Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 119

Donald Trump’s new legal team comes straight from Sean Hannity’s greenroom

Joseph diGenova (Credit: Getty/Alex Wong)

As special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference gets closer to President Donald Trump, he is shaking up his defense team. Fox News reports that as part of an ongoing shakeup that included the departure of lead lawyer John Dowd, the president’s legal team is adding Victoria Toensing. Toensing joins a group that includes her husband, Joseph diGenova, hired earlier in the week, and Jay Sekulow. All three share a common theme: Each was hired after making regular appearances on Fox News in which they vigorously defended the president and attacked the Russia probe.

This is the legal team Fox News host Sean Hannity built. As Fox has remade itself as a pro-Trump propaganda machine, working to delegitimize Mueller’s probe and defend the president on all counts, the network has brought on several lawyers who try to put a legal gloss on its tactics. These figures are especially prevalent on Hannity’s program, which has led the charge in denouncing the special counsel. Trump appears to be tearing down his legal team and reassembling it with lawyers pulled from the Fox greenroom.

Sekulow, a longtime fixture on right-wing TV who joined Trump’s team in June, was reportedly hired to serve as “the omnipresent TV face of Trump’s defense” because the president liked the way that Sekulow, who had characterized the president as the victim of a “deep state bureaucracy” and a “shadow government,” defended Trump in cable news appearances.

Toensing and diGenova probably have their jobs for the same reason — both are conservative activists who regularly use Fox appearances to offer a staunch defense of the president and lash out at the president’s investigators in ways that mirror Trump’s own attacks on the FBI and special counsel. (Toensing has made at least 21 appearances on the network since mid-October, while diGenova has appeared at least 12 times over the same period, according to Media Matters data.) DiGenova has argued that Trump was framed by FBI officials and the Justice Department while Toensing has called for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate Mueller himself. Adding them to the team may signal that the president wants his lawyers to engage in a scorched-earth offensive.

Trump, who watches hours of cable news each day, has long had an affinity for television personalities, with several playing key roles as campaign advisers or joining the administration after his inauguration.

Trump’s legal team shakeup is part of a broader pattern, in which Trump is becoming increasingly confident in his role, removing senior staff he believes were thrust upon him, and bringing in more cable news personalities. National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and national security adviser H.R. McMaster have been replaced by CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow and Fox News contributor John Bolton, whose TV hits the president reportedly enjoys, with Fox host Pete Hegseth reportedly a leading contender to replace Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.

Some of the president’s key outside advisers are also cable news propagandists whose programs Trump regularly watches. These include Fox’s Jeanine Pirro, who was reportedly interviewed for deputy attorney general during the transition and blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions during an Oval Office meeting with Trump and top White House staff last year; Fox contributor Newt Gingrich, who was reportedly a finalist to be Trump’s running mate; and Hannity, with whom the president regularly consults. Notably, Hannity has previously retained both Sekulow and diGenova as his personal lawyers.

But while the president has frequently hired cable news personalities, they have not found great success — former Fox News contributors K.T. McFarland and Monica Crowley both bowed out from high-profile Trump administration roles due to scandal, while cable news fixture Sebastian Gorka was forced out of the White House in part due to a concern that he had “no clear duties.”

Trump may think that filling his legal team with cable news personalities is a great idea, but it has one clear downside. Sekulow has “virtually no experience in law enforcement investigations or white-collar matters,” diGenova “is not expected to take a lead role” but instead to “serve as an outspoken player for the president,” and Toensing’s addition is seen as “a sign that Trump wants to flip the script and investigate his investigators.” Who is going to do the actual work of defending the president as the Mueller investigation takes the debate from the greenroom to the courtroom?

Five things parents can do every day to help develop STEM skills from a young age

(Credit: AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Educators and researchers agree early literacy experiences are important for children’s cognitive and language development. For the past 30 years there has been a strong movement to foster children’s literacy skills. This has resulted in an abundance of information on how parents can do this by reading books, singing songs and nursery rhymes, playing word games and noticing print.

This is a good thing and should continue, given the importance of early literacy skills in learning to read, and how this leads to later success in school and life.

But in addition to early literacy skills, we should also be promoting early STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills. Early childhood is the natural starting point for STEM learning, as young children are curious and want to explore their environments.

Children are very capable STEM learners, and their knowledge and skills are often greatly underestimated by educators and parents.

1. Encourage children to notice things

Notice things in your environment such as changes in the seasons, new buds on plants, or the way things move in the wind. Children are often more observant than adults, especially when we are busy thinking about work and all the other things we need to do. Share your observations with your children and use the language associated with observations, such as noticing and observing.

Observation is the most fundamental scientific process. We form hypotheses and gather data from observations. With practice, children can move from noticing general features to more detailed or scientific features.

2. Encourage children to describe things they see and do

Ask children to describe the attributes or features of things they see and do. When your child sees a ladybug, ask them to describe it — what colour, shape and size is it?

Similarly, when your child is building something, ask them to describe what they are doing (or did). You can restate what they describe and extend on their words, increasing their vocabulary and confidence in using STEM language.

Only children who have had certain types of language socialisation are likely to choose to study or learn STEM in later life. Use words like predict, experiment and measure.

3. Ask ‘what’ rather than ‘why’ questions

Ask questions that focus on what your child can see or do, rather than why. This will allow your child to confidently answer questions and experience success. “What is happening to the bubbles?” is much easier for them to respond to than “Why do bubbles stick together?”, and promotes further discussion between you and your child.

