“Quiet, Piggy”
by Jennifer Ring
“I desire you would Remember the Ladies….Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.”
Abigail Adams to John Adams, March 31, 1776
“Quiet, piggy!”
President Donald J. Trump to Catherine Lucey, of Bloomberg News on Air Force One, November 14, 2025
The first lines of Abigail Adams’ letter to her husband are familiar to many Americans. Less well known is the rest of the letter, which raises the threat of a women’s rebellion if the authors of the Declaration of Independence do not include “the ladies” in the new government:
“I long to hear that you have declared an independency — and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious…”
This is strong stuff! Abigail Adams expresses eagerness for independence from England, anticipates a new code of laws, reminds her husband John of how abusive men are inclined to be, and vows that American women will not be a part of the new nation if their interests are not represented. No taxation without representation goes for women as well as men.
I don’t know whether John responded personally to his wife on this matter, but there is no mention of women in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of 1787. The word “male” first appeared in the constitution in 1869 in the text of the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended voting rights to formerly enslaved men, but not women. No American women of any race could vote until 1920, a century and a half after Abigail Adams made her request to her husband, who was destined to be the first Vice President and the second President of the United States.
The following op-ed is written by Caroline Light, a Senior Lecturer and Director of Women and Gender Studies at Harvard University. Caroline points to the ways in which the present US regime wants to change the Constitution to suit its ideology. It was first published in Teen Vogue.
Constitutional Carry Law Promoted by Donald Trump Would Allow People to Carry Guns Everywhere Without Permits
This op-ed explains the dangers of so-called Constitutional carry laws.
May 14, 2025
On January 21, the website for the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention went dark. Established by President Biden in 2023 as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the office represented the first federal effort to protect Americans from gun-related death and injury in the past 30 years. It made an impact: reducing the loopholes by which firearms can be distributed without background checks; providing support for communities and victims of gun violence; and educating the public on gun violence-prevention measures, like safe storage and emergency risk-protection orders. In 2024, firearm-related deaths and injuries dropped for the third year in a row.
Despite these accomplishments, gun violence recently surpassed auto accidents as the number one killer of American children, reminding us that we still have a long way to go. But as soon as President Trump took office this year, he effectively eliminated the Office of Gun Violence Prevention by an executive order entitled “Protecting Second Amendment Rights,” exalting “a right to keep and bear arms” as the most important right held by Americans. Among his priorities is “national reciprocity,” a policy that would require every state to respect the concealed carry eligibility standards of others, effectively allowing a person authorized to carry a concealed firearm in one state to carry legally in any other state.
Women Rising Radio presents an article from the Substack of Andra Watkins, the NYT best-selling author featured in our program #48. A survivor of televangelist Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority movement, Andra knows full well what the Christian nationalist movement of today means – for all of us. Her thoughts on Project 2025, a Christian nationalist manifesto, highlight the dangers of that religious campaign, to our democracy and political life.
Demons. Witchcraft. Demoncrats. Pagans. As 5 November approaches, Republicans are throwing these words around a lot more.
In my newsletter How Christian Nationalists Talk Amongst Themselves, I wrote about how Christian Nationalists view CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM as the One True Faith. Other Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, Agnostics, Atheists, Unitarians, Amish, Mennonite, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Sikhs, Orthodox faiths and more are deemed to be pagan false gods, demon gods, blasphemy, Satanic, and witchcraft.
Additional recent news items on this topic are HERE and HERE.
What could this talk of demons and witchcraft mean for YOU or someone you love?
Christian Nationalism indoctrinates people to beat themselves up for past failings and build treasure in a future heaven. In my youth, I was taught that living in the moment, being present, or emptying my mind of its worried hamster wheel was sinful. Church involvement, prayer, and Bible study were the only tools I needed to build a life to glorify the One True God.
In my thirties, I started practicing yoga. Every night after working my very stressful job, I came home, shut myself in my bedroom, and stretched and breathed through various poses. I couldn’t obsess about my work day when I was trying to balance on one foot or beat myself up about another failure while breathing in easy pose. For the first time in my life, I embraced something that helped me be in the moment.
In 2017, I started seeing a reiki healer after my family told me my incurable illness was God trying to get my attention, which led to a nervous breakdown.
If one does an internet search with the terms “yoga reiki book demons,” one will find pages of articles with titles like Yoga Opens Demonic Doors to Evil Spirits, I Was a New Age Healer; Then I Realized I Wasn’t the One Doing the Healing, and The Exorcism Files: True Stories of Demonic Possession.
My mother sent me one of these books with a plea to be open and let Jesus speak. This very poorly written screed admonished me that when I practiced yoga, I breathed in demons with every breath. Reiki invited even more demons into my body.
I guess I’m really good at hiding my demonic possession, because my head never spins around; I don’t spew pea soup-like substances; I’ve never used ecstatic voices like the New Apostolic Reformation charismatics who seize and foam at the mouth and handle snakes and speak in tongues. Seriously, I could not do this work today without my hard-won spiritual tools. Not because they provide some sort of mystical supernatural power, but because they help me relish every second of being alive. Yoga and Reiki have helped me recenter myself and draw from my own inner strength.
The significance is bigger than my personal story. If my Christian Nationalist mother could’ve forced me to stop practicing yoga and reiki, she would’ve. People in that world believe ANYTHING that is not of the Christian Nationalist One True God is demonic, Satanic, pagan witchcraft. They believe it is their One True God-given RIGHT to tell us how to think, to demand that we find solace only in their churches, their interpretations of the Bible, and their prayers.
Anyone who values their freedom to practice their faith, to practice no faith, to utilize secular therapy, or to use tools like yoga, reiki, tarot, astrology, psychics, past life regression and more should vote against Christian Nationalist Republicans.
It isn’t hyperbolic to make the following list of what Christian Nationalist Republicans could do to make these modalities illegal and/or impossible.
- Non-Christian religions could be declared demonic or outlawed as witchcraft. If this sounds insane, please go back to the beginning of this newsletter and read the excerpt from Mother Jones again.
- Psychics and astrologers could be tried for witchcraft. It wouldn’t be the first time. See the Spanish Inquisition or the Salem Witch Trials.
- Yoga studios and classes could be outlawed as witchcraft.
- Reiki and tarot practitioners could be fined and jailed.
- Christians who refuse to worship Christian Nationalist God could be accused of demon possession or witchcraft.
