Warrior Women in our Future!

Tulsi Gabbard 

Tulsi Gabbard is a Democrat  who has been the Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district since 2013.  Tulsi is an Iraq War veteran and was born in American Samoa; she is the first Hindu member of the US Congress. Tulsi previously served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004, becoming at age 21 the youngest woman to be elected to a state legislature at the time. 

Will Bernie Sanders return the favor in 2020?

She endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 and had to resign her post with with the DNC in order to make that endorsement. That alone makes her a bit of a maverick in the Democratic party. And Tulsi Gabbard is being suggested as a potential candidate to run for president of the United States in 2020. There are people that want Tulsi to run. Certainly website Medium is sold on her as POTUS. 

Tulsi Gabbard  is a democrat and generally follows the dogma of that party EXCEPT, after visiting  Syria, and speaking to their leader Bashir Assad, she now seems convinced that he did not drop poison bombs on his own people. This stance has set her at odds with members of both parties. 

This leaves Tulsi with a mixed image, the Washington Post says “Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: The Democrat that Republicans love and the DNC can’t control”.

Tammy Duckworth

Tammy Duckworth wrote the forward to ‘Band of Sisters : American Women at War in Iraq”. Band of Sisters tells the stories of  Iraqi War veteran women. Tammy has quite a compelling story of her own. She was a US Army helicopter  pilot and sustained injuries in 2004, when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents, and  she was the first female double amputee that had served in the Iraq War.

Tammy Duckworth with Elizabeth Warren

Tammy Duckworth is currently representing  Illinois in the US Senate. She was the first disabled woman to be elected to Congress. Could Tammy Duckworth  run for president in  2020? Gronda Morin seems convinced so does The Economic Times but let the voters decide. 

Amy McGrath

Amy McGrath was the first woman F-18 pilot in the USMC and she is running for congress in 2018 and is running for Kentucky's 6th congressional district.Amy has a powerful video  about how she was told when she was young that she could not be a fighter pilot.

After the events in Charlottesville Virginia and Trump’s poor response to those events, Amy called Trump out. Find out more about her campaign here!

Here we root for veterans to run for office,  perhaps they would be more cautious about war. We wish Amy success!

Mikie Sherill

Mikie Sherill is a former US Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor. She is also running for congress in 2018 in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. Learn more about her campaign. 

M J Hegar

Mary Jennings Hegar is another veteran that wants to be the representative from Texas' 31st congressional district. 

Friends call her MJ. She is A Purple Heart recipient  that took aim at  military inequality by writing  'Shoot Like A Girl’, More about her campaign here. 

Chelsea Manning

Chelsea Manning is a former US Army private  convicted of giving sensitive government records to Wikileaks, and has filed to run for the senate in Maryland, which  is announced here. Some deem Manning to be a hero and some consider Manning  to be a traitor. Manning’s prison sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama.  

President Donald J.Trump certainly called Manning an “Ungrateful TRAITOR”.

Never the less we wish all these women veterans success in 2018 and 2020! 2017 is widely considered The Year of the Woman; Will 2018  be a year of political victories for women veterans?  Here at the Strangest Adventures we will  be rooting for change in 2018!

Wonder Woman!

As a kid I was disappointed that this was not a comic book

This is the real life story about how comic book Amazon princess Wonder Woman had her super powers restored by feminist icon Gloria Steinham. In 1972 Gloria was waiting to publish Ms. Magazine and wanted to use Wonder Woman, whom she considered to be a symbol of female empowerment, on the first cover. Of course she asked DC Comics for permission only there was one problem; DC had depowered Wonder Woman and took her out of her uniform and put her into mod clothing! 

As a kid I was disappointed that this was a comic book

The mod Wonder Woman was an attempt to make Diana relevant to the late 1960’s so editor Carmine Infantino tasked writer Denny O'Neil and artist Mike Sekowsky with changing the Amazon into a secret agent. Wonder Woman was made over into an Emma Peel type, and that was arguably the most controversial period in the hero's history. 

An illustration by DC Comics artist Murphy Anderson had been commissioned to make art for a story Ms. was planning to write on Wonder Woman but then it was decided that this would be an ideal cover for the first issue of the magazine. Here are some more examples of Murphy Anderson’s work.

Was Murphy Anderson inspired by this cover?

And the rest is history. DC comics rebooted Wonder Woman in 1973 by restoring her powers and, for the most part, her original appearance.

However, her appearance on MS  encouraged  the use of Wonder Woman as a symbol for feminism and empowerment. In 1973, a year after the MS. Magazine cover, Carol Clement drew a speculum wielding Wonder Woman for the Los Angeles Women's Center newsletter that instructed women on how to do their own vaginal exams. 

William Moulton Marston

William Moulton Marston was the creator of Wonder Woman. He lived an unconventional  lifestyle, living with his wife and mistress at the same time, fathering children with both. In 2017 there was a movie about the life story of Dr. William Marston, Harvard psychologist and inventor, He, along with his wife, invented a crucial component  of lie detector tests, however this movie is about the relationship between his wife and his lover, who became her lover after his death and how they both inspired the iconic super heroine Wonder Woman. Marston could be considered one of the few feminist men of his era.

Wonder Woman addressed the UN in her comic book too

But Wonder Woman’s involvement with the real world  was not over! Wonder Woman was made a UN ambassador in 2016, which was also her 75th anniversary! Her time as a UN ambassador was short lived though. Current Wonder Woman Gal Gadot and 1970’s Wonder Woman Lynda Carter appeared together at the UN but make no mistake, the fictional Wonder Woman was considered the ambassador. She lost her job in response to a petition, “Reconsider the Choice of Wonder Woman as the UN's Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls” signed by 30,000 UN employees. Wonder Woman always seems to court controversy even in real life!

Is the future of Wonder Woman filled with bondage? Wonder Woman often relied upon her golden lasso to tie people up. What if the situation were reversed? Wonder Woman: Bondage By Frank Miller And Bill Sienkiewicz. Here at the Strangest Adventures, we hope not but who knows these days? Sometimes the world is a dark place. We continue to think of Wonder Woman as a fictional hero and symbol that inspires millions of people every day.

Wonder Woman's first uniform included a skirt!

The Porn Star and the President!

Last Friday, the Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, allegedly paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to be silent about a sexual tryst with Trump. Honestly this story has been public since at least October 2016. Trump has denied the allegations but then Trump usually denies everything. Stormy Daniels denies she was paid off. At the Strangest Adventures we wonder if the WSJ  released this news “story” to distract from Trump’s latest problem. 

See, earlier last week Trump was alleged to call countries like Haiti and other nations “$hithole countries”, while at a meeting to discuss immigration reform. Dutifully the media focused intently on what Trump said. As is usual,Trump denies he said it. Then the WSJ article came the next day. Was it  a perfect distraction from $hithole Gate? Some allege it is. We remain skeptical about everything associated with Donald J.Trump but you read the stories and decide for yourself.