Kristen Welker Helms NBC's 'Meet the Press', Replacing Chuck Todd
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Will Fla. Governor Ron DeSantis Ban a Woke Barbie in Florida Theaters? She's Headed His Way?
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Australian actor Margot Robbie doesn’t remember having a Barbie doll, as a young girl growing up in Australia. Her cousin had Barbies and perhaps they all joined Robbie in admiring a dandelion-decorated mudpie or two made for an afternoon tea in the Australian Gold Coast sandbox.
Fast-foward to now, and Barbie’s scheduled touchdown in American movie theaters remains July 21, 2023.
The Summer issue of American Vogue weighs into the frenzy, putting Margot Robbie as Barbie on the cover. Robbie is lensed by Middle America to East Coast photographer, Caledonia, Michigan’s own Ethan James Green [IG].
When pitching her company LuckyChap, the production outfit she runs with her friend Josey McNamara and her husband, Tom Ackerley, to Mattel’s new CEO of Mattel, Ynon Kreiz, at the Polo Lounge in 2018, Robbie was clear about the road ahead.
“We of course would want to honor the 60-year legacy that this brand has,” Robbie says. “But we have to acknowledge that there are a lot of people who aren’t fans of Barbie. And in fact, aren’t just indifferent to Barbie. They actively hate Barbie. And have a real issue with Barbie. We need to find a way to acknowledge that.”
Read MoreModern Nazi Fighter Amy Spitalnick Is New CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs
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The Jewish Council for Public Affairs [JCPA] has named Amy Spitalnick as its new CEO. The appointment could not come soon enough, after the organization’s decision to pursue a more liberal approach to break away from the consensus-driven Jewish Federations of America.
In addition to being called a “modern-day Nazi fighter”, Spitalnick has earned the title of “democracy defender.”
Spitalnick sued the Charlottesville 2017 neo-Nazis “Unite the Right” rally organizers and won a successful multimillion-dollar lawsuit, as the executive director of Integrity First for America [IFA].
“There needs to be an organization that wholeheartedly recognizes how deeply intertwined Jewish safety is with other communities’ safety and how bound up that all is in a broader fight for democracy at this moment, and builds the sorts of coalitions within and across communities that are essential to moving the needle,” she said.
Read MoreROXY x Kate Bosworth Swim 2023 Collection | "Blue Crush" Is Finally Reality for Women Surfers
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In 2002, the movie “Blue Crush” depicted women competing at Hawaii’s Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu. In reality, very few women surfed the seven-mile mecca. Surfer Keala Kennelly was one for-real woman surfer, who joined the “Blue Crush” movie with an understanding that if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.
Actor Kate Bosworth was also in “Blue Crush” played Annemarie Chadwick, a native of Oahu’s North Shore, training to compete in Hawaii’s Pipe Masters, a surfing competition where “you don’t just get worked—you die.”
That descriptor comes from Vogue, who also got clever in writing about Bosworth’s new “Blue Crush” style collab with ROXIE, the women’s surf brand that is credited for designing the first women’s board shorts in 1990.
“Blue Crush” was a movie about the future — 20 years into the future — and that future is now.
An Equity Drive for Women Surfers That Took Half a Century
Surfing has long been associated with hyper-masculinity; now changes are finally underway decades later in gender equity policies within its ranks.
Read MoreWhite Men's Warrior Tucker Carlson Gets the Boot at FOX News
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In a move that sent blaring-horns shockwaves through America’s conservative movement Monday morning, FOX News host Tucker Carlson was notified not to come to the office. Carlson’s senior executive producer Justin Wells was also terminated.
The LA Times writes that the decision to fire Carlson came straight from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch. The newspaper further reports that Murdoch is concerned over Carlson’s coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection [our word] and his arguing that it was a conspiracy provoked by governent agents.
Carlson, 53. was the most viewed host on Fox with only the occasional Rachel Maddow presenting a relevant rival voice from other networks, based on audience size. Media Matters wrote:
“Tucker Carlson’s departure is great news for America [and terrible news for Fox.]
The firing comes days after Fox Corp, reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems last week. Multiple outlets are reporting that the very damaging comments and actions by Carlson that showed up in the discovery process contributed to Fox Corp. severing ties.
In addition, fired Fox News producer Abby Grossberg has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the network and was fired shortly after. Grossberg was moved off of “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo” and put on “Tucker Carlson Tonight’.
Read MoreKoko Da Doll of Acclaimed Sundance Doc 'Kokomo City' Shot Dead in Atlanta
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Koko Da Doll, 35, also known by her chosen name Rasheeda Williams, a prominent member in the Atlanta Black LGBTQ community, was murdered in Atlanta on Tuesday. Gun violence has claimed the lives of at least three transgender women in recent weeks.
