Trumps Launch Full Assault On International Programs That Benefit Women & Girls

The Trump family double teamed their lies about women's rights with the proposed elimination of Hillary Clinton's Global Women's Issues Office, a State Department office that fights for the rights of women all over the world, with a special focus on defending those who are in the most precarious and vulnerable situations in impoverished countries.

This office is far more than a do-gooder initiative, which is clearly how one of both Trumps see its mission.  How ironic that this news broke hours after Ivanka Trump tried to persuade a skeptical audience in Berlin that her father is a "tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive." In fact, most terrorism experts and the highest ranks of the US military know that women's empowerment programs are vital for America's national security.  Women Are the Best Weapon in the War Against Terrorism wrote Foreign Policy in this 2015 article. When we heard Trump declare that he has no interest in soft power, we knew the Global Women's Issues Office was on the chopping block. Just as the cuts to preventive medical care and birth control for women will enhance greater risks of terrorism, the inability of the Trump team to educate themselves on the opinions of their own generals on this matter is reckless and puts America at increased risks for decades. 

In her recent Georgetown speech, Hillary Clinton reminded us that women's rights are the first targets of fundamentalists. AOC reminds us that Hillary is correct and that -- no matter what Ivanka Trump has to say -- Washington DC is also in the hands of the most conservative administration in decades. Cutting back women's rights is their prime objective as well.

Note that many Senators -- including Republican senators -- do not abide by these deep cuts in the State Department. So we can't say for certain if the office will actually be abolished in the end, since it is their decision about how to fund the government, not Trump's. Still, the so-called support for women by the Trump administration is a joke. 

The Global Women's Issues Office did survive the short-term funding bill passed over the weekend to keep the government running. It's the 2018 budget negotiations that will be critical. 

In a related matter, CNN sent thinking women's tempers flaring yesterday with news that the Trump administration intends to discontinue 'Let Girls Learn', Michelle Obama's signature girls education initiative. CNN reported on an internal memo of Trump's intention to end the program which includes leadership camps, mentorship programs, school libraries and other resources intended to help 62 million adolescent girls attend and stay in school. The White House says the program has not changed, but did not say whether it would be maintained in the future or why the memo was sent.

AOC has reported on Michelle Obama's work for 'Let Girls Learn' and also her 2016 trip with CNN and the documentary 'We Will Rise'. 

Read: In Trump's Plan to Gut Foreign Aid, Battle Lines Drawn Over Global Women's Issues Foreign Policy

Spanish Women Face Hate Crime Charges Over Plastic Vagina Protest

Three women who staged a 2014 May Day protest are facing charges of "crimes against religious sentiment" for parading "a plastic vagina a couple of metres high in the style of the Virgin Mary", according to court papers. 

The protest was designed to highlight issues of discrimination against women in the workplace and also restrictions on women's reproductive health as part of the national Workers’ Day march in Seville by the Spanish union the General Workers' Confederation (CGT).

The legal case was already dismissed in Spain's judicial system but the Association of Christian Lawyers appealed the decision and the previous judge's ruling that "not believing in the dogmas of a religion and manifesting it publicly falls under the freedom of expression". The new case claims to contain 'new evidence' that the protest was a deliberate insult to "religious sentiments of Cathlics' with "a mockery of the Easter procession."

Lawyers for the three women contend that there was no intention to offend in the act. One attorney Pastora Filigrana says:

"The objective was to reclaim the right to a choice [to have an abortion] as well as to workers' rights. There were no insults to churchgoers nor was the action directed at the Church. There were no crosses." via

Meet Emily Steel, Dedicated New York Times Reporter Who Is Bill O'Reilly Enemy #1

Marie Claire interviews New York Times reporter Emily Steel, who insists "I'm not the story" when talking about Bill O'Reilly's epic fall at Fox News. Perhaps not, but the investigative research approach that she took, together with her Times colleague Michael S. Schmidt, was absolutely awesome, inventive, meticulous and truly original. 

Three weeks ago, Steel and Schmidt dropped their explosive Times article, documenting settlements with at least five accusers over the last 15 years, to the hefty sum of $13 million. Within two days of their report, over 50 advertisers had fled O'Reilly's show. And now he's gone from his perch as the biggest anchor on cable TV.

We learn that Emily Steel has been a thorn in O'Reilly's big toe for years. She reported on his false claims about covering the Falklands War in the 1980s, when he was actually in Buenos Aires more than 1,000 miles away.  "I am coming after you with everything I have," O'Reilly said in an on-the-record phone call to Steel. "You can take it as a threat."

She may wear pearls and a pussycat bow blouse, but Steel doesn't scare easily. With the strong backing of their editor, the two reporters continued to mine Fox News for sexual harassment stories. 

In her more defeated moments, Steel found inspiration—in an instance of life imitating art imitating life—in the movie Spotlight. "I would listen to what Rachel McAdams would say. She would say things like, 'The words are really important.' And when we're telling these stories, the details are really specific," she says. She tried mimicking McAdams' character, Sacha Pfeiffer of the Boston Globe. "I'd say to sources, 'I know it's hard and I know it's scary, but we need to know. We need to know.'"

Steel put in the time to get those sources to trust her. "I think my editors thought I was crazy because I would spend two or three hours on the phone at a time, just to make people feel comfortable and get them to talk. But that's what it took," she says. "When you're talking about something that's so sensitive like sexual harassment, you can't just call somebody up and say, 'What happened to you?' You need to make them feel comfortable."

Steel's biggest get was Wendy Walsh, and Marie Claire writer Kaitlin Menza shares a good story.  The article doesn't share the background on Steel and Schmidt watching endless hours of Fox News footage, documenting women on air and then suddenly gone. This included not only the obvious Fox anchors but female experts who regularly appeared on O'Reilly shows and then 'poof', no more.

A cardboard cut-out of Donald Trump leans against a window in the New York Times building, not that any of the reporters and editors could forget about him. But Steel finds the present a "really invigorating" time to work in journalism.

"It's given people a sense of purpose of why we're doing the work that we do," she says.

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