American Women's Satisfaction W/How They Are Treated Hits All-Time Low, But Men Think We Are Fine

American Women's Satisfaction W/How They Are Treated His All-Time Low, But Men Think We Are Fine

How interesting that Republican white men are saying that Democrats are undoing all the progress women have made. Politico has photographed the 36 new women members of the House. 35 are Dems; 1 lone WV woman is a Republican.

I would say that Republican white men are really running scared if electing women to Congress -- unlike their white men party -- represents a step backwards for women in 2019. Let that sink in. The party that elected 1 freshman woman to the House is telling the party that elected 35 freshmen woman to the House that we are setting women back.

Hey, boys, maybe your War on Women worked so well that once and for all, you stirred up a heap of trouble for yourselves. As for your inner fears . . . you probably should be runnin' scared.

For most of you -- the ones left -- you embrace a version of Christianity that says women must be subservient to men and obey you. No wonder you're confused about the hurricane arriving in DC. All your witches on brooms jokes will get you nowhere. DEAL WITH THEM. And just remember that you and your egregious, anti-people policies are a key reason they are so pissed off.

Related: Women’s satisfaction with how society treats them hits a record low. Marketwatch

Rihanna Becomes Key Ambassador For Barbados, Eager To Work With PM Mottley To Reimagine Barbados

Rihanna and Prince Harry in Barbados on World AIDS Day 2016

Rihanna Becomes Key Ambassador For Barbados, Eager To Work With PM Mottley To Reimagine Barbados

Pop star extraordinaire, collaborator and founder of Fenty brand cosmetics and lingerie, Rihanna has already raised island home Barbados’ international profile and has acted as a cultural ambassador for Barbados.

Now RiRi has a new title and it’s a doozy: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. “Rihanna has a deep love for this country and this is reflected in her philanthropy, especially in areas of health and education,” Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said in the announcement. “She also shows her patriotism in the way she gives back to this country and continues to treasure the island as her home.”

Her “multidimensional achievements and global influence” will lend to her new responsibilities, which include promoting education, tourism and investment, the announcement said.

“She has also demonstrated, beyond her success as a pop icon, significant creative acumen and shrewdness in business. It is therefore fitting that we engage and empower her to play a more definitive role as we work to transform Barbados.,” Mottley said in the Thursday announcement.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth Gives Birth To Daughter Maile Pearl Bowlsbey

Sen. Tammy Duckworth Gives Birth To Daughter Maile Pearl Bowlsbey

Democrat Senator Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) gave birth to a daughter named Maile Pearl Bowlsbey on Monday. The event made Duckworth the first US senator to give birth while in office. 

Duckworth said she and her husband, Bryan Bowlsbey, and their other daughter, Abigail, “couldn’t be happier to welcome little Maile Pearl as the newest addition to our family.”

“We’re also so grateful for the love and support of our friends and family, as well as our wonderful medical teams for everything they’ve done to help us in our decades-long journey to complete our family,” she said in a statement.

Sen. Duckworth, 50, said former Senator Daniel K. Akaka, a Democrat from Hawaii, “was able to bless her name for us before his death last week. “His help in naming both of our daughters means he will always be with us,” she added.

Cynthia Nixon Announced New York State Governor Run With Zero Experience, Not Even School Board

Cynthia Nixon Announced New York State Governor Run With Zero Experience, Not Even School Board

After the epic problems associated with Donald Trump, I don't know if an activist with no experience serving in office is qualified to be governor of New York. But Cynthia Nixon of 'Sex and the City' fame is undaunted, announcing on Monday that she's running for New York governor, declaring herself as a progressive alternative to incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo. 

On Tuesday, former Manhattan City Council speaker and one-time mayoral candidate Christine Quinn slammed Nixon as an "unqualified lesbian." Ouch!

“Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City,” Quinn told the New York Post. “Now she wants to be an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York. You have to be qualified and have experience. She isn’t qualified to be the governor.” (Quinn is a lesbian and Nixon is bisexual and currently married to a woman.)

The comment was generally perceived as payback for Nixon choosing to back current New York mayor Bill de Blasio when Quinn was leading de Blasio in the polls. Quinn lost the election and in 2015, she was hired by Cuomo as a special adviser. Note that Cuomo and de Blasio have a particularly difficult relationship. 

Angela Merkel Appears To Tap Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer As Christian Democratic Union Successor

Angela Merkel Appears To Tap Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer As Christian Democratic Union Successor

The woman basking in the limelight, standing before an adoring crowd having won nearly 99% of the vote for a top post in the most powerful political party in Germany was not Angela Merkel. It was Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, writes The New York Times, who was elected secretary general of Germany's Christian Democratic Union. Dubbed “mini-Merkel” by the German news media, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer assumes a post once held by the Chancellor. " In tapping Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer, she found a candidate widely seen as having the mix of liberalism and conservatism to unite a restive party base," writes The Times.

