Three No Nonsense, No Boys Club Theatrics Republican Women Shut Down Republican Healthcare Bill

Three No Nonsense, No Boys Club Theatrics Republican Women Shut Down Republican Healthcare Bill

Republicans can box up yesterday's collapse of the healthcare bill however, they wish. Reality is that after Trump's inauguration, when back-room healthcare, overturn Obamacare strategy launched in the Senate, it was noteworthy that not one of the five women senators was part of the negotiations. Two of those women senators -- Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) sit on the Senate healthcare committee and Collins had actually drafted her own healthcare plan, in consultation with other senators, of course. 

One can argue that the third Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito (W Va) was dragged to the party. I'm in two West Va. Facebook groups, and the organized appeal to Capito from her constituents was breathtaking. The level of professionalism in social media video-making was awesome. West Va. doctors and nurses came home from 12-15 hr. shifts and made a video in the kitchen before going to bed. Voters were concise and informed with facts. The level of emotions remained constrained, as voters laid out the facts for Capito. 

These scenes were playing out all over America, but it was the three women senators -- Collins, Murkowski and Capito who brought down the Senate yesterday, and there is no reason to believe they will relent. 

America's Rejection Of Science, Rational Thinking, Institutions & Perceived Reality Is Epic & Dangerous

America's Rejection Of Science, Rational Thinking, Institutions & Perceived Reality Is Epic & Dangerous

I propose that we all be subjected to a certain level of knowledge about civic events before we are allowed to vote. Over half of Trump voters don't believe that the meeting Trump Jr. agreed happened with the Russians -- happened.  The fact that he released his own emails about the meeting does not convince them -- or they are reading/hearing from Trump-loving media outlets that this is #fake news. 

We cannot combat this kind of deep ignorance among voters. If one believes that all of life is a conspiracy, then intelligent learning has no impact on one's mind. The liberal media is loathe to take up this topic, because it sounds so elitist. Reality is that informed people have been backed into a corner in which it is politically incorrect to challenge a fundamental ignorance and skepticism about real events as a civic responsibility.  This state of our civic life in America has real consequences.

1) Electoral College Mismatch vs Voter Fraud

US president Donald Trump never talks about the reality that if all votes counted equally in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton would have received 259 votes and Trump 256.  The states where Hillary Clinton won her 65,844,610 votes count for less than the ones where Trump won his 62,979,636 votes.  The mismatch is considerable with Clinton actually beating Trump by 2 percent of the 2016 presidential vote, at 48.2% and Trump 46.1%. The remaining 5.7% of the vote went to independents and write-ins.

Rather than accept the mismatch between electoral college votes and the populations in those states -- a mathematical reality that also impacted the 2000 election that gave us President Bush vs. President Gore -- Trump charges voter fraud and has launched a federal commission to prove it. This is another authoritarian act, since states are in charge of their voting. The electoral college is a federal issue and one that should be a Congressional initiative. 

Writing Wednesday for the New York Times, Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, informs us:

The Trump administration’s election-integrity commission will have its first meeting on Wednesday to map out how the president will strip the right to vote from millions of Americans. It hasn’t gotten off to the strongest start: Its astonishing request last month that each state hand over voters’ personal data was met with bipartisan condemnation. Yet it is joined in its efforts to disenfranchise citizens by the immensely more powerful Justice Department.

2) Truth Rejecters Undermine Key Institutions

The level of voters education was a huge factor in the recent election, with more educated voters supporting Hillary Clinton. Trump carried non-college educated voters 2-1.  Of far greater concern is new data among Republicans published by Pew Research in July 2017 that 58 percent of Trump voters believe that colleges and universities have a negative impact on America. In 2015, just 37 percent of voters agreed with this statement. 

Among Democrats polled by Pew, 72 percent believe that universities have a positive effect on America.

Colorado's Flat Earth Movement Thrives in Fort Collins

Trump's Silverback Gorilla Status Went Into High Gear With French First Lady Brigitte Macron

Trump's Silverback Gorilla Status Went Into High Gear With French First Lady Brigitte Macron

Trump's effusive 'you are a woman and therefore I will deal with your physicality, rating you on my womanly attractiveness scale' approach to dealing with Brigitte Macron, received much press commentary. 

