Scientists and senior executives from more than 400 pharmaceutical and biotech companies and also investment firms issued what the New York Times called a “scorching condemnation” of the ruling of Texas District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued late Friday, April 7th that invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
Titled “In Support of FDA’s Authority to Regulate Medicines”, the letter excerpts shared on AOC read:
On Friday, April 7, a federal judge with no scientific training fundamentally undermined the bipartisan authority granted by Congress to the Food and Drug Administration to approve and regulate safe, effective medicines for every American.
District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a decision that overturns the 23-year old approval of mifepristone, the primary medicine used in abortion and miscarriage care, and which has been proven by decades of data to be safer than Tylenol, nearly all antibiotics and insulin.
The decision ignores decades of scientific evidence and legal precedent. Judge Kacsmaryk’s act of judicial interference has set a precedent for diminishing FDA’s authority over drug approvals, and in so doing, creates uncertainity for the entire biopharma industry . . .
As American citizens and interested parties, we are invited to add our names to the letter. Anne of Carversville has signed on to the simple Google doc. Texas District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s assault on science and a key federal institution deeply embedded in American life — the FDA — was even more chilling to me as an American citizen than the June 24, 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned the nearly five-decades-old Roe v Wade decision.
On Sunday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on CNN’s “State of the Union” said that not only is the Texas ruling unlawful, but it threatens the entire process of FDA drug approval.
“First and foremost, when you turn upside down the entire FDA approval process, you’re not talking about just mifepristone,” he said. “You’re talking about every kind of drug. You’re talking about our vaccines, you’re talking about insulin, you’re talking about the new Alzheimer’s drugs that may come on.”
Many exciting new drugs involve stem-cell research, and the Catholic Church already raised ethical objections to promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are manufactured using cells derived from human fetuses electively aborted decades ago.
Will the Catholic Church and MAGA crowd sue in Texas to take all drugs off the market derived from human fetus stem cells? Because the list of new drugs coming out of the COVID vaccine epidemic research is breathtaking. We’re talking cancer vaccines.
Meanwhile, the drug Mifeprex [Mifepristone] is so safe that deaths associated with taking Viagra are 10x the number associated with Mifepristone.
Like this Twitter follower, I was also watching Ali Velshi on MSNBC Saturday, when he reported that Walgreens had donated money to the very Red State AGs group that sent Walgreens the onimous “don’t do it” letter about selling abortion pills in their stores.
Unlike Fox News, Ali Velshi is very particular about the words coming out of his mouth. While we don’t know the amount of money donated — and whether a similar amount was donated to a Blue State AGs group — I do not challenge the veracity of Velshi’s claim. He would not make it without the receipts.
This new revelation didn’t make me feel any better about Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer, a businesswoman we celebrated on her appointment to the Walgreens Boots Alliance corner office as the first Black woman CEO.
Until this week, the best news about the future of North Carolina Democrats was the development of a future Apple campus in Durham, the fourth largest city in the state. Next came confirmation that fellow digital-world goliath Meta [parent to Facebook and Instagram] would also be locating a major office complex in Durham.
The city of 300,000 people is expected to double in size in the next 25 years, generating high hopes for Democrats that North Carolina will become a more progressive state politically.
Future Is Now and It’s Younger
That future reality met today with the February 2023 ouster of Democratic North Carolina state party chair Bobbie Richardson, running for her second term, replaced by 25-year-old Anderson Clayton to guide them through the upcoming 2024 election. Note that both ‘Bobbie’ and ‘Anderson’ are women.
Max Mara’s Spring-Summer 2023 campaign has sophisticated swagger. Models trio Adut Akech, Annemary Aderibigbe and Dara Allen step it up to remind us that they are far more than muses or mannequins. Fashion editor Tonne Goodman styles the shoot — a collection of sophisticated essentials with discreet details that she herself would wear — in images photographed by Ethan James Green.
Looking at the images immediately took me back to December 2018, when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi exited a tough meeting with then president Donald Trump.
The shot of Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer leaving a hard-as-nails meeting with Trump went viral, generating such digital heat that Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths responded that the coat would be reissued.
AOC has always liked Ian Griffiths because he’s a male designer willing to explore his own contradictions. He does just that in speaking about the 2023 campaign inspired by the French Riviera. Griffiths has not been caught up in trying to make women ‘its’ or ‘theys’, degendering us in such a way that the very concept of women’s rights is no longer necessary. We’re all humans, no need to discuss the failure of mostly — but not exclusively — men to acknowledge women’s inequality.
I never praise myself, but I KNEW Pharrell was the perfect human for Louis Vuitton Mens and that LV would see it that way, too.