We want to extend conversations and learning, not shut it down with questions that children (and often parents) can’t answer. It’s fine to later find out why bubbles stick together or any other why question, but in the first instance, ask questions children can answer.

4. Encourage children to count using one-to-one correspondence

Children need to be able to do more than count. Children need to know one-to-one correspondence: that “one” equals one object, “two” equals two objects, “three” equals three objects, and so on.

Parents can easily develop this skill by asking children to, for example, collect five pegs for the washing, or two eggs for the cake mixture. Or by asking how many bags of shopping there are or how many letters are in the mailbox.

Board games are great for helping children understand one-to-one correspondence — especially when they move their counter along the board according to the number rolled or spun. Think back to arguments you may have had over where Monopoly tokens were supposed to be!

5. Encourage children to think about space around them

Encourage children to think about where they are in space. If they are looking at a map of the zoo, ask them where they are in relation to the kangaroos or lions. When driving to swimming lessons, ask them to give directions on how to get there.

Or, ask them to remember landmarks when driving somewhere you go regularly, like grandma’s place. Could your child recognise your house from a picture taken from the road, can they describe where their bedroom is in relation to the kitchen. Research has shown clear links between spatial skills and STEM skills.

Children can develop complex understandings about the world around them with the right guidance from adults. Early STEM experiences can set children up for later STEM learning. In line with the Early Years Learning Framework , we want children to be confident and involved learners. We need children to feel that they can “do” STEM, as well as understand and speak the language of STEM.

Unlike literacy materials, there are still very few resources available for parents on how to develop children’s early STEM skills. But there are many opportunities in everyday life for parents to develop these skills — they simply need to be made aware of them.

Parents don’t need to buy expensive toys, science kits or workbooks for children to fill in. Nor do parents need to have degrees in STEM to teach their children.

Waiting for children to begin school to learn about STEM is too late, just as waiting for children to start school to learn about reading. Parents can help their children be capable and confident STEM learners from a young age.

Kym Simoncini, Assistant Professor in Early Childhood and Primary Education, University of Canberra

Red flags in writing class: Surviving their violent fantasies and targeted rage

(Credit: Getty Images/Salon)

Sometimes I feel like a lone wolf too. At the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, the other six creative writing professors are men; then there’s me.

I’m fairly unflappable, though. Male students love to imitate shows like “Dexter” and movies like “Split.” Blood on paper is pretty standard, to be honest. But sometimes a student submits something ominous, and it feels like I swallowed a bullet.

The first time this happened, “Hugo” submitted an Eminem tribute to my faculty mentor. This was a few semesters before she retired. Hugo was infuriated because she’d had the audacity to line-edit the first draft of his earlier poem. Violent couplets were his retaliation.

“My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge/That’ll stab you in the head.”

Of all the male lyricists, from Shakespeare to Komunyakaa, Hugo had selected Slim Shady in all his violent, woman-hating glory. We all liked “8 Mile,” but Hugo as Marshall Mathers psyched us out a little.

A week later, one of Hugo’s friends was waiting for me after Advanced Fiction to show me text messages Hugo had sent him during my class. He was wary of Hugo’s anger and wanted to make me aware. I hate this class. It’s a waste of time. They can all go fuck themselves. Still, we thought, maybe he’s especially sensitive to perceived criticisms, otherwise known as “feedback,” the bread and butter of any class in creative writing.

But the following Monday morning, when my defense attorney husband and I decided to consult CCAP — a database of public circuit court records in Wisconsin — we discovered that Hugo had been cited by the Oshkosh Police Department over the weekend for shooting young women from his balcony with an Airsoft gun. For the first and only time in my teaching career, I cancelled class for safety concerns. The chair of the English Department intercepted Hugo, and a staff member from the Dean of Students Office took him to talk.

They determined that Hugo was just a lonely kid. We needed to be more patient with him — more motherly. Of course, nobody hated his own mother as much as Eminem despised his.

In my recent Crime Narratives course, I’d assigned “Gradient” by Amy Butcher, in which she writes about Abdul Razak Ali Artan’s attack on students at Ohio State University. As I could not have predicted, the reading due date overlapped with news of the Las Vegas shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. One student, whose parents survived the tragedy, cried openly.

“How many of you worry about violence when you’re sitting in class?” I asked. Everybody raised a hand. Our basement classroom had no windows, emergency exits or cell phone reception.

Every weekday, my own five children are stowed away in public schools, and I’m grateful for their ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) training. I listen for sirens and wonder, to whom do I owe my allegiance, my biological children or my students, sitting ducks in their retro tablet arm chairs?

I teach best when I can face the door. Sometimes, when a student excuses himself to the bathroom, my heart bursts when he re-appears, a figure in the doorway. College classrooms are open to the public; nobody has trained us yet.

Once in my Memoir course, a student named “Sully” veered off-course, his impenetrable voice telling us he’d left crystal quartz behind his ear flap too long. He might have brain damage. He boasted about his all-meat diet and talked with his fists. Veins in his neck throbbed with every gesture.

He confessed to me mid-semester that he’d been “kicked out” of his degree program in social work. I assumed his strange behavior was to blame and wondered why, if one program head ousted him, he’d been permitted to enroll in my course without the least bit of warning.

Then, shortly after this revelation, Sully showed up to Memoir thirty minutes late. He charged through the door — a man on a mission — grinding his jaw and pumping his clenched hands at his sides. His sweaty face beat an angry dent against thin air, and we all ducked, in perfect sync, terrified to see what he would do next.