"You're in such good shape," Trump told Madame Macron, when he was standing with her in the shadows of the Hôtel national des Invalides in Paris on Thursday, during his first state visit to the country. Then, to reaffirm his observation, he turned to newly-elected French president, Emmanuel Macron, affirming his observation: "She's in such good physical shape."

It's the dominating imagery of Trump in the video that caused women worldwide to hope that Madame Macron never finds herself alone in a room with the President of the United States. 

DC Heavyweight Jamie Gorelick Completes Work As Jared Kushner Lawyer

DC Heavyweight Jamie Gorelick Completes Work As Jared Kushner Lawyer

Prominent Democrat lawyer Jamie Gorelick, the lawyer representing White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and also Ivanka and Jared as a couple in certain legal matters, is winding up her work with Jared Kushner on matters related to the Russia investigation. Gorelick said she is "completing the work" Kushner originally hired her to do before President Donald Trump was inaugurated: handling Kushner's ethics compliance, security clearance and other federal disclosures, explains the National Law Journal. 

DHS Issues Statement Debunking Trump Claim That Former AG Loretta Lynch Let Natalia Veselnitskaya Into US

DHS Issues Statement Debunking Trump Claim That Former AG Loretta Lynch Let Natalia Veselnitskaya Into US

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday evening issued a statement contradicting President Trump’s claim that Loretta Lynch,President Obama’s attorney general, allowed the Russian lawyer who met with three Trump associates, including his son, into the United States. “In Sept. 2015, DHS paroled Natalia Veselnitskaya into the U.S. in concurrence with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, allowing her to participate in a client’s legal proceedings,” the DHS statement to BuzzFeed News read. “Ms. Veselnitskaya was subsequently paroled into the U.S. several times between 2015 and 2016, ending in February 2016. In June 2016, she was issued a B1/B2 nonimmigrant visa (a standard tourist visa) by the U.S. Department of State.”

Visa Decision Reversal Brings Afghan Girls Robotics Team To FIRST Global Robotics Competition

Lida Azizi (left) and Kawsar Roshan in Herat, building a self-driving miniature rickshaw decked with Afghan and American flags. Photograph: Sune Engel Rasmussen

Visa Decision Reversal Brings Afghan Girls Robotics Team To FIRST Global Robotics Competition

In the days of Trump, we are learning to accept small wins and tiny pleasures. Progressive women got a dose of pure delight on Wednesday -- Pakistan's heroic Malala Yousafzai's birthday -- when news broke that the US State Dept had reversed its refusal to grant visas to six Afghan female students to travel to Washington DC for the FIRST Global international robotics competition next week. 

The international backlash against an absurd decision that allowed the team from Iran and five other countries listed by the Trump administration in their disputed Muslim ban to come to the competition while denying visas to the Afghan girls team looked like unadulterated sexism by the Trump administration. Countless individuals and organizations accused Trump -- who is rolling back women's rights in America -- of retreating from America's previous efforts that support the education of young women in Afghanistan. 

Gambia, the only other country to be denied a visa, will also be coming to Washington. 

Donna Brazile's Book 'Hacks' On Digital Breakins & Breakdowns Debuts On Anniversary Of Trump's Election

Donna Brazile's Book 'Hacks' On Digital Breakins & Breakdowns Debuts On Anniversary Of Trump's Election

Former interim head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will celebrate (NOT!!!) the one-year anniversary of the Trump victory with publication of her book "Hacks:  The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House.”

Brazile’s publisher Hachette promises a book that is “equal parts campaign thriller, memoir, and roadmap for the future.” The publisher did not say how much the book deal was worth.

Did Trump Move To Destabilize Qatar Because Kushner's $500M Loan Went Bust?

Did Trump Move To Destabilize Qatar Because Kushner's $500M Loan Went Bust?

Does Trump-Kushner family payback now govern America's foreign policy? Did Donald Trump agree to destabilize the Middle East, putting our own military personnel at risk in Qatar because a rich businessman wouldn't financially bail out his son-in-law Kushner over the 666 Fifth Avenue Manhattan building that is an albatross around his neck and threatens him with financial ruin? Did you ever believe you would see such a carnival running the US government? Why does a young man this financially desperate have a top security clearance because his big daddy-in-law makes him a Washington honcho? 

Salivating Over Alleged Russian Dirt On Hillary, Donald Trump Jr. Emailed '" Love It."

Salivating Over Alleged Russian Dirt On Hillary, Donald Trump Jr. Emailed '" Love It."

"I love it," was Donald Trump Jr.'s response to news from Russian music publicist Rob Goldstone that the Russians had documents that would "incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia." The New York Times broke its report on the meeting that followed -- one that brought Donald Trump Jr., presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and then campaign manager Paul Manafort into a 20-minute, largely unsatisfactory encounter with Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. 

Goldstone represents Emin Agalarov, known professionally as Emin, one of Russia's biggest pop stars. His father is Aras Agalarov, a real estate magnate sometimes called the "Donald Trump of Russia." The father boasts close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, having won several large state building contracts and being personally awarded by Putin the "Order of Honor of the Russian Federation."

Aussie Journalist Chris Uhlmann: "America's President Has No Desire And No Capacity To Lead the World"

President Donald Trump with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, second from left, at the Group of 20 conference in Hamburg, Germany, on Friday. CreditStephen Crowley/The New York Times

Aussie Journalist Chris Uhlmann: "America's President Has No Desire And No Capacity To Lead the World

Donald Trump delights in being the contrarian isolationist, pulling America out of the international scene with his right-wing, America First mentality. Millions of Americans are worried sick about the practical implications of his attitude and policies that America is the world's top dog and we no longer need to play nice in the community of nations. 

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, the host of the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, opened it by acknowledging the differences between the United States and the rest of the countries. While “compromise can only be found if we accommodate each other’s views,” she said, “we can also say, we differ.”

As American Democrats and many Republicans struggled for just the right words to sum up Trump's total loss of interest in and position of respect in the new world order created by his presidency, it was Australian journalist Chris Uhlmann who described Trump as an "uneasy, lonely, awkward figure" at the meeting before going even further, saying that America's president has no desire and no capacity to lead the world."

His video has gone viral in a massive way!

Ebonee Davis & The Virgin Artiste Explore Fashion & Culture's Projections Around Women of Color

Ebonee Davis & The Virgin Artiste Explore Fashion & Culture's Projections Around Women of Color

The relentless killings of African Americans by America's police officers has prompted the fashion industry to speak out about being black and brown in America and viewed through an often tight cultural lens. Calvin Klein model Ebonee Davis issued a specific call to action in an essay for Harper's Bazaar, written the day after Alton Sterling was murdered in Baton Rouge. Davis implored fashion professionals to "neutralize the phobias surrounding black culture" as well as to produce "positive, accurate and inclusive imagery."

"As artists in the fashion industry, we are the embodiment of free speech," she wrote. "We set the tone for society through the stories we tell—fashion, the gatekeeper of cool, decides and dictates what is beautiful and acceptable. And let me tell you, it is no longer acceptable for us to revel in black culture with no regard for the struggles facing the black community," Davis wrote for W Magazine. 

Ashleigh Alexandria, AKA The Virgin Artiste, Paints The Political Assimilation Of Black Women

Ashleigh Aelxandria, AKA The Virgin Artiste, Paints The Political Assimilation Of Black Women

Ashleigh Alexandria, aka The Virgin Artiste described her collaboration of a body painted model live against a brick wall in Bushwick, Brooklyn juxtaposed with a graffiti painting of eight-year-old's Ethan Armen as ironic. It was the spontaneous addition of a New York cop walking by that gave the artistry a political meaning "due to the recent police killings of Black men and women", Alexandria tells Creators. 

The lifelong New York artist's approach to being a portrait artist and a body painter, relates to works from artists like Liu Bolin, with significant reinterpretation of the concept. "My use of women of color as subjects shows how these women can be blended into the background of American society," Alexandria explains. Partial assimilation and a distinct double-sidedness is a critical element in her work. Francesca Capossela writes for Creators:

NY Dem. Rep. Carolyn Maloney Soldiers On As Passionate Advocate For Women's History Museum

NEW YORK DEMOCRAT CONGRESSWOMAN CAROLYN MALONEY IS INTERVIEWED BY TODAY IN 2014 WITH ROOMMATES DEMOCRAT CONGRESSWOMEN DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ OF FLORIDA AND TERRI SEWELL OF ALABAMA AT HER HOME IN WASHINGTON, DC. MALONEY'S HUSBAND CLIFTON MALONEY DIED IN 2009 MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING IN TIBET.

New York Congresswoman Democrat Carolyn Maloney's Manhattan district includes Trump Tower, making Maloney the primary advocate who is personally lobbying Trump himself and his senior administration officials to support legislation that would finally birth a Smithsonian museum dedicated to women's history on the National Mall.

Politico writes that Maloney was handing out folders of material on the museum, handing them out to Trump and his (few) top female advisors at a congressional picnic in June. 

“I talked to Ivanka about it, I talked to Melania about it, I talked to Karen Pence about it, I talked to Kellyanne [Conway] about it,” Maloney said. “I handed it directly to the president and he said he would read it. I asked Kellyanne for advice on how to approach it. She said to talk to the president directly, she said she would not do it on my behalf.”

Maloney said she had another chance to bond with Conway on the dance floor last weekend at a star-studded party at Washington doyenne Lally Weymouth’s Hamptons summer home. “I thought, ‘Hey, this is my chance to lobby her,’” Maloney said of the party, which was also attended by George Soros, Steven Spielberg, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, among others. “I kept working her over.”

In 2014, President Obama approved the creation of a commission to evaluate the need and feasibility for creating the women's history museum, whose funding would come from private donors and not taxpayers. 

“Right now, we’re only ten months into our brand new African-American Museum, and our next big capital project is a complete revitalization of the Air and Space Museum, which will be $650 million,” said Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas. “It would be very difficult for us to handle a new building right now.”

More feasible than a stand-alone women’s museum, St. Thomas said, was doing “a better job of telling the story of women’s history” across the existing museums. There's little doubt that a Hillary Clinton administration would be more receptive to a women's history museum. 

In May 2017 Elle touched base with Maloney, who has served in the House since 1992 as part of the largest female contingent ever voted into the DC House of Representatives. Maloney, a life-long advocate of women's rights quickly bonded with then 10-term Democrat Patricia Schroeder who tells the story of her own arrival in DC. "Congress "is about Chivas Regal, thousand-dollar bills, Learjets, and beautiful women," one of Schroeder's male colleagues told her upon her arrival. "Why are you here?" Read on at Elle to learn more about Rep. Carolyn Maloney's women's-history-rich story.

Trump Administration Seeks To Put Women Back Into An Ozzie & Harriet World

Trump Administration Seeks To Put Women Back Into An Ozzie & Harriet World

"The data comes from the White House’s annual report to Congress, which was released Friday, and which shows the salary of each employee. To calculate the gender pay gap, economist Mark Perry compared the median salary of male staffers ($115,000) to the median salary for female staffers ($72,650). Initially, media outlets reported a significantly smaller disparity, but their numbers were incorrectly based on mean rather than median salaries. 

As the Washington Post reports, the 37-percent gap is more than double the national 17-percent gender pay gap, and it’s wider than the national gender pay gap in 1980, as reported by Pew Research..

Ozzie . . . Ozzie, wait for me!! I'm just dying to run backwards into your loving arms.

News: Citizens Tell Sen. Susan Collins To Hang Tough On Health Care | States Move To Curb City Laws | Will Trump Ax WH Council on Women & Girls?

News: Citizens Tell Sen. Susan Collins To Hang Tough On Health Care | States Move To Curb City Laws | Will Trump Ax WH Council on Women & Girls?

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is a creature of habit on July 4, marching now for 15 years in Eastport, Maine to celebrate America's day of independence. Collins was celebrated by this small town of 1,331 citizens and their children, cheered for her principled stand against repealing the Affordable Care Act. 

“There was only one issue. That’s unusual. It’s usually a wide range of issues,” Collins said in an interview after the parade. “I heard, over and over again, encouragement for my stand against the current version of the Senate and House health-care bills. People were thanking me, over and over again. ‘Thank you, Susan!’ ‘Stay strong, Susan!’ ”

Two-Thirds In Morning Consult/Politico Poll of 2000 Americans Say Trump's Bloody Mika Brzezinski Attack Is Unacceptable

Poll: Trump's 'face-lift' tweet crossed Line Politico

A large poll of nearly 2000 American voters confirmed that two-thirds say Donald Trump's recent Twitter attack against MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski was unacceptable. 

Conducted June 29-30, beginning hours after Trump called Brzezinski 'low IQ Mika' before writing that she was 'bleeding badly from a face-lift' when visiting his Palm Beach, Florida club over the New Year's holiday., the results included strong condemnation from Republicans. 

