NYT Writer Bari Weiss Challenges 'Radical' Ideology Of Women's March Quartet

NYT Writer Bari Weiss Challenges 'Radical' Ideology Of Women's March Quartet

In the midst of our Trump tears, The Women's March mobilized our anger and our anxieties on Jan. 21. Writing for The New York Times, Bari Weiss reminds us of the tremendous unity that seemed to exist among Democrats and progressives on that historic day. 

Four exceptional women — Tamika Mallory, Bob Bland, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour — were the faces of the march. All well-known in progressive circles, the quartet was widely praised, writes Weiss. 

Jordan Votes To End Its Marry Your Rapist Law | Will The Philippines Take Action Also?

WOMEN CALLING FOR THE REPEAL OF A LAW IN JORDAN ALLOWING RAPISTS TO ESCAPE PUNISHMENT IF THEY MARRY THEIR VICTIMS STOOD OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT IN AMMAN ON TUESDAY. CREDITREEM SAAD/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jordan Votes To End Its Marry Your Rapist Law | Will The Philippines Take Action Also?

Jordan's Parliament joined voted Tuesday to revoke a law allowing rapists to escape criminal prosecution if they marry their victims. Such laws are widespread in the Arab world as well as in the Philippines, a majority Catholic country, and have served benefit rapists for centuries. 

Proponents of the marry your rapist laws contend that they protect the female and her family from the shame of rape. Such sexual assault aggression against women is deemed to be her fault in societies where a family's honor is deeply linked to the chastity of its women. 

Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective Buys Majority Position In The Atlantic, Expanding Media Reach

Laurene Powell Jobs with Russlynn Ali at Summit Everest High School, an exemplary charter school. Photo: Jake Stangel

For more than 20 years, Laurene Powell Jobs has engaged in education-reform through her organization, Emerson Collective. In her March 2016 Vogue interview, Powell explained why she's always been attracted to Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalists.

“So there’s Emerson’s idea of self-reliance,” she explained to Robert Sullivan, who explains that self-reliance is a big theme for Powell Jobs, given her rural New Jersey roots and current status as one of the world's richest people.  “I’ve always had this idea that you have to make the most of things,” she says. “And then collective because I wanted the idea that you achieve your goals with people, because good ideas come from a lot of places.”

Laurene Powell Jobs and her Emerson Collective made news this week with the announcement that they have bought a majority stake in The Atlantic magazine and website. David G. Bradley, the chairman and owner of Atlantic Media will retain a minority stake in The Atlantic and will continue as chairman and operating partner for at least three to five years, writes The Atlantic. In a letter to his staff, Bradley wrote that Emerson Collective will most likely assume full ownership of The Atlantic within five years.

Emerson Collective already has significant investments in media, from movie-production companies such as Anonymous Content to start-ups such as The California Sunday Magazine. The organization has provided support to several nonprofit journalism outlets, including the Marshall Project and ProPublica.

In a statement, Powell Jobs noted that her inspiring muse Ralph Waldo Emerson was a co-founder of The Atlantic. She praised the highly-profitable, expending audience magazine for the breadth and scope of its purpose: to “bring about equality for all people; to illuminate and defend the American idea; to celebrate American culture and literature; and to cover our marvelous, and sometimes messy, democratic experiment.”

Related: Lauren Powell Jobs' $100 Million Mission to Disrupt American High School New York Magazine

Update: Podcaast Startup Gimlet Media Raises $15 Million From Stripes Group, Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective Variety Aug. 2, 2017

Trumplandia: Ivanka & Jared Claim They Were Clueless About Trump's Transgender Ban, So What Good Are They?

Trumplandia: Ivanka & Jared Claim They Were Clueless About Trump's Transgender Ban, So What Good Are They?

If you believe the story -- and why should we, frankly -- Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were shocked to read about daddy's Twitter-announced transgender military ban. If they really had no idea that this was going down, then we MUST once and for all resist any and all psyche-soothing hopeful thinking that these kids have any influence on America's president. 

Michael Moore Brings Anti-Trump "Terms of My Surrender" to Broadway

Michael Moore Brings Anti-Trump "Terms of My Surrender" to Broadway

"I do not accept living in a country where Donald Trump is president," Michael Moore announced on the stage of the sold-out "The Terms of My Surrender" at the Belasco Theater on Broadway. "And I'm not leaving America," he continued, -- this super-smart, looks-are-deceiving schlump of a man.

