Christine Blasey Ford Honored in ACLU LA As Handmaids Protest Kavanaugh at Federalist Society

Christine Blasey Ford speaks at the ACLU of Southern California's Annual Bill of Rights Dinner in Beverly Hills on Nov. 17, 2019.Richard Shotwell / via NBC News

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, made a surprise and rare public appearance Sunday night at an event with the ACLU of Southern California in Beverly Hills.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was greeted by protesters dressed as the reproductive slaves in the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale" while Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's Senate testimony was played on a large video screen outside the Federalist society venue. via Jennifer Bendery Twitter.

Ford, who famously accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of having sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, accepted the Rodger Baldwin Courage Award, saying that she had a responsibility to the nation to speak out about the alleged assault during a small party of teenagers in suburban Maryland in 1982. Ford explained that her knowledge of Anita Hill’s testimony against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas helped persuade her that she must step forward during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.

"When I came forward last September, I did not feel courageous. I was simply doing my duty as a citizen," she said. “I was simply doing my duty as a citizen, providing information to the Senate that I believed would be relevant to the Supreme Court nomination process. I thought anyone in my position, of course, would do the same thing.”

Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh has kept a low profile since his confirmation, rarely appearing in public. The judge addressed the Federalist Society, a conservative legal foundation, in Washington DC on Friday November 15. Kavanaugh was greeted by protesters dressed as the reproductive slaves in the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale" while Ford's Senate testimony was played on a large video screen outside the venue.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was greeted by protesters dressed as the reproductive slaves in the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale" while Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's Senate testimony was played on a large video screen outside the Federalist society venue. via Jennifer Bendery Twitter.

Melinda Gates' $1 Billion To Advance American Women | Trump Voters Want Women at Home

Philanthropist Melinda Gates is not sleeping well in Trumplandia. After a decade of watching the erosion of women’s rights and women’s progress in America, Gates has decided to do a very public reality check on the state of American women.

Reality is that 50 years after the second wave of the women’s movement ignited, only one CEO on the list of people running Fortune 500 companies is a woman of color. Gates cites the sobering fact that in 2018, there were more men names James running Fortune 500 companies than women.

Her action plan involves $1 billion spent towards expanding women’s power and influence in America. “There is no reason to believe this moment will last forever,” Gates, founder of investment and incubation company Pivotal Ventures, wrote in a Time.com opinion piece about the women’s marches, #MeToo movement, and the political activism and elections to office for American women.

“Too many people - women and men - have worked too hard to get us this far,” she wrote. “There are too many possible solutions we haven’t tried yet.”

Goals include dismantling barriers to women’s job advancement such as care-giving obligations and sexual harassment and fast-tracking women in influential job sectors such as technology, media and public office. Gates doesn’t

I, too, lie awake at night worrying about this possibility -- and have for a decade. The arrival of the Republican Tea Party in 2010 signaled an awesome erosion of women’s rights that have exploded since Trump became president.

One night I actually had a terrifying nightmare related to women’s access to contraception in America, and this was several years before the dystopian Handmaid Tale became a Hulu hit.

There is no doubt that Republicans are determined to take US women back to the 50s, eliminate all child care support, even public education in an effort to get American women having babies and even home schooling them with the Biblical good book.

I worry that America is increasingly becoming an Arab country -- and I don't mean too many Muslims. I mean too many Republicans wanting a theocracy where a Christian God runs the country, just as Allah and his men culturally and politically run the Muslim countries. The vast majority (over 70% of Trump's women voters and 58% of men) support this vision for America, as evidenced by extensive research done on Trump voters by Baylor Christian University in Waco, Texas. ~ Anne

THE SACRED VALUES OF “TRUMPISM”

Core Values

Researchers looked at how religious values, behaviors and beliefs predicted political support for Trump, finding that the majority of those who voted for him tend to:

• Say they are “very religious”

• Are members of white Evangelical Protestant churches

• View the United States as a Christian nation

• Believe in an authoritative God who is actively engaged in world affairs

• See Muslims as threats to America

• Value gender traditionalism, feeling that men are better suited for politics and should earn more than women; women should provide primary child care; and working women are deficient as mothers

• Oppose lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights (such as legal marriage)

Nancy Pelosi to President Donald Trump: "You've come into my wheelhouse now"

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI WAS THE CLOSING SPEAKER AT THE TEXAS TRIBUNE FESTIVAL. IMAGE BY BOB DAEMMRICH FOR THE TEXAS TRIBUNE.

