| EDITION 4 | MAY/JUNE 2022 |
CONTENTS
- MOTHERS DAY
- NEWS & INFO
- TAX NEWS
- VOTING NEWS
- HEALTH
- MEDICARE & AGING
- NEWS AND STORIES FROM HOME AND ABROAD
- THIS MONTH IN U.S. HISTORY
- UPCOMING EVENTS
- CHAIR’S CORNER
- FRAUD CORNER
- TECH CORNER
- STATE TEAM NEWS
- DA IS GETTING A NEW WEBSITE!
- IN SEARCH OF VOLUNTEERS...
- QUOTES
- SUGGESTION BOX
MOTHERS DAY
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is celebrated around the world, but on different days. The volume of flowers sent on Mother’s Day is only eclipsed by Christmas/Hanukkah. This year we can also remember our mothers by donating our time and money to food banks. In June we are also celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride Month and Father’s Day. Find the date your country of residence celebrates, and did you know — Father’s Day began in West Virginia. . |
  
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NEWS & INFO
The shockwaves of the possibility of losing Roe v Wade outweighed the news of Ukraine this week. In case you missed reading Alito’s draft, you can find it here. We’ve included stories from women, men, nurses, and more in our Health section.
Women Consistently Earn Less Than Men
Women are over-represented in lower paying jobs and, as they age, the pay gap widens even more. The U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) shows the pay and age dynamic of women and men. Here, we looked at workers ages 35-44.
TAX NEWS
Americans living overseas have an automatic 60 day filing deadline for taxes, until 15 June. However, if you file a tax extension (use form 4868), that date moves to 15 October – a full 6 month extension. Questions? This page is a quick guide that will help you find many answers. Also, the IRS has a dedicated page for International Taxpayers.
VOTING NEWS
Upcoming Democratic Primary Elections
Results are rolling in on many Democratic primary elections, and more are quickly approaching. This is your chance to decide which Democrat will go up against the Republican in the November general election.
May 24: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Texas (runoff) 
June 7: California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota
June 14: Maine, Nevada,North Dakota, South Carolina
June 21: Virginia, Washingtonians (DC)
June 28: Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah
Request your ballot early AND return it early!
- State not listed? Find your deadlines here: www.votefromabroad.org/states/
- Need a ballot? Get it here: www.votefromabroad.org
- Need help voting? Respond to this email or write to [email protected]
HEALTH
How aging affects focus
Just as you may not run as fast or jump as high as you did as a teenager, your brain’s cognitive power—that is, your ability to learn, remember, and solve problems—slows down with age. You may find it harder to summon once familiar facts or divide your attention among two or more activities or sources of information. These changes affect your ability to focus, so you may find yourself getting more easily distracted than you were when you were younger. Hearing loss that often accompanies aging… Read more …
This month women and men are facing an unprecedented attack on our civil rights. We’ve gathered a few stories about women, men, children and families facing the end of Roe v Wade protections.
I’m an abortion Nurse. These Stories Might Shock You, But They’re All Too Real
I am witness to my patients’ stories. “She was a princess,” she whispers as she wakens from her medicated sleep. A foreign prince is the father and he refuses to marry her. So she chooses her life over the princess’s because, in her culture, having a baby out of wedlock is punishable by death. She is an engineer and was given 24 hours off work. With the new abortion law in her state, nearby clinics rejected her. So, she drives…. Read more …
My 11-Year-Old Patient Was Pregnant. Here's What I Want You To Know About Being ‘Pro-Life'
Our medical assistant came to me, panicked, and handed me a positive test. ... 'Run it again,' I sputtered — to buy some time and gather my wits and hope by some miracle it would produce a different result. Read more …
My Great-Grandpa Killed My Great-Grandma Giving Her An Abortion On Their Kitchen Table
"Come say goodbye to your mother," he told my grandmother as he brought her and her siblings into the kitchen, where their mother lay dying. Read more …
Ruth Barnett, Portland’s foremost abortionist before Roe v. Wade, endured arrests, lived high life
Ruth Barnett was in her mid-70s and dying from cancer when she landed in prison. And none of her powerful friends were willing to speak up on her behalf. “Where are those thousands of people you helped over the years?” her lawyer asked her, in frustration, as her sentencing loomed. “Where are all the people with influence and money and position?” Barnett’s response: “I haven’t been able to find them.” Read more …
MEDICARE & AGING
New senior-focused ads from Democrats hit Scott’s plans for Medicare, Social Security
Democrats are launching an ad campaign targeting seniors to highlight Republican Sen. Rick Scott's push to have Congress to reauthorize legislation every five years. The proposal in the 11-point plan from Scott, a Florida Republican and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is the focus of… Read more …
Joe Biden is Quietly Pursuing the Creeping Privatization of Medicare