Moore's mission is crystal clear. The Oscar-winning filmmaker and bestselling author plans is determined to leverage his Broadway debut to ignite Americans to throw Trump from the Oval Office by his butt. Moore believes that satirists "can bring him (Trump) down with humor, comedy and ridicule - simply because his awfully thin skin just can't take it," Moore said in June.

The first stage of this mission is the one-man play, "The Terms of My Surrender," which debuted in New York over the weekend. It comes as Moore is also working on an anti-Trump documentary, "Fahrenheit 11/9" - a reference to November 9, the day after Trump was elected. 

Even the German press is eagerly watching the debut of Michael Moore on Broadway. I'm thinking that maybe Moore needs to be a foil character on SNL. Speaking only for myself as an ardent Hillary supporter on HWN, Michael Moore has my ear. I find his head to be on very straight, and he feels no need to damn me, as most Berners do.

It's just great that the veteran activist Moore is bringing his one man show to Broadway. Let's hope it's a vehicle for sparking real conversation on the left. ~ Anne

Trumplandia: Anthony Scaramucci Out As Communications Director At Kelly's Insistance

Trumplandia: Anthony Scaramucci Out As Communications Director At Kelly's Insistance

Hours after Trump's new chief of staff Gen. John F. Kelly officially assumed his position, bad boy Anthony Scaramucci is out. After savaging the West Wing in his New Yorker interview -- see meme quotes --  Kelly insisted that Scaramucci must leave his role as communications director at once. 

Anthony Scaramucci Asks Media To 'Have Class' And Not Cover His Pending Divorce Or New Baby

Anthony Scaramucci Asks Media To 'Have Class' And Not Cover His Pending Divorce Or New Baby

News broke at the end of the week -- no, not the firing of White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus -- that Scaramucci's wife Deidre had filed for divorce nine weeks pregnant, and that she gave birth to a son named James last Monday.

Are you still with me? Anthony Scaramucci's estranged wife had a baby boy last week. This is not the typical Democrat wife and Republican husband argument playing out across America. Both Scaramuccis are Republicans but Mrs. Scaramucci is rumoured to detest Trump and his bravado. She has issued no comment on her husband's gutter-talk and threats to kill White House staffers. 

Sen McCain Saved Obamacare Standing On The Unyielding Shoulders Of Collins & Murkowski

Sen McCain Saved Obamacare Standing On The Unyielding Shoulders Of Collins & Murkowski

Thankfully, most media understood that while Sen. McCain was the much-needed vote, he had two women colleagues who made his decision so critical because he could actually determine the final verdict on Obamacare. The Senator was in rare, eloquent form before returning to Arizona to commence his treatment for a seriously-advanced brain cancer. But it was Collins and Murkowski to declared their positions early on and never veered off course, in spite of numerous threats from Trump himself. Do any of those Republican white guys wonder the outcome might have been different if they had just taken Collins and Murkowski seriously, instead of treating them like pesky gnats. ~ Anne

Alt-Left Learns From Alt-Right, Demanding Dana Schutz Show In Boston Not Proceed

Dana Schutz, Getting Dressed All at Once, 2012. Oil on canvas, 73 1/2 × 56 1/4 in. (186.7 × 142.9 cm). Private collection, Courtesy Reiss Klein Partners. Courtesy the artist and Petzel, New York. © Dana Schutz

Alt-Left Learns From Alt-Right, Demanding Dana Schutz Show In Boston Not Proceed AOC The Wokes

After all the controversy surrounding Dana Schutz's Emmett Till painting at the Whitney Museum this spring, you might be excited to attend the free talk scheduled at Boston's ICA on Sep 14, 2017 at 6pm.  That is if the Dana Schutz show -- now open at The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston -- continues!

Following the Spring 2017 Dana Schutz controversy, the same activists now seek to shut down her Boston show entirely, making what normally is a right-wing argument justifying censorship.  America's far-left-wing argues that Schutz does not deserve a show because she is harmful to America in some way. She affronts! Schutz doesn't deserve acclaim as an artist, even stronger now because of the Whitney controversy. The demands are positively chilling, as I outline in what is admittedly a visceral response to news that activists are trying to show down the Schutz show. 