As it turned out, in talking to students privately afterward, we’d all been nervously waiting in our collective consciousness for Sully to break.

On the first day of any semester, I take inventory. Which students appear distressed, angry, volatile or threatening? I plug their names into CCAP to further assess what we’re up against for the next 14 weeks.

This January, between the Las Vegas shooting and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida, a non-traditional student with a restraining order on his record showed up as an auditor in my three-week course. He locked me in his gaze for three hours.

When “Charles” continued to behave badly three days in a row, leering from the front row, and at times hijacking discussions with nonsensical ribbons of thought, I decided, as in Hugo’s case, to consult our chair. She suggested I call the Dean of Students Office, which I was reluctant to do. As UW Oshkosh grappled with bankruptcy and state-wide deficits, administrators seemed to prioritize retention and so-called “inclusive excellence” over instructor complaints about safety.

When I called anyway and described my feelings of unease, the staff member placated me with Dr. Seuss-like rhymes: “Remember, there’s a whole range of strange.” And then he lectured me on empathy.

“Feeling threatened,” he clarified, “is not the same thing as being threatened.”

Upon hanging up the phone, I sat motionless, trying to reconcile the startling contradictions of my professional life. Certain male colleagues referred to me as “Little Miss Sunshine” and “the nurturing one.” They blamed me for grade inflation, convinced students liked me — to use an old sexist insult — because I was “easy” and not because I was smart. But if I ever expressed resistance to working with threatening male students, I wasn’t easy-going and nurturing enough.

Fourteen years’ worth of sexist workplace insults returned to me like rapid fire. She’s hormonal, menopausal, a kid sister, just a little girl, pronouncements from men in relative positions of power.

Since I began teaching at UW Oshkosh in 2004, we’ve witnessed our share of student violence. A disgruntled student packed a hatchet in his backpack. Another posted so-called gun porn on Twitter and mentioned Women in Literature. A senior biology major was arrested and sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for making ricin, a deadly toxin that is basically a chemical weapon. Most tragically, another UW Oshkosh student killed three people on the Trestle Trail Bridge in Fritse Park just 17 miles from campus before committing suicide.

For days after calling the Dean of Students Office about Charles, I felt angry, remembering how the same office — different staff members, long since gone — had treated me and my now retired female colleague after demanding intervention with Hugo.

Maybe we looked hysterical waving our red flags.

Or maybe being a woman in this workplace actually drives me to think irrationally — if a student shoots me, that’ll teach everyone a lesson. But of course, there’s no lesson to be had. Everyone, everywhere, keeps sliding back down the learning curve. It’s just too steep to climb.

Should public transit be free?

(Credit: Getty/Pavlina2510)

The citizens of Paris might be protesting French president Macron’s reforms, but Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo is planning something that might move those protesters faster than the tear gas the police are using: Free public transit.

The eco-conscious Hidalgo has initiated a feasibility study of free city-wide public transit, and hopes to make it an issue ahead of the 2020 municipal election, when she will presumably run again.

 Hidalgo has fought hard battles to turn a key highway along the Seine into a park. She’s implemented license plate-based driving restrictions in the city (which are, according to some reports, ignored). Paris already offers free public transit when the pollution gets bad, and the city has announced it will ban all gas- and diesel-fueled cars by 2030.

Hidalgo’s quest for free public transit is meant to decrease pollution. One question at hand is whether the free rides would only be accessible to Paris’ population of 4 million or if the metro area of 12 million would also be included. Besides that, the question is: Might it work?

Paris isn’t alone in the quest for clean air via free transport, the theory being free public transit will encourage drivers to eschew their cars. Germany is moving in that direction, and the Estonian capital of Tallinn is often hailed for its free public transit. Yet once it made public transit free for Tallinn residents, the population of the city suddenly swelled by 25,000 as people sought to take advantage of the program. While ridership rose by 8%, auto use rose by 31%, meaning the program has not necessarily reduced cars or auto-sourced pollution. And Tallinn might not be the best city to look to on this issue, as its population is less than half a million people.

Here in the U.S., small cities and college towns often experiment with free transit. Boston offers free public transit from Logan Airport, and opens the “T” for free on New Year’s Eve. Boone, North Carolina, has a free public bus system.

Salt Lake City offers free transit when the air becomes “red-flag” dangerous, and its “Free Fare Friday” removed an estimated 18,000 cars from the street in one day, “which equates to 200 fewer tons of greenhouse gas emissions,” according to NextCity.

That sounds good — but who foots the bill?

“In a perfect world, we could do free fares,” Carl Arky, a Utah Transit Authority spokesman, told NextCity. “But it comes down to dollars and cents. If we can find the money, I’d imagine we’ll do this more often.”

Some point to auto bans on certain days based on license plate numbers as a more effective way to curb emission pollution. It’s a good idea in theory, but it’s failing to have much of an impact in the real world for a number of reasons, including that cars aren’t the only source of pollution.

Sweden is home to a more grassroots campaign encouraging free public transit: a cooperative of transit riders pay a monthly fee to join (much cheaper than a monthly unlimited ride pass) and then evade their fares. If a member gets ticketed for fare evasion, the cooperative pays the fine. Not exactly eco-oriented, but it’s a movement nonetheless.

Salt Lake City’s emergency move, like Paris’ initially, is an echo of a global trend in response to unconscionable pollution. Seoul, South Korea, began offering free transit when a “thick layer of yellow dust settled over the city.” And while public transit ridership increased by nearly 30,000 people, the move removed only 2,000 cars from the street.

