In the last few hours, the opposition to the Kavanaugh nomination to the Supreme Court has gathered momentum.
Two more women in addition to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford have come forward about their experiences with Kavanaugh.
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is scheduled to testify Thursday.
A protest walkout is scheduled for Monday.
Over 80 groups, which include coalitions against sexual violence and women’s organizations, are planning to stage walkouts nationwide at 1 p.m. EST on Monday afternoon, the time when Christine Blasey Ford was originally scheduled to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the alleged assault.
Demonstrators will meet in front of the Hart Senate Office Building Atrium at 12 p.m, there will be speakers at 1 p.m. A number of celebrities will be there. The color du jour is black. Should be an interesting lunch break.
The WMF doesn’t have harassment surveys anymore, it has Community Engagement Insights.
Penguin (left) and Edward Galvez WMF
I almost missed this on the mailing list because it looked like yet another are-we-having-fun yet research video.
So how about them there penguins.
The video is here, thirty-eight minutes and ten seconds. I have embeded it at the end of the post.
The report is at Community Engagement Insights/2018 Report. And yes, this is the survey that has all the gender statistics. I have barely skimmed it and am still looking at the penguins; hopefully me or someone else will get around to reading and reflecting on the meaning of the survey. The Commons category is more fun: Category:Community Engagement Insights 2018. This is where you can find all the colorful charts with the circles and arrows.
Here are a few offhand observations.
Perceptions of leadership decreased 5.5% in the last year. (Did they read Kudpung’s hit piece in the Signpost?) And Dutch Wikipedia was so bad that it was singled out for special mention in 5 different categories. And this after we’ve been led to believe by the “criticism” sites that Holland was a hippie utopia.
Harassment has not gone down. They don’t know if it went up, because they asked different questions this year. We do know that “22% felt unsafe or uncomfortable” in the last 12 months and that “71% reported being bullied or harassed”in the last 12 months. This in spite of all the “Community Health” new hires and special grants.
So this means 880 felt unsafe and 2840 were harassed? No, it means 78% of 251 respondents never felt unsafe. Therefore 55 of the 251 who answered the question did feel unsafe. But it looks like there were 280 responses to the harassment question. So 71% of 280, or 198.8 people were harassed.
It is a complicated survey. They have a special page to explain it.
54% of Wikimedians on the projects agree they are “freely able to express my thoughts without being attacked on Wikipedia”, women reported statistically significant lower scores than men.
It doesn’t give the breakdown between men and women. Is there a reason for that? It could be 100% of women and 8% of men. It doesn’t say.
No raw numbers. At least I don’t see any, but I will keep looking. The report is spread out over a dozen main pages and “team” subpages, so that’s some clicking.
Also, it’s only a summary. It doesn’t look like an entire report is available. There is a “CE Insights full survey 2018” file on Commons, but it is a list of survey questions for the translators. Usually there is a PDF file of the powerpoint presentation on Commons, so you know that the presenter has released the slides under CC by-SA license. The main project page says the data analysis is “pending” — last updated in March, so maybe they have more to do.
Sharen Clark or Sharon Ruth Clark (March 16, 1950 – January 13, 2017) was a blues singer from East St. Louis best known for being the front singer for the musical group “The Product of Time”.
Clark was the daughter of Allen Akins and Ella Terry. She first started to sing at the age of six, when she sang in churches with her father in East St. Louis. Her inspiration was the gospel artist Mahalia Jackson. In the 1960s she appeared on the “The Charlotte Peters Show,” a variety show on St. Louis’ KSD-TV. She lived next door to Ike and Tina Turner before they were famous, and used to sit on their steps listening to them rehearse in the basement.
When she was a teenager, her father died, and she became interested in rhythm and blues. She auditioned for the Young Disciples, a project organized through the South End Community Center as a way to keep young people off the streets. The project was started by Allen Merry, a sax player for Ray Charles and Ike Turner, and gave about 80 young people an opportunity to record in the same studios as the Motown musicians who recorded for Sun Records and Stax Records in Memphis.
In 1971, at the age of 19, Clark went to Memphis along with her husband Dennis and recorded a series of sessions as “Sharen Clark and the Product of Time” under the direction of trumpeter and band leader Gene “Bowlegs” Miller. “That’s A Good Reason” got to #8 on the charts. The Numero group re-issued some of the Young Disciples material as part of the “Eccentric Soul” series, and included Clark’s singles “I’m Not Afraid of Love,” “It’s Not Your Business,” and “That’s a Good Reason.”
In the 70s, Clark filled in with the band of St. Louis saxophonist Oliver Sain, and eventually toured in Europe with the St. Louis All-Stars. During this time, she lived in Chicago.
In the 1980s, Clark formed her own group and toured Army bases. When she became ill, and was told she needed a heart transplant, she moved to Carbondale, Illinois where her daughter was in graduate school. She continued to perform in blues clubs, and four years later received the heart transplant.