Last November 30, a collection of physicians and activists were in Washington, DC, its federal buildings still largely closed for business thanks to the pandemic and fear of another Trumpist uprising. They were there to protest what they warned was an attempt to end Medicare as we know it. Read more …
Discussion Paper on Aging & Disability
This Discussion Paper has been prepared as a contribution to a joint initiative on aging and disability undertaken by the National Council on Ageing and Older People and the National Disability Authority. Read more …
Attitudes about Aging: A Global Perspective
In a Rapidly Graying World, Japanese Are Worried, Americans Aren’t. At a time when the global population of people ages 65 and older is expected to triple to 1.5 billion by mid-century, public opinion on whether the growing number of older people is a problem varies dramatically around the world, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Read more …
NEWS AND STORIES FROM HOME AND ABROAD
Elderly Widower Finds A Fishing Partner After Posting A Tearjerking Classified Ad
Life is not easy when you get old. In fact, many older adults face so much pain and loss as they outlive their loved ones, one by one. Then there are the many health ailments that accompany old age. One widower already faced his share of troubles after losing his wife and fishing partner, but he refused to give in to the gloom and loneliness. Instead, he turned to the internet to find a new fishing partner. Read more …
Woman Follows Little Boy Who Takes Leftovers from Her Restaurant Every Day
One night while at her restaurant until near closing time, a little boy came in to speak with the chef. From the start of the conversation, it was obvious that the boy and chef already knew each other. As soon as the chef saw the boy, he immediately knew what he was in the restaurant for. Read more …
Scientists Discover Children’s Cells Living in Mothers’ Brains
The link between a mother and child is profound, and new research suggests a physical connection even deeper than anyone thought. The profound psychological and physical bonds shared by the mother and her child begin during gestation when the mother is everything for the developing fetus, supplying warmth and sustenance, while her heartbeat provides a soothing constant rhythm. Read more …
THIS MONTH IN U.S. HISTORY
23 May 1810: Journalist Margaret Fuller was born in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. She became the first American woman to serve as a foreign correspondent, reporting for the New York Tribune.
23 May 1846: The first American female attorney Arabella Mansfield was born near Burlington, Iowa. She was instrumental in the founding of the Iowa Suffrage Society in 1870.
28 May 1961: Amnesty International was formed.
3 June 1972: Sally Jan Priesand was ordained a rabbi thus becoming the first woman rabbi in the U.S.
5 June: An economic anomaly - both Adam Smith (1723) and Maynard Keynes (1883) were born on this day.
6 June 1872: Susan B. Anthony was fined for voting in a Presidential election
Many more historical events are listed here for May and here for June.
UPCOMING EVENTS
From book clubs and cocktail hour trivia nights, to what’s coming up in the primaries in 2022, there is something for everyone at Democrats Abroad.
27 May: Coffee Time!: The Seniors Global Caucus (that’s us!) is inviting you to coffee! We plan to meet each month to discuss whatever is on our minds. Please join us - RSVP here.
29 May: GOTV Voter Assistance training. See local times online and RSVP here.
28 June Heavyweight speakers will be answering our questions about Washington DC online. RVSP for Demystifying the DNC.
CHAIR’S CORNER
In May and June, we celebrate two holidays – Mother’s Day in May and Father Day in June. Sadly, the war in Ukraine is continuing and we cannot celebrate world peace. This is an appropriate segue into the origins of Mother’s Day from Heather Cox Richardson, the well-known American historian. She tells us “As the reality of women’s lives is being erased” (i.e., by the potential elimination of Roe vs Wade) “in favour of an image of women as mothers”, she wanted to point out why Mother’s Day began in 1908.
At that time, Anna Jarvis decided to honor her mother. Richardson tells us “Mothers’ Day” actually “started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War convinced American women that women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change modern society.” She noted, “Men were trampled into blood-soaked mud, piled like cordwood in ditches, or transformed into emaciated corpses after dysentery drained their lives away…. The women who had watched their men march off to war were haunted by its results. They lost fathers, husbands, sons. The men who did come home were scarred in body and mind.”
When First Lady Jill Biden celebrated Mother’s Day with an unannounced visit to western Ukraine, she was continuing this noble pursuit of gaining power though peace. She visited Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska at a school currently being used to house internally displaced Ukrainians. On her Facebook page, Biden posted: “On this Mother’s Day, my heart is with you, First Lady Olena Zelenska, and all of the brave and resilient mothers of Ukraine.”
Father's Day was inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother's Day. Again, war was a feature of this day. Father’s Day was founded in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there. After hearing a sermon about Jarvis's Mother's Day she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday honoring them.
So, when we think of these days, let’s remember also that in today’s world we have all sorts of mothers and fathers. These mothers and fathers are not only in heterosexual relationships but also represent lesbian, gay and transgender families. They may also be part of immigrant, minority and oppressed groups. Let’s celebrate this diversity as we also remember our own parents.
Finally, I would like to celebrate with you the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson as an Associate Justice for the Supreme Court. It was a difficult confirmation. I felt horrified and sometimes physically sick by how this dear judge was treated by some Senators in the Judiciary Committee. It felt to me as if their words were shaped by racism and misogyny. Nevertheless, this well-qualified and intelligent woman was confirmed. I am currently reading the biography of Constance Baker Motley, another judge who was an inspiration for Justice Jackson. Both are inspirational women and patriotic Americans.
FRAUD CORNER
Former FBI & CIA Director William Webster warns about Elder Fraud
WHAT? She promised him a good time with a Nigerian princess, and nobody would ever know? Or something? USUALLY scam artists are craftier than that. The smarter ones do some homework and have an idea of the emotional or identity buttons they might push. See more …
Charities and non-profit organizations
As we look forward to outcomes from the myriad of lawsuits against the former President, in this article we look back over the past 4 years to remind us of some of the lawsuits concerning Donald Trump, now settled, against charities and non-profit organizations.
At IOP Disinformation Conference, Obama Warns of “Anger, Resentment, Conflict, Division” Monetized Online
Some countries put up with being used as platforms for international online swindles, so long as they are not aimed at their own citizens. The journalist who covers such stuff in those countries, when looking up the fraud artists online, finds a plethora of bogus promotional stuff, made to look like it's from other sources. Search engines are gamed so that disinformation about the scam is the first several pages of anything that comes up. This criminal modus operandi was common enough before being introduced into politics. Now it has a life in the political discourse of the United States and a number of other countries.
Former President Barack Obama joined Nobel and Pulitzer laureates and other top journalists at a University of Chicago conference last month on Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy. The discussion needs to continue far and wide, and get deeper. Those of us who were taught how the Nazis adapted the late 19th century Wall Street "big lie" ad campaigns — typically about patent medicines at the time — and applied them to German racist politics in 1930s media should update our knowledge about how this sort of thing is done today. With the former president, Filipina Nobel laureate journalist Maria Ressa and Pulitzer prize winner Anne Applebaum we get the lay of the cyber-landscape on which we must fight this year's campaign.
Thanks to Eric Jackson for these contributions.
TECH CORNER
Have a library card? You can read, listen and stream movies online at Hoopla.
STATE TEAMS NEWS
State Teams were launched in September 2021. This initiative is designed to enhance DA’s voter assistance, voter mobilization and advocacy by
➔ Building partnerships with State and County Democratic Parties as well as grassroots advocacy groups
➔ Providing connection and a sense of purpose in staying engaged with domestic politics (“skin in the game”)
➔ Engaging and educating new members
➔ Enhancing internal communication with newsletters and voter/election alerts
➔ Join the State Team Slack group to get the meeting links, or email us
➔ Join your Voting State group on Facebook
DA IS GETTING A NEW WEBSITE!
Further to our appeal in our April newsletter, we have now raised 2/3’s of the funds needed. The work is nearly done, but we still need more funding to complete and implement the new site. If you can, Please chip in today!
IN SEARCH OF VOLUNTEERS...
We are still looking for volunteers for the Global Senior Caucus Steering Committee. What does a member of the Steering Committee involve?
- Good communication skills in meetings and enjoying the company of others.
- Steering Committee Meetings are via WebEx once a month (the 1st Wednesday of the month) for 60-90 minutes at 8 am Eastern Time.
- Taking on a specific role on the Steering Committee and helping the Caucus to organize around your role.
Please click here to find out more and to contact us.
The Global Communications Team is also looking for volunteers as they ramp up for the midterms! Do you have a communications background and are interested in helping? If so, please fill out the Global Communications Team Interest Form. Thanks!
QUOTES
If it was about babies, we’d have free lactation consultants, free diapers, free formula.
If it was about babies, we’d have free and excellent childcare from newborns on, paid maternity AND paternity leave.
If it was about babies, we’d have universal preschool and pre-k and guaranteed after school placements.
If it was about babies, IVF and adoption wouldn’t just be for folks with thousands and thousands of dollars to spend on expanding their families.
— Leila Cohan on Twitter
If the environment were a bank, it would have been saved by now. — Bernie Sanders
Catherine O’Hara on Aging in Hollywood: “We Should Embrace and Respect Age”
"I don’t want to get surgery and I don’t want to get needles, other than acupuncture needles," the 'Schitt's Creek' star said about whether she'd have any work done.
Merritt Heaton, Illinois Oldest Farmer Steals the Show on Johnny Carson
**click on the picture to open the video