Which leads to the question: Just who is taking public transit on the free days? If those cities’ citizens are anything like New Yorkers, the folks riding for free are probably the same people who would rather walk or ride a bike than pay nearly $3 to get somewhere.

As someone familiar with car culture, I can personally attest that there is a reason people drive cars: They like it. They like the privacy, and having their own personal space. Those qualities aren’t found on public transit, and if given an option, those values aren’t going to translate to public transit, no matter how cheap or free it is. In the cities, those who can afford a car — along with the parking fees and congestion pricing and tolls and insurance and every other tax put on them — will drive a car.

The solution, then, might be in shifting our values as a society and as consumers, and changing what we demand of our vehicles, our cities, our air, and the corporations and elected officials who have power over them. Any move to curb pollution must address those values, too.

Artists transformed a Trump hotel suite into an an art exhibit with rats

(Credit: Jason Goodrich / INDECLINE)

A collective of anti-Trump artists pulled off a powerful and clever art exhibit, called “The People’s Prison,” which featured live rats crawling on a President Donald Trump impersonator imprisoned in golden handcuffs–in a Trump hotel suite in New York City. The activist art collective, INDECLINE, which is comprised of anonymous graffiti, photographers, and activists, transformed the hotel room at the Trump International Hotel and Tower on March 29, and fortunately, were able to escape the suite unscathed. Known for their provocative art protests (remember the Naked Trump statues?), Salon spoke to one of the artists–under anonymity–to learn more about the inner-workings of the latest heist.

What inspired the exhibit? Can you tell us more about what was inside, and what was symbolic about it?

After the election, INDECLINE vowed to shadow President Trump’s every move and provide our own set of checks and balances. Over the course of the last two years, we’ve taken our anti-Trump messages to the streets, his golf courses and recently felt the need to conceptualize something of a Trojan Horse and crash the gates of his New York City hotel. We’ve always been inspired by America’s long, vibrant history of radical activism and protest, especially in times of social unrest and given Trump’s aptitude for manufacturing a climate of racism, arrogance and global chaos, we felt that creating something within the rotten core of the Big Apple, in his own hotel, would be fitting.  

The room we booked was a one bedroom suite. After everything was carefully dismantled and stored in the closets, bathroom and bedroom, a team of seven activists refurbished the walls with new “concrete” wallpaper, hung 13 American flags displaying the images of different radicals, revolutionaries and activists and built a floor to ceiling jail cell. Inside of the cell, was a Donald Trump impersonator wearing a pair of golden handcuffs and surrounded by a half dozen live rats and McDonalds wrappers. There was also an 8 by 11 black and white photo of a shirtless Vladimir Putin with a handwritten message that read: “Don’t worry baby, I got you in and I can get you out”.

“The People’s Prison” calls on American citizens, especially artists, to keep this necessary fight alive. In turbulent times like these, it’s the responsibility of artists to use their tools to create provocative pieces of art capable of instigating not just debate, but a change in the way working class citizens see the threats facing our country. The aim is to engage. The figures represented on the flags are that same ones who have risked everything to make our flag stand for something greater. We also feel that it will be a creatively fortified populace, dedicated to standing up for America and its values, that will be the leading cause of Trump’s downfall, not an FBI investigation.

We’re so curious to know how you set everything up in the room. Was it difficult bringing in the art supplies and equipment?

The installation materials, tools, flags and hardware arrived with the activists at the time they checked in. The hotel staff quickly loaded all of the suitcases onto their luggage carts and transported them directly to the room without asking any questions. The only comment that was made was inside of the suite when a bellman referring to the weight of suitcase, jokingly asked a member of INDECLINE if he had his “dead girlfriend” stuffed inside of it. That was the full extent of getting about 90 percent of the assets into the property undetected. A separate suitcase with the rats was smuggled in the middle of the night once the rats were all procured from the streets of Brooklyn.

How long do you plan on keeping the exhibit? Has anyone from the Trump hotel asked you to remove it yet?

The installation was only up for four hours (6:00pm-10:00pm). It was built from 4:00pm on the 29th to 5:30pm on the 30th. Once the last media outlets left, the room was completely returned to normal. Reference photos were taken before the installation and used to ensure the room took on the exact appearance that it had prior to our arrival.

How did you find the rats? 

We spent three nights in Brooklyn catching the rats with a small, non-threatening rat trap. The rats were released once their work in the installation was done.

How many rats did you catch?

We caught six rats in total.

Why rats though?

The rats weren’t a critical element, but being that President Trump has proven himself time and time again to be the world’s biggest rat, we felt it necessary to imprison him with his own breed.

Why is art so important in political activism today?

President Trump is the embodiment of every single unethical and arrogant American value there is. He is our generations Richard Nixon and he’s waged a war with millions of creative and fearless soldiers who regularly engage in tactics of provocative protest, poetic dissidence and rebelliousness. His very existence serves as a call to action to resist and creatively fight his policies and administration no matter what the cost. There is no alternative. Bridging the gap between art and political activism is one of the strongest methods of communication there is. These projects, although provocative and sometimes illegal, aim to inspire, educate and encourage others to join the fight against Trump, his policies and fanatical followers.

What was most exciting about this protest? What was the scariest part?

As always, the most exciting part is fleeing the scene, especially in this case, having utilized the hotel staff without their knowledge to support and assist with the project. We’ve faced a number of high-risk situations over the 17 plus years INDECLINE has been active, but this particular project was very low stress and yielded a high reward. We even listened to “Little Red Corvette” by Prince and had a dance party in the room once we wrapped up.