The poll includes much additional and interesting questioning of Americans on a variety of topics. Study the results Toplines: http://politi.co/2tG5Cq8 | Crosstabs: http://politi.co/2tNM1Vj

California Said No More Women Will Bleed To Death In Childbirth. The Results Are Dramatic

California Said No More Women Will Bleed To Death In Childbirth. The Results Are Dramatic

Maternal deaths in America are climbing steadily, making us an outlier against the rest of the developed world. The US is only one of 13 countries with maternal death rate increases since 1990. We stand in the company of North Korea and Zimbabwe. 

The reasons for steep rises in maternal deaths in America are several. There have been changes in how maternal deaths are reported. Efforts to correct this under-reporting are a minor reason for the current increase. While it's impossible to prove casuality conclusively, the war against Planned Parenthood has closed many women's health clinics, giving poor and middle class women no access to contraception or maternal care. 

The Republican argument that other women's health care centers will take Planned Parenthood patients is just not correct. An apparent majority of these centers don't accept Medicaid and large numbers do not offer contraception, believing that it goes against religious principles. 

Maternal death rates in Texas have soared, making the state the worst in the developed world with a doubling of deaths over a two-year-period. As lawmakers closed Planned Parenthood locations all over the state, the Texas Observer writes that lawmakers could care less if women are dying in pregnancy for lack of medical care. 

Handmaids News: Handmaids Trump Style | Emma Watson Drops 'The Handmaid Tale' Around Paris | Weak Men Like Trump Fear Menstruation

Handmaids News: Handmaids Trump Style | Emma Watson Drops 'The Handmaid Tale' Around Paris | Weak Men Like Trump Fear Menstruation

Many American high schools have also banned the book from its libraries, claiming the content is too sexually graphic. The American Library Association ranked it No. 88 on its list of most frequently challenged books from 2000 to 2009. The association maintains the list to keep track of books that are subject of attempted bans or censorship.

California Said No More Women Will Bleed To Death In Childbirth. The Results Are Dramatic

California Said No More Women Will Bleed To Death In Childbirth. The Results Are Dramatic

Maternal deaths in America are climbing steadily, making us an outlier against the rest of the developed world. The US is only one of 13 countries with maternal death rate increases since 1990. We stand in the company of North Korea and Zimbabwe. 

Between 2000 and 2014, maternal deaths soared by 27 percent to 24 per 100,000 in America.. That rate is three times the rate of the United Kingdom and about eight times that of Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, writes Vox. 

The reasons for steep rises in maternal deaths in America are several. There have been changes in how maternal deaths are reported. Efforts to correct this under-reporting are a minor reason for the current increase. While it's impossible to prove casuality conclusively, the war against Planned Parenthood has closed many women's health clinics, giving poor and middle class women no access to contraception or maternal care. 

Artist Andrea Fraser Will Map Trump Inauguration Donors & Art World Ties

Artist Andrea Fraser Will Map Trump Inauguration Donors & Art World Ties

Andrea Fraser is a performance artist, known primarily for her focus on institutional critiques. Based in New York and Los Angeles, Fraser is currently a new genres professor in the Art Department faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles.  A native of Billings, Montana, Fraser grew up in Berkeley, Calif. She is a graduate of New York University, the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program and the School of Visual Arts. Initially, Fraser wrote art criticism before incorporating it as analysis and commentary in her artistic practice. 

We all know that Donald Trump has little interest in any art not inspired by his own image. His donors, however, are major players in the art world. In her new project, Fraser is mapping the connections between major US museums and the political elite, and their institutional ties to the White House. The Art Newspaper writes that Fraser is documenting all political donations made in 2016 by museum patrons and trustees, many of whom contributed to the Trump campaign and inauguration. 

Donald Trump's inauguration was a small and comparatively understated affair, but one that rose a staggering amount of money -- $106.7 million, twice the amount raised by Obama for his historic, much larger affair, writes Hyperallergic. According to a 510-page report of donations to Trump’s inaugural committee released in April by the Federal Elections Committee, billionaire art collector and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) board member Steven A. Cohen as well as Henry Kravis — whose wife, Marie-Josée Kravis, is the president of MoMA — both gave $1 million. Unlike campaign contributions, which are capped, there is no limit to how much can be given to a candidate’s inaugural committee.