I’ve asked Louis Vuitton Mens [and Dior — too — both men and women] and Etro this morning to pick up the mantle that few businesses can lead. LVMH is well aware of what I am saying. And they are listening.
This video about Pharrell’s ‘Black Ambition’ organization is only about two years old. Clearly Virgil knew how ill he was, but we see here Virgil and Pharrell really speaking to issues of black success. The convo goes deep into their values as humans.
Felecia Hatcher is very succesful in her own right and she serves as CEO of ‘Black Ambition’.
Arab News Tehran reports that Iran’s judiciary has ordered police to “firmly punish” people who violate the country’s hijab law, a news agency reported Tuesday, January 10.
France’s Charlie Hebdomagazine, a French satirical weekly magazine, has again provoked the Iranians, publishing cartoons mocking Iran’s ruling clerics and their aggression against the protesters.
Two French-born al-Qaida extremists attacked the newspaper’s office in 2015, killing 12 people in Paris on January 7, 2015. Today the irreverent publication operates from a secret location with round-the-clock police protection, continuing its refusal to bow down to right-wing, religious zealots of any ideology, not only Islam.
Supermodel Natalia Vodianova covers Vogue Beauty Paper, January 2023, a media project of Vogue China. Natalia is styled by Michelle Cameron, with creative direction by Matt Mcdonald. Photographer Hugo Comte [IG] is in the studio.
Natalia Vodianova’s stratospheric rise has been breathtaking, as she increasingly turns her attention to her work as a philanthropist, impact investor and UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador.
In Nepal and India, large numbers of women do not have the right to touch food or crops while they are menstruating, because they can cause bad luck to their families. A 2019 study found that 77% of west-central Nepali girls and young women actively practice menstrual exile, even though it is now illegal in India.
Girls in Bolivia are still told that their period blood causes illnesses like cancer in other people.
There is no stronger voice for women’s rights in fashion culture than Dior’s Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri. Her leadership and creative vision increases in value at a time when women’s rights are under assault worldwide, including in America.
There’s a reason why the word ‘woman’ was the most-searched word on dictionary.com in 2022. Clearly, we don’t know who women are any more. Can you imagine a search for the word ‘men’?
Carrying on with its 21st century Medici mission, after the Cruise 2022.23 show in Seville, Dior invited seven Spanish photographers to engage in dialogue with the brand with their photographic interpretations of the cruise collection that truly celebrated Andulasian culture.
Dior Magazine’s ‘Andulasian Grace’ features these talented photographers: Berta Vicente Salas; Andrea Torres Balaguer; Silvia Conde; Raquel Chicheri; Eva Diez; Irene Cruz; Alba Yruela.
The Jewish global human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center released its Top Ten Worst Global Anti-Semitic Incidents 2022 on January 29. [see pdf].
Ye topped the list for “his continued anti-Semitic comments and leveraging his immense social media platform to weaponize hate, bigotry, and ignorance.”
With the Gregorian calendar’s New Year’s Day upon us in hours, and the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Rabbit ringing in the Lunar New Year on January 22, 2023, Gucci releases a beautiful and without controversy campaign that celebrates two global cultures and also Easter 2023, coming on April 9.
Thank you to perhaps the most soulful creative in fashion — Alessandro Michele, formerly of Gucci. I am certainly one of the people who only recently expressed my understanding of your vision and perspective.
To celebrate her influence on American design and architecture, Mattel collaborated with the design magazine PIN-UP on a limited-edition art book, “Barbie Dreamhouse: An Architectural Survey.”
“Barbie’s house is infinitely more exciting than Barbie herself,” writes Elvia Wilk, a cultural critic. “The structures we live within — fantasize about living within — say more about our lives and dreams than plastic bodies ever will.”
The New York Times breaks down the Barbitecture story with A Six-Decade Tour of Barbie’s Dreamhouses and AOC gifts readers the link.
Wilk is one of many critics who contribute to the book’s analysis of Barbie’s huge influence on American culture.
The human desire for self-adornment is universal, and writing about copper jewelry trends should be a snap for most people. Not for Anne. I can make writing needlessly complicated, but in this case, the writing took me back to the continuously-revealing story of women’s history.
Only Anne of Carversville whips up a narrative around copper jewelry that takes us back to the dawn of human existence, and then out of Africa between 60,000 and 90,000 years ago into the Levant, a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia.
Background: in understanding the importance of human history and invention, jewelry was not very high on the list of primarily male researchers and scientists.
Frankly, jewelry as artifacts was considered inconsequential and frivolous in the story of human development. Copper jewelry was so frivolous that the existence of The Copper Age, dating from the mid-5th millennium BC, and ending with the beginning of the Bronze Age proper, in the late 4th to 3rd millennium BC, was barely worth mentioning in the scientific community.
