees who are currently locked out by forced arbitration.

“Forced arbitration is a rigged system that benefits companies and corporations at the expense of consumers, workers, and small businesses,” said Rep. Davis, a cosponsor of the FAIR Act. “The House voted to restore these rights and give millions of Americans the right to their day in court.”

Most companies bury forced arbitration clauses deep in the fine print of take-it-or-leave-it consumer and employment contracts, which many consumers and employees don’t even notice. For millions of consumers and employees, the pre-condition – whether or not they are aware – of obtaining a basic service or product, such as a bank account, a cell phone, a credit card, or even a job, is that they must agree to resolve any disputes in private arbitration.

According to a report from CNBC, “81 of the biggest 100 companies in America have put legal clauses in the fine print of their customer agreements that bar consumers from suing them in federal court and instead force victims to pursue a private dispute resolution method called arbitration, where they argue their case outside of the court system.”

Often the forced arbitration clauses include provisions granting the corporation the ability to choose the arbitrator and also stipulating what arbitration rules apply – in effect, giving the corporation quite

literally the role of the judge, the jury, and the law.

The FAIR Act restores the private arbitration system to the original intent of the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act – providing it as a voluntary, alternative process for resolving disputes, primarily for those with relatively equal bargaining power.

This bill is supported by a broad coalition of more than 70 public interest, labor, consumer, civil rights, and advocacy organizations, including Public Citizen, Consumer Reports, Earthjustice, Alliance for Justice, the American Association of Justice, the Communications Workers of America, the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights, the NAACP, and the American Antitrust Institute.