Note that in Feb. 2017 Freemuse moved the USA onto their list of Top 10 Censoring Countries in the world, putting us in the company of Russia, Pakistan and Iran. My comments were focused on censorship coming from the alt-right but the growing faction of the Sanders wing underscores the reality that demands for censorship also come from the far-left in this explosive demand that her entire show be closed. Chilling!

Angelina Jolie Talks Life After Brad In Mert & Marcus Images For Vanity Fair September 2017

Angelina Jolie Talks Life After Brad In Mert & Marcus Images For Vanity Fair September 2017

Superstar Angelia Jolie fronts the September 2017 issue of Vanity Fair. Jessica Diehl styled Jolie in retro elegance lensed by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott in 'Angelina Jolie Solo'. Read the interview with Evgenia Peretz.

There’s the Angelina Jolie who’s now a single mother—managing the day-to-day chaos of six kids, and the trauma of her split from Brad Pitt—and there’s the Angelina Jolie whose latest movie, a groundbreaking Netflix original about Cambodia’s genocide, is also a thank-you to the nation that transformed her. At her new L.A. mansion, Jolie reveals the tension between the two Angelinas and the reason her life will never be normal.

GOP Congressman Are Dueling Till Dead, Now Slapping Around Republican Women Senators Over Healthcare

GOP Congressman Are Dueling Till Dead, Now Slapping Around Republican Women Senators Over Healthcare

It's been a tough week for Republican women senators. On Monday, Congressman Blake Farenhold of duck pjs fame was quoted on Texas radio as saying that if Republican senators Collins (Maine), Shelley Moore Capito (W. Va), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) -- who voted against a Republican plan on ending Obamacare last week -- were men, he would challenge them to a duel. 

Presumably Farenhold would be the last man standing, although after his jammies pic and sexual harassment lawsuit, coupled with his girth, AOC is not so sure.

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In an interview with MSNBC's Ali Velshi, Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA) defended Donald Trump’s Wednesday morning Twitter attacks on Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “Somebody needs to go over to the Senate and snatch a knot in their ass.” (For those of you who are not fluent in Carter's Georgia boy male lingo, to “snatch a knot” means to smack someone).

Rachel Maddow Conquers Cable News With Informed Facts, Analysis & Civic Truth

Rachel Maddows Conquers Cable News With Informed Facts, Analysis & Civic Truth

All key news channels have higher ratings in the time of Trump. But MSNBC as a network and Rachel Maddow as the front person for informed analysis and less spin -- in contrast to say the ego-consumed Chris Matthews on 'Hardball' -- is showing the boys club how it's done.

The July 21, 2017 Nielsen ratings put The Rachel Maddow show not only in a dominant position in the 9 pm time slot but with an audience that exceeded competitors Fox News  'The Five' and CNN's Anderson Cooper combined. Maddow clocked 2.938 million total viewers last Friday, compared to 1.987 million for Fox and 1.073 million for CNN.

Emmanuel & Brigitte Macron Meet With Bono & Rihanna On Global Poverty Aid

Emmanuel & Brigitte Macron Meet With Bono & Rihanna On Global Poverty Aid

France's First Lady Brigitte Macron and French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Irish superstarBono to the Elysee Palace on Monday, where they had an hour-long meeting on key topics in solving global poverty. Bono, appearing with Brigitte Macron, said that a strong focus of the dialogue was educating girls and women in Africa. 

Bono met with the Macrons in his capacity as founder of the NGO ONE, dedicated to fighting extreme poverty. Bono said that the French president, who has seen a 10 pt pt. drop in ratings since he assumed office, will boost its aid budget to 0.55 percent of gross domestic product by 2022.

Is Linda Sarsour About Women's Rights Or Are We #3 After Islam & Linda Sarsour's Ego? Call Me Concerned

Is Linda Sarsour About Women's Rights Or Are We #3 After Islam & Linda Sarsour's Ego? Call Me Concerned

I'm not a fan of Linda Sarsour because she refused to honor Hillary at the Jan. 21 Women's March, by only adding her name to a list of many women being honored that day.  However, I've generally refused to criticize Linda as a matter of feminist principles, and I've publicly defended her on Facebook on more than one occasion. 