Nancy Pelosi to President Donald Trump: "You've come into my wheelhouse now"

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi painted herself as a once-reluctant but now fully engaged general amid her party's push for an impeachment inquiry, in an onstage interview at The Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday.

To make her point, she used sweeping, solemn language to underscore her view that what is happening at the U.S. Capitol is an existential moment in American history.

"If this activity, this pattern of behavior were to prevail ... then it's over for the republic," she said. "We will have the equivalent of a monarchy."

"Let us be prayerful. Let us be solemn. Let us try not to make it further divisive," she added. "But we cannot ignore our oath of office to defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic."

In her most extensive interview about impeachment since she announced plans to open an inquiry this week, Pelosi described herself as "heartbroken" over the revelation that President Donald Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. White House disclosures of the conversation — and that Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine prior to the conversation — unleashed a firestorm in Washington last week.

"I think right now there is a cover-up of a cover-up," she said.

When asked why she moved from the strongest backstop against impeachment to the leader of the effort, she chose brevity: "The facts."

Could Climate Change Fuel the Rise of Right-Wing Nationalism?

Could Climate Change Fuel the Rise of Right-Wing Nationalism?

By Joshua Conrad Jackson, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michele Gelfand, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland. First published on The Conversation.

Two trends have defined the past decade and both have been on display at this year’s session of the United Nations General Assembly.

One has been the escalating effects of climate change, which were the focus of the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit. Forest fires, floods and hurricanes are all rising in their frequency and severity. Eight of the last 10 years have been the warmest on record. Marine biologists warned that coral reefs in the U.S. could disappear entirely by the 2040s.

The other trend has been the surge of right-wing nationalist politics across Western nations, which includes Donald Trump’s election in the U.S., and the rise of nationalist political parties around the world.

Indeed, the first four speeches of the United Nations general debate were given by Brazilian right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro, Trump, Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and far-right Turkish President Recep Erdogan.

Yang Gang + Swing State Dems Challenge Justice Democrats As Voices of the People

The Justice Democrats may have a new competitor -- the Yang Gang. I don't have all the differences worked out in my mind, but I know I like the Yang Gang because I like Andrew Yang as a political candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Note, I have no candidate that AOC is endorsing, but Yang has definitely enjoyed far more success in his candidacy than anyone thought possible.

Jonathan Herzog, a 25-year-old former Yang staffer, announced his intentions to primary House Head of the Judiciary committee Jerry Nadler, entering an increasingly crowded Democratic race for the 10th Congressional District seat in New York

Jonathan Herzog, like his former boss, is running on a platform advocating for a $1,000 a month universal basic income (UBI), which he and Yang have both referred to as the "Freedom Dividend."

“My first priority will be to pass the Freedom Dividend,” Herzog said in a video Tuesday announcing his campaign launch.

AOC is so disgusted with Nadler's incompetency and ineffectual judiciary hearings, that I think the country would be better off with new and younger blood. NADLER CANNOT LEAD AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY.

Don't think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't juggling that hot potato as well, but we seem to be headed toward a special impeachment committee or commission, where Nadler is only one of the key members. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, head of the House Intelligence Committee, should head the effort, as far as I'm concerned.

The moderate swing-state Dems, who came out Tuesday night for impeachment and ALL legal means possible in the matter of Trump’s actions against Ukraine, tipped the balance in the matter of making Donald Trump the third president impeached in US history.

Unlike the squad, who is always calling Trump out (we will impeach the m#therf#cker), the swing state Dem women don't even mention Trump's name. These women — also first-term members of the House of Representatives — are all about protecting the Constitution, not seeking revenge on Trump. They are not involved in a Twitter war with Trump supporters, like members of the squad. It's very interesting to listen to the swing-state women Dems take a totally different approach. Yes, the fact that they have commanded navy war ships and large real-life squads of military men inspires my confidence in them.

The contrasts among these women: Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan just emphasizes the wide range of women in the Democratic party. All are important, but I am happy to see the swing district women (and a few men) begin to move in unison in their own squad. Progressive media is obsessed with the squad, as if they represent the entirely of the Democratic party, when they do not.

This is another reason why AOC is learning as much as we can about the Yang Gang, as an emerging balance to the as far left as they can go Justice Democrats, who want to blow up everything. Their voices are important but the equally innovative Yang Gang can be an important addition to the political mix among our young people.

Back to Nadler, who is ineffectual toast in my playbook, the Congressman has multiple challengers for his very important House seat. Besides Herzog,

Herzog joins a race in which Nadler has already attracted three women primary challengers. They are Amanda Pearl Frankel, Holly Lynch and Lindsey Boylan, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Boylan’s campaign so far is considered to be the more formidable, writes The New York Post.

The former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised $264,657 during the first quarter that she was in the race.

“I welcome all candidates,” she told The Post, responding to Herzog’s entry. “A healthy democracy needs more, not fewer candidates.”

Reflections on Minnesota + The Somali Community, As Trump Tells The Quartet To Leave America

Nawal Noor was named one of 24 Bush Foundation fellows this year. She plans to expand her business and pursue national leadership opportunities.

I just popped into the Minneapolis Tribune to get a read on their Quartet reporting -- and Trump's racist rants. It's factual and neutral w/o commentary.

I'll take the opportunity to share a totally separate article about another Somali-American citizen in the Twin Cities: Nawal Noor.

She is the rare woman in construction at the developer level. And definitely the rare woman of color. Noor is hiring more immigrants and ex-offenders.

Minnesota is my original home, and Minneapolis the place of my closest, loved very much relatives. I was not fortunate enough to grow up there.

This story of Nawal Noor is Minnesota at its best, with the Twin Cities welcoming countless Somali immigrants and surely standing by them in these difficult times -- in principles of free speech and democracy. Racism is racism, and Minnesotans know it when they see it.

Is Minnesota a perfectly just place? Or course not. We all remember the horrible death of Philando Castile and the not guilty verdict against the officer who killed him.

Minnesota voters will decide how to handle all these controversies and how they make their state better or worse. But I know for certain that in Minneapolis, these days are very painful on every front. They have been for months now. And Minneapolis-St. Paul in particular, will treat Trump, his racism, Ilhan Omar, and the impact of all this conflict on their Somali and Jewish communities -- in particular -- in a reasonable, fair and humane way.

‘Willful Recklessness’: Trump Pushes for Indefinite Family Detention As Sanitary Crisis Mounts

‘Willful Recklessness’: Trump Pushes for Indefinite Family Detention As Sanitary Crisis Mounts

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has been tracking about 40,000 expedited family cases “regardless of whether they reflect a priority designation” in order to ensure they are completed “without undue delay” at ten immigration courts in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, and San Francisco. Nearly 8,000 of those cases have already ended with removal orders. These are some of the migrants ICE agents could now target.

The administration has buttressed its push to detain more families by arguing that few of them show up for their immigration court hearings if they are released. At a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on June 11, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan said “family units” accounted for two-thirds of migrants processed at the Southwest border in May, and that 90 percent of families the EOIR was monitoring didn’t appear for court hearings. Several reports contradict this claim.

One case-by-case study of immigration court records showed “as of the end of May 2019 one or more removal hearings had already been held for nearly 47,000 newly arriving families seeking refuge in this country. Of these, almost six out of every seven families released from custody had shown up for their initial court hearing.”

The study further noted that “multiple hearings are [usually] required before a case is decided. For those who are represented, more than 99 percent had appeared at every hearing held.”

US Spelling Bee's 8 Winners, ALL Kids of Color, Challenge Trump's White Nationalism Beliefs

US Spelling Bee's 8 Winners, ALL Kids of Color, Challenge Trump's White Nationalism Beliefs

America had a first-ever, dramatic end to the National Spelling Bee. They ran out of words, and eight kids were still standing. The winners are Rishik Gandhasri, Erin Howard, Saketh Sundar, Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali, Christopher Serrao, and Rohan Raja.

With all Trump's hateful anti-immigration rhetoric, I note publicly the absence of a majority of white kids in the final rounds. In fact, they are hard to find in this inspiring group of young people.

What's up? Are white kids not making the cut -- or are they too "good" to undertake a mental challenge like the National Spelling Bee?

Marie Claire US September 2018 Issue Devoted To Immigration In America & Women Immigrants

Marie Claire US September 2018 Issue Devoted To Immigration In America & Women Immigrants

The September 2018 issue of Marie Claire US devotes its entire issue to the talents and contributions "of female authors, executives, actresses, athletes, designers (all of whom have become activists)—including Priyanka Chopra, Constance Wu, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Maria Cornejo, among other equally formidable women—with roots in foreign lands."