Watch a video on the making of the art exhibit here:

The People’s Prison from Indecline on Vimeo.

Time to rethink how we talk about older people

Marques Townes #5 of the Loyola Ramblers celebrates with Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt. (Credit: Getty/Tom Pennington)

This week, a very American headline appeared in Time magazine: “Sister Jean Merchandise Is Selling Like Crazy for Loyola. Here’s How Much She’s Making.” One day later, the British Broadcasting Corporation published an article from a very British perspective titled “This 98-year-old sports mascot nun is captivating Americans.”

If you haven’t heard of Sister Jean (and how could you not?), she’s a 98-year-old woman, nun, and team chaplain for Loyola-Chicago’s basketball team. Bobbleheads have been made in her likeness, and as Time explained, Sister Jean paraphernalia might well be the most popular March Madness merchandise sold this year. reported that her name has been mentioned in 20,526 stories in the last two weeks. A montage video of her was produced by Ringer Records, called “Sister Jean” and paired to a rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” And online, she’s become a meme in her own right.

Sister Jean and Loyola-Chicago are headed to the Sweet 16. pic.twitter.com/np0tndwAgv

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 18, 2018

“There’s no argument to be made: Sister Jean is the story of the 2018 NCAA tournament,” Darren Rovell, an ESPN senior staff writer.

When reading about Sister Jean, whose full name is Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, adjectives like “adorable” and “cute” pop up. Some call her a “” to America — others, a “.”

There’s no question Sister Jean is inspiring to many. Her happiness is contagious. Her loyalty to the basketball team is admirable. Sister Jean also coaches the players on strategy, and gives them spiritual guidance before games. From what her fellow sisters from her order have said, she’s a smart leader who has been in a position of service for a majority of her life. I’m not here to say her new-found notoriety is undeserved, but rather wondering: why didn’t it arrive sooner? And isn’t it ironic that American culture — a culture obsessed with youth, and which has a multibillion-dollar industry around anti-aging — obsesses over people older than the age of 85, but only when they exhibit youthful traits?

Sister Jean isn’t the only senior to become famous for being both elderly and active. Indeed, in 2016, Täo Porchon-Lynch’s name splashed the headlines for being a 90-something yoga teacher. In 2012, she was  named the Oldest Living Yoga Teacher by Guinness World Records.

In one of many profiles written about her (all of which were captivating merely because of her interesting life), Newsweek headlined theirs “Ageless in spirit — yogi still teaching at 98.”

Then there was the 62-year-old American Apparel model profiled in Elle, George H.W. Bush’s skydiving adventure at 90, the 80-year-old Everest hiker… I could go on till I was old.

Dr. Bill Thomas, an author and co-founder of ChangingAging.org, calls this type of rhetoric the “Tyranny of Still.”

“The most admirable older people are the older people who can ‘still’ — then fill in the blank,” Thomas explains. “Older people are admired to the degree that they resemble, look like and act like young people.”

Of course, such a sentence is meant to be a compliment. But when one takes a step back and applies the same sentence to someone, who let’s say is a kid, or to someone of a different race, it’s downright offensive. Thomas gave the example of saying a 12-year-old still uses a bottle.

“Aging is the last form of bigotry you can speak of in public,” Thomas told Salon. “It’s not admirable because she [Sister Jean] is 98. It is admirable because she is a fan; her age is irrelevant.”

Most of us, myself included, are guilty of proliferating ageism to some extent — praising those who are older who exhibit youthful traits. When I heard about Sister Jean, I also had an initial reaction to what others had: an urge to call her “cute.” Yet now I wonder, at what point does that cross over into objectification? Or is it merely patronizing?

Thomas explained that America’s obsession with older people who still live youthful lives is part of what he calls a “totemic myth.”

“It’s a story we tell ourselves to console ourselves,” he said. “It makes us feel a little better. ‘Oh, she’s 97 and people just love her, so I don’t have to fear my own aging in quite the same way.’”

Perhaps that’s because society treats aging as a disease, and in a youth-driven culture we’ve been given no option other than to fear it. We’re told to hide our wrinkles, and dye our grey hair. After a certain age, one is essentially expected to look the same age for the rest of one’s life. The solution — to embrace aging, rather than fear it — is complicated, given that the fear of aging is so evidently linked to the fear of dying. It’s hard to truly imagine a world where aging isn’t a trepidatious experience.

But Thomas says it doesn’t have to be, and it could just start with a shift in perspective.

“Today we say aging is to decline,” he said. “Tomorrow I would say the story should be that aging is growth, and growth is change.”

As for Sister Jean, she is indeed enjoying her time in the spotlight.

“This is the most fun I’ve had in my life,”she said in a USA Today interview. “It is just so much fun for me to be here, and I almost didn’t get here, but I fought hard enough to do that because I wanted to be with the guys.”

And maybe that’s really why America can’t get enough of her: In this chaotic time in history, she’s happy. It could also be that simple.

Advocates raise awareness for equality on International Transgender Day of Visibility

(Credit: AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

March 31 marks International Transgender Day of Visibility, and many are taking to social media to celebrate the progress in equality–and raise awareness about the progress that’s yet to come.

“Every year, we join together for International Transgender Day of Visibility to celebrate the diversity, resilience, and progress of the trans community and rededicate ourselves to the unfinished work of equality,” said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin in a statement. “Increasingly, transgender kids growing up throughout America and around the world are seeing themselves reflected on stage and screen, in workplaces and politics. Unfortunately, for all of the advancements of the last several years, many transgender people, particularly transgender women of color, continue to face violence, discrimination, and an onslaught of political attacks from state legislatures to the highest levels of our government.”