This article sat unpublished and in draft form as I read more about Sarsour and let her personality percolate, but the Brooklyn's Muslim queen settled the issue in my mind this week, after reading her response to CNN's Jake Tapper.  The near-hysterical Twitter rant that was so all about Linda that I agree with Emily Shire writing for The Daily Beast, that Sarsour is sounding an awful lot like Donald Trump, with his massive-ego persecution complex. This is not good news for women's rights or Muslim rights in America. 

Battle Blows: Jake Tapper & Linda Sarsour

CNN's Jake Tapper notoriously questioned Donald Trump more than 20 times in a single interview about his racist comments in the presidential campaign. Tapper is one of 10 journalists to face the most anti-Semitic harassment online, concluded the Anti-Defamation League in a 2016 report. 

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.

Democrat Scientists Enter Politics In Check Against Trumplandia's Anti-Intellectualism

Democrat Scientists Enter Politics In Check Against Trumplandia's Anti-Intellectualism

Activism has a new style, writes Politico. The lab-coat liberals are marching on Washington. 

Aghast at Trump's hostility to science in almost every form from climate science to the health benefits of exercise, Democrats and Independents are looking into a black hole of disinformation, as Trump's alt-right Republicans take Washington, accompanied by educated Democrats who know better. 

Researchers traditionally avoided wading into politics, preferring not to rock their funding boats from one political administration to another. Now, as winds of anti-intellectualism sweep America, they are testing whether a significant number in their ranks can win elective office, with the goal of keep science and innovation alive in America. 

Trumplandia: Hope Hicks, Age 28, Is A Loyalist Who Let's Trump Be Trump | In Arizona, Ward Tells Sen. John McCain To Step Aside For Her

Donald Trump loyalist Hope Hicks

Trumplandia: Hope Hicks, Age 28, Is A Loyalist Who Let's Trump Be Trump | In Arizona, Ward Tells Sen. John McCain To Step Aside For Her

In the White House world of rival power centers, 28-year-old Hope Hicks reports directly to the president. Hicks pulls down the same salary as Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon -- $179,000 -- and keeps a low profile. Hicks is devoted to the advancement of Donald Trump. He calls her Hopester and she calls him Mr. Trump. Hope Hicks views her job, ultimately, as "someone who is installed where she is in order to help, but not change, the leader of the free world."

Previously flying under the radar, Hicks was at the president's side this week, during his explosive interview with the New York Times. In a series of bombshell statements, Trump said he wished he had never hired Attorney General Jeff Sessions given his recusal from the Russia investigation. He left open firing special counsel Robert Mueller, especially if he investigated Trump's business affairs. 

Hicks also may be one of the only long-term survivors with the arrival of incoming communications director Anthony Scaramucci who said on his first press briefing on Friday, "Dan [Scavino] and Hope Hicks are staying. As it relates to the other people in the comms shop, I’ve got to get to know them.”

Alabama DA Slams 12-Year-Old Incest Victim Seeking Abortion As A Murderer

Alabama DA Slams 12-Year-Old Incest Victim Seeking Abortion As A Murderer

Abortion is legal in America -- even in Alabama. The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals waived the parental consent required for a minor to obtain an abortion, due to the 12-year-old's rape by an adult family member. 

In further confirmation -- not only of Republicans' authoritarian intentions for the state to assume full control of women's bodies, but of their callous disregard for the health and well-being of a 12-year-old girl -- district attorney Win Johnson was joined by Lorie Mullins, Executive Director of the COPE Pregnancy Center in Montgomery -- in denouncing the girl and not her rapist. 

Ruth Negga Loves Velvet In 'Softly Does It' Lensed By Norman Jean Roy For The Edit July 20, 2017

Ruth Negga Loves Velvet In 'Softly Does It' Lensed By Norman Jean Roy For The Edit July 20, 2017

Star actor Ruth Negga is styled by Tracy Taylor in in the season's lush, velvet elegance for 'Softly Does It'. Norman Jean Roy captures Negga for The Edit July 20, 2017./ Hair by Lacy Redway; makeup by Maud Laceppe