After a huge dose of womanly inspiration, Marie Claire gets down to business with these timely articles:

1)The Women Fixing How the US Treats Immigrants; 2)True Stories from the Border and 3) Easy Ways to Help Immigrant Kids Right Now

Flipping on Marie Claire's first story, in walks Laurene Powell Jobs and her Emerson Collective.

Known for their focus on education and publishing (They now own The Atlantic), the Emerson Collective is developing a major arm to help immigrants and asylum seekers. In the image at the top, I'm pretty sure that's JR with Jobs.

Donald Trump Personally Handled Sale Of Trump Tower Condo To Haitian Dictator Baby Doc

Donald Trump Personally Handled Sale Of Trump Tower Condo To Haitian Dictator Baby Doc

There's a note of irony in Trump's haughty views about places like Haiti. While Trump's all cash sales of his condos to Russians is well-established amid accusations of money laundering, even I didn't know that America's president personally handled the sale of a Trump Tower condo to the despised Haitian dictator Baby Doc. 

Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier lead a reign of terror in Haiti, accused by Human Rights Watch in 2011 of selling dead Haitians' body parts to finance his high-flying lifestyle. The Daily Beast wrote about Trump personally handling the condo sale, noting that "the Stroock & Stroock & Lavan law firm—hired by the Haitian government to search out assets Duvalier had stolen from the Caribbean island-nation—only found out Duvalier owned Apartment 54-K because the dictator hadn’t paid his phone bill. The Haitian government put a lien on the property after he fled."

Popular Media Vastly Overstates Criminality Among Immigrant Men Concludes Define American Study

Popular Media Vastly Overstates Criminality Among Immigrant Men Concludes Define American Study

Define American is an immigration nonprofit founded by Pulitzer-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas with the goal of examining how immigrants and immigration is portrayed in popular culture. The organization has released Immigrants and Immigration: A Guide for Entertainment Professionals as a 19-page brief that examines current key issues in immigration law including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the U visa for victims of violent crimes.

“Immigration is the most controversial yet least understood issue in America today. That’s why it’s crucial for Define American to publish a resource for members of the entertainment industry to better understand immigration and more accurately portray immigrants,” says Elizabeth Grizzle Voorhees, who joined Define American as its inaugural entertainment media director last summer. “These tools are written specifically for creative professionals, and we hope they will lead to increased representation and more humanized storytelling in television and film.”

Define American has also released a scorecard on the state of immigration representation on television, taken from The Opportunity Agenda’s study of 40 popular broadcast, cable and streaming shows that aired between April 2014 and June 2016.

Trump Ignites High Tech Relocation To Canada, Determined To Make Canada Great Again

Canada moved immediately when Trump issued his immigration ban -- helping US companies to set up shop in Canada. Trump knows this fact, as it started in Feb/March when I first wrote about it. This asshat American president will create not only a tech brain drain but also our doctors. His day of reckoning is coming, and I expect his voters and also the Dems who supported him to explain to the country how they let this happen. Alas, being one of the elites they love to hate, I knew this would happen and began tracking the migration to Canada right after the inauguration.

Politico writes:

President Donald Trump has moved to cut legal immigration by half over the next decade, increase security along the border, build a wall with Mexico, ban travel indefinitely from several countries and overturn DACA, the Obama-era policy that grants work permits to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as minors. The Trump administration has also suggested limiting “startup visas” for high-tech entrepreneurs entering the United States, and massively cutting America’s funding for scientific research. Trump’s aggressive “America first” posture on trade and international diplomacy has transformed the United States into something of a pariah nation, out of touch with the basic norms and values of advanced democracies."

Nor only has Canada has opened centers for refugees streaming over the border in northern New York State from the United States, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally welcoming some of them to the country. As AOC noted right after Trump's inauguration, Canada is specifically recruiting the skilled, ambitious talent that drives innovation and economic growth, with a particular target on top thinkers and workers in technology and industry, and also doctors. Canadian universities—ranked among the world’s best in fields like computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and artificial intelligence—are successively recruiting foreign students, who in turn are matriculating in Canada at higher levels than before Trump’s election. Canadian cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are attracting more venture capital to fund the nation's tech industry, on par with American tech hubs like Seattle and Austin, write Richard Florida and Joshua Gans for Politico.