Griffin continued, “On this day and every day, we continue to stand with transgender people of all backgrounds — from service members and students, to workers and parents — in celebration of their lives and with unwavering commitment for the fight for full equality.”

The HRC also released a report imploring for a stricter focus on employer-paid family and medical leave for transgender and non-binary workers. The report found that over the next five years, 46 percent of the study’s respondents are planning on taking a leave. However, only 36 percent of respondents claimed that their employers have LGBTQ-inclusive leave policies. Eighty-two respondents said that a paid leave would make them feel more supported at work.

This call comes at a time when the Trump administration has once again targeted the transgender community. On March 23, the White House announced that President Donald Trump approved a new policy aimed to restrict transgender troops in military service. The new policy recommended to disqualify transgender troops who require or have undergone gender transition, or require significant medical treatment.

As Salon writer Lucian K. Truscott IV explained, “the policy is a mess.” While 9,000 transgender troops are expected to be “grandfathered in,” the policy forbids enlistment to people “who require or have undergone gender transition.” The policy also says that “transgender persons without a history of diagnosis of gender dysphoria, who are otherwise qualified for service, may serve, like all service members, in their biological sex.”

Hate crimes in 2017 were reportedly on the rise. In August 2017, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs had recorded the highest number of hate violence-related homicides of LGBTQ and HIV affected people. 2017 sae a 29 percent increase in single incident reports from 2016. NCAVP said on average, one LGBTQ person was killed a week in 2017.

Many advocates and lawmakers have taken to Twitter to celebrate equality and support to the transgender community — including Cynthia Nixon, Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, D-Mass., and Shannon Watts.

Happy #TransDayofVisibility to all the adults, teens, & children in the US who identify as transgender. We see you. We recognize you. And now more than ever in this Trump discrimination administration, we pledge to fight for you and for your rights. Trans rights are human rights.

— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) March 31, 2018

On #TransDayOfVisibility, we celebrate the trans community for the joy and love they bring to their families, friends & neighbors. But more than that, we tell every single trans person that we see them and we will fight for equality by their side. #TDOV18

— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) March 31, 2018

Amia Tyrae Berryman was at least the seventh trans person killed nationwide this year; the fourth killed by gun violence.

More must be done to protect the most marginalized among us. #TransDayOfVisibility https://t.co/4ujOSlANkT

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 31, 2018

As the ACLU Ohio chapter explained, the day was created by transgender activist Rachel Crandall-Crock in 2009 to commemorate transgender people who are thriving and successful, and ultimately, to create an equal society, for everyone.

The Year Abba channeled Phil Spector and conquered the world

(Credit: Getty/Bloomsbury Publishing/Salon)

Now, of course, the Eurovision Song Contest is tainted with the unmistakable whiff of overripe cheese, its aura as a star-making enterprise intact only in Baltic countries and republics from the former Yugoslavia. But back in the early ’70s, the contest was hot and Abba was really, really keen on entering. Starting in 1969, when Frida’s “Härlig är vår jord” placed fourth, one or more of the future Abba members would be semi-regular presences in the Swedish heat, called Melodifestivalen—the Melody Festival. In February 1973, Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida’s “Ring Ring” came close but again they didn’t make it past the national elimination process. Undaunted, the group went back to the drawing board and tried again. Never mind that “Ring Ring” was a sizable hit in Sweden and in several European countries–except England–and thus could have made a solid base from which to expand: According to Björn, “We knew that the Eurovision Song Contest was the only route for a Swedish group to make it outside Sweden.”

And so the recording session for “Waterloo” (or “Honey Pie,” as it was known before lyricist Stig Anderson settled on something so much more pop—the name of an early 19th century battle) started on December 17, 1973, at Metronome Studio. The musical nucleus we are now familiar with was already in place: Janne Schaffer, Abba’s preferred guitarist in the early ’70s, is credited for coming up with both the main guitar and bass parts, while soon-to-be-Abba-stalwarts Rutger Gunnarsson and Ola Brunkers were also on board. The texture of the song is incredibly dense, and [engineer Michael B.] Tretow is open about the Phil Spector influence. Indeed shortly before recording “Ring Ring,” Tretow had read Richard Williams’s book “Out of His Head: The Sound of Phil Spector,” which gave him the idea to overdub instruments. This proved to be one of the most influential factors in what would become the Abba sound.

On March 4, 1974, a few weeks after the band had finally managed to win its ticket to Brighton (where the Eurovision contest was to be held that year), both “Waterloo” and the album of the same name were released; they were the first to bear the name Abba. On April 6, 1974, the song easily won that year’s Eurovision Song Contest, held at Brighton’s Dome, in England. Abba’s closest rivals had been Italy’s Gigliola Cinquetti with “Si” and the Netherlands’ Mouth and MacNeal with “I See a Star” (both songs, like “Waterloo,” made the British Top Ten). “Waterloo” turned out to be Abba’s first No. 1 hit in several countries: England succumbed in May and the group’s first British gold single was awarded, and the American charts were conquered as well with a No. 6 rank. A German version was recorded in March and a French one in April, a couple of weeks after the victory (the latter was a brilliant coup, selling the French a song named after one of their most famous defeats). The French adaptation was done by Claude-Michel Schönberg, who would go on to cowrite “Les Misérables”—just one more in a series of serendipitous musical-theater associations (after all, it wasn’t someone hip like, say, Serge Gainsbourg who was asked to do the adaptation).