You’ve heard of The Stone Age and the Bronze Age. But few of us — including me — knew about The Copper Age. The REAL history of copper jewelry starts to upset several thousands of years of assumptions around women’s lives.
Margot Robbie covers the December 2022/January 2023 issue of Vanity Fair, styled by Anastasia Barbieri in images by Mario Sorrenti. The two-time Academy Award nominee is set to dazzle in ‘Babylon’ and then as a modern-woman Barbie for the 21st century.
Robbie plays a fictional Hollywood icon on the rise in Babylon, Paramount’s epic comedy-drama led by Robbie, Brad Pitt, and newcomer Diego Calva. The movie, opening in theaters on December 23, is set during the industry’s wildest time. White men ruled; the money was flowing, the rules were few, a thirst for fame and success knew few boundaries.
We don’t know if Kanye West is referring to the Illuminati in his latest rant that began Friday night. Note that The Root raised the question. But the fact that he spoke about his own colleages — some of them already associated with the Illuminati — suggests that this is the secret society Kanye is ranting about.
Last night West began calling out people by name who he says are currently “under control” by unnamed powers. “They can’t control me, you know what I’m saying,” West begins. “They can control Shaq, they can control Charles Barkley, they can control LeBron James.
“They can control Jay-Z and Beyonce,” West said. “But they can’t control me. Ain’t no name I won’t name. It’s up.”
It got worse, when West began speaking on Hollywood “sacrifices” — including the death of his mother Donda West.
On Thursday Nets guard Kyrie Irving was suspended indefinitely for promoting an anti-Semitic film based on the book “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America”. The book promotes several anti-Semitic tropes, including the despicable lie that the Holocaust never happened.
Late Friday, Nov 4, NIKE suspended its relationship with Kyrie Irving, including the introduction of his new NIKE KYRIE 8 shoe. ESPN reported last May that dealings with Kyrie Irving were so complex for Nike, that there was a good chance that Nike would not renew his contract at the end of the 2022/23 season.
Nike has produced Irving’s popular signature shoe since 2014 and is taking the financial hit on cancelling the Kyrie 8 launch.
“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech, and we condemn any form of antisemitism,” the company said.
AOC was asleep at the wheel on the subject of Candice Owen and her husband George Farmer, who she married in 2019, being the power couple behind Parler.
Republican mega donor Rebekah Mercer would take issue with who is in charge of Parler, as she controls two of three board seats. To be honest, the Mercer heiress hasn’t gotten much of a return on her investment in uber-right-wing media investments: Parler, Breitbart News and Cambridge Analytica.
The Parler app got banned in the aftermath of America’s January 6 insurrection because it was a haven for communication and calls to war among those who want to overthrow the US government. Apple, and other social media, banned Parler after the Jan. 6 riot.
The Washington Post broke down the whole story on Tuesday, with Candace Owens and Kanye West’s provocative friendship, explained. A subscriber to WaPo, I missed it because it was in the Style section. Although I’m sure the headline was a small one on the front page.
A breeze is blowing through fashion collections and marketing as humans adjust to pre-pandemic life. Not that reality is faraway, mind you, or that a decade of streetwear’s dominance is over.
Coincidentally, posting images of the just launched on September 15 Polo Originals collection by Ralph Lauren comes on the heels of sharing incredibly-glamorous images of the spring 2023 glamorous Schiaparelli collection.
I can imagine critics calling the Ralph Lauren Polo Originals campaign a celebration of robber baron wealth. Photographer Richard Phibbs [IG] made harmonious artistry out of these images starring Hamid Onifade, Hugh Laughton-Scott, Kit Butler, Rishi Robin.
To me, I see a modern, honoring nod to traditions and classics — to wellmade clothes that are designed to last.
All reports are that ‘The Woman King’ reigns supreme at the Toronto International Film Festival, which opened on September 8 and closes on Sunday, September 18.
Gina Prince-Bythewood directed the historical epic set in West Africa in 1823. Tony and Oscar award winner Viola Davis, featured here in four covers of the October 2022 issue of ELLE Brazil, stars as Nanisca, a force of nature in Dahomey, West Africa. Today Dahomey is located in what we know as southern Benin.
As the leader of the Agojie, the all-woman army of the African kingdom, Davis’s character led a fighting force so fierce that even enemies spoke of its “prodigious bravery”.
Without using the exact phrase “separation of church and state” the First Amendment to the Constitution is generally considered to clarify America’s objection to a national religion and a political governing body known as a theocracy.
The Wokes presume that the “stinking letter” Congresswoman and theocrat Lauren Boebert refers to is America’s third president from 1802-1809 Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 missive to the Danbury Baptist Association.
In it, Jefferson wrote that the First Amendment had essentially built "a wall of separation" between church and state.