Severely weakened by a national election held five months ago, Merkel has struggled to cobble together a governing coalition. One of A.K.K.'s first challenges as general secretary will be to restore calm and discipline in a party divided between those who support Merkel's centirst course and those who want to move right.

Kramp-Karrenbauer supported Merkel's decision to open Germany's border in 2015, but took a stronger stance on handling the roughly 7,000 refugees who arrived in her small western state of Saarland, where she has been the governor. The Times writes:

"She had unaccompanied minors arriving without documents undergo medical screenings to help determine their age, and lobbied for Berlin to deport anyone whose application for asylum had been rejected. Male Muslim refugees who refused to accept food from female volunteers should go hungry, she said."

Michael Wolff And The Age-Old 'She's A Slut' Shaming Of Nikki Haley's Meteoric Rise

Michael Wolff And The Age-Old 'She's A Slut' Shaming Of Nikki Haley's Meteoric Rise

'Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski shut down an interview with 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House' author Michael Wolff on Thursday over her claim that Wolff insinuated strongly that he had accused U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley of having an affair with President Donald Trump. 

The conversation initially focused on the Russian investigation but then turned to remarks Wolff made last week on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”  Wolff claimed to know that Trump was having an affair and pointed viewers to a passage located near "the end of the book" where her name would be found. 

Readers zoomed in on a passage in which Wolff wrote that Haley “had become a particular focus of Trump’s attention, and he of hers” and another in which he wrote “that [Haley], with requisite submission, could be his heir apparent.”  Egging them on, Wolff continued: “Now that I've told you, when you hit that paragraph, you're gonna say, 'Bingo.'”

The Big Women's March On American Politics | Rebecca Traister Digs Deep Into The Women Running

The Big Women's March On American Politics | Rebecca Traister Digs Deep Into The Women Running

There's another Women's March brewing, writes Rebecca Traister for New York Magazine. As marchers all over America celebrated the one year anniversary of The Women's March, the largest activist march in American history, on Saturday and Sunday, Traister writes an in-depth look about the unprecedented number of women running for political office across America. 

To date, 390 women are planning to run for the House of Representatives, a figure that’s higher than at any point in American history. Twenty-two of them are non-incumbent black women — for scale, there are only 18 black women in the House right now. Meanwhile, 49 women are likely to be running for the Senate, about 68 percent higher than the number who’d announced at the same point in 2014. 

Of the 49 women currently planning to run for the Senate (including incumbents, challengers, and those running for open spots), 31 are Democrats. Well over half of the 79 women slated to campaign for governor are Dems, as are 80 percent of the women setting their sights on the House.

These women candidates are eying political offices at every level of local, state and national government. But make no mistake: 29-year-old Republican Lindsay Brown calls herself a "qualified millennial woman running a progressive campaign" for a US House seat in New Jersey. Democratic women would be thrilled to see more 70's style Republicans be elected to political office. In fact the very best event that could happen to Republicans is forward-looking, moderate, millennial women winning political office.

10 Interviews Support Sexual Harassment Allegations Against PA (R) Rep. Patrick Meehan

10 Interviews Support Sexual Harassment Allegations Against PA (R) Rep. Patrick Meehan

Apparently, House Speaker Paul Ryan didn't ask Pennsylvania Republican Representative Patrick Meehan if there was any private reason outside of his position on the House Ethics committee that would prevent him from conducting an effective role in redefining how sexual misconduct claims are handled in Congress.  

Revelations that Congressman Meehan actually made a settlement with a decades younger aide in 2017 caught Speaker Ryan by surprise. AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for the said that “this is new information to us” when asked about the settlement in a brief interview on Friday.

The New York Times interviewed 10 people including friends and former colleagues of the former aide and others who worked around the office. The young woman is a family friend of the Meehan's and became so demoralized by the Congressman's antagonistic behavior when she became involved with a new boyfriend, that she filed a complaint with the congressional Office of Compliance in the summer of 2017, alleging sexual harassment. The events that followed underscore why women typically don't file complaints against members of Congress. Now Meehan is theoretically empowered to change those procedures with new ones much fairer to victims. The Times writes a Rep. Jackie Speier's playbook expose. Speier's is leading the charge in Congress to reform current procedures:

Sen. Al Franken (D-Mn.) Accused of Groping & Forcible Kissing By Broadcaster Leeann Tweeden

Sen. Al Franken (D-Mn.) Accused of Groping & Forcible Kissing By Broadcaster Leeann Tweeden

Broadcaster and model Leeann Tweeden said on Thursday that Minnesota Democratic Senator Al Franken "forcibly kissed" and groped her during a 2006 USO tour. Franken has apologized and called for a Senate investigation into his own actions. 

“You knew exactly what you were doing,” Tweeden wrote in a blog post. “You forcibly kissed me without my consent, grabbed my breasts while I was sleeping and had someone take a photo of you doing it, knowing I would see it later and be ashamed.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the Senate Ethics Committee to review the 11-year-old allegations against Franken, who first issued a brief statement of apology, then later a longer one in which he called for an investigation, saying, “I will gladly cooperate.”

Tweeden's 2006 USO tour was the ninth for the Fox Sports Network correspondent and fitness model,writes The Washington Post. Franken was an Air America radio host just months away from announcing his Senate candidacy.

Eye: The Wing's New Women's Club In Soho Opens Its Pop-Up Doors To Chanel's CoCo Club

Eye: The Wing's New Women's Club In Soho Opens Its Pop-Up Doors To Chanel's CoCo Club

Women's clubs are on the move, and the timing may be perfect. I'm reluctant to write that American women are at some kind of watershed moment in our understanding of just how difficult it is to succeed in the boys club world. Watching our fundamental, hard-fought rights being rolled back in Trumplandia while Margaret Atwood's dystopian 'The Handmaid's Tale' won eight Emmys, American women are primed for some serious female business bonding. This sister act was in play well before the Harvey Weinstein scandal dropped, launching the massive #MeToo campaign spilling out of our misogyny-overloaded brains. 

If The Wing is a home base for women on their way, the space's first pop-up CoCo Club is perhaps better for women who have arrived. How clever of The Wing to plan for pop-up spaces and other events on the premises. It seems that Chanel took over the entire Soho location as a money-generating, member-acquiring drive for the permanent landlord of this women's club -- The Wing. In not so subtle fashion, Chanel celebrated the launch of the brand's new BOY∙FRIEND watch. 

From a branding and messaging to women perspective, the permanent decor at The Wing evokes a dramatically different vibe than the temporary tenant CoCo Club. 

Founders Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan anticipated a huge win for women with a Hillary Clinton presidency.

"This was going to be the golden age of women in power, so women could have rooms like this. It was sort of a triumphant concept." No more running around Manhattan changing outfits for events and meetings in "random bathrooms around the city."

"Obviously that's not what happened," Kassan said.

NJ John Carman Now Has Time To Cook His Own Damn Dinner As Ashley Bennett Gains Sweet Revenge

NJ John Carman Now Has Time To Cook His Own Damn Dinner As Ashley Bennett Gains Sweet Revenge

By now women should find a sense of humor, right? John Carman, a Republican member of the Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders, a county legislative body in New Jersey, wondered in January 2017 if the millions of women -- accompanied by beyond decent numbers of men -- who attended the Women's March would be home in enough time to cook dinner. New Jersey resident Ashley Bennett was not amused.

"Seriously," Carman responded when dozens of women showed up at a freeholder meeting , one carrying a box of macaroni and cheese and telling Carman to "cook his own damn dinner."  Professing good humor and urging women to find the same, Carman insisted that ". . . the women I'm surrounded by, my family, my friends, my colleagues are all strong, confident women, women who are sure of themselves. They didn’t get offended by this." Vox explains:

Bennett, a psychiatric emergency screener, attended the meeting but walked out when she heard Carman’s response. "I walked out because you had the entire time to sit and collect your thoughts, and hear what people were saying, and instead of apologizing and saying you could do better, you disrespect people and say the people you surround yourself are strong," she said at the time. "There are a lot of people who are strong."

Adding to Ashley Bennett's irritation was Carman's fashion choice of wearing a confederate flag over his state of New Jersey patch. Other voters agreed. 

Mad, Mad As Hell, & Madder Still: Hillary Women One Year Later Punch Our Way To The Voting Booths | Take Note, We Are Just Getting Started

Mad, Mad As Hell, & Madder Still: Hillary Women One Year Later Punch Our Way To The Voting Booths | Take Note, We Are Just Getting Started

It's one year later -- one of the worst nights of my life. I drank more vodka than I want to admit. If Mika on Morning Joe opened her Bernie-loving trap on Nov. 9, I would throw a high heel at the TV and hopefully smash her away forever. 

Writing for Harper's Bazaar, Jennifer Wright reflects on that awful night a year later and the day after women hit the voting booths, inflicting serious pain on the Republican party in our first reckoning after Hillary's defeat. 

I watched as millions of women excitedly gathered in secret groups to support Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. There they talked about what an exciting moment in history this was. They did not venture out because their husbands might not like their vote, or Bernie voters might yell at them, or someone at their work might not like it. We saw at the time, I think, no contradiction in being posed on the edge of ultimate victory for womankind and also secreting ourselves away to make ourselves completely unobjectionable. We were always supposed to be unobjectionable.

So quietly, unobjectionably, we waited. We baked cakes, and chilled champagne, and put stickers on suffragettes graves. And so many of us thought how especially satisfying it would be to see a woman win against a man who was repeatedly accused of sexual harassment, who bragged about sexual assault, who seemed to embody the worst of what women encounter from men.

"It became clear that you can be the most qualified woman and still lose to the least qualified man."

On November 9, we woke up, and Donald Trump had been elected.

Updated: Rep. Brenda Lawrence Suspends Accused Sexual Harasser Chief of Staff Dwayne Duron Marshall

Updated: Rep. Brenda Lawrence Suspends Accused Sexual Harasser Chief of Staff Dwayne Duron Marshall

Updated Nov. 8: Congresswoman's top aide suspended after harassment claims Politico

Tues. Nov. 7: House Democrats Rep. Jackie Speier of Ca. and Michigan's Rep. Brenda Lawrence are championing legislation to curb allegations of sexual harassment in Congress.  For Rep. Speier the proposed legislation reflects her long-held commitment to reform of the Congressional compliance office. 

In a recent interview with Politico, Speier called the OCC "toothless" and "a joke". 

Politico reports on Tuesday that several women have come forward alleging that Rep. Lawrence, a former harassment complaint investigator for the federal government, has kept her own chief of staff Dwayne Duron Marshall on the payroll, even though multiple women have complained directly to Lawrence. 

Each believed they made it clear to Lawrence that women in the office did not feel comfortable around Marshall or that he treated women differently than men. Two said they told her Marshall was the reason they were leaving her office. And one said she specifically cited “inappropriate” comments and physical contact.

Congresswomen Jackie Speier & Brenda Lawrence Set To Deal With Capitol Hill's 'Toothless' . . Sexual Harassment Policy, 'A Joke'

Congresswomen Jackie Speier & Brenda Lawrence Set To Deal With Capitol Hill's 'Toothless' . . Sexual Harassment Policy, 'A Joke'

Politico writes that two female lawmakers -- Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif) and Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) -- and several congressional staffers will are working on new legislation calling for an overhaul of the Congressional compliance office, in view of the landslide of sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations mounting across media, Hollywood, state politics and just about every American workplace from the New York/DC corridor to California -- with touchdowns also in middle America. 

The compliance office is today "constructed to protect the institution -- and to impede the victim from getting justice," according to Congresswoman Speier. This is not her first attempt, having introduced the same bill every year since 2014.

“Many of us in Congress know what it’s like, because Congress has been a breeding ground for a hostile work environment for far too long,” Speier continued. “It’s time to throw back the curtain on the repulsive behavior that has thrived in the dark without consequences.”

Audrey Azoulay Becomes First Jewish Head Of UNESCO As US & Israel Withdraw Support

Audrey Azoulay Becomes First Jewish Head Of UNESCO As US & Israel Withdraw Support

France's former culture minister Audrey Azoulay narrowly beat Qatar's frontrunner Hamad bin Abdoulaziz Al-Kawari to become UNESCO's first-ever Jewish director general. Her election came a day after the United States and Israel pulled out of the UN culture and education body, alleging anti-Israel bias. Azoulay grew up in Morocco and has family in Israel, writes The Israel Times. 

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley drew a hard line in announcing the US withdrawal from UNESCO on Thursday: “Its extreme politicization has become a chronic embarrassment,” she said, citing a “long line of foolish actions” including designating the Israeli-occupied ancient city of Hebron as a Palestinian world heritage site. Haley also criticized the organization for keeping Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on a UNESCO human rights committee.

Will NY Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand Succeed Where Hillary Failed? Vogue US Makes A Strong Case For Hope

Will NY Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand Succeed Where Hillary Failed? Vogue US Makes A Strong Case For Hope

Watching Bernie or bust progressives trying to malign the reputation of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is a distressing experience, in the aftermath of Hillary Clinton's defeat in the 2016 presidential campaign.  To me, Gillibrand's record is sound as a progressive, even if she does hail from Troy, New York and a more conservative zone in the liberal state. 

Gillibrand says 'calm down', that she has been recognized more in the last six months than in the entire eight years since being appointed to fill Hillary Clinton's New York State Senate seat.  "I'm not sure what it is," the mother of two boys tells Jonathan Van Meter in her Vogue November 2017 interview. "Maybe it's just seeped in more."

It's easy enough to jump to Gillibrand's 2017 record of voting against Trump's Cabinet appointees more often than any other senator and her vocal condemnation of his record on Charlottesville and his transgender military ban. Note that Gillibrand sits on the powerful Armed Services committee and has been an outspoken advocate against sexual violence in the military. 

What gets my attention are Van Meter's observations over several days is Republican women coming up to Gillibrand. This is not a surprise, with the senator's home district being two to one Republican. 

Angela Merkel's CDU Party Wins German Election But Must Form Govt With Greens & Free Liberals

FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS

Angela Merkel's CDU Party Wins German Election But Must Form Govt With Greens & Free Liberals

Politico Europe shares news of Angela Merkel's victory as the Germany chancellor's Conservative party posts its worst score in national elections since 1949.  Likewise, the second-place Social Democrats (SPD) lost votes to the third-place, far-right finishers. 

“We don’t need to beat about the bush, we had hoped for a better result. But we should not forget that we had a very challenging parliamentary term behind us,” Merkel told supporters at the headquarters of her CDU party.

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“We have the task of forming a government.”

With the Social Democrats saying they will now become an opposition party, Merkel will be trying to form a governing coalition with the liberal Free Democrats (estimated 10.5 percent) and the Greens (9.1 percent). Such a coalition has never been attempted in Germany -- although if anyone can thread that needle, it's Angela Merkel. 

Alexander Gauland, one of the leaders of the anti-immigrant AfD, vowed to “hunt” Merkel’s government from its new base in parliament.

Study: Republican Men See Women Political Leaders As Less Competent & With Lower Integrity

Study: Republican Men See Women Political Leaders As Less Competent & With Lower Integrity

NPR reports on a new study analyzing data about Americans' attitudes toward their House of Representatives  members from 2010 through 2014. Ideally, the analysis would be more current, because the presidential election both confirmed and negated some of these conclusions. 

Mia Costa and Brian Schaffner, political scientists from the U of Mass, Amherst concluded that women tend to think "more highly of female legislators on a variety of measures", regardless of party. Republican men express serious reservations about the women representing them, whereas Democratic men often rate women higher than men in governing. 

The research isn't broken down by education, and I would argue here that high-school educated women tend to be more traditional in their beliefs that men should govern. These attitudes have been explored in depth post presidential election, like PRRI/Atlantic analysis and direct interviews with a large sampling of Trump voters. 

In studying members of the House, and not the Senate, the research results are also impacted by districts that are seriously gerrymandered and representing rigid attitudes among both parties, and also racial attitudes. Within these caveats, Costa and Schaffner concluded:

"While Democratic men evaluate women legislators more favorably, the opposite is true for Republican men," the researchers write. "Republican men are the one group who provide lower evaluations of female elected officials."

Green Party's Jill Stein Says She'll Happily Testify About Her Support For Putin's Ideas

Green Party's Jill Stein Says She'll Happily Testify About Her Support For Putin's Ideas

Politico writes that the Green Party candidate has no regrets, even as she's coming into the spotlight over questions about her own presence at Putin's Mike Flynn table at the RT dinner.

Congressional Dems want to talk to her as well, and given the insidious level of lies and treachery in the 2016 Congressional election -- and the Russians' co-opting Berners on social media -- we want to know why she was celebrating RT, owned by the Russian govt. Was she paid as Flynn was?

For the Congressional investigation to be valid, all stones must be unturned. That includes Stein and anyone else involved with the Russians, no matter what party.

Related: Foreign Greens Think the US Green Party Needs to Ditch Jill Stein VICE

Claire McCaskill Uses Facts To Slam Senate Republicans' Authoritarian Healthcare Process

Claire McCaskill Uses Facts To Slam Senate Republicans' Authoritarian Healthcare Process

While America was glued to the former FBI Director James Comey hearings on Thursday, HHS Secretary Tom Price testified about a bill to repeal and replace the ACA (Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare) before the Senate healthcare panel. 

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) asked the committee’s chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), whether the panel would hold any hearings on the GOP’s proposal, catching Hatch by surprise. After conferring with an aide about how to respond, Hatch answered McCaskill, saying that he didn't know if there would be hearings on the still-secret legislation, being drafted by a committee of only white men. Suggesting that Democrats should have no quarrel with the process, the chair said that Democrats had been invited to "give your ideas" about the topic of healthcare reform. 

McCaskill was livid: