Antiwar musicians boycott SXSW festival

March 14, 2024

Not playing Austin this time, especially with a US Army sponsorship. “A music festival should not include war profiteers,” she said. Graphic from her Facebook page.

“That the organizers of SXSW have taken the decision to mix the arts with the military and weapons contractors is unforgivable,” said one band from Northern Ireland.

100+ musical acts boycott SXSW over
US Army, defense contractor ties

by Julia Conley — Common Dreams

More than 100 musical acts have pulled out of the music and cultural festival South by Southwest in protest of the event’s close ties to the US Army and numerous defense contractors which have displayed exhibits at the week-long gathering, with one hip hop trio from Northern Ireland saying they would face a “significant financial impact” due to the decision.

The financial loss, said the Belfast-based band Kneecap, “isn’t an iota of hardship when compared with the [unimaginable] suffering being inflicted every minute of every day on the people of Gaza.”

The Austin For Palestine Coalition (AFPC) has been campaigning in the Texas state capital for several weeks to push bands and speakers to boycott the festival, which is commonly known as SXSW and has been based in Austin since 1987.

Out of at least 105 performers that had announced they are boycotting this year’s event as of Wednesday, 60 were from the United Kingdom. All 12 Irish bands that had been scheduled to participate have canceled their appearances.

“That the organizers of SXSW have taken the decision to mix the arts with the military and weapons contractors is unforgivable,” said Kneecap in a statement posted to social media. “That they have done so as we witness a genocide facilitated by the US military and its contractors is depraved.”

We will not be appearing at @sxsw festival. 👇 pic.twitter.com/nt5hEMH2GM
— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) March 10, 2024

The United States is the largest international financial backer of the IDF, providing Israel with nearly $4 billion per year. The Biden administration has also approved numerous weapons sales to Israel since the current escalation began in response to a Hamas-led attack on the country on October 7.

The American musician Ella Williams, also known as Squirrel Flower, noted in her announcement that the International Court of Justice said in January that Israel is “plausibly” committing genocide in Gaza.

“A music festival should not include war profiteers,” said Williams. “I refuse to be complicit in this and [withdraw] my art and labor in protest.”

pic.twitter.com/f60vDpxdyV
— Squirrel flower (@sqrrlflwr) March 4, 2024

AFPC condemned the Army’s sponsorship of SXSW as well as festival organizers’ decision to welcome defense contractors including RTX, also known as Raytheon; Collins Aerospace; and BAE Systems as participants.

RTX and Collins Aerospace, its subsidiary, make missiles, bombs, and aircraft components that are used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has killed at least 31,341 Palestinians in Gaza since beginning its U.S.-backed bombardment of the enclave in October.

Rania Batrice, a Palestinian American progressive advocate, also announced Wednesday that she was canceling a speaking engagement at the festival.

“As a Palestinian and a human,” said Batrice, “I cannot be part of such a callous convening that platforms and celebrates an entity like RTX, which has caused so much death and destruction, and is now complicit in the genocide of my people—including far too many children.”

As the boycott grew, SXSW organizers this week defended the contractors, which have participated as exhibitors and sponsored events at the festival, as “leaders in emerging technologies” who “bring forward ideas that shape our world.”

They added that “the situation in the Middle East is tragic” and said the festival supports “human rights for all”—a response AFPC called “empty” and “performative.”

“These empty words touting ‘justice’ did not do a great job hiding the fact that SXSW IS forcing musicians to be in bed with warmongers,” said the group.

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Republican pushes warrantless surveillance of US citizens

March 13, 2024

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“If any lawmakers were still on the fence and waiting for a smoking gun, THIS IS IT,” said one advocate of reforming Section 702. Jewish opponents of Israel’s Gaza War protested outside the Brooklyn residence of US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on October 13, 2023. Photo by Jewish Voice for Peace.

‘Disturbing’: intel chair used Schumer protests to push warrantless spying

by Jessica Corbett — Common Dreams

Privacy advocates issued fresh calls for changes to a historically abused US spying program on Tuesday after Wired reported that a top Republican congressman privately tried using peaceful protests as proof of the need to block long-demanded reforms.

“If you care about the First Amendment, please stop everything and read this Wired article,” Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program, said on social media, sharing the piece.

