The Women in White, Seated Together At Trump's State of the Union Address

Agencies
February 6, 2019

Washington, Feb 6: The women in white -- several dozen Democratic lawmakers -- sat en bloc Tuesday in unmistakable defiance of President Donald Trump while he delivered his State of the Union address.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Trump's arch rival in Washington who sat behind him on the dais, led many in her caucus in wearing white to honor the fight for suffrage rights, which women earned 100 years ago in the United States.

Seated together, the bloc of women lawmakers sent a striking visual message, a challenge to Trump and how he and his administration have addressed issues important to women, such as equal pay, health care, and the treatment of the immigrant families.

"Tonight the @HouseDemWomen are wearing suffragette white to remind the president that we -- and the rights our ancestors fought for -- aren't going anywhere," tweeted House Democrat Val Demings.

Early in the speech, as Trump declared the state of the union to be "strong" and said the country was enjoying an "unprecedented economic boom," some Democrats in white sat on their hands.

When Trump spoke of the "boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and the common good," it drew Republicans and some Democrats to their feet, but lawmakers including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 29-year-old liberal rising star from New York, sat stone-faced.

When he called on Congress to pass legislation to ban late-term abortions, again there was stillness among the women in white.

But the silent treatment did not last long.

After the president noted that women filled 58 percent of all new jobs last year, and then congratulated them for having broken the record for the most women in Congress, they jumped to their feet and erupted in applause, some pumping their fists and cheering.

"You weren't supposed to do that!" Trump quipped, visibly amused.

'Incredible Moment'

Before Trump began his speech, many of the women gathered in the aisle on the Democratic side of the House chamber, posing for photographs and celebrating their record strength in numbers: 102 women in the 435-seat House of Representatives, and 25 women in the 100-member Senate.

When Trump congratulated their achievement, it appeared to lighten the air.

"I think there was an incredible moment when he acknowledged the new wave of women, the historic number of women elected to Congress, and I think a lot of us were celebrating that," Rashida Tlaib, one of the first two Muslim women members of Congress, told AFP.

Pelosi wore a cream blazer. Ocasio-Cortez donned a stylish white cape. And at least one male congressman, Dean Phillips of Minnesota, wore a white suit in solidarity.

No Republican female lawmakers appeared in white, although Trump's youngest daughter Tiffany wore a form-fitting white suit. First Lady Melania Trump was clad in stately black.

Trump gave shout outs to several guests in the upper gallery, including Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who in July will celebrate 50 years since setting foot on the Moon.

He also welcomed 10-year-old Grace Eline, who was diagnosed with brain cancer last year and raised money for the fight against cancer.

The women in white rose as one to salute her.

"Grace, you are an inspiration to us all," Trump said. The beaming young girl waved back.

Also in the chamber Tuesday was Holocaust survivor Joshua Kaufman, a prisoner at Dachau concentration camp. Seated next to him was Herman Zeitchik, who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II and helped liberate Dachau.

"He was one of the Americans who helped rescue Joshua from that hell on earth," Trump said, as the chamber broke into applause.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 24,2020

Jun 24: The coronavirus tally in Pakistan reached 188,926 with the detection of 3,892 new cases in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

Sixty more people died due to the viral infection, taking the death toll to 3,755.

As many as 3,337 patients are in critical condition across the country, the ministry said.

With the detection of 3,892 new cases in the last 24 hours, the coronavirus tally in the country now stands at 188,926, it said.

Sindh reported the maximum number of 72,656 cases, followed by 69,536 in Punjab, 23,388 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 11,483 in Islamabad, 9,634 in Balochistan, 1,337 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 892 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Pok).

Health authorities have so far conducted 1,150,141 coronavirus tests, including 23,380 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 77,754 patients have recovered so far from the disease.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 4,2020

London, Jun 4: Meghan, Britain's Duchess of Sussex, has spoken about events following the death of George Floyd saying she was sorry that children had to grow up in a world where racism still existed and that current events in the United States were "devastating".

"I know you know that black lives matter," Meghan said in a video she recorded for students graduating from her old high school in Los Angeles which was aired on Wednesday.

The death of Floyd has become the latest flashpoint for long-simmering rage over police brutality against African Americans and led to nationwide protests, some violent, with curfews imposed in some cities to quell the disorder.

"For the past couple of weeks I've been planning on saying a few words to you for your graduation and as we've all seen over the last week what is happening in our country, and in our state and in our home town of LA is absolutely devastating," said Meghan, whose mother is African American and father is white.

"First thing I want to say to you is that I'm sorry, I'm so sorry that you have to grow up in a world where this is still present," she said in her message to the girls at the Immaculate Heart High School.

The duchess, a former US actress and wife of Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince Harry, said she wanted to say "the right thing" and was nervous her words would be "picked apart".

"The only wrong thing to say is to say nothing. Because George Floyd's life mattered, and Breonna Taylor's life mattered, and Philando Castile's life mattered and Tamir Rice's life mattered and so did so many other people whose names we know, and whose names we do not know," she said.

Britain's royal family by tradition does not comment on political issues. However, Meghan and Harry stepped down from their official royal roles at the end of March and are now living in Los Angeles with their baby son Archie.

In her message, the 38-year-old reflected on her own memories of the 1992 LA riots.

"Those memories don't go away and I can't imagine that at 17 or 18 years old, which is how old you are now, that you would have to have a different version of that same type of experience," she said.

"That's something you should have an understanding of, but an understanding of as a history lesson not as your reality. So I'm sorry that in a way we have not gotten the world to the place you deserve it to be."

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
June 7,2020

Boston, Jun 7: Dozens of scientists doing research funded by Mark Zuckerberg say Facebook should not be letting President Donald Trump use of the social media platform to spread both misinformation and incendiary statements.

The researchers, including 60 professors at leading US research institutions, wrote a letter to the Facebook CEO on Saturday asking that he consider stricter policies on misinformation and incendiary language that harms people," especially during the current turmoil over racial injustice.

The letter calls the spread of deliberate misinformation and divisive language the researchers' goal of using technology to prevent and eradicate disease, improving childhood education and reform the criminal justice system.

The researchers' mission "is antithetical to some of the stances that Facebook has been taking, so we're encouraging them to be more on the side of truth and on the right side of history as we've said in the letter, said Debora Marks of Harvard Medical School, one of three professors who organized the letter.

The other organisers are Martin Kampmann of the University of California-San Francisco and Jason Shepherd of the University of Utah.

All have grants from a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative program working to prevent, cure and treat neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The initiative is run by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

They said the letter had more than 160 signatories. Shepherd said about 10% are employees of Chan Zuckerberg foundations.

The letter objects specifically to Zuckerberg's decision not to at least flag as a violation of Facebook's community standards Trump's post that stated when the looting starts, the shooting starts after unrest in Minneapolis over the videotaped killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer.

The letter's authors called the post a clear statement of inciting violence.

Twitter had both flagged and demoted a Trump tweet using the same language.

The Associated Press emailed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative press office for comment. It did not immediately respond.

Some Facebook employees have publicly objected to Zuckerberg's refusal to take down or label misleading or incendiary posts by Trump or other politicians. But Zuckerberg who controls a majority of voting shares in the company has so far refused.

On Friday, Zuckerberg said in a post that he would review potential options for handling violating or partially-violating content aside from the binary leave-it-up or take-it-down decisions I know many of you think we should have labeled the President's posts in some way last week, he wrote.

"Our current policy is that if content is actually inciting violence, then the right mitigation is to take that content down not let people continue seeing it behind a flag. There is no exception to this policy for politicians or newsworthiness.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.