Pregnant Russians Flock To Trump's Russian Enclave In Florida To Birth US Citizens, Says Daily Beast

How interesting that as Trump rails against babies born as US citizens of undocumented immigrants, his Florida properties owned as condos, rent apartments to pregnant Russian families wanting to give birth in the US. 

The Trump Organization doesn't directly profit from the subleases but the nearby Trump International Beach Resort plays constant host to these pregnant Russian families and their friends, writes The Daily Beast. 

Many of the companies that cater to Russian birth tourists advertise their services openly and warn no one will get in trouble as long as they don’t lie on immigration paperwork.

Once again, Trump seems to say "do as I say, not as I do."

London's Evening Standard drills down even further on Russians being born as US citizens by renting condos at The Trump International Beach Resort. 

Artist Mike Mitchell's Nazi-inspired Trump Logo Sums Up Public Sentiment Post Charlottesville

Artist Mike Mitchell's Nazi-inspired Trump Logo Sums Up Public Sentiment Post Charlottesville

The art world has joined public condemnation of Donald Trump's comments following the anti-Semitic and racist violence in Charlottesville, Va. The general consensus among Democrats and Republicans, with a strong dose of agreement among moderate Republicans, is that Trump saw the brutality and racism on public display among members of the KKK, neo-Nazis, white nationalists and other tribes on the alt-right as somehow equalized by the actions of counter-protesters. 

The logo created by Austin, Texas-based artist Mike Mitchell has gone viral in the aftermath of Charlottesville. The graphic logo visually condemns the president for his hesitation to speak out against bigotry and domestic terrorism in the US, with a strong innuendo that he promotes white nationalism and neo-Nazism. 

Afghan Girls Robotics Team Awarded Silver Medal For 'Courageous Achievement'

Afghan Girls Robotics Team Awarded Silver Medal For 'Courageous Achievement'

On Tuesday July 18, 2017 the Afghan team was awarded a special silver medal for "courageous achievement" at the FIRST Global Challenge. The New York Times added: 

For three days in the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall, where an African-American woman was once denied the right to sing before an integrated audience in the 1930s, the Afghan girls in head scarves were stars on an international stage, with cameras, lights and whispers trailing them from practice to competition.

Updated Encouraging News :Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize, Syria's White Helmets MAY Arrive For Oscars

"They are not yet on US soil, and we await their arrival with tense anticipation," said the filmmakers of Raed Saleh and Khaled Khateeb. "In these uncertain times, their story is one of the most moving of our generation. We stand ready to welcome them."

On Wednesday, the outlook was grim that the key figures in the Netflix film 'The White Helmets' would obtain the necessary paperwork to gain US visas in time for the Oscars. In 48 hours since Hollywood Reporter and websites far and wide rallied around the issue, the situation has improved dramatically. 

“We are eagerly looking forward to coming to the Oscars," said Saleh in a statement. "It will give us an important platform for the voices of Syrian children and women trapped under the rubble as a result of the airstrikes and artillery shelling, and for the voices of thousands of displaced Syrians who have been forced from their homes.”

“It is so important that people see the film. It is important that people understand that Syria has people who want the same things they want: peace, jobs, family and to live without the fear of bombs," added Khateeb. "If we win this award, it will show people across Syria that people around the world support them. It will give courage to every volunteer who wakes up every morning to run towards bombs."

Previously Wed. Feb. 15, 2017: There is deep concern in Hollywood that key international talents will not be present for the Academy Awards due to President Trump's executive order banning Syrians and others from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. 

Director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara's  Netflix film 'The White Helmets' is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. But it appears that the real heroes of the documentary will not be present at the Oscars. 

Every day in Syria, a group of ordinary, unarmed civilian volunteers known as the White Helmets risk their lives to help rescue men, women, and children injured by the incessant air raids destroying the country. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, the apolitical White Helmets are credited with saving more than 75,000 people since 2012. 

Now it appears unlikely that Raed Saleh, the leader of the White Helmets, and Khaled Khateeb, the photographer who filmed all of the documentary's footage inside Aleppo, will get the necessary travel documents to attend the Oscars. Vogue interviews Einsiedel and Natasegara about their relationship with the White Helmets, and why we must watch their documentary in today's political climate. 