Williams is a principal cast member in the upcoming documentary "Kokomo City." The documentary premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January to critical acclaim and is the feature directorial debut of Grammy-nominated producer, singer, and songwriter D. Smith. "Kokomo City" chronicles the lives of four Black trans sex workers in Atlanta and New York City as they navigate the challenges of existing as trans in the Black community and the persistent threat of violence they encounter daily.
Read MoreUS Supreme Court Halts Texas District Court Ruling on Mifepristone, Appeal Proceeds
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Today’s order halted both the Texas District decision and the procedural appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
For now, the abortion pill mifepristone will remain widely available, but it has a court date of May 17th for oral arguments.
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington called the ruling a “half step in the right direction.” Washington is among the states stockpiling mifepristone — an estimated four-year-supply. “This dubious challenge to the availability of a safe medication never should have gone as far as it has, and it must be rejected entirely,” he said Friday.
Read MoreSupreme Court Issues Stay On Texas Mifepristone Decision | Responses Due Tuesday
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On Friday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay on the Texas court ruling concerning the abortion medication mifepristone. This came after the Justice Department announced on Thursday that it would seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court to defend the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of the pill and protect Americans' access to safe and effective reproductive care.
Justice Samuel Alito signed the order asking both sides to file briefs by Tuesday over which parts of U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s April 7 Amarillo, Texas ruling should be left standing — if any — while the court considers the case.
In addition to the Biden Administration, New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of the pill, asked the justices to intervene.
Read MoreTom Ford's Edgy Spring 2023 Campaign by Steven Klein Probes Deep, Sexy Questions
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Designer Tom Ford was among the 150 newcomers to the annual Forbes list of the world’s richest people released last week. The 61-year-old with a deep understanding of human sexuality — and women’s sexuality in particular — entered the list with LeBron James. That’s kind of cool.
The first time Moore met Ford, she was nominated for an Oscar and had checked into the Beverly Hills Hotel with her two-month old baby. “I wasn’t really in Tom Ford shape,” the actor told Vogue. “The first thing Tom did was pick up my little boy—who’s now 21—and said, ‘I want one of these.’”
There are many layers to Tom Ford and these layers drift through every element of his work and life.
Signing a one-year-contract last November with Estee Lauder, agreeing to stay with the brand as Lauder digests their big-leagues’ purchase, it’s very Tom Ford to get edgy on his way out the door in this Spring 2023 campaign film. It’s equally edgy to have Steven Klein behind the lens, creating this tableau of subtle, erotic tension and beauty that provokes questions.
Models for the Tom Ford Spring 2023 Campaign include Akbar Shamji, Annemary Aderibigbe, Felice Noordhoff and He Cong styled by Carine Roitfeld. K Studio acted as Creative Director./ Hair by Jawara; makeup by Yadim
Read MoreAmerican Women Ensnared in Dueling US District Court Mifepristone Rulings
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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.
Read MoreMichelle Laff in Demonic Witchcraft by Txema Yeste for Numéro France 237
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Model Michelle Laff is styled by Bernat Buscato in ‘Sortilège’, the fashion story of a ruthless vampire who wrecks destruction in the March 2023 pages of Numéro France 237. / Hair and makeup by Ruben Marmol
Photographer Txema Yeste [IG] captures the tale of a modern day female vampire, generally regarded as Lilith in early Biblical texts.
Among feminists and Medieval folklorists, Lilith is Adam’s first wife, who represents the pre-existing power of the female goddesses and more empowered females.
Read MoreIn Most Critical 2023 US Election Liberals, aka Democrats, Win Wisconsin Supreme Court by Wide Margin
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Anne of Carversville backed and helped fund the April 4, 2023 victory of Janet Protasiewicz over the uber-conservative, 2020 presidential election-overturning candidate Dan Kelly for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
With 69% of the vote in, the proud liberal has 56% of the vote vs 44% for Kelly. The race became the most expensive state Supreme Court race in US history. Protasiewicz, a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, was elected for a 10-year term.
The new court will determine the fate of abortion rights, the most gerrymandered state political maps in America and a range of voting rights issues in the battleground state for two years, including the 2024 presidential election.
Kelly lost his seat on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court in 2020 to liberal Jill Karofsky after advising Republicans on legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential race through the use of “fake electors.” Democrats from across America sent groundbreaking sums of money to support Protasiewicz, who was relentless in her attacks against Kelly for trying to overturn the 2020 results.