In retrospect, it’s funny that Stig and the boys thought the Eurovision could bring them world success, as historically the contest has failed to launch longterm careers. Few established stars have ever subjected themselves to the competition, and few fledgling artists have succeeded because of it. Julio Iglesias’s fourth place in 1970 isn’t what turned him into a global sex symbol; Celine Dion won in 1988, sure, but she was already doing quite well in Francophone countries and her ensuing English crossover success would be triggered by her association with Disney (when she sang “Beauty and the Beast”), not a much-derided song contest.

What was important in the Eurovision mystique was that it functioned as both an over-heated European reaction to the Anglo-American domination of pop music in the ’60s and ’70s and as something that couldn’t possibly compete with said domination. As Simon Frith and Peter Langley wrote [in a 1977 article in Creem], “Rock is an essentially Anglo-American enterprise, and most other countries do have their rock groups. Abba, by entering the Eurovision Contest, made clear they weren’t one of them.” Not only did they not “rock”, but there was the issue of the band members’ utter Swedishness. For instance, they never worked with hot-shot American or British producers (except for the trip to Miami); they collaborated with Swedish musicians in Swedish studios. This explains why Benny remarked that “It was very hard to maintain, even in your own eyes, that the song we were working on was just as good as the one that for example the Hollies were having a hit with at the same time.” [Palm, 1994] But to its credit, the band never relinquished its identity as a non-English, non-American group. For those of us who are Continental Europeans, this was as important as the songs themselves.

In a 2002 interview, Björn noted that “For the main part of the group’s lifespan, the critics despised us.” You only have to read Robert Christgau’s reviews of the band in the ’70s to encounter beautifully preserved American scorn. In a review of “Greatest Hits,” he sneered that “Americans with an attraction to vacuums, late capitalism, and satellite TV adduce Phil Spector and the Brill Building Book of Hooks in Abba’s defense, but the band’s real tradition is the advertising jingle, and I’m sure their disinclination to sing like Negroes reassures the Europopuli. Pervasive airplay might transform what is now a nagging annoyance into an aural totem. It might also transform it into an ashtray. God bless America, we’re not likely to find out which.” (Of course, it’s always satisfying to see how rock fans and critics are always the first to cry censorship when their defiant posturing is met with hostility, only to absurdly feel that their very identity is threatened by pop songs.) There’s no denying that Abba represented the exact opposite of rock values: It came from one of those sissy Scandinavian countries, softened to the point of disgusting weakness by social-democracy; it was clueless when it came to rebellion (by then written up as the most desirable form of expression); and, jeez, look at what they were wearing! Erasure’s Andy Bell hit it squarely on the head when he said “I think the European public were a little more open to the Abba phenomenon, seeing that they had become well-known throughout the continent via the Eurovision Song Contest—it has a certain cachet with the queens but there’s still a certain naffness being associated with the competition. In the eyes of the macho rock fraternity, the band was never able to shake off this stigma. For me, I embrace any kind of stigma and try to empower myself with it a bit, like reclaiming the word queer. Being a total nelly in school, I made it cool to like Abba.”

 

 

Excerpted from “Abba’s Abba Gold” by Elisabeth Vincentelli (Continuum, 2004). Reprinted with permission from Bloomsbury Publishing.

 

 

Sustainable cities need more than parks, cafes and a riverwalk

Pedestrians stroll along the High Line in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, as it winds between two buildings under construction. The last stretch of the elevated walkway opens to the public Sunday, Sept. 21. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) (Credit: AP)

There are many indexes that aim to rank how green cities are. But what does it actually mean for a city to be green or sustainable?

We’ve written about what we call the “parks, cafes and a riverwalk” model of sustainability, which focuses on providing new green spaces, mainly for high-income people. This vision of shiny residential towers and waterfront parks has become a widely-shared conception of what green cities should look like. But it can drive up real estate prices and displace low- and middle-income residents.

As scholars who study gentrification and social justice, we prefer a model that recognizes all three aspects of sustainability: environment, economy and equity. The equity piece is often missing from development projects promoted as green or sustainable. We are interested in models of urban greening that produce real environmental improvements and also benefit long-term working-class residents in neighborhoods that are historically underserved.

Over a decade of research in an industrial section of New York City, we have seen an alternative vision take shape. This model, which we call “just green enough,” aims to clean up the environment while also retaining and creating living-wage blue-collar jobs. By doing so, it enables residents who have endured decades of contamination to stay in place and enjoy the benefits of a greener neighborhood.

‘Parks, cafes and a riverwalk’ can lead to gentrification

Gentrification has become a catch-all term used to describe neighborhood change, and is often misunderstood as the only path to neighborhood improvement. In fact, its defining feature is displacement. Typically, people who move into these changing neighborhoods are whiter, wealthier and more educated than residents who are displaced.

A recent spate of new research has focused on the displacement effects of environmental cleanup and green space initiatives. This phenomenon has variously been called environmental, eco- or green gentrification.

Land for new development and resources to fund extensive cleanup of toxic sites are scarce in many cities. This creates pressure to rezone industrial land for condo towers or lucrative commercial space, in exchange for developer-funded cleanup. And in neighborhoods where gentrification has already begun, a new park or farmers market can exacerbate the problem by making the area even more attractive to potential gentrifiers and pricing out long-term residents. In some cases, developers even create temporary community gardens or farmers markets or promise more green space than they eventually deliver, in order to market a neighborhood to buyers looking for green amenities.