United Talent Agency Cancels Oscar Party, Will Donate $250,000 To ACLU and International Rescue Committee | Crowdrise Campaign Currently At $250,000

United Talent Agency (UTA) has bagged its annual Oscar party. preferring instead to donate $250,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union and International Rescue Committee. 

A major talent agency representing clients like Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Mariah Carey, Toby Keith, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Bettany, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi and many more VIPS, UTA will also hold a rally on behalf of refugees at its offices two days before the Oscars on February 24. 

"This is a moment that demands our generosity, awareness and restlessness," wrote UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer to staff. “Our world is a better place for the free exchange of artists, ideas and creative expression. If our nation ceases to be the place where artists the world over can come to express themselves freely, then we cease, in my opinion, to be America.”

Last year, UTA held its exclusive Oscar party at chairman Jim Berkus' residence, joining major studios and agencies holding galas and parties on the biggest awards night of the year, including CAA, WME-IMG, ICM Partners and The Weinstein Co. 

The Hollywood Reporter also noted that Ari Emanuel, co-CEO of mega-agency and UTA competitor WME-IMG, sent an email to staff Wednesday notifying them that the company would be forming a political action committee, though it wasn’t immediately clear on what the PAC would focus.

UTA has also launched a campaign on Crowdrise, which has raised another $250,000 to support the ACLU and IRC. 

Related: ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) ON FIRE As Silicon Valley Give Money & Mentoring & Coffee Shops Kick In

ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) ON FIRE As Silicon Valley Give Money & Mentoring & Coffee Shops Kick In

With massive legal expenses ahead fighting the Trump administration, the ACLU got very clever in response to Trump's Kellyanne Conway's assertion of a Muslim terrorist massacre that never happened. Read on: Conway Agrees "No Massacre" In Bowling Green | Sally Yates Stands Firm Against the Boys Club. Yates was the acting attorney general fired by Trump Monday night for refusing to defend his ban. 

The ACLU scrambled to erect a website called The Bowling Green Massacre Victims Fund, with all donations going to the organization. 

Silicon Valley is also taking the ACLU into its startup accelerator Y Combinator. The ACLU will receive mentorship free of charge, a network of powerful connections in tech and a chance to present itself to investors on Demo Day, writes TechCrunch. 

Anish Kapoor Honored As Genesis Prize Laureate 2017, Will Donate $1 Million Prize to Refugees

Anish Kapoor, I Like America and America Doesn’t Like Me. Courtesy Anish Kapoor.

British-Indian, Bombay-born (now Mumbai) artist Anish Kapoor is named the Genesis Prize Laureate 2017, often called the 'Jewish Nobel Prize', awarded to those of Jewish heritage who have excelled professionally. 

"Jewish identity and history have witnessed recurring conditions of indifference, persecution and Holocaust," Kapoor is quoted by The Guardian. "Repeatedly, we have had to repossess ourselves and re-identify our communities. As inheritors and carriers of Jewish values it is unseemly, therefore, for us to ignore the plight of people who are persecuted, who have lost everything and had to flee as refugees in mortal danger."

Kapoor announced that he will use the $1 million prize money to assist the refugee crisis.

The artist recently joined the chorus of dissent against US President Donald Trump, creating a protest work inspired by Joseph Beuys. ArtNet explains:

Kapoor has re-created the poster for Beuys’ performance work I Like America and America Likes Me (1974). Kapoor's image is overlaid with the title 'I Like America and America Doesn’t Like Me' written in a pseudo Antiqua–Fraktur font commonly associated with Nazi German media

Beuys’ 1974 work saw him wrapped in felt upon arriving at JFK airport in New York, and transported to the René Block Gallery in an ambulance, where he spent the entirety of his three-day stay in a room with only a torch, a cane, a wild coyote, and a felt blanket. The performance is seen as a protest work, as Beuys never really saw any of the US, or technically set foot on American soil.

Fired AG Sally Yates Stands Firm Against Boys Clubs " Conway Agrees "No Massacre" in Bowling Green

Daily: Conway Agrees "No Massacre" In Bowling Green | Sally Yates Stands Firm Against Boys Club

Fired acting attorney general Sally Yates has been nominated for a Profiles in Courage award. And we celebrate her raw courage in taking action against Trump's Muslim ban, announcing Monday night that the US Govt would not defend the ban in federal courts, as numerous individuals and states moved to sue the Trump Administration.