Read MoreWalgreens CEO Brewer Hired Gov. Newsom's Former Chief of Staff to Negotiate Abortion Pills
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Politico did what good journalists do on an important story. They dug deeply and late Monday, Christopher Cadelago sprung a humdinger of a piece of news about events surrounding California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ire and staff negotiations with Walgreens over their front of the pack capitulation to the demands of red state AGs around the distribution of abortion pills.
Now the governor may be a forgiving kind of guy, but the first thought that went through my mind reading the post was “that’s one hell of a bridge to burn”, especially as the darling not only of Governor Newsom but also as a senior policy adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Meet Ann O’Leary, Former Chief of Staff to Gavin Newsom
I speak of the lawyer on the phone with Newsom’s inner circle staff, as a lead representative for Walgreens: Ann O’Leary, the governor’s first chief of staff and now a partner in the law firm Jenner & Block.
Read MoreCalifornia Cancels May 2023 Renewal of Walgreens Prison System Pharma Contract
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In the first step of an “exhaustive review” of all contracts between Walgreens and the state of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that California will not renew a $54 million contract by which Walgreens delivers pharmacy services to inmates in California’s prison system. The contract was set to renew on May 1, 2023.
“This is an attempt to call the question ‘Which side are you on? Whose side are you on?” Newsom said in an interview with POLITICO ahead of the announcement. “Are you going to just cower in the face of bullies? Are you going to just roll over?”
When Walgreens, now led by former Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer, stepped out solo over the weekend, saying that her pharmacies would abide by demand letters from red state attorneys generals that they agree not to sell mifepristone — even in red states where abortion is legal — AOC called the action a major mistake.
Anticipating severe backlash should have been a high priority for Brewer — especially when Walgreens was agreeing to anti-women demands going beyond what their state abortion laws now require.
Read MoreFive Women, Two Doctors Sue Texas SB8 Law, Seeking 'Medical Emergency' Definition
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Five women who were denied abortions in Texas have filed a lawsuit against the state. Two doctors are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit, believed to be the first action brought on behalf of women denied abortions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The plaintiffs, who are represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, say they were denied abortions under Texas state law SB8 despite medically-verified, significant risks to themselves and/or their severely impaired fetuses that made abortion a medical necessity.
‘Medical Emergency’ Must Be Defined
The lawsuit asks the court for clarity on what situations fall under the “medical emergency” exception in Texas’ abortion ban.
"With the threat of losing their medical licenses, fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and up to 99 years in prison lingering over their heads, it is no wonder that doctors and hospitals are turning patients away—even patients in medical emergencies," the suit reads.
At the time the SB8 law was written, groups such as the Texas Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists expressed grave concerns, arguing that the proposed law was too vague to provide physicians with assurances they would not face legal consequences for carrying out their maternal health, caregiver duties.
Read MoreHarvey Weinstein Jane Doe #1 Goes Public in LA After Guilty Rape Verdict
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Evgeniya Chernyshova, a former model and actor, has spoken publicly for the first time about her violent sexual assault by disgraced Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Weinstein. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chernyshova spoke about her violent encounter with Weinstein in 2013 at the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival and her decision to come forward at the urging of her daughter.
Chernyshova was the first witness called in Weinstein's Los Angeles trial last year 2022. Her testimony persuaded the jury to convict Weinstein on three charges of rape and sexual assault including forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and penetration by foreign object.
Read MoreCould Walgreens Big Bow to Red States Demands on Abortion Pills Backfire? We Hope So!
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When Detroit native Rosalind ‘Roz’ Brewer left her position as COO at Starbucks in January 2021 to become the CEO of the Walgreens Boots Alliance, her appointment was hailed.
‘Roz’ Brewer was the first and only African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. And her credentials were stellar.
Fast forward two years, and Brewer is now the first CEO to bow to the demands of red-state attorneys general that drug store chains like CVS and Walgreens not sell abortion pills under new rules released by the FDA.
Brewer is also eyeing Medicare Advantage plans as her source of new and significantly more stable Walgreens income. Is she assuming that the Biden Administration won’t find ways to penalize Walgreens for so easily and quickly cutting off access to abortion pills to American women desperate to find them?
What happens if CVS decides not to honor the red states demands and fights for women’s access to abortion care in states where it remains legal, even if it is tied up in the courts?
Brewer can’t possibly believe that her Medicare Advantage Plan grandmothers won’t penalize Walgreen’s and favor CVS, if the larger and more profitable CVS decides to at least fight for their granddaughters’ access to abortion pills.
Read More'Urgency' is Anderson Clayton's Middle Name As NC Democratic Party Gets New Leaders
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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.
Read MoreMax Mara Spring 2023 Collection with Adut, Annemary, Dara by Ethan James Green
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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.
Read MoreEtro Unveils 'Eden of Etropia' Spring 2023 Campaign Lensed by Zhong Lin
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