Environmental gentrification naturalizes the disappearance of manufacturing and the working class. It makes deindustrialization seem both inevitable and desirable, often by quite literally replacing industry with more natural-looking landscapes. When these neighborhoods are finally cleaned up, after years of activism by longtime residents, those advocates often are unable to stay and enjoy the benefits of their efforts.

Tools for greening differently

Greening and environmental cleanup do not automatically or necessarily lead to gentrification. There are tools that can make cities both greener and more inclusive, if the political will exists.

The work of the Newtown Creek Alliance in Brooklyn and Queens provides examples. The alliance is a community-led organization working to improve environmental conditions and revitalize industry in and along Newtown Creek, which separates these two boroughs. It focuses explicitly on social justice and environmental goals, as defined by the people who have been most negatively affected by contamination in the area.

The industrial zone surrounding Newtown Creek is a far cry from the toxic stew that The New York Times described in 1881 as “the worst smelling district in the world.” But it is also far from clean. For 220 years it has been a dumping ground for oil refineries, chemical plants, sugar refineries, fiber mills, copper smelting works, steel fabricators, tanneries, paint and varnish manufacturers, and lumber, coal and brick yards.

In the late 1970s, an investigation found that 17 million gallons of oil had leaked under the neighborhood and into the creek from a nearby oil storage terminal. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed Newtown Creek on the Superfund list of heavily polluted toxic waste sites in 2010.

The Newtown Creek Alliance and other groups are working to make sure that the Superfund cleanup and other remediation efforts are as comprehensive as possible. At the same time, they are creating new green spaces within an area zoned for manufacturing, rather than pushing to rezone it.

As this approach shows, green cities don’t have to be postindustrial. Some 20,000 people work in the North Brooklyn industrial area that borders Newtown Creek. And a number of industrial businesses in the area have helped make environmental improvements.

Just green enough

The “just green enough” strategy uncouples environmental cleanup from high-end residential and commercial development. Our new anthology, “Just Green Enough: Urban Development and Environmental Gentrification,” provides many other examples of the need to plan for gentrification effects before displacement happens. It also describes efforts to create environmental improvements that explicitly consider equity concerns.

For example, UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization, is combining racial justice activism with climate resilience planning in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood. The group advocates for investment and training for existing small businesses that often are Latino-owned. Its goal is not only to expand well-paid manufacturing jobs, but to include these businesses in rethinking what a sustainable economy looks like. Rather than rezoning the waterfront for high-end commercial and residential use, UPROSE is working for an inclusive vision of the neighborhood, built on the experience and expertise of its largely working-class immigrant residents.

This approach illustrates a broader pattern identified by Macalester College geographer Dan Trudeau in his chapter for our book. His research on residential developments throughout the United States shows that socially and environmentally just neighborhoods have to be planned as such from the beginning, including affordable housing and green amenities for all residents. Trudeau highlights the need to find “patient capital” – investment that does not expect a quick profit – and shows that local governments need to take responsibility for setting out a vision and strategy for housing equity and inclusion.

In our view, it is time to expand the notion of what a green city looks like and who it is for. For cities to be truly sustainable, all residents should have access to affordable housing, living-wage jobs, clean air and water, and green space. Urban residents should not have to accept a false choice between contamination and environmental gentrification.

Trina Hamilton, Associate Professor of Geography, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York and Winifred Curran, Associate Professor of Geography, DePaul University

No Buicks! Janis Joplin’s message to Donald Trump

Folk-rock singer Janis Joplin performs in Dec. 1969 (Credit: AP)

Janis Joplin, the American rock singer, died at a very young age. Born in 1943, just three years before Donald Trump, she nevertheless has a powerful message to the man who, in 2016, rose to become the 45th President of the United States.

As the world knows, Trump is all about extreme vanity, to put it charitably. In his world, material status symbols are all-decisive — not least to make a powerful impression on the ladies.

In that context, it is instructive to recall the words of one of Janis Joplin’s most famous songs, Mercedes Benz; audio here. Recorded in October 1970, the same month she died, the lyrics are as follows:

Mercedes Benz

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.

Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,

So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

…

I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down.

…

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,

Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,

So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

That’s it!

Her song certainly isn’t intended as an ode to Germany (although it implies a high quality of German craftsmanship). Nor does it imply any cheating (or “raping”) of America’s material overlords by German car manufacturers.

It is a paean to high-end materialism and a deliberately ironic, but realistic take on the games that the rich and mighty play to underscore their special status on life’s stage.

Note as well that rock stars definitely have one thing in common with real estate honchos — they all love to flaunt the gadgets that display their material status.

Joplin herself actually drove a Porsche. Donald Trump, in his own life, is known to have been enamored with his fair share of foreign-made, high-end luxury vehicles — Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Rolls Royces. For his taste and wallet, it appears as if German car makers are not luxury enough.

Notice one thing? Very few Buicks on that list!

When Trump now suggests to the Europeans that they are cheating because they are not buying more Buicks, there is doubly bad news. It is very unlikely that, even at a zero tariff, Europeans would fall in love with Buicks.

Plus, even the people that make up Trump’s own industry, real estate, would usually not be caught dead in such an — American — car. It conveys no status. It’s for granddads.

Proof positive of the truthfulness of Janis Joplin’s message to Donald Trump is that the U.S. sales of Daimler Benz, BMW and Porsche are traditionally very aligned to boom times in the real estate and investment banking sectors.

Real estate boom, sales are up (because everybody wants a bimmer), real estate bust and sales are down.