Wired‘s Dell Cameron obtained a pair of presentation slides and spoke with multiple GOP staffers who attended a December 11 meeting with Representative Mike Turner, the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).

“This is ice in the heart of our democracy.”

The meeting was about competing legislation to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows warrantless surveillance targeting noncitizens located outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information, but also sweeps up Americans’ data—and has been misused, particularly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. One of the bills would require the FBI to get a warrant before accessing US citizens’ communications.

Turner—who opposes the bill with that and other reforms—reportedly displayed the slides about 15 minutes into the meeting, which latest over an hour. The first shows a photo of opponents of Israel’s genocidal US-backed war on the Gaza Strip protesting outside the Brooklyn residence of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). It does not note that the October 13 action was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace.

The second slide features a social media post from Washington Free Beacon staff writer Matthew Foldi that contains misinformation suggesting Hamas—which governs Gaza and is designated as a terrorist group by the US government—was tied to a November demonstration at the Democratic leader’s residence. The slides do not make clear that they were different events.

“At the outset of the presentation, he’s running through slides, making his case for why 702 reauthorization is needed,” one senior Republican aide told Wired about Turner’s presentation. “Then he throws up that photo. The framing was: ‘Here are protesters outside of Chuck Schumer’s house. We need to be able to use 702 to query these people.'”

As Cameron detailed:

Jeff Naft, the HPSCI spokesperson, says the purpose of the slides was to illustrate that, even if the protesters did have ties to Hamas, they would “not be subject to surveillance” under the 702 program. “702 is not used to target protestors,” he says. “702 is used on foreign terrorist organizations, like Hamas. Chairman Turner’s presentation was a distinction exercise to explain the difference between a US person and Hamas.”

Wired’s sources, who are not authorized to discuss closed-door briefings and requested anonymity to do so, describe this as a conflation of two separate issues—a tactic, they say, that has become commonplace in the debate over the program’s future. “Yes, it’s true, you cannot ‘target’ protesters under 702,” one aide, a legislative director for a Republican lawmaker, says. “But that doesn’t mean the FBI doesn’t still have the power to access those emails or listen to their calls if it wants.”

In response to Wired’s reporting, Goitein—who was quoted in the piece—said on social media that “if any lawmakers were still on the fence and waiting for a smoking gun, THIS IS IT. Turner has made the stakes crystal clear. A vote to reauthorize Section 702 without a warrant requirement is a vote to allow the FBI to keep tabs on protesters exercising [First Amendment] rights.”

“HPSCI leaders are reportedly trying to persuade congressional leaders to slip a Section 702 reauthorization into one of the upcoming funding bills,” she pointed out. “Lawmakers must be given the opportunity to vote on Section 702 reforms, including a warrant requirement and other critical protections for Americans’ civil liberties. Our First Amendment rights depend on it.”

Absolutely shocking news: We’ve seen FISA 702 abused to spy on protesters before. Now surveillance-hawks in Congress are opposing a warrant rule explicitly because that key reform would stop similar mistreatment of protesters in the future. https://t.co/Lz4fZS42Wg
— 🙃 Jake Laperruque 🤔 (@JakeLaperruque) March 12, 2024

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) abruptly delayed action on Section 702 last month after Turner announced that the HPSCI had provided members of Congress with “information concerning a serious national security threat,” which news outlets reported was that Russia has made alarming progress on a space-based nuclear weapon designed to target US satellites. Critics called it a ploy by the chair to force through the spying program and demanded his immediate resignation.

Among the groups that pressured Turner to step down last month was Demand Progress, a longtime supporter of Section 702 reforms whose policy director, Sean Vitka, was also quoted in Wired’s piece and issued a statement about the “disturbing” revelations.

“This is ice in the heart of our democracy,” Vitka said. “Americans’ right to protest is sacred, and all the more critical given the political volatility 2024 is certain to produce. As intelligence agencies and congressional intelligence committees mislead the public about what’s at stake in this fight for privacy, Chairman Turner has been secretly selling his colleagues on backdoor searches of Americans as a way to help the FBI spy on protesters without so much as a court order.”

Calling for “a forceful response” from Schumer, Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), he argued that “Congress must stop letting the House Intelligence Committee dictate its agenda by secretly vetoing any meaningful reform. In the coming weeks, Congress has the opportunity to enact meaningful privacy protections that would protect protesters and all people in the United States from warrantless surveillance, specifically by closing the backdoor search and data broker loopholes.”

Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, also weighed in on the reporting.

Americans exercising their constitutional right to protest have a right to be free from warrantless surveillance. There should be no suggestion that foreign intelligence authorities can be used to target protestors; that would be counter to our core American values,” Scott said. “This discussion is one more example of why Congress must pass a warrant requirement to ensure that these searches are not subject to abuse.

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Damman, How salty foods are making people sick

March 12, 2024

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The human gut teems with bacteria and other microbes. They contribute to our health but also influence our susceptibility to certain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. Photo by Donny Bliss, US National Institutes of Health.

Salty foods are making people sick − in
part by poisoning their microbiomes

by Christopher Damman, University of Washington

People have been using salt since the dawn of civilization to process, preserve and enhance foods. In ancient Rome, salt was so central to commerce that soldiers were paid their “salarium,” or salaries, in salt, for instance.

Salt’s value was in part as a food preservative, keeping unwanted microbes at bay while allowing desired ones to grow. It was this remarkable ability to regulate bacterial growth that likely helped spark the development of fermented foods ranging from sauerkraut to salami, olives to bread, cheese to kimchi.

Today, salt has become ubiquitous and highly concentrated in increasingly processed diets. The evidence has mounted that too much salt – specifically the sodium chloride added to preserve and enhance the flavor of many highly processed foods – is making people sick. It can cause high blood pressure and contribute to heart attacks and stroke. It is also associated with an increased risk of developing stomach and colon cancer, Ménière’s disease, osteoporosis and obesity.

How might a substance previously thought worth its weight in gold have transformed into something many medical institutions consider a key predictor of disease?

Salt lobbyists may be one answer to this question. And as a gastroenterologist and research scientist at the University of Washington, I want to share the mounting evidence that microbes from the shadows of your gut might also shed some light on how salt contributes to disease.

Blood pressure cookers

Sodium’s role in blood pressure and heart disease results largely from its regulating the amount of water inside your blood vessels. In simple terms, the more sodium in your blood, the more water it pulls into your blood vessels. This leads to higher blood pressure and subsequently an increased risk for heart attack and stroke. Some people may be more or less sensitive to the effects salt has on blood pressure.

Recent research suggests an additional way salt may raise blood pressure – by altering your gut microbiome. Salt leads to a decrease in healthy microbes and the key metabolites they produce from fiber. These metabolites decrease inflammation in blood vessels and keep them relaxed, contributing to reduced blood pressure.

Extra salt may contribute to high blood pressure. Jupiterimages/Stockbyte via Getty Images

With the exception of certain organisms that thrive in salt called halophiles, high levels of salt can poison just about any microbe, even ones your body wants to keep around. This is why people have been using salt for a long time to preserve food and keep unwanted bacteria away.

But modern diets often have too much sodium. According to the World Health Organization, healthy consumption amounts to less than 2,000 milligrams per day for the average adult. The global mean intake of 4,310 milligrams of sodium has likely increased the amount of salt in the gut over healthy levels.

Salt of the girth

Sodium is connected to health outcomes other than blood pressure, and your microbiome may be playing a role here, too.

High sodium diets and higher sodium levels in stool are significantly linked to metabolic disorders, including elevated blood sugar, fatty liver disease and weight gain. In fact, one study estimated that for every one gram per day increase in dietary sodium, there is a 15% increased risk of obesity.

A gold-standard dietary study from the National Institutes of Health found that those on a diet of ultraprocessed foods over two weeks ate about 500 more calories and weighed about 2 pounds more compared with those on a minimally processed diet. One of the biggest differences between the two diets was the extra 1.2 grams of sodium consumed with the ultraprocessed diets.

A leading explanation for why increased salt may lead to weight gain despite having no calories is that sodium increases cravings. When sodium is combined with simple sugars and unhealthy fats, these so-called hyperpalatable foods may be linked to fat gain, as they are particularly good at stimulating the reward centers in the brain and addictionlike eating behaviors.

Many people could do with a pinch less of salt. skynesher/E+ via Getty Images

Salt may also connect to cravings via a short circuit in the gut microbiome. Microbiome metabolites stimulate the release of a natural version of weight loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, the gut hormone GLP-1. Through GLP-1, a healthy microbiome can control your appetite, blood sugar levels and your body’s decision to burn or store energy as fat. Too much salt may interfere with its release.

Other explanations for salt’s effect on metabolic disease, with varying amounts of evidence, include increased sugar absorption, increased gut-derived corticosteroids and a sugar called fructose that can lead to fat accumulation and decreases in energy use for heat production.

Desalin-nations

While many countries are implementing national salt reduction initiatives, sodium consumption in most parts of the world remains on the rise. Dietary salt reduction in the United States in particular remains behind the curve, while many European countries have started to see benefits such as lower blood pressure and fewer deaths from heart disease through initiatives like improved package labeling of salt content, reformulating foods to limit salt and even salt taxes.

Comparing the nutrition facts of fast-food items between countries reveals considerable variability. For instance, McDonald’s chicken nuggets are saltiest in the USA and even American Coke contains salt, an ingredient it lacks in other countries.

Some fast foods have more salt than others. Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images

The salt industry in the United States may have a role here. It lobbied to prevent government regulations on salt in the 2010s, not dissimilar from what the tobacco industry did with cigarettes in the 1980s. Salty foods sell well. One of the key voices of the salt industry for many years, the now-defunct Salt Institute, may have confused public health messaging around the importance of salt reduction by emphasizing the less common instances where restriction can be dangerous.

But the evidence for reducing salt in the general diet is mounting, and institutions are responding. In 2021, the US Department of Agriculture issued new industry guidance calling for a voluntary gradual reduction of salt in commercially processed and prepared foods. The Salt Institute dissolved in 2019. Other organizations such as the American Frozen Food Institute and major ingredient suppliers such as Cargill are on board with lowering dietary salt.

From add-vice to advice

How can you feed your gut microbiome well while being mindful of your salt intake?

Start with limiting your consumption of highly processed foods: salty meats (such as fast food and cured meat), salty treats (such as crackers and chips) and salty sneaks (such as soft drinks, condiments and breads). Up to 70% of dietary salt in the United States is currently consumed from packaged and processed foods.

Instead, focus on foods low in added sodium and sugar and high in potassium and fiber, such as unprocessed, plant-based foods: beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Fermented foods, though often high in sodium, may also be a healthier option due to high levels of short-chain fatty acids, fiber, polyphenols and potassium.

Finally, consider the balance of dietary sodium and potassium. While sodium helps keep fluid in your blood vessels, potassium helps keep fluid in your cells. Dietary sodium and potassium are best consumed in balanced ratios.

While all advice is best taken with a grain of salt, your microbiome gently asks that it just not be large.

Christopher Damman, Associate Professor of Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, University of Washington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Editorials: The candidates stumble out of the starting blocks; and Failure

March 12, 2024

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After two weeks she quits. Anchorwoman and reporter for Martinelli’s NexTV Myrna Ortega won’t play make believe for Mulino.

Inauspicious starts

Playing it by eyeball from reading the news, perusing the social media and looking at the signs, it looks like the presidential race may be polarizing down to a contest in which Rómulo Roux and Ricardo Lombana are out front. Those are some imprecise impressionistic pictures, with no reputable pollsters’ surveys taken after Ricardo Martinelli’s definitive removal from the ballot and his replacement by José Raúl Mulino.

Exit the RM party’s campaign spokeswoman, veteran television journalist Myrna Ortega. She objected to the ridiculous, as in Mulino’s claims that old polls make him the front runner. First of all, misrepresenting public opinion polls as a campaign tactic is a crime under Panama’s election laws. Second, Ortega is a young working mother with a professional life after this election to which she might look forward – but not if browbeaten by desperate men to sacrifice her reputation. The damage would not only be a stint as purveyor of fake news, but also doing so at the apparent direction of Ricardo Martinelli, who in turn is under the protection of a Nicaraguan regime that criminalizes journalists and news media that it doesn’t like. There are political cults to whose members such things don’t matter, but a reputation as a liar and a scab would be toxic to a journalist’s future.

(Old polls?” La Prensa reports a poll taken beginning after Ricky Martinelli had fled to the Nicaraguan Embassy and ending before the Electoral Tribunal made it official that the guy was off the ballot, wherein Mercadeo Planificado SA found Mulino in a hypothetical lead with 26% of the vote and a virtual three-way tie among Lombana, Torrijos and Roux as just over 20%. That poll concluded a week ago, which can be a long time in a volatile political situation.)

Meanwhile an apparent gain for Rómulo would be directly at the expense of Gaby Carrizo. A faction of the Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement – MOLIRENA – has broken away from the party leadership that’s formally allied with the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party whose standard bearer is José Gabriel Carrizo and thrown its support behind Roux. That leaves both parties of Gaby’s forlorn coalition fractured, with legislator Zulay Rodríguez and former president Martín Torrijos having broken away from the PRD to run their own presidential campaigns before this MOLIRENA split.

The PRD presence is still very much in evidence around the country. They showered their local elected officials with money, some of which has been spent intelligently and apparently in the public interest on public works. But day after day the PRD-MOLIRENA majority in the National Assembly and party activists in public jobs demonstrate sticky fingers, giving the classic impression of the smash-and-grab period of a government not long for this world.

The outward signs of Lombana and his Otro Camino movement are lesser if you just look at the sign wars, but log onto X and up near the top of the Panama trends you find “Gracias a Lombana,” a wave of snide, largely anonymous or pseudonymous put-downs of the insurgent candidate. As if SOMEBODY feels threatened enough to be runninng a Stop Lombana campaign. Is it a threatened front runner? Is it someone who needs to get past Lombana to challenge the leader? Is it that Lombana is actually the leader?

The Carrizo campaign’s promises look ridiculous because they ARE ridiculous. Were the country not so deeply into debt that might be another matter.

The poll paid for and published by La Prensa has Carrizo in sixth place and single digits, hard to believe given the historic hard PRD base and easily questioned when found by a marketing firm not especially distinguished in political polling. Is it a hardcore fanatic with political science and history degrees delusion to think that there actually is a difference between measuring and mobilizing voting trends and selling potato chips? That’s the viewpoint of this observer, whose error rate is somewhat less than that of Cassandra and who isn’t even the pope.

Speaking of errors, isn’t the Carrizo campaign one of the PRD’s worst? But then think about it. The vice president with the goofy grin and the family ties to the strip mining industry that most Panamanians despise is, by the ordinary cycle of alternation in Panamanian politics, not going to be elected president. But in five years, might he remake his public image and come back to win? Never know. Plus the guy is not so desperately poor that his only option for the future is as a perennial candidate and this reporter lacks the ability to read his mind.

Neofascist propaganda.

The PRD is a member party of the Socialist International, and Zulay Rodríguez until just a few days ago held a seat in the National Assembly to which she was elected on the PRD ticket. She hates immigrants of all sorts, she’s anti-abortion, like almost all of the other candidates she likes to beat up on the queers. Big into denying science, she seems to claim God-like powers to stop pandemics without vaccines.

Now that Martinelli is out of the race, she’s making her move to grab at least a share of his part of the vote from old polls. However, the lady has scandals of her own. As in under criminal investigation for allegedly stealing gold from a client of hers. As in one of the upscale politicians named for getting Panamanian government money for her kid to go to a university in the United States. As in the US State Department’s anti-corruption czar has been in town talking about pulling visas from politicians and their families and she had her big run-in with Uncle Sam years ago when as a judge she let some Colombian drug suspects walk and under US pressure was removed from the bench.

Does the partisan history sound incongruous? Remember that before becoming Il Duce, the fascist leader who made war against Rastafari and ended up with his body hanging at a Milan gas station, Benito Mussolini was editor of a Socialist newspaper. That history was a big boost for the Italian strain of communism – even for decades after the commie partisans caught up with the disguised dictator, who carried papers saying he was a Spanish diplomat but couldn’t speak Spanish.

Strange things might happen, but odds are that Zulay Rodríguez Lu is not going anywhere. She might get a boost if it looks too much like the American Embassy is leading the charge against her. Even so, “doesn’t get along with the Americans” isn’t one of the credentials to win a Panamanian presidential election. Too many of us remember.

On track? Mulino, if he cares to do so, will occupy the empty podium in the next debate. Maribel Gordón, the woman in the middle, seems en route to consolidate the historic leftist vote behind her but if she doesn’t go much beyond that it’s not enough to win the presidency. Big business is gathering behind Roux, but in La Prensa’s poll the lawyer with Morgan & Morgan trails Lombana by a hair. Now if Mulino can head off total collapse in coming debates….

Well intentioned, but still imperial hubris

It’s hard to fault the Biden administration for consulting with Caribbean neighbors to brainstorm a way out of Haiti’s ongoing horror story.

However, the United States has intervened in Haiti before, multiple times. On the same day that Blinken was talking, US military aircraft evacuated an undisclosed number of “non-essential US personnel” from the American Embassy grounds in Port-au-Prince. The morning after, Haiti’s titular president tendered his resignation in the face of an ex-cop’s gangster uprising.

Meanwhile, US diplomats are talking with seemingly everyone but the Palestinians to form a new government for the Palestinians. With the racist apartheid regime in Israel opposing anything genuine coming from that, of course.

In Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria, in Southeast Asia decades ago there were variations on similar themes.

Governing other countries from Washington, or choosing other countries’ leaders in Washington, is a recipe for failure. We can and should argue about the morality of it but as a practical matter it can’t be done with any long-term success.

The reason the Christians have murdered on such a vast scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is purely and simply greed.

Bartolomé de las Casas

Bear in mind…

Everything that you receive is not measured according to its actual size, but, rather that of the receiving vessel.

Juana Inés de la Cruz

In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.

Miguel de Cervantes

I believe that everything is political, and as such it should concern all of us. Authors who claim they don’t deal with politics in their work are being naïve, because even that is a political stance.

Elena Poniatowska

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Fehleison, City of Ladies and Taylor Swift

March 10, 2024

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Illustration from “Av Maître de la Cité des dames” – National Library of France.

Long after Christine de Pizan wrote a book railing against misogyny, Taylor Swift is building her own ‘City of Ladies’

by Jill R. Fehleison, Quinnipiac University

In her work, Taylor Swift has taken inspiration from women of the past, including actress Clara Bow, socialite Rebekah Harkness and her grandmother Marjorie Finlay, who was an opera singer.

But sometimes I wonder what the 34-year-old pop star would think of the life and work of Italian-born French writer Christine de Pizan.

Back in the 15th century, Christine – who scholars customarily refer to using her first name, because “de Pizan” simply reflects her place of birth, and she may not have had a last name – dealt with her share of “dads, Brads and Chads,” just as Swift has in the 21st century.

Thought to be the first French woman to make a living as a writer, Christine compiled “The Book of the City of Ladies” in 1405 to challenge the negative stereotypes of women in the Middle Ages. In it, she offers dozens of examples of accomplished women found throughout history, including queens, saints, warriors and poets.

Christine’s writings continue to resonate – especially with women – and are used widely in college courses on women and gender. I recently used excerpts from “The Book of the City of Ladies” in my course on women and gender in early modern Europe.

In reflecting on Christine’s writings from over 600 years ago, I am struck by how she recognized the pernicious effects of attacks on women’s intellect and accomplishments – the ways in which they could be internalized and accepted if women did not challenge the stereotypes.

Building the ‘City of Ladies’

Christine de Pizan was born in Italy but spent much of her life in the royal court of France during the rule of the House of Valois.

Her father, a court physician and astrologer, encouraged her education alongside her brothers. She had three children with her husband, a French royal secretary named Etienne de Castel, who died when Christine was just 25 years old.

Widowed and facing the prospect of raising and financially supporting children on her own, she turned to composing works that appealed to elites, resulting in commissions from patrons. She wrote on a variety of topics, including a poem celebrating Joan of Arc’s success on the battlefield.

But her most ambitious and enduring work is “The Book of the City of Ladies.”

Discouraged by all the misogyny she had read, Christine whimsically claimed that she had received a vision from three ladies: Reason, Rectitude and Justice, who tasked her with the project.

By gathering stories about the accomplishments of women, Christine set out to build an allegorical city where women and their achievements would be safe from the insults and slander of men.

In “The City,” she specifically referenced “The Lamentations of Matheolus,” from 1295, a lengthy essay written in Latin by a cleric from Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Its French translation from the late 1300s would have been the version Christine read.

It is full of hateful views of women, but Matheolus saves most of his ire for wives.

“Anyone who wishes to immolate himself on the altar of marriage will have a lot to put up with,” he writes, adding that the torture of marriage “is worse than the torments of hell.” He derides women as “always quarrelsome … cruel, and shrewish” – “terribly perverse” individuals who have “deceived all the greatest men in the world.”

Matheolus was not alone in his low views of women. Other popular writings of the time included Jean de Meun’s “The Romance of the Rose,” which portrayed women as untrustworthy and jealous, and an anonymous treatise, “On the Secrets of Women,” which offered misinformation about the biology of women.

With so much misogyny coming from so many sources, Christine acknowledged how easy it was for women to believe what was said about them:

“It’s no wonder that women have been the losers in the war against them since the envious slanderers and vicious traitors who criticize them have been allowed to aim all manner of weapons at their defenseless targets.”

Christine recognized the reasons behind this widespread misogyny: Women who were smarter and kinder than men were seen as a threat and a challenge to the established patriarchy of Western society.

Taylor Swift’s ‘big ole city’

Like Christine, Swift is a gifted writer who began making a living with her pen when she was a teenager.

She has built her own city of sorts to protect her reputation, her music and her self-esteem.

In her 2020 documentary “Miss Americana,” Swift opens up about her struggles with media scrutiny, which contributed to an eating disorder. In it, she describes herself as “trying to deprogram the misogyny in my own brain.”

She sued a DJ that groped her and won, leading to her being featured as one of the “silence breakers” on the cover of Time magazine in 2017 at the dawn of the #MeToo movement. And in 2021, she began reclaiming her words and music by re-recording her older albums as “Taylor’s Versions” after the original masters were sold by her first record label without her consent.

An employee of an Ohio record store stocks a shelf with copies of ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ in 2023.
AP Photo/Aaron Doster

In her songs, Swift also repeatedly confronts the men who have discounted her talent and intellect. Her song “Mean” is widely believed to be about the critics who questioned her talent, such as Bob Lefsetz, who wrote that Swift clearly couldn’t sing and had possibly destroyed her career after a shaky performance at the 2010 Grammys.

“Someday, I’ll be livin’ in a big, ole city,” Swift retorts in the track, “And all you’re ever gonna be is mean.”

At the conclusion of “The Book of the City of Ladies,” her mission to record the achievements of women accomplished, Christine de Pizan invites her female readers to join her:

“All of you who love virtue, glory and a fine reputation can now be lodged in great splendour inside its walls, not just women of the past but also those of the present and the future, for this has been founded and built to accommodate all deserving women.”

Though the City of Ladies was built centuries ago, I have a feeling that Taylor Swift would be right at home in that big, ole city.

Jill R. Fehleison, Professor of History and Interdisciplinary Studies, Quinnipiac University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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What’s forbidden and what ought to be

Panamanians don’t trust the main institutions here

Bear in mind…

Some US lawmakers have grown concerned about TikTok. From the TikTok website, Wikipedia image by Jernej Furman.

Is TikTok’s parent company an agent of the Chinese state? In China Inc., it’s a little more complicated

by Shaomin Li, Old Dominion University

ByteDance under the microscope

The rise of China Inc.

A party with unusual power

El show de los debates presidenciales

por Olmedo Beluche

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These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information. Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.

NOT to be trusted: Elliott Abrams at CPAC in 2012 / NO se puede confiar: Elliott Abrams en CPAC en 2012. Photo / Foto Gage Skidmore.

Carteristas, pretendientes y policía cerebral Pickpockets, pretenders and brain police

Lesley Gore – You Don’t Own Me https://youtu.be/OYB1rbL8EHo?si=J3X3w4NMu19deJ-u

Johnny Rivers – Secret Agent Man https://youtu.be/6iaR3WO71j4?si=piIeBGaJsp8Jgetg

Big Mama Thornton – I Smell A Rat https://youtu.be/eQi-524GfdA?si=FJogxzHou7S3LUOH

Natalia Lafourcade – Hasta la Raíz https://youtu.be/IKmPci5VXz0?si=wnSHUA4qbnWo2j15

Coven – One Tin Soldier https://youtu.be/HKx0tdlxMfY?si=rSLa4UQU2fucWq1p

Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth https://youtu.be/gp5JCrSXkJY?si=oSNKMvNFH0Ij7CtH

The Cranberries – Free To Decide https://youtu.be/0WfUGjtg87M?si=k-YsERDvsptR5kfr

Los Rabanes – Perfidia https://youtu.be/NG_wa4Ysg7c?si=QW6Oy8FNDg2i0lEp

Chrissy Hynde – I Shall Be Released https://youtu.be/63PL1tB8OvU?si=6TQxWYQ5UxmHVBgN

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here https://youtu.be/6qQA7ZqmSr8?si=Nn2tEgqy1OTEfnVz

Suzanne Vega – Luka https://youtu.be/VZt7J0iaUD0?si=CBmUYkwlyuUR1kZc

The Knickerbockers – Lies https://youtu.be/BH9YRpz757Y?si=hx2zYymARxNs5eni

Neil Young – Down By The River https://youtu.be/KflCXmEX6BY?si=17jViEi93cwbJKDF

Olivia Rodrigo – Traitor https://youtu.be/6tsu2oeZJgo?si=irAZgYnXXxvNabqM

The Mothers of Invention – Who Are The Brain Police? https://youtu.be/sM9nx3rUdSg?si=8LkpizNK0cbXwm_C

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These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information. Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.

An alternative approach to examiningand studying Caribbean History

by Desmond Bollers

A depiction of Taino resistance leader Caonabo, kidnapped by Columbus from Hispaniola on his first voyage. On his fourth voyage Columbus faced more ferocious and at the moment successful indigenous resistance in Panama. Photo by Brandy Calderón.

Paul Bogle as depicted on a Jamaican dime.

Not playing Austin this time, especially with a US Army sponsorship. “A music festival should not include war profiteers,” she said. Graphic from her Facebook page.

“That the organizers of SXSW have taken the decision to mix the arts with the military and weapons contractors is unforgivable,” said one band from Northern Ireland.

100+ musical acts boycott SXSW overUS Army, defense contractor ties

by Julia Conley — Common Dreams

‘Disturbing’: intel chair used Schumer protests to push warrantless spying

by Jessica Corbett — Common Dreams

“This is ice in the heart of our democracy.”

The human gut teems with bacteria and other microbes. They contribute to our health but also influence our susceptibility to certain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. Photo by Donny Bliss, US National Institutes of Health.

Salty foods are making people sick − inpart by poisoning their microbiomes

by Christopher Damman, University of Washington

Blood pressure cookers

Extra salt may contribute to high blood pressure. Jupiterimages/Stockbyte via Getty Images

Salt of the girth

Many people could do with a pinch less of salt. skynesher/E+ via Getty Images

Desalin-nations

Some fast foods have more salt than others. Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images

From add-vice to advice

After two weeks she quits. Anchorwoman and reporter for Martinelli’s NexTV Myrna Ortega won’t play make believe for Mulino.

Inauspicious starts

The Carrizo campaign’s promises look ridiculous because they ARE ridiculous. Were the country not so deeply into debt that might be another matter.

Neofascist propaganda.

Well intentioned, but still imperial hubris

Bear in mind…

Illustration from “Av Maître de la Cité des dames” – National Library of France.

Long after Christine de Pizan wrote a book railing against misogyny, Taylor Swift is building her own ‘City of Ladies’

by Jill R. Fehleison, Quinnipiac University

Building the ‘City of Ladies’

“It’s no wonder that women have been the losers in the war against them since the envious slanderers and vicious traitors who criticize them have been allowed to aim all manner of weapons at their defenseless targets.”

Taylor Swift’s ‘big ole city’

An employee of an Ohio record store stocks a shelf with copies of ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ in 2023. AP Photo/Aaron Doster

“All of you who love virtue, glory and a fine reputation can now be lodged in great splendour inside its walls, not just women of the past but also those of the present and the future, for this has been founded and built to accommodate all deserving women.”

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These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.

These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.

An alternative approach to examining
and studying Caribbean History

100+ musical acts boycott SXSW over
US Army, defense contractor ties

Salty foods are making people sick − in
part by poisoning their microbiomes

An employee of an Ohio record store stocks a shelf with copies of ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ in 2023.
AP Photo/Aaron Doster