She died January 15, 2017 at the age of 66. At the time of her death she was planning a tribute performance for Nina Simone, a singer who was active in the civil rights movement.
Trivia
“I’m Not Afraid of Love” was used in the soundtrack for season 2, episode 6 of “Orange is the New Black“. (2014)
“I’m Not Afraid of Love” was used in the soundtrack for the movie The Escort (2016)
“I’m Not Afraid of Love” was used in the soundtrack for the film Life of Crime (2013)
“I’m Not Afraid of Love” was used for the soundtrack of season 1 episode 9 of the TV show Life on Mars(2008–2009)
Discography
I’m Not Afraid Of Love/Mama Didn’t Lie, on 45 as “Sharen Clark & the Product of Time”, Yodi 1000 / APT 26009 (1971).
That’s a good reason / It’s not your business ~ Yodi 1006 (1972)
Don’t push my love cup aside / Was I Really made for you, on 45 as “Sharon & the Bits of Honey“, Penthouse 1003 (1975)
Tracks for “I’m not afraid of love”, “It’s not your business”and “That’s a good reason”, on CD album “Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples“, Numero Uno , NUM023 (2008)
“I’m Not Afraid of Love,” Lost Ladies of Soul. Vol.2, Lost Soul Records 4002, (2015)
“I’m Not Afraid of Love”, Performed by Sharon Clark & The Product of Time, soundtrack for The Escort (2016)
How do bad men get away with rape? ‘Good’ men pave the way.
The entire article is at Medium: “How Very Bad Men Get Away With Rape: It takes one person to commit a rape, but a village to let them get away with it over and over”.
The Twitter feed is below.
Jessica Valenti@JessicaValenti
Studies show men are less likely than women to believe rape victims. Now consider the disproportionate number of men who are police officers, judges, college administrators, and bosses. This isn’t just data: it’s a map to understanding how abusers are able to flourish.
The percentage of men who rape & abuse is actually very small! But they’re able to do it again & again because men who *aren’t* rapists give them a pass. If the 95% of men who don’t abuse women would cut it out and help women, we could get somewhere.
The top editor of the New York Review of Books, Ian Buruma (Netherlands again!) is gone, after he published a controversial essay by Jian Ghomeshi, a Canadian personality who was accused of sexual assault by more than 20 women.
Did Jian Ghomeshi write any books? No.
Ian Buruma
The essay was published September 11. On Sept. 19th, a spokesperson for New York Reviewconfirmed that Buruma had left the magazine.
The other thing that happened this week was Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who will now face a lifetime of death threats after coming forward to talk about her experiences with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when she was 15. Kavanaugh is seen as Trump’s get-out-of-jail-free card in case of impeachment, as well as the key to rolling back women’s reproductive health and access to contraception not just to pre-Roe, but to pre-Griswold.
Thank you, Dr. Ford Blasey (goes by Dr. Blasey professionally).
A witness to the attempted rape, Mark Judge, has refused to testify. Judge has written his memoirs describing drunken debauchery at Georgetown Prep.
In the meantime a clip has emerged of Kavanaugh saying: “What happens at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep, and I think that’s been a good thing for all of us.”
UPDATE: It has started already, Dr. Blasey has been forced to leave her home by death threats, a “Go Fund Me” has been started for her family’s security costs.
The Wall Street Journal described her voice as “operatic in its richness, but pure jazz in its improvisational sassiness” and compared her to Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae.
JazzTimes called her “a revelation” and compared her to “Sarah at her best”.
Clark was awarded the 2014 New York’s Bistro Award for Best Vocalist. She has won top prize in Savannah Music Festival’s American Traditions Competition and Billie Holiday Vocal Competition. She has been featured soloist with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony, and the Baltimore Symphony. She headlined the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, the Cape May Jazz Festival, and the Savannah Music Festival. She has toured extensively in Russia and Sweden.
Clark was born on December 21, 1961. She grew up in a large family in Alexandria, Virginia. Her father was Curtis Clark, a water purification specialist at a military hospital near Washington D.C. Her mother’s name is Mary. Her father died when Clark was 14. She has an identical twin sister Sherry who has sometimes performed with her; they are one of 15,000 twin pairs in an ongoing study of twins at Virginia Commonwealth University.
If ever you're restless and feelin' low,
Don't think that the city is the place to go!
Well, I'll tell you one thing worth thinkin' about,
If you come in be sure you can get back out!
The great city's playboys, they're always around,
To help build your hopes up, then help drag you down!
They'll leave you with nothing worth singin' about,
Now you're in and now you want back out.
Ce qui suit est une décharge d’une recherche interne de Wikipedia français pour
[The following is a dump of an internal search of French Wikipedia for]
In 1971, at the age of 19, Clark went to Memphis along with her husband Dennis and 
The other thing that happened this week was Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who will now face a lifetime of death threats after coming forward to talk about her experiences with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when she was 15. Kavanaugh is seen as Trump’s get-out-of-jail-free card in case of impeachment, as well as the key to rolling back women’s reproductive health and access to